Heads-up, Apple fanatics: in case bog-standard iOS 6 is starting to feel a bit long in the tooth, Apple has just released its iOS 6.1 update out into the wild for the iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches in your life. Granted, the changelog here is rather brief — the big draw is that the update brings support for a slew of new LTE carriers to the iPhone 5, a move that CEO Tim Cook pointed out during the company’s most recent earnings conference call.
Thankfully for those of us on the call, Cook declined to run through the entire list of 36 carriers (which is available here, if you’re really curious), though he did take the time to note that carriers from Italy, Switzerland, and the Philippines were among those who would be supported.
Apple’s mobile virtual assistant has also gotten an upgrade, albeit one that doesn’t exactly come as a shock to longtime iOS fanatics. Siri has been augmented with the ability to purchase movie tickets from Fandango when asked — a feature that first started making headlines two or so months ago, and one that remains exclusive to customers in the United States. Also on deck is the ability for iTunes Match customers to download individual tracks from iCloud (a practice that was de rigueur until iOS 6 first started rolling out back in September), and the ability to reset your Advertising Identifier should you not want ad networks serving up targeted ads.
This is all well and good, but the coming of iOS 6.1 isn’t just good news to folks itching to take iPhone 5s for a spin on some far-flung LTE networks. Prominent members of the iOS hacking community have said that they were waiting for iOS 6.1 to drop before releasing their iPhone 5 jailbreak, so it shouldn’t be long at all before iPhone 5s all over the place get a little taste of freedom. Don’t forget — unlocking your smartphone may now be strictly verboten without your carrier’s go-ahead here in the States but jailbreaking is still protected by an exemption to the DMCA, so go for it.