Dev team has provided the following information on their blog:

With today’s official iOS5 release, redsn0w has been updated to 0.9.9b5 to include the public URLs for the IPSW files.  This way, first-time iOS5 jailbreakers don’t need to supply the IPSW file manually.  It’s still a tethered jailbreak on all except the old-bootrom iPhone3GS, and it doesn’t apply to iPad2 or the upcoming iPhone4S.

Because the jailbreak is currently only tethered for most devices, we’re not going to release a new PwnageTool yet.  Instead, we’ve decided to build some of PwnageTool’s functionality into redsn0w (since you need redsn0w to “Just boot tethered” on every power cycle anyway).  The new “Custom IPSW” button on the Extras screen will create a custom IPSW without the baseband update for 4.3.3 or 5.0gm (iPhone3GS and iPhone4 only, for now).  Remember to NOT accidentally restore to the stock IPSW after you create the custom one!  The custom one begins with NO_BB_ (for “no baseband”).  On Mac iTunes, you select an IPSW by holding down the Option key while clicking “Restore”.

You must enter “Pwned DFU” mode before trying to use the NO_BB_ IPSW with iTunes (and your hosts file cannot be pointing to Cydia’s servers due to the new blob nonce mechanism they’re using in iOS5).

Version 0.9.9b5 is available only for Mac for now, until we can do more testing on the Windows version of “Custom IPSW”.

Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 supports the following iOS 5 devices:

• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad 1
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4 (GSM)

Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 supports only a tethered jailbreak, except for iPhone 3GS with old bootrom which is untetherd. With a tethered jailbreak you need to connect your iOS device to the computer on every reboot. It still doesn’t support iPad 2, so it is unlikely to support Apple’s new iPhone 4S.

You can download Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 for Mac using this link.

When you turn on your new device, you’ll now be presented with a screen that says iPhone, iPad touch, or iPad (depending on which device you’re setting up). Just swipe to unlock and you’re welcomed and invited to choose your preferred language. The most common language options will be immediately available but you can tap the down arrow to see others. Hit the Next button to pick. Apple will also provide you a default Country or Region based on where you bought your device, but you can tap Show More to expand the choices.

Interestingly, neither here nor in any later step are default choices pre-checked for you. You can’t simply keep hitting Next to speed through. You have to look at the choices and tap one to check it before the Next button will even activate. Apple is forcing you to pay more attention than is often required on the web or in apps.

Next you’re given a choice to globally enable or disable Location Services. Location Services use GPS, cell-tower triangulation, and Wi-Fi router mapping to determine the approximate location of your device. This feature is used for turn-by-turn navigation (like TomTom), check-in games (like FourSquare), social networks (like Facebook), geo-tagging (like in the Camera app), and utilities (like Siri and Find my iPhone), etc. Unless you have a particular need to globally disable it, you probably want to turn on the Location Services feature at this point. You can change your mind or selectively disable or enable these services later on in the Settings app (e.g., turn off your Camera app’s geo-tagging, but leave on TomTom’s turn-by-turn navigation).

You’ll need to connect to a Wi-Fi network to continue iCloud setup (if none is available, you’ll have to switch to iTunes setup instead.) Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will then connect to Apple’s servers to activate (the cord was cut from iTunes, not from Apple).

You have the choice to

• Setup as a new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad
• Restore from an iCloud Backup
• Restore from an iTunes Backup

Set up as New

To set up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as a new device, sign in with your Apple ID (or tap through to create one). If you have multiple Apple IDs, for example a MobileMe ID, an iTunes ID, an ID associated with FaceTime or something else, you’ll have to choose which one you want to use. If you change your mind, you can login with a different ID later (and you can also login to different apps, like iTunes and iMessage, with separate IDs later). Agree to Apple’s Terms and Conditions and Apple will setup your ID and ask if you want to use iCloud or not. If you do — and most people should because it’s 1) free for the base level service, and 2) highly functional — you’ll be asked to enable iCloud Backup — and again, most people should. (It will create daily backups when you’re connected to Wi-Fi.)

Decide whether or not you want to enable Find my iPhone to help trace lost or stolen devices, and then choose if you want to share diagnostic information with Apple to help them improve the iOS experience.

And you’re done.

Restore from iCloud Backup

You can also choose to restore based on a previous iCloud Backup. You’ll be asked to sign in with your Apple ID. Make sure it’s the same Apple/iCloud ID that you used to make your previous backups. Agree to the Terms and Conditions and you’ll be given a list of recent backups to choose from, including those of all iOS devices backed up to iCloud.

