iOS 7 Officially Replaces iOS 6: Apple Ends Signing Old OS

If you'd planned on downgrading from iOS 7 to iOS 6 on your iPhone or iPad this week using the official restore method from Apple, you'll be out of luck starting this week. This is because as of the start of this week, Apple has stopped "signing" old versions of restore points for the operating system. From this point forward it'll be hacking that users have to do if they want to downgrade from iOS 7 as Apple looks firmly toward the future.

What we spoke about back on the 20th of September was a method for moving back away from iOS 7 for users that had upgraded but regretted it. Using the free and open listing of Apple firmwares at Just a Penguin, you'll find that version 6.1.3 of iOS was the last version to be signed by Apple – now iOS 7 is the only approved version of iOS for devices across the board. Downloads of previous versions of iOS remain available, but will not be able to be used with Apple's regular, official mode of restoring your iDevice to a former state.

Meanwhile the hacking users of the public await the jailbreaking methods found in previous versions of iOS to appear for iOS 7. As soon as iOS 7 was released, several groups began to work on jailbreaking methods, but none have (as of the posting of this article) come forth with a 100% solid method of doing so.

Meanwhile our iOS 7 Review suggests that you'll have more than an OK time working with the OS on your iPhone 5c or iPhone 5s. You'll find iOS 7 also working with the iPad, iPad mini, and iPod touch starting last week (the first day of upgrade being the 18th of September).

While some users are finding a log-in bug to be reason enough to want to step back from iOS 7, others praise the operating system for its upgrades in secutiry for the common user. You'll find the NYPD handing out flyers promoting iOS 7 in the streets of Manhattan while records of iOS 7 web usage and multi-sourced adoption suggest that iOS 7 upgrades are taking hold at an unprecedented rate.