29 November, 2011
By Adnan
Earlier today Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 5.1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to developers. Apple only releases beta firmware for registered developers. So if you’re not a developer, you can not legally download iOS 5.1 beta 1 for your iOS device. Registered developers can easily download this beta from the Developers Portal.
Apple formally released iOS 5 to the public on October 12. Since WWDC 2011, at which iOS 5 was first announce, seven betas of iOS 5 had been seeded to developers and with each passing beta, Apple’s latest and undoubtedly the greatest iOS platform update ever become less ridiculed with bugs. When the final public version dropped on October 12, there was such a downloading frenzy that iTunes activation servers were having trouble coping up with the activation requests.
The iOS 5 launch went smooth and after than on October 17, Apple started shipping its new iPhone 4S to consumers in seven countries. As people got down to using this new iPhone, a startling discovery was made. The iPhone 4S had pathetic battery timing for some users. It wasn’t a hardware issue, rather it was a bug in iOS 5 firmware that caused battery drainage issue on iPhone 4S. To cater to this issue, Apple started reaching out to iPhone 4S owners and got data from them, with their permission of course, that could prove to be helpful for them in developing a fix. Merely after a month had passed since public release of iOS 5, Apple released a minor iOS 5.0.1 update in order to fix iPhone 4S battery issue. However things didn’t turn out so well as many users claimed that they started facing battery drainage issues, not only on iPhone 4S this time but on other supported devices as well, after they had updated to iOS 5.0.1. Apple soon promised to release iOS 5.0.2 in a couple of weeks to fix this issue once and for all.
However now it looks like this battery drainage bug is bigger than we expected. Mind you, the release number, iOS 5.1 that is, indicates a major upgrade. Minor upgrades such as iOS 5.0.2 are usually pushed out as they normally only contain meager bug fixes and patches. This bug causing battery drain seems big enough to need a major iOS 5 update version, and its totally possible given the fact that its not only iPhone 4S in particular that’s giving pathetic battery timing. No definitive release date as yet for iOS 5.1, however sources claim that there will be a couple of further iOS 5.1 betas before public release, which can take place sometime around mid-December.
