Apple has been quite busy this past week in rolling out iTunes Match to its international market. However, the company is still able to find time in pushing out software updates both for Apple TV and iPhone 4S. The latest update makes it possible to legally port Siri to other Apple devices running on iOS. Apple’s iPhone 4S already has the iOS 5.0.1 update which was released mid-November for the purpose of fixing the battery issues that have long plagued the new iPhone model. However, the Cupertino company introduced a number of new and additional tweaks before the software update has been released again. So if an iPhone user already availed of the iOS 5.0.1, he will not be able to get the new update unless the device is still running on iOS 5.0.
But what is the difference between these updates? The latest update release features a different build number which is 9A406 compared to the 9A405 build number of the previous release. On the other hand, there is a slight difference between 9A405 and 9A406 because it is said that the software update has been tweaked to adjust to several new territories where iPhone 4S will be released for the first time. However, there is also a subtle difference in the new software update which is very important for those who are developing software to port Siri to older iPhone devices.
In the previous release of iOS 5, porting Siri means infringing the copyright of Apple which is illegal of course. This also means that all the Siri ports for iPhone 4, iPhone 3G S, and iPod Touch before the introduction of iOS 5.0.1 software update are all illegal. On the other hand, the new update release is now featuring decrypted ram disks enabling developers to obtain Siri files without infringing Apple’s copyrights.
The tech community is still baffled as to the reason of Apple to leave it open for other entity to access. Being able to legally extract Siri files gives other developers the power to port other Apple devices and enable it to run the most popular virtual personal assistant. However, if this is just a glitch and Apple decides to close it again, all ported devices could return to its default setup although this still remains improbable until Apple releases an official statement.
There are lots of speculations regarding the reason why Apple decides to leave Siri porting open to other entities. But this comes as a good news especially for those who have been dying to integrate Siri into their older iPhone devices.
