As we noted earlier this week when iOS 6 Beta 4 was released to developers, one of the newest features in the release was the addition of a "Wi-Fi Plus Cellular" setting to the General/Cellular control panel.
The setting appears to allow apps to fall back on the iPhone's cellular data connection when having difficulties moving data via the Wi-Fi connection, something that can happen with a weak Wi-Fi signal or a temperamental Internet connection.
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Less clear is the purpose of the series of controls below that. There are individual On/Off switches to use cellular data for iCloud Documents, iTunes, FaceTime, Passbook Updates and Reading List. Some believe these are a submenu setting for the Wi-Fi Plus Cellular control, allowing tasks such as downloading music from iTunes or syncing iCloud Documents to require the use of Wi-Fi -- forbidding some apps from connecting via Cellular Data while others are allowed to.
We've reached out to Apple for clarification and as it's still a beta release, restricted to 'developers', the settings could always change to be made more clear or removed entirely.
Top Rated Comments
Walk out the door on my way out of the house, it takes a good minute or two to kick itself off wifi.
Ever heard of a data cap?
It's a welcome addition too! ;)
The problem I have is that I use free Wifi in McDonalds and Starbucks a lot. But you have to sign in to use it and due to them using BT OpenZone it also connects to any of their Wifi points it finds (which is like millions).
So I'll often totally lose the data connection as it switches to a Wifi connection that it can't actually connect to the internet over. It is a complete pain in backside and easily my biggest gripe with the iPhone.