News

As owners of older iPhone hardware are painfully aware, the iOS 6 update is limited on A4 devices including the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. Some of the features that iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 users enjoy include turn-by-turn navigation and 3D Flyover maps in major cities. Well now thanks to a new jailbreak tweak you can unlock full iOS 6 maps capability on a jailbroken iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS.

Apple made iOS 6 available on these older devices, however the company intentionally limits some features to keep performance optimized. That being said, iPhone 3GS users who are interested in turn-by-turn directions are turning this feature on at their own risk. Sluggish performance could occur because the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 hardware is significantly more powerful than the iPhone 4 and 3GS. Even though you can run iOS 6 maps on your device with this tweak, it could be slow or use up too much memory to function.

Do you miss Google Maps? Did the iOS 6.0 update shorten battery life on your A4 device? Whether you upgraded by mistake, or you're just looking to bring back the older firmware, now you can downgrade your iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS to iOS 5.1.1. The following iOS downgrade instructions work on most A4 devices, including the iPod touch 4G.

Now that Apple has stopped signing older firmware, you must have your SHSH blobs saved for iOS 5.1.1 for this procedure to work properly. Downgrading will also require that you have the appropriate IPSW firmware file downloaded to your computer. You can grab iOS 5.1.1 for the iPhone 4 here, or for the iPhone 3GS at this link. Make sure you know where this IPSW file is saved before starting the instructions below.

Netflix just got better on the iPhone with an update designed to take advantage of the larger 16:9 aspect ratio screen on the iPhone 5. This means that when watching many films streaming they fill the entire screen edge-to-edge, with no black borders or letterboxing.

Given the small size of the iPhone screen for movie watching, every millimeter counts. Netflix also optimized the searching and browsing screens to take advantage of the additional display real estate. This improved the process of looking for movie titles and getting information on the wide variety of content available to Netflix subscribers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the iOS 6 Maps mess in an open letter to Apple customers on Friday. Even more surprising, Cook suggested unhappy iOS users download map apps from Apple competitors like Bing, MapQuest, Waze and Google.

Apple Maps has been widely ridiculed for featuring inaccurate information, mislabeled landmarks and other mistakes. Apple has said its new service will improve over time, but until then disappointed users are stuck using alternatives like Google's web app.

Absinthe co-creator pod2g dropped some disappointing news on the jailbreaking community on Tuesday. The iOS hacker announced he's not working on a jailbreak for iOS 6. Pod2g is mostly responsible for the last untethered jailbreak most jailbreakers are currently using today.

Pod2g's announcement doesn't mean a new jailbreak is not in the works. Another iOS hacker known as Chpwn, tweeted an image of a jailbroken iPhone 5 with Cydia installed over the weekend. This is a good sign that a public iOS 6 jailbreak could be available in a few months.