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IOS Iphone Apple

iOS 5 Update Available 473

tekgoblin writes "Apple has released the iOS 5 update. To update to iOS 5 just open iTunes with your iDevice connected to your computer and press update. I recommend doing a manual backup of your iDevice and make sure all your apps are transferred."
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iOS 5 Update Available

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  • umm... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mockylock ( 1087585 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @01:43PM (#37693658) Homepage
    "Already years ahead of everything else"? I'm guessing that's why they're adding features that catch up to Android and even some from WP7. But, hey.. if you're a fan, it doesn't mean you need to know about other devices around you, as long as it's shiny and made by Apple, it will suffice.. and if it doesn't, they'll make sure that you think it does.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Doesn't the hate and bashing ever get tiring?

    • by mlts ( 1038732 ) *

      I'd say the hype depends on the feature in use. The ability for apps to use iCloud for data storage (key:value pairs as well as documents) is nice to have.

      As for backups to the cloud, on Android, you have comparable -- just use Titanium Backup and Dropbox. To boot, Titanium Backup encrypts all backups to boot, so if the DB account gets compromised, your app's data is secure.

      Realistically, blowing away all hype, iOS 5 gives you:

      Scroll down from the task bar, and you get some decent widget-like functionalit

      • by mlts ( 1038732 ) *

        Correction: Untethered JB. The tethered JB is out (for the iPhone 4, and supposedly the 4S's turn is coming), but not many Cydia apps work with iOS's 5 structure as of now, so it can't hurt to just give it time until iBlacklist, BiteSMS, etc. get updated.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by ArhcAngel ( 247594 )

        iCloud for music is excellent. Especially with the service that scans your MP3 stash and allows you to download AAC files on the go. This functionality is something Android lacks.

        Perhaps you are unfamiliar with SugarSync? [sugarsync.com]
        In fact I would choose SugarSync over iCloud even on an Apple product simply because I can sync/stream to just about any device with a browser although there are native clients for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS devices. They have a free 5GB plan and their $4.99/mo. plan gives you 30GB. I had been using DropBox until I discovered SugarSync.

      • Re:umm... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Thantik ( 1207112 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @02:31PM (#37694426)

        iCloud for music is excellent. Especially with the service that scans your MP3 stash and allows you to download AAC files on the go. This functionality is something Android lacks

        Actually, Google has Google Music which does basically the same thing. You just select the files/playlists, etc for "offline use" and it caches them to your device. Or you can just stream it while on the go. Google Music has been available for...uh, 6ish months now.

        Also, Google+ auto uploads any taken pictures to your G+ account, set to private, so you can share them at-whim. So, Android has that feature too...again, has for months.

        • "Official Android player for Music Beta by Google [android.com]."
          "Available in the U.S. by invitation only and free for a limited time.
          Request an invitation at music.google.com."

          So it's out there but that doesn't seem like a "full" release to me.

      • Seriously, how do Android fans accept the cognitive dissonance that allows them to complain about anything on the iPhone that requires jailbreaking while ignoring that just to backup an Android phone requires rooting? Which is not only often far more complicated than jailbreaking, but is almost never the same process between any two Android phones, risks voiding your warranty, and loses you certain capabilities like being able to watch movies from the Android Market?

    • Re:umm... (Score:5, Funny)

      by rthille ( 8526 ) <web-slashdotNO@SPAMrangat.org> on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @03:21PM (#37695066) Homepage Journal

      I wish you damn whippersnappers would stop using WP7 for Windows Phone 7... I keep having to wonder what the hell Word Perfect has to do with a discussion on cell phones...

  • by johnthorensen ( 539527 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @01:46PM (#37693696)

    Is there a technical reason that Apple can't provide over-the-air updates for their devices?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You need iOS 5 for this lol

    • Yes there is, the files are fucking huge!

    • No; they just didn't include it in iOS 4 or earlier versions.

      However, they have included wireless updating in iOS 5. So once you upgrade to v5 via cabled connection, you'll be able to get future updates over the air.

      • do they count as part of data pack? roaming? It's would suck to have to pay $19.96/MB for a auto update.

      • Why did Apple take so long to do this, after Android has been doing it for years?

        • Since you only get one or two updates with the typical Android phone, it's kind of moot, isn't it? My wife's HTC Eris not only only got two updates since purchase, her applications are now crashing one by one. First Lexulous, then Yahoo!, then Twitter...

          How many Android phones are shipping today with an out-of-date version of Android?

          Her Eris isn't even two years old. That's why she's getting an iPhone 4S this Friday.
    • by Wovel ( 964431 )

      After iOS5 is installed updates will be incremental and over-the-air, so the answer to your question is no, not tomorrow.