Pick your backup and iCloud will begin the restore. Then your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will restart, all your settings nicely back where you left them, and iTunes will begin to re-download all the apps you had installed when the backup was made. If you live in countries where iTunes in the Cloud is available, iTunes will also re-download all the iTunes music, TV shows, and iBooks that were previously on your device. (You need to stay on Wi-Fi for large files to re-download.)

For security reasons, iOS may also prompt you to set a Passcode Lock, and not wait for you to go find it in Settings on your own.

Software Update

Gone are the days when, after Apple released a software update, you had to rush back to your iTunes-equipped Windows or Mac PC, download a 500MB+ firmware file, backup your data, install the new OS version, and restore you data back to your device. You can now do all that, better and faster, right on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

When a Software Update is available, you’ll get a notification popup. The Settings app will also get badged, just like Mail. To get your update, go to Settings, tap on General, tap on Software Updates, and if it isn’t there waiting for you, tap on Check for Updates. When you see the update, tap Install.

The firmware will download and then your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will restart and update.

Apple is now doing bit-differential, or delta file updates. That means only the bits that have changed need to be downloaded, not the entire firmware anymore. The update also happens in place, so you don’t need to backup and restore your data. Much more efficient and hence much faster.

Traditional setup with iTunes

You can still setup your new iPhone 4 the same way you’ve set up your previous iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad devices.

Plug into your Mac or Windows PC with the white USB Dock cable that came with your iPhone 4S. iTunes your device will be detected and displayed in the sidebar, and you’ll be asked to register it with Apple. If you have a MobileMe, iTunes Store, or other form of Apple ID you can log in with it and your information should pop up for you to check over. Either type it out or accept it and you’re good to go!

If you’re upgrading from a previous generation iPhone or iPod touch, iTunes will detect any backups you might have made and offer to restore your data for you. For example, if you’re moving from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4S, iTunes can setup your new phone to pretty much match your old. If you don’t want to do this, or if you don’t have any backups, iTunes will set up your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad as new.

Wi-Fi sync

If you want to keep syncing with your home iTunes library but don’t want to have to tether to your Windows or Mac PC over USB, you now have the option to sync over Wi-Fi as well. Wi-Fi sync needs to be enabled in the Settings app, and you need to sync with iTunes over USB at least once to set it up, and you need to be plugged into power throughout, but if none of that dissuades you, Zune-like Wi-Fi sync is finally yours.

Non-modal USB sync

If you do choose to keep syncing with iTunes over USB, or you sync occasionally over USB to move over large files, like movies, you can now continue to use your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad while syncing. (Previously unlocking your device would cancel the sync.)

Software Update

Depending on when exactly your new iPhone 4S was manufactured and shipped, it’s possible that it may have an older version of the software, iOS. Here’s how to check for updates, and get updated, using iTunes.

Source: TIPB

Note:

If saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes, or other personal settings are not present on your new iPhone, then restore-from-backup may not have been successful. In that case, verify your current iPhone is properly backed up (see step 2), then use iTunes to restore iOS on your new iPhone and continue following these instructions at step 4.

If you’ve backed up your data to iCloud that was launched yesterday then it’s another way to transfer contents from your current iPhone to your new iPhone 4S, but it would be a lot more time consuming so we prefer this manual process.

Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more.

How do I ask Siri something?

To talk to Siri, hold down the Home button on your iPhone 4S. You’ll hear two quick beeps and see “What can I help you with?” on the screen. Just begin speaking. The microphone icon lights up to let you know that Siri hears you talking. Once you’ve started a dialogue with Siri, tap the microphone icon to talk to it again.

What happens after I ask Siri a question or ask it to do something?

When you finish speaking, Siri displays the text of what you said and provides a response. If Siri needs more information to complete a request, it will ask you a question. For example, if you say “Remind me to call my mom,” Siri will ask “What time would you like me to remind you?”

Do I have to say things a certain way to get Siri to respond?

No. You can speak to Siri as you would to a person — in a natural voice with a conversational tone. If you want to know what the weather will be like tomorrow, simply say “What will the weather be like tomorrow?”

Which apps does Siri work with?

Siri works with almost all the built-in apps on iPhone 4S. And it’s smart enough to figure out which apps to use to provide you with answers. It also uses Search and Location Services to help you with your requests. Here’s a list of apps and services that Siri works with worldwide:

Phone

FaceTime

Music

Mail

Messages

Calendar

Reminders

Notes

Contacts

Weather

Stocks

Web Search

Find My Friends

Alarms, World Clock and Timer

Wikipedia search

Wolfram | Alpha (English only)

Siri can also assist you using these apps and services in the U.S. in English:

Maps

Local search with Yelp!

How does Siri learn who I am?

