iPhone iOS 4.3 Features Personal Hotspot

A new version of Apple's iOS to be released March 12th 2011, introduces 'personal hotspot' functionality into the iPhone 4.

Along with a number of other 'improvements' which we will cover shortly, iOS 4.3 will enable iPhone 4 users to turn their iPhone into a 'personal hotspot', allowing anything Wi-Fi enabled to use the iPhone 4's 3G data connection.

Much like the way a wireless router works, this hotspot functionality will be very useful in a wide range of everyday situations. Say for example, your friend wants to use their netbook but has no internet connection. You can simply activate the hotspot on the iPhone 4, create a password, give that info to your friend and they have access to the internet via your iPhone 4.

Up to 3 Wi-Fi connections can be handled by the iPhone 4, and you can take this up to 5 with the addition of one bluetooth connection, and one USB connection. The hotspot will automatically go into power-saving mode when it's not in use, so you can retain battery power.

We think this is a great functionality and Apple have really listened to their customers on bringing this feature to life.

The release of iOS 4.3 also brings a number of other improvements to the table. These include:

Airplay enhancements. You can now stream videos from your iPhoto library to your Apple TV via Airplay. Great for anyone who takes videos on their digital camera and wants to share these videos with family and friends on a big TV.
Safari Javascript performance improvements. A new Javascript engine, called 'Nitro' is said to speed up the execution of Javascript. Check out this video comparison showing real time loading differences between iOS 4.2 & iOS 4.3
Extended iTunes home sharing. It looks like Apple have broadened what kind of media can be home shared. Now you can home share anything - podcasts, movies, TV shows, and share these over to your portable devices, and vice versa. Handy.
iPad rotation lock / mute switch selection. iPad users can now select the way the slide switch on the side of the iPad works. It can either 1) Mute Audio or 2) Lock the screen rotation.

We welcome these improvements from Apple and look forward to putting them to use with the release of iOS 4.3 on the 12th of March.