InsanelyGreatMac posts the above video showing the new iOS 5 Beta 4 over the air (OTA) updating in action. As we noted the OTA update also saves bandwidth as it only sends changes rather than the entire OS image.
• @MuscleNerd reports that OTA update won't work on Jailbroken devices.
• We reported that iPhones must have 50% charge or be plugged into a power source to download the OTA update, but @johnheimkes reports this requirement is not enforced on the iPad which allowed the update to occur with only 12% charge.
• Settings app displays a badge when an over the air update is available.
• Apple has added a "Documents and Data" toggle for iCloud which allows you to turn on/off the ability for apps to save data and documents to the iCloud. There is also a way to chose whether these updates occur over 3G or only over Wi-Fi. This allows Apps to save their own data and user data to the iCloud so that it is available across devices, and backed up into the cloud. • The OTA update downloads over Wi-Fi or 3G connections.
Friday November 6, 2026 3:27 pm PST by Juli Clover
When the iPhone Duo launched, we shared a list of some of the fun apps developers created for the new form factor. Two weeks out, developers are continuing to come up with fresh ideas, so we thought we'd share some of our favorites.
Games
Marbles Unhinged ($2.99) - Marbles Unhinged is a marble maze designed for the Duo. When you fold it, the floor turns into a ramp. If you stand the top...
Sunday November 8, 2026 7:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has made a change to its development process for iOS 28, macOS 28, and corresponding software updates, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In his Power On newsletter today, he said Apple separates development of each year's new operating systems into three major stages. Typically, he said each stage consists of four weeks of coding followed by a four-week "convergence" period where...
Thursday November 5, 2026 12:59 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is launching five new products on Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models.
The following new products will be available from today:
iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip
iMac with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen
16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...
Feels like a slap in the face for jailbreakers...
That really sucks.
So now we should expect Apple to go out of there way to make things work for jail breakers? Maybe we should expect them to apply a delta update to something when they have no way of verifying what is actually there...
I think it was about a year ago that the US carriers said OTA Apple updates would not count against bandwidth. I would be curious if there is a way to see if that is true in practice on these tests.
It makes business sense to do that. You don't want to discourage OS and security updates for any reason by any user.
Feels like a slap in the face for jailbreakers...
That really sucks.
Allowing a delta update on a jailbroken device would be far too dangerous. Remember that a delta update only contains the changes between the previous version and the new version, that won't work reliably if the old version is not exactly the same as the one that was used to create the delta. Once you jailbreak your OS is modified; applying a delta to something else than what it was created against will give an undefined result and probably just brick the device.
