The iOS 5.1 update has reportedly fixed over 80 security issues, which can be seen in a full report here on the official website. The patch notes have also pointed to a fix for battery life, but it wont be the first time this has been promised and failed, so we thought it would be important to report that Apple has made a lot of progress with the latest update.

Before installing iOS 5.1 the battery would lose nearly half of its juice on standby overnight, and since installing the update we can confirm a loss of fewer than 15% each evening. This is a massive difference and while not as good as the figures stated on Apple’s website, it’s a vast improvement.

Not all iPhone 4S setups are equal – while it’s strange that 4S models are experiencing massive differences in battery life, it has been shown that the same setup can give varied results in such a way that it had to be software related and not hardware in most cases. Apple has proven this with the latest update, which made a lot of users happy after suffering with issues since buying an iPhone 4S.

There will always be problems and this can be seen right now in the Apple forums, which show users complaining of iCloud draining their battery really fast and then other users are reporting no issues. It has amazed us that some people claim the 4S battery to be better than iPhone 4, which under our tests on a number of models has shown the opposite.

Did iOS 5.1 install without problems for you, and how is your battery life on the iPhone 4S model since installing the latest update? The results might be different for each user, but we can confirm this update increased battery life for most iPhone’s. We’d love to hear your experience with iOS 5.1 and especially related to battery life, so feel free to share a comment below.

The story about iPhone 4S battery problems – Just a few days after the iPhone 4S launched in the UK one of our editors noticed extremely bad battery life, and this stuck around after giving iOS a fresh install. Then a few days after we posted our findings it became obvious this was a major problem affecting thousands of 4S owners, but the battery life issue had not been fixed in an update (iOS 5.0.1) that Apple claimed would help battery life. Although many months on it looks like those suffering are now enjoying much better battery life thanks to iOS 5.1, but we should point out that not every 4S owner had issues to start with.

Earlier on this week we told you that iOS 5.1 had just gone live along with the unveiling of Apple’s third generation iPad. A jailbreak wasn’t available the moment iOS 5.1 but live, but hackers have once again found a way to bypass Apple’s latest release, although it isn’t a untethered jailbreak if that’s what you’re after.

Instead it’s an improved tethered version of Redsn0w which now stands at version 0.9.10b6. At the moment this jailbreak is compatible with Apple A4 devices only, which means that only the likes of the iPhone 4, iPod Touch and original iPad are supported. If you have an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.1 at the moment, don’t bother attempting to install this as you’ll probably end up with a bricked device.

One word of warning to those that are planning to try this out – eBooks doesn’t work at the moment so avoid this if you use this feature on your device regularly. If you’re looking to jailbreak iOS 5.1 as soon as possible, you’ll find the instructions and download links over at the iPhone Dev Team blog here.

It’s pretty ridiculous at the speed of which these jailbreaks now come out after Apple has released a new version of iOS. At the moment, the iPhone 4S is locked on iOS 5.1, but how long will it be until the latest version falls victim to RedSn0w as well? Let us know if you plan to jailbreak your device on iOS 5.1, or if you’re waiting for a jailbreak on the iPhone 4S or iPad 2.

We’ve been traipsing through websites and forums to try and see if there’s a jailbreak for iOS 5.1, but to our knowledge this doesn’t exist yet, what we did spot was some Twitter activity from some well-known iOS hackers which confirms our suspicions.

A tweet from @digidude512 (an iOS hacker since iOS 2.21) was retweeted by a very well known iOS hacker who goes by the alias p0sixninja (Twitter feed here). We’ve embedded the tweet below and as you can see it’s safe to say that if these people warn against jailbreakers updating to iOS 5.1 it should not be done.

Jailbreakers: Don’t touch iOS 5.1 no jailbreak tethered or untethered is out.Unlockers: LEAVE IT THE HELL ALONE!