    • Remember that an update isn't an app download, it's a download of a brand new OS and reflashing your device. This isn't trivial and if it fails it has a good chance of bricking your device. To get the device to handle it properly is harder than having an external app download the update and update the device.

      Also, old (iOS4 and previous) updates were a full system image. So you had to download a huge file and find space for it on the device. I think iOS is able to download partial components and update ind

  • by iONiUM ( 530420 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @01:48PM (#37693746) Journal

    While reading the iOS5 features page (http://www.apple.com/ios/features.html [apple.com]), I went down to the "Mail" section and saw:

    "Format text using bold, italic, or underlined fonts. Create indents in the text of your message."

    Is that really something they should be advertising? Pretty advanced stuff..

  • by chrism238 ( 657741 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @01:51PM (#37693812)
    Slashdot should demand 30% from Apple for these advertorials.
  • Good luck actually getting it or transitioning to iCloud or anything. Their servers seem to be swamped and unresponsive.

    I suggest waiting a day or two just so you have a smoother upgrade process.

    • by Wovel ( 964431 )

      It took me a total of 21 minutes to download the update for my iPhone, iPad and the 10.7.2 update for OSX. I am on a really crappy hotel system. iCloud servers are working great to. If the download are slow you should make sure you are not using google's 8.8.8.8 for DNS, this has been known to screw up whatever CDN Apple is using.

    • Clicked check for updates at 10:01 a.m. PDT on my iPad 2 and Apple TV 2. Both updated quickly and flawlessly.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    so are OTA updates a way to kill off jailbreaking for good.

    once an exploit is out in the open, congrats you've been upgraded to 5.1 while you were sleeping enjoy.

  • by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @02:01PM (#37693996) Homepage Journal

    That didn't take too long to fail. Click on "Update," and it tells me I have to update iTunes. OK, fine, go do that. Computer reboots.

    Take 2. Click on update, it downloads the nearly 700MB iTunes update, and makes a backup.

    And then crashes, opening an Apple KB article that tells me I have to update iTunes in order to install the update. Er... I already did that?

    I'll just uninstall iTunes and ... oh, wait, you can't do that on Mac OS X. You have to follow some magic instructions that involve deleting kernel extensions and rebooting three times. I'll have to look that up and ... oh, hey, Apple's support site now 503s.

    Awesome.

    Oh, hey, it hard-crashed my phone. I'll just pop out the battery to reboot it, and ... oh, crap. That's right, the Apple official way to restart a crashed iDevice is to let the battery drain. I'd link to the article, but their support site is down.

    • by quietwalker ( 969769 ) <pdughi@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @02:08PM (#37694096)

      Savor your walled garden, secure in the knowledge that because you're not trusted enough to meddle with it, nothing can go wrong. This is, after all, what users want.

    • by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @02:08PM (#37694100)

      Thank you for updating your Apple products. Please rate your upgrade experience:

      1. Insanely Great!
      2. Magical
      3. Innovative
      4. Religious Ecstasy

    • by thetzar ( 30126 )

      Somehow, I doubt all of this happened in the last two hours. Especially as crunched as Apple's update servers are right now.

      • by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @02:15PM (#37694212) Homepage Journal

        I started downloading before the Slashdot story was posted. It was kind of fun to watch the "time remaining" thing slow to a crawl. The last 15 seconds took a good minute.

        Also, small update: turns out the phone hadn't crashed, it was just frozen displaying the lock screen with a time 6 minutes in the past. It eventually rebooted on its own. So at least I still have a phone.

        Another interesting factoid: you can't just drag iTunes into the trash to delete it. Mac OS X won't let you. Instead you have to open the Applications folder, select it, and press Command-Delete. (I'm doing the complete reinstall off memory, let's see how well this goes!)

        • by Moridineas ( 213502 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @03:29PM (#37695152) Journal

          Are you trolling? I don't think anything at all you've said in your posts is right?

          1) A brand new full iTunes download is 103mb, not 700 as you claimed.

          2) I've never ever had to do anything remotely like you claim about removing kernel extensions and rebooting 3 times with iTunes, and in the past month I have bounced forwards and backwards between several beta versions. (b8 -> b9 -> b7 -> 10.5 all worked flawlessly). Just download a new version of iTunes and the installer will upgrade it anyway.

          3) I just dragged iTunes to the trash. OSX asked for my password. I entered it. It deleted.