If Siri knows who you are, it can use your information to help you. To make sure Siri knows who you are, select your contact information in Settings > General > Siri > My Info.

Is Siri accessible to blind and visually impaired users?

Yes. VoiceOver, the screen reader built into iOS, can speak any text that’s displayed in responses from Siri. You can navigate through the responses and have each one read to you.

 Source: Apple

iPhone 4S isn’t the only model to take advantage of iOS 5′s “PC free” setup. All new iOS devices now ship ready to use out of the box, and existing devices upgraded to iOS 5 no longer need to be connected to iTunes to first activate, nor is iTunes required to perform ongoing backups or software updates anymore.

Most competing mobile devices have always been “PC free” in the sense of begin able to set up and use right out of the box. Apple’s iTunes-centric setup and maintenance for iOS devices initially helped make iPods, the iPhone and iPad easy to setup and use, but the process also involved some steps that could be frustrating, especially if your iTunes system wasn’t available or if you didn’t own a PC.

The new PC Free setup of iOS 5 means that all the advantages of having your music, videos, apps, books, documents, photos, backups and software updates managed through iTunes are still there: Apple still offers the best App Store experience, the easiest to use backup and recovery system and the fastest and least troublesome device sync and software update mechanism.

However, Apple has done away with the initial necessity of plugging into iTunes, and made the USB tether an alternative option to performing wireless setup, content purchasing and sync, backups, restorations and updates, thanks to new cloud integration. Users now have a choice.

Source: AppleInsider

Features:
Browse interests, Find & follow friends, Tweet, Retweet, Favorite, Direct Message with your followers, share photos, videos and web pages, real-time search, view maps, trends, and follow.

What’s New In This Version:
* Enhanced sign up experience
* Upload photos to Twitter (pic.twitter.com)
* Updated Direct Messages design on iPad
* Tap a location on iPad to show Tweets nearby
* Bug fixes and minor enhancements

You can download Twitter from the App Store for free.

Source: iClarified

Before you can dive in, though, you’ll need iTunes 10.5 — anything less just won’t do the trick. Look to ensure that their servers don’t eat it too hard with tomorrow’s launch, Apple has opted to make the iTunes bit of the equation available this morning.

It’s been a while since 10.5 began rolling out in Beta capacity, so here’s a quick recap of the big new features:

• iTunes Match: For $25 a year, iTunes Match will give you legal digital access to any songs you own (be it through legal means or not). Match won’t actually launch until late October, but support is built into 10.5.
• Patches a number of Windows-specific security issues
• WiFi syncing support (when paired with iOS 5)
• Purchase history (for books, apps, etc) through iCloud

If you’ve got a beta build of iTunes 10.5 already up and running, you’ll need to delete and reinstall to move to the final release. Otherwise, you can update iTunes through the usual means, or by downloading it manually here.

Source: techcrunch

The newly announced iPhone 4S will be available next Friday, Oct. 14 starting at 8 a.m. local time. But customers will be able to reserve the phone a week ahead of time, starting this Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, 3:01 a.m. Eastern.

In order to simplify the buying process, Apple is offering customers the ability to check eligibility for a discounted upgrade with their current carrier. Some customers may qualify for the maximum subsidy with a new service contract, placing the iPhone 4S at a starting price of $199 for the 16GB model.

Those eligible for upgrade pricing also have options in the 32GB iPhone 4S for $299, and the new high-end 64GB model priced at $399 with subsidy. All models are available in both black and white.

In the U.S., customers can currently check their upgrade eligibility with AT&T and Verizon, the two largest wireless providers in the nation. The ability to check with Sprint, which is the latest carrier to partner with Apple to carry the iPhone, is advertised as “coming soon.”

Sporting Apple’s speedy A5 dual-core processor, the iPhone 4S is the only way to experience Siri, Apple’s new voice command and recognition software. Using natural language, users can execute complex tasks handsfree, doing activities like checking weather and traffic, composing an e-mail or a text message, or adding an appointment to a calendar.

The iPhone 4S sports the same design as its predecessor, the iPhone 4, but adds a new 8-megapixel camera and redesigned camera architecture that allow for even higher quality photos. The iPhone 4S features 1080p high-definition video with image stabilization, and a custom f2.4 lens with an advanced hybrid IR filter. Images are captured at a resolution of 3,264-by-2,448 pixels.

The iPhone 4S will launch on Oct. 14 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. It will be available from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers in the U.S.

Apple has planned a speedy international rollout of the iPhone 4S, which means customers around the world won’t have to wait as long for Apple’s newest smartphone. The iPhone 4S is planned to debut in 22 more countries by the end of October, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Source: AppleInsider