Hello Matthew, I'm not Chris but I will answer your question.
Before I begin, let me say that (1) in no way am I referring to jail-broken devices and (2) I am not referring to those who wish to restore their beta OS software back to a currently released version of an operating system. I am only talking about "normal" iOS devices for "regular" iOS consumers. Well, the short answer is that iTunes uses a certain file with a certain file type extension in order to install the Operating system on an iOS device. The file extension for these files is .IPSW. It only takes one file to update your device to any one version of the operating system. Historically, these files were difficult to obtain as stand-alone files but, even as far back as 2010, if one was tenacious enough, one could find them on the web. As a general rule of thumb, Apple says that once you update your iOS device to a certain firmware such as iOS 7.1.2, you cannot downgrade it back to an earlier version such as 7.1.1 or 6.x. The website that is the subject of this thread, provides a single location from where one can obtain many, if not all, of the previously released versions of iOS for various iOS devices. Without getting too technical, contrary to popular belief, one can restore an iOS device all the way back to the original OS that shipped with the device when it was purchased. For any would-be nay-Sayers, let me state that I have done this many, many times, even recently. It can be a bit tricky, given the misdirecting dialog boxes with their, effectively false error messages, but once you do it one time, you can do it anytime. In fact, at one point, I was going to publish a tutorial to my BLOG on how to do this but a friend of mine at the company who must not be named, smile, asked me not to so, I did not. However, the steps on how to accomplish this are out on the web and, based on a search I conducted just a few hours ago, are even more readily available than they used to be back in the dark-ages, when I started out on this Apple cart. Personally, I don't really see a need for the average consumer to downgrade to an earlier version of an OS unless certain key features are broken such as the ability to use a specific Braille display, correctly, etc. Mark -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of matthew dyer Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 3:20 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Apple iOS (IPSW) Firmware Downloads Chris, what is this accectlly? It is some kind of firmware but what is it supposed to do? Thanks. On Jul 2, 2014, at 10:04 AM, Christopher Hallsworth <christopher...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think may interest you! http://www.ipswdownloader.com > -- > Christopher Hallsworth > Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. 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