iOS 4.3 Beta reveals a glimpse of the Future for iDevices

We have a big update for all of you today! Some exciting stuff is coming down the lines!

On January the 12th of 2011, iOS 4.3 Beta was pushed out to developers. As usual, the developers wasted no time dissecting  the beta to find all the new hidden features that it had to share.  In a matter of hours, the developer community had found several new and interesting features in the newest iOS beta to be released. The newest beta also holds clues as to possible future hardware feature, a new MobileMe feature and shows evidence of future hardware revisions for both the iPhone and the iPad.

So what are all these new features? Find out after the jump!


The first and most notable discovery in the iOS 4.3 Beta, was the inclusion of new gestures for the iPad. The iPads will now have 4 and 5 finger gestures available as options in the Settings app. You can see these gestures in action here...

Also this beta seems to suggest that iOS 4.2.1 is the end of the update line for 2nd Gen iDevices like the iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch 2G. There is no support mentioned in the beta for these devices. However, the beta does include identifiers for an iPhone 4.1 and 4.2 as well as an iPad2.1, iPad2.2 and iPad2.3. The iPhone4 is listed int he firmwares as hardware revision iPhone 3.1 and the Verizon iPhone4 is listed as iPhone3.1. So the iPhone 4.1 and 4.2 would suggest a significant hardware revision coming in the near future, in the form of the iPhone5, due out at the end of this year. The hardware revision 3.1 would be the GSM and the 3.2 would be the CDMA version. Also notable in this is the mention of the iPad haveware version 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. This suggest that the next iPad, due to be annouced next month, will have a WiFi version, a GSM version and a CDMA version. So Verizon WILL have a native iPad for their cellular network.

Rumor has it, that the next generation of the iPhones and iPads will have the much faster multi-core processor, the ARM Cortex-A9. Which makes the apparent decision to cut support for the older 2nd Generation iDevices, much more understandable. We do not know for certain if this will be the case, or if they will decide to allow the older devices to run at a reduced feature set. But likely, this will be end of the line for those devices.