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.
Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries.
In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....
Monday September 14, 2026 10:48 pm PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 27 this week, and despite the company's focus this year on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, there are still many additional features to explore, not least of which is Apple's new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era.
Which iPhones Support Every iOS 27 Feature?
This year's major iPhone software update isn't all about AI, though,...
Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27.
During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14.
iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update.
Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
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.
