iPad iOS 5

UPDATE: Instructions for using Absinthe for Windows are here.

iOS developer pod2g wasn't lying when he promised us an iPad 2 jailbreak was only a few days away. The Chronic Dev Team and a group of dream team iOS hackers have released the Absinthe jailbreak tool for Apple A5 devices running iOS 5 and iOS 5.0.1 firmware. This is the untethered iPad 2 jailbreak you have been waiting for since its release almost a year ago.

The long awaited hack is so popular that the greenpois0n servers crashed from the large amount of downloads on Friday. Hopefully most of the iPhone 4S owners have already jailbroken their devices, and things will start getting a lot smoother this weekend. The iPhone Dev-Team is also working on incorporating the A5 jailbreak procedures into redsn0w, and plan to release a command-line interface (CLI) for advanced users in the future. We'll keep you updated.

The iPhone Dev Team released the latest version of redsn0w for the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, or iPod touch on Thursday. Version 0.9.9b5 is tethered for now, but it can be used with iOS 5. iPad 2 users are still stuck with JailbreakMe 3.0 which only works with iOS 4.3.3. iPhone 4S owners are totally out of luck.

Tethered means you will have to connect your iPad to your Mac or PC whenever you power up the device. You'll need to download iTunes 10.5 and should always backup everything before jailbreaking any device. Visit the iPhone Dev-Team Blog for download links and instructions.

Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" event did cover more than just iPhones, but Tim Cook and team spent very little time talking about the iPad. And what they did talk about wasn't very exciting. The new "Cards" app seemed like filler when compared to the new voice command assistant shipping with the iPhone 4S. Too bad it's exclusive to that device only.

Just because the iPad 2 has the A5 chip doesn't mean it will be getting Siri. Some believe it doesn't even have enough memory to support it. The consensus is Siri will be available with the iPad 3, but I guess there is always hope since there has been no official word from Apple.

Developers working with Apple's unreleased iOS 5 software have uncovered more details about the next-generation iPad device, and the possibility that the iPad 3 may feature "Retina Display." TechUnwrapped reports that iOS 5 for iPad contains 1,536 x 2,048 resolution images in the Twitter and Newsstand.framework, which is double the image size displayed by current iPad models (1024 x 768 pixels).

TechUnwrapped says if this larger resolution is intended for the next iPad then it will most likely feature Retina Display, however, since the images can only be found in the Twitter.framework, it doesn't support the belief that the next-generation iPad will launching with iOS 5 this fall.

Code files for USB devices in Apple's upcoming iOS 5 firmware refrence two iPad 3 models, a pair of iPhone 5 models, but no iPod touch 5. While inspecting the USB device files the tech site TUAW discovered system files for the iPad3,1 and iPad3,2.

The iPad 2 currently has three models iPad2,1 (Wi-Fi), iPad2,2 (GSM), and iPad2,3 (CDMA); the exclusion of a third iPad 3 model in iOS 5 suggests that the rumored next generation world-mode iPad with both GSM and CDMA radios may be a reality.

TUAW notes that model registrations do not always lead to a product releases -- Like the iPhone 3,2 which never became a product.

Apple senior vice president Scott Forstall unveiled the first look at the iOS 5 at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. Forstall covered 10 of the 200 promised new features for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, all iPads, and iPod Touch.

Deep Twitter Integration

iOS 5 will now feature single sign-on support for Twitter, allowing owners to use the social media network without leaving an application. Third-party Twitter clients will be able to access your login details, and you'll able to tweet directly from YouTube, Safari, and Maps.

Notifications

According to Macworld, Forstall's announcement that iOS 5 includes a notifications upgrade "brought an uproarious cheer from the developers in attendance." The Notifications Center is a centralized point for all your notifications, and like Android devices can be accessed with a single swipe of your finger. Doing so will show you missed calls, voicemails, text messages and push notifications in one centralized location, instead of the old system of pop-up menus.

PC Free

No more connecting to iTunes to start your iOS device. New phones will display a Welcome setup screen, and new software updates will now be over the air as well.

Safari

Safari now features Reader, which allows you to remove ads and other content to strip-down websites for easier reading. Tabbed browsing comes to the iPad.

Patently Apple has discovered a big change Apple is planning for the iPad operating system. Current Apple desktops have a feature called Spaces, which allows users to have multiple virtual desktops on one screen. Moving between screens quickly requires keystrokes and running programs can be organized on each screen for better productivity.

Apple is working on a version of Spaces for the iPad, with a touch interface that would allow for moving between screens. This would increase the screen area on the iPad and make it easy to organize running apps. Windows can be moved from one virtual screen to another by dragging them to the edge of the screen.