iOS 5.1 software upgrades iPhones to '4G'

When Apple announced the new iPad on Wednesday, it also revealed that iOS and iTunes updates are now available. Between the new mobile operating system and media app, folks will see plenty of minor improvements such as a "4G" icon, a smarter Siri and a fine-tuned iTunes Match. AT&T customers who update their iPhones to iOS 5.1 will notice that the "3G" icon on their devices may occasionally turn into a "4G" icon. No, this doesn't mean that a software update magically upgraded device hardware — it just means that the icon changed. Confused? You're not alone. The icon change fits right into the strange game AT&T's been playing when it comes to data network designations. Many of the devices the carrier has been labeling as 4G-enabled aren't really 4G devices, but simply just ones which offer a slightly upgraded version of 3G. (This is why the company now has to use the term "4G LTE" in order to differentiate the real 4G devices.) Silly icons aside, iOS 5.1 also adds Japanese language support to Siri, finally allows users to delete individual images from Photo Stream and places a neat camera shortcut onto the lock-screen. It also improves face-detection, revamps the iPad camera app, and fixes bugs affecting battery life and call audio. iTunes 10.6, on the other hand, adds support for 1080p movie streaming via iCloud and improves iTunes Match. (Supposedly the song-matching feature, which has been an issue for many users, has been tweaked.) Both iTunes 10.6 and iOS 5.1 can be downloaded through iTunes. Alternatively, those who are already running a version of iOS 5 can grab the latest version of the mobile operating system over the air. Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.