Apple releases iOS 4.3

Apple has just released iOS 4.3 for all of the supported iDevices. The latest firmware brings a number of stability improvements, battery enhancements, security patches and new features, including the much anticipated hotspot feature.

The new hotspot features allows up to three devices to connect through USB, Bluetooth or WiFi. Users can easily share their 3G connection with other devices with any WiFi-enabled device. The new hotspot feature is only available on the iPhone 4.

iOS 4.3 also comes with a number of Safari improvements, including an updated JavaScript engine, which helps render pages a lot quicker. The new Nitro JavaScript engine makes rendering some pages up to 2x faster than iOS 4.2. iOS 4.3 also comes with a side switch toggle, enabling you to mute or lock the rotation of the device, so you can stay in portrait mode while in landscape mode.

iTunes home sharing also received a big update, allowing you to play your entire library from anywhere in your home. The updated home sharing enables you to stream music or video to your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. In addition to iTunes home sharing, comes a big AirPlay enhancement. The wireless feature allows you to share your multimedia from your iDevice to your HDTV with Apple TV.

The iPhone 3G isn't supported in the latest update, as all the new features added to iOS 4.3 do not support the iPhone 3G hardware. The latest update for the iPhone 3G is iOS 4.2.1, which was released on November 22, 2010, possibly the last update the device will ever receive.

iOS 4.3 is only available for the following devices: