Apple has just released the third beta of iOS 6.1 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Just like previous betas, this is a developer only build so unless you’re a registered iOS Developer Program member, you wouldn’t be able to download and install this on your device just yet.
So far, the new beta build is only available as an OTA update for users who are on iOS 6 beta 2. The iOS Dev Center still has download links and release notes for iOS 6.1 beta 2 so it’s not yet clear as to what has changed or what’s new in this build. Given that the size of the build is a little over a 100 MB, we expect nothing more than a few updates and API changes.
Apple had released the first beta of iOS 6.1 beta 1 on November 1st, on the same day when they released iOS 6 and Xcode 4.6 beta. It brought minor SDK updates for Map Kit, Maps, Safari, and Passbook. iOS 6.1 beta 2 was released 2 weeks later after the first one and brought improvements to Map Kit, Siri, and iTunes Match. So far, iOS 6.1 seems to be a maintenance release.
The following iOS devices are supported by iOS 6.1:
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5
- iPod Touch 4G
- iPod Touch 5G
- iPad 2
- iPad with Retina Display ( includes both iPad 3 and iPad 4 )
- iPad 4
- iPad mini
It’s also worth noting that iOS 6.1 beta 3 will expire on 28th December 2012 which hints at the final release in this same month.
We’ll update this post with the changelog when the release notes become available.
