iLounge

A new report suggests that Apple plans to release iOS 4.3 around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. Citing an anonymous source, BGR reports that the update for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, and iPad will be released later today, and that the new Personal Hotspot feature will be, by default, limited to three wireless connections, but can be expanded to five devices if requested by the carrier. Apple’s iOS 4.3 page notes that the Personal Hotspot feature “requires a supporting hotspot tethering plan from your carrier and works with up to three devices over Wi-Fi, three devices over Bluetooth, and one device over USB,” while being limited to five total connections spread over the three options. For instance, a user could have three devices connected via Wi-Fi, plus two over Bluetooth, or one over Bluetooth and one over USB, or three over Bluetooth and two over Wi-Fi, and so on.

Update: An anonymous source has informed iLounge that in the latest developer release of iOS 4.3, nearly all the carrier plist files have been set to five connections, including AT&T. The only ones that are set to something other than five are O2 Prepaid, O2 Tesco, and Personal_ar, which are all set to one. Notably, the source said that regardless of this setting, the maximum number of Wi-Fi connections is still three.

Update x2: The Loop reports that iOS 4.3 will be released tomorrow, a claim potentially corroborated by a Mac Rumors reader report.