Two days earlier than promised , Apple has released iOS 4.3. The update for GSM iPhones, all iPads and the iPhone 4 is available through iTunes. Verizon users don’t need the update immediately since most of its features are included in iOS 4.2.6.
The update brings a handful of major features headlined by the Personal Hotspot, which users can have as many as five different devices sharing an iPhone 4’s Internet connection. The total is a combination of multiple sources and can’t include more than three Wi-Fi devices, three Bluetooth devices and one direct USB connection.
Safari now uses the same Nitro JavaScript engine as on the desktop and promises to be much faster with particularly intensive websites. AirPlay now supports much more video output support, including from the Camera app, third-party apps and the browser, as well as photo slide shows on the Apple TV using the media hub’s transitions. iTunes Home Sharing, which needs iTunes 10.2, now lets users stream music and videos directly from a running computer using iTunes.
Other updates include support for the new Digital AV Adapter for HDMI output from any 2010 iOS device or later, Ping posts from the Now Playing screen, Ping push notifications, and single-tap conference call dialing. More options are now configurable, as users can set the iPad’s side switch to either mute or its original rotation lock, and users can now set the number of times they get an alert.
The update is the first to exclude Apple’s 2008 devices and requires at least an iPhone 3GS or third-generation iPod touch. Apple TV features also need the Apple TV 4.2 firmware update.
