iOS 4.3 improves media sharing — but not on the Verizon iPhone?

Apple just announced a number of new features for iOS, its mobile operating system on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. The company says iOS 4.3 will be available on March 11 — but strangely, it looks like the update won’t include the Verizon iPhone.

Apple outlined the new operating system at its iPad 2 event, and you can read about it on the Apple site. The site has a list of devices that iOS 4.3 will be compatible with, and including the iPad 1 and 2, the third and fourth generation iPod Touch, the iPhone 3GS — and yes, the iPhone 4, but only the GSM model supported by AT&T. (The Verizon iPhone uses a different mobile standard, CDMA.)

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As far as we can tell, Apple hasn’t offered any explanation yet for why it left the CDMA iPhone off the list. The most likely explanation, though: iOS 4.3 will come to Verizon eventually, but some technical issues need to be worked out first.

So what will those Verizon iPhone owners be missing out on? Here’s an overview of the new features:

• An improved version of AirPlay, Apple’s technology for streaming media from your iOS device to your Apple TV. Now apps and websites can support AirPlay, so they can also stream video to your TV
• A new version of the Safari Web browser that promises to run JavaScript at least twice as quickly as the previous version.
• iTunes Home Sharing, which allows you to share music, movies, and TV shows from iTunes on your computer onto any device.
• A new customizable feature for the switch on the side of the iPad — you can now use it to either lock the screen rotation or to mute the volume.
• The ability to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot (an option that was already announced for the Verizon iPhone).