Apple iOS 6 Release Date Is Here: Upgrade Time Likely Begins At 10 a.m. PDT

iOS 6, the next-generation mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, is about to go live today, just two days prior to Apple's iPhone 5 launch this Friday. Users are looking forward to enjoying more than 200 new features on the platform, but what time can users expect their iOS devices to be able to download the free upgrade today?

• Apple has kept mum on the subject as always, but based on the past several years of company history in releasing iOS software, we believe Apple will release iOS 6 at 10 a.m. PDT.
• This release date and time is based on the past four years of iOS releases. Apple originally released iOS 2, 3, and 4 at 10 a.m. PDT, and last year, British blogger named Shoesmith turned out to be right out to be right about the 10 a.m. release time he had overheard Apple Store employees discussing.

• If Apple indeed releases iOS 6 at 10 a.m. Pacific, here's when you can expect iOS 6 to release in your time zone:

• Baghdad: 8 p.m.
• Beijing: 1 a.m.
• Berlin: 7 p.m.
• Boston: 1 p.m.
• Cairo: 7 p.m.
• Chicago: 12 p.m.
• Denver: 11 a.m.
• Dubai: 9 p.m.
• Hong Kong: 1 a.m.
• Indianapolis: 1 p.m.
• Jerusalem: 7 p.m.
• London: 6 p.m.
• Los Angeles: 10 a.m.
• Moscow: 9 p.m.
• New York: 1 p.m
• Rome: 7 p.m.
• Tokyo: 2 a.m.
• Sydney: 4 a.m.

iOS 6 was originally unveiled at WWDC in June, but Apple did not specify the release date any further back then besides saying it was "coming this fall." Last year's mobile OS, iOS 5 introduced several key features to the iPhone, iPod and iPad, including an organized Notification Center, deep integration with Twitter, a free messaging service for iOS users called iMessage, and a cloud platform for storing and streaming documents and media files to any iOS device, called iCloud. In iOS 6, Apple is taking all of the great features in iOS 5 a step further, introducing a new Maps application made in-house (sorry, Google fans), deep integration with Facebook, and several significant enhancements to Siri, the virtual personal assistant currently exclusive to the iPhone 4S, which will also be supported on the iPhone 5, new iPod Touch and third-generation iPad starting Wednesday.