— usr:Leon Lionheart (@digidude512) March 7, 2012

If you check out this tweet you can see that someone is claiming that a jailbreak for the official version of iOS 5.1 is coming very soon. Apparently a team called the DyLibHackers have successfully jailbroken iOS 5.1 beta 3 and it’s just a matter of time until they finalize a jailbreak for the public release version of the software – we’re not sure how genuine this is at present, so we’ll have to keep you posted. Also the phrase “a matter of time” is very vague, a matter of time could mean, second, minutes, hours, days, weeks or more – we want specifics!

We tried to find out more about the DyLibHackers but there’s not a lot showing up, apparently they’ve also been working on bring BBM to iOS via an application called iBBM – but that’s about it.

As and when we hear more about a tethered or untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1 we will keep you posted, let us know if you hear anything.

There is speculation brewing that Apple’s rumored March 7th event may also see the debut of iOS 5.1 and within the last few hours we have heard some details on a few possible changes that will come in the new version.

One of these features is a permanent home for the quick-access camera button on the lock screen of your iPhone. At the moment, a double tap brings up the camera app and users can select it to take a quick photo before Apple returns you to the password screen if you have one set in place.

Images obtained by Portuguese website BlogdoiPhone reveals that the camera app will remain on the lock screen permanently and a new swipe feature will be added to allow users to select the camera app simply by swiping upwards or downwards. By having this swipe feature in space, it will then decrease the chance of the camera app opening by accident since it may be placed on the lock screen for good after the iOS 5.1 update, as noted by 9to5mac.

One other feature which seems to have been confirmed in iOS 5.1 is Siri support for the Japanese language. A further screenshot clearly shows that Japanese will be available in the new update and this backs up previous speculation that Apple were planning to include Japanese to their virtual assistant after updating Siri with support for Mandarin Chinese.

If Apple are planning to introduce iOS 5.1 alongside an iPad 3 announcement, then it makes sense to assume that the third-generation iPad will finally have support for Siri, joining the iPhone 4S which was equipped with Siri at launch. We will be pleased if turns out to be a reality when iOS 5.1 is announced, since one swipe is a lot more convenient then having to double click the home button and wear it out each time.

Let us know your thoughts on this. Would you mind the camera icon being on the lock screen permanently or are you hoping that there is a option to turn it off in settings?

According to an article over at Your Daily Mac it has been discovered that Apple has published eleven new profiles for a number of iPhone carriers. The files are said to be compatible with iOS 5.1 and are set to be released on March 9th. This could mean that iOS 5.1 could also be released around the same time and be available for a number of the company’s devices.

These include the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 3G and 4G, and both versions of the iPad. These profiles that were found were intended for carriers in France, Finland, Greece, Japan, and Sweden. Updating a profile on the iPhone it will ensure that the network connection will work as it should once Apple has released iOS 5.1.

Apple usually releases iOS updates around the world at the same time so this may mean that everyone will be getting iOS 5.1 sometime next month. We have reported before that the iPad 3 could be coming during next month, so this iOS 5.1 release speculation seemingly falls in line with that.

Meanwhile it is being reported that the Siri assistant feature will be adding Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, and Russian languages next month. MacRumors are reporting that Cantonese and other dialects are not getting Siri support for the moment.

Currently Siri only has support for English (Australia, US, and UK), French and German. Apple has previously promised that additional support for more languages this year. Chinese support will be important for Apple as the handset is now available in China.

Next month could well be a busy month for Apple if the iPad 3 and iOS 5.1 are released, and we should be hearing soon about any planned event by Apple to showcase the device and software

There are claims that Apple will be holding a special event early next month to showcase the next iPad, which will also be running iOS 5.1. A report on AppleInsider is saying that a Japanese website is claiming that the event will happen next month, and sources from the US and an Asian supplier are citied.

The report also suggests that following the event the iPad 3 will be released in early March, which is when the current model was first launched in 2011. The iPad 2 was revealed at an event on March 2nd, with the device hitting shelves nine days later on the 11th.

This latest rumor suggests there will be a longer wait time with the next version, and if true the delay may have something to do with Chinese factories shutting down to celebrate the New Year later this month.

