iOS 5 Release Date

pple’s new iOS 5 operating system isn’t just for the iPhone 4S. Although its “Assistant” feature is 4S specific, iOS 5 and most of its other features will be made available for existing iPhone and iPad devices on an October 12th release date. The update will be a free download for users of the iPad 1 and 2, iPhone 3GS and 4, and recent iPod touch models – some of which were conspicuously absent at today’s event in terms of updated iterations. The lack of an iPad 3 today wasn’t a major surprise, and was cemented when the event invitations name-checked the iPhone instead. That means the third iPad can now be expected in the spring of 2012, about a year after its predecessor was unveiled. The iPod touch 5, which had been expected today as part of the event, was nowhere to be found. Apple’s online store is still down, so it remains to be seen whether Apple will quietly slip an updated iPod touch to market or whether it too will have to wait until next year. Apple did introduce a new iPod nano (the eighth generation model, for those still counting) which looks suspiciously like the old one. Today’s event left raised more iQuestions overall than it answered…

The iPhone 4S and its new “Siri” voice assistant feature will lead to obvious jokes about Apple customers using Siri to spend the next four months asking their iPhone 4S when the iPhone 5 is coming out. But the feature looks powerful, and may alone be enough to drive sales of the 4S in the interim. But for those opting to hang onto their existing iPhone, or who find the new $99 price of the iPhone 4 and the “free with contract” price tag on the iPhone 3GS too tempting, the good news is that the rest of the iOS 5 is set to pull into their station as well. That includes features like Notification Center, the revised iOS 5 interface, and more. Even as existing iPhone users await that release date, those favoring the iPod touch are left to wonder whether they’ll get a new model in 2011 of if the current iPod touch 4 is here to stay awhile longer. And you can forget about an iPad 3 this year; if that ship were to sail at all in 2011, it would have as of today.