How to get ready for tomorrow’s iOS 6 release

Last week, Apple announced that it would be releasing the latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 6, on September 19th. And for those of you without a calendar in front of you, that’s tomorrow.

Of course, Apple has been seeding developer betas of iOS 6 since June, but this is the first time it will be available to the public. So we thought we’d put this list together of things to help you get ready…

As iDB is extremely active in the jailbreak community, our first duty is to warn you that iOS 6 has not been successfully jailbroken yet. If you update tomorrow, you will lose your current jailbreak.

To be fair, the Dev Team has managed to jailbreak A4 devices running beta versions of iOS 6. But it’s of the tethered variety, doesn’t include Cydia, and is no where near ready for public distribution.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s some useful tips for those that plan on updating:

  • Save your SHSH blobs – if you’ve ever jailbroken your device, or plan on doing so in the future, save your SHSH blobs. It just takes a couple of seconds, and it’s you’re only hope of downgrading to iOS 5.1.1 after Apple stops signing it. What if the iOS 6 jailbreak takes several months to finish?
  • Back up your devices – it’s always a good idea to backup your devices before updating the firmware. Sometimes, though it’s not common, updates can error out while installing, thus wiping out all of your data. You can backup your device either by syncing it with iTunes, or through the iCloud menu.
  • The update will come OTA – with iOS 5 Apple introduced new over the air updates, which allow you to get the latest firmware version without plugging your device into your computer. Be aware of this if you don’t plan on updating so that you don’t accidentally agree to the iOS 6 install.
  • You’ll need iTunes 10.7 – remember that iTunes update that Apple pushed out last week? Well you’ll need it if you plan on syncing your iOS 6 devices to your computer. If you don’t have it, you can grab it from our Downloads page.

It’s also worth noting that not all apps have been updated to be compatible with the new firmware. So if you have an app, or apps, that you use everyday, it’s worth looking into them before you install the update.

We expect Apple to release iOS 6 sometime tomorrow morning. We’ll let you know as soon as it hits, and will be providing updates on new features and other commentary on the software throughout the day.

Do you plan on updating to iOS 6 tomorrow?