RUMOR: iOS 5 TO ONLY RUN ON iPHONE 4 OR HIGHER

Eldar Murtazin is a Russian mobile phone guru with an uncanny knack for getting his hands on unreleased phones. While most of Murtazin’s information and scoops have involved non-Apple products, Murtazin recently tweeted that the next major iOS update, iOS 5, will only run on the iPhone 4 and the next-gen iPhone. In other words, iPhone 3GS users are out of luck.
“Just one comment. Apple iPhone 3Gs wont be upgradable to iOS 5.x. iPhone 4 will”, the tweet reads.

While Apple has typically made new iOS updates extremely backwards compatible, arguably to a fault, an iOS update that excludes iPhone 3GS owners would mark a departure from Apple’s efforts to keep previous owners with the most up to date mobile OS. Note that iOS 4, released last June, was backwards compatible going back two generations to the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 3G.
While Murtazin’s tweet should be taken with a grain of salt, he does have a good track record and it is worth nothing that iOS 5 is largely believed to be a major and significant iOS update. That said, it stands to reason that Apple would only want its upcoming OS update to run on hardware powerful enough to deliver the high level of performance and user experience iPhone users have grown accustomed to.

Apple will take the final wraps off of iOS 5 in the coming weeks at WWDC scheduled to kick off on June 6. While specific features remain murky, iOS 5 is rumored to be heavily focused on location and cloud-based services along with significant voice recognition integration.

MICROSOFT TAKING OFFICE TO THE CLOUD

Microsoft will begin beta testing a new Office in the cloud product dubbed Office 365.  The new offering will include document storage, sharing, editing and a variety of communication tools, all cloud-based.  Office 365 will include Office Professional Plus along with Sharepoint Online (for collaboration and sharing), Exchange Online (for email, calandar and contacts) and Lync Online (for IM, audio/video conferencing and screen sharing).

Pricing will be based on number of users per month. Small organizations consisting of 25 people or less will be able to access Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online, for $6 per user, per month. Larger businesses will be able to select from several different plans, ranging from email at $2 per user, per month, to a complete Office 365 package including Office Professional Plus for $24 per user, per month.

Office 365 just released in beta and is expected to launch to consumers later in 2011. [Geek]