Rumors recently have suggested that both Foxconn and Pegatron would start shipping the iPad 3 out in early March. Many believe the next model will feature a new Retina Display, and the same Japanese website correctly predicted the launch timeframe of the iPad 2 last year.

The iPad 3 event has nothing to do with the already announced education related event that is taking place later this week in New York. This is thought to be about digital publishing and e-books and not any hardware.

AppleInsider is reporting that the beta only just pushed out to developers is not fixing the battery problems some users are complaining about, and the fix is proving a more complex thing to sort. ABI Research’s Michael Morgan has been talking about the issue and said although Apple has yet to fix the problem a software update is the most likely solution.

He said after stripping down the iPhone 4S and testing the components found nothing much different from last year’s model. With the new A5 processor the “power draw was right where we expected it to be.”

The beta that was released earlier this week is only the first version of the software, which will see more changes made before its general release. Once the final version is made available it will hopefully fix all the current issues.

Morgan added that battery issues can be a “massive problem” for the company, but can sometimes be hard to get to the route of the problem with complex software such as iOS 5. Apple faces the problem of the software and the variety of how owners actually use their iPhone. Newly added features such as iCloud results in owners using the handset a lot more.

Have you been experiencing any problems with your iPhone battery life?

If you have a developer’s account with Apple, you can go ahead and download the iOS 5.1 beta right now. Unlike iOS 5.0.1, you won’t be able to get the update via OTA, as Apple has put the download on their servers only.

There is no word from Apple on whether iOS 5.1 improves on battery life issues further, but we’re guessing that once the public version of iOS 5.1 goes live, Apple will be a bit more descriptive on what enhancements and improvements have been made. One change that we can tell you about is that Apple has stated that dictation has been enhanced to to allow text input on ‘supported devices’. This is interesting as it was only yesterday that we told you that a new jailbreak package had released on Cydia which allowed iPhone 4 and older iOS devices to use the Siri dictation feature which previously was restricted to the iPhone 4S – Could Apple now make this a universal feature for iOS 5.1?

On a side note, information cited at Apple Insider has revealed that the guys over at MacNN have discovered that the iOS 5.1 beta code contains information which could reveal plans for new hardware versions of the iPad 2. System files for the current iPad 2 can be identified as “iPad 2,1 iPad 2,2 and iPad 2,3”, but apparently the iOS 5.1 code contains a listing for the ”iPad 2,4.”

Again this is just expanding on this rumor further, but we may see Apple introduce a new version of the iPad 2 with updated hardware specs, to join a likely refresh of the company’s Macbook Air and Pro models, in which a new 15-inch Macbook Air is strongly tipped to appear around March 2012.

Hopefully we’ll have some more interesting information to share with you on iOS 5.1, but for now the testing is ongoing. Are you looking for a line to be drawn under the battery life issues for Apple’s next software update?

There is no timeframe at the moment as to when Apple will be releasing iOS 5.1, but we predict that it is quite some time away yet since they still have fairly serious battery life issues to sort out on iOS 5.0.1 at the moment.

When it does eventually release though, we’re hearing that Siri will be upgraded with some fancy new features, perhaps the biggest of all allowing your personal assisant to take a photo on command. Other useful features will apparently allow the user to start recording a video, enable or disable Bluetooth and even using Siri to switch on or switch off WiFi if desired.

The information has come via German website Macerkopf, who are also claiming that Apple will finalize their iOS 5.1 update for release before the end of the year – so we could expect it to drop sometime in December, which may be surprising to some of you who feel that it may be slightly too early for Apple to release another iOS update so soon.

The new Siri features sound great though, particularly the one about turning WiFi on and off. Obviously you can just go into settings yourself in a second, but if you can do it hands-free then a lot of users will treat this as the norm if Apple supports this. As for taking pictures with Siri, we’re not too sure of the long term benefits of this as opposed to just shooting an image yourself – but it’s a notable feature for sure.

What other features would you like to see in Apple’s iOS 5.1 update – do you like the sound of the new Siri features? Anything they have missed out?