Thursday, February 16, 2012, 08:45 pm

Alleged iOS 5.1 'pre-GM' leak shows permanent lock-screen camera button

By Josh Ong

An alleged leak of Apple's upcoming iOS 5.1 update appears to show the addition of a permanent camera button on the lock screen and Japanese support for Siri.

Brazilian iPhone blog blogdoiPhone (Google Translation) claimed on Thursday to have a obtained a "pre-GM" version of iOS 5.1 with a few minor changes from current beta versions. The GM version is the final candidate that is used in a software release.

The publication reported that the leaked software featured a fixed camera icon on the lock screen, whereas the current version of iOS 5 adds the camera button when users double tap on the home button. According to the report, sliding a finger up on the icon pulls up the camera screen.

The publication also appeared to show the addition of Japanese to the language options for Siri, the new voice-activated assistant on the iPhone 4S. Siri itself already claims to speak Japanese, as was discovered earlier this week.



Apple has promised to add Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian and Spanish to Siri this year. One recent rumor claimed Chinese, Japanese and Russian support could arrive as early as next month.


It has been suggested that Apple will release iOS 5.1 at its third-generation iPad launch event, expected to take place on March 7. A flurry of reports have suggested that Apple's next tablet will feature a double-resolution display, an upgraded processor and 4G LTE capability.

Apple began seeding beta releases of iOS 5.1 to developers last November. A second beta arrived in December, followed by a third beta last month. The release is expected to include deeper Facebook integration and the ability to remove individual photos from Photo Stream.