          4) If you're not comfortable with GUI instructions and are at all competent with a bash/csh commandline, just fire up terminal and using su or sudo delete to your heart's contact. kextstat / kextunload / kextload can be used to view, load, and unload kernel extensions, but I've only ever had to use those commands when I was developing one. sudo rm -fr /Applications/iTunes.app/ etc

          5) Absolutely false what you claimed about Apple expecting a crashed iPhone to just drain off the battery.

          I'm afraid I've only fed into your ego honey pot, but whatever...

          • by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @03:53PM (#37695356) Homepage Journal

            1) A brand new full iTunes download is 103mb, not 700 as you claimed.

            Oh crap, you're right, that was supposed to read "the iOS update," which is 700MB. I have no clue how large the iTunes update was because I didn't bother watching that download.

            2) I've never ever had to do anything remotely like you claim about removing kernel extensions and rebooting 3 times with iTunes

            You only need to do that if you need to reinstall iTunes. Which is what the support article for "our update authentication servers are down" tells you to do for some braindead reason.

            3) I just dragged iTunes to the trash. OSX asked for my password. I entered it. It deleted.

            Only works in Finder. I was trying to do it from the Applications stack in the Dock, because you can do that with apps you've installed yourself. Doing it that way just silently fails.

            5) Absolutely false what you claimed about Apple expecting a crashed iPhone to just drain off the battery.

            It used to be in there somewhere, for what to do if a hard reset doesn't work. Which, now that the support site is up again, turns out to be holding both the Wake/Sleep button and the Home button for 10 seconds. That's intuitive.

          • Are you trolling?

            No, he's not. You two aren't looking at the same thing

            I don't think anything at all you've said in your posts is right?

            1) A brand new full iTunes download is 103mb, not 700 as you claimed.

            Oh really? because iTunes was a 78MB download for me. But then there was an additional (almost) 1GB of data for a Lion stability update and a Lion recovery update. So, he's probably counting the entire set of updates

            I just dragged iTunes to the trash. OSX asked for my password. I entered it. It deleted.

            Lion seems to be very resistive to deleting things. I've had difficulty deleting apps on Lion on more than one occassion

            4) If you're not comfortable with GUI instructions and are at all competent with a bash/csh commandline, just fire up terminal and using su or sudo delete to your heart's contact. kextstat / kextunload / kextload can be used to view, load, and unload kernel extensions, but I've only ever had to use those commands when I was developing one. sudo rm -fr /Applications/iTunes.app/ etc

            MAC OS just works, right? So why does he need to use the CLI?

            5) Absolutely false what you claimed about Apple expecting a crashed iPhone to just drain off the battery.

            I'm afraid I've only fed into your ego honey pot, but whatever...

            That is true, except when it isn't. I've had my iPhone

    • Why the hell would iToonz require a system reboot?

      What the hell is it tying itself into? Kernel drivers? OS integration?

      I don't remember having to reboot at all after installing or updating any of the following: Microsoft Security Essentials, KLite Codec Pack, Wireshark, Photoshop, VNC, all of which integrate with the OS in some way. What the hell is iTunes doing to my computer?

      • "Why the hell would iToonz require a system reboot?"

        It doesn't. As a developer, I'd remember if I had to restart for my weekly iTunes beta upgrade.

        Making the OP possible troll bait.

      • by Wovel ( 964431 )

        Just install iTunes does not require a reboot. If you installed the 10.7.2 update at the same time , that requires a reboot. I updated iTunes alone last night and no reboot was required.

    • by maccodemonkey ( 1438585 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @02:24PM (#37694326)

      "That's right, the Apple official way to restart a crashed iDevice is to let the battery drain. I'd link to the article, but their support site is down."

      Or you could use the official method of holding down both the home and lock button until it restarts. It'll even restart a crashed device.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Not so simple as said in the summary, it requires first updating iTunes to 10.5

  • Yesterday it was iTunes 10.5, the first 4Ss are delivered and Siri hits the servers back home, now iOS 5 is delivered to millions of iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, OS X 10.7.2 (with iCloud support) is going out right now (all 800 MB of it), an iPhoto update for iCloud, iCloud itself is going online which means the first real traffic for their brandnew datacenters...

    If you can joke and sneer about that right now you have never been part of a big critical software rollout. If they can pull through this they

  • iOS5 is compatible only with these models:

      iPhone 3GS
      iPhone 4
      iPhone 4S
      iPod touch 3rd generation
      iPod touch 4th generation
      iPad
      iPad 2

  • So I want to update my iPad2. iTunes says no: I have to get the new version of iTunes (as well as a security patch) Fine: run software update, get all the various updates including iTunes 10.5, install.

    Go back to iTunes and try to update the iPad2. No: it says I have to have the latest version of iTunes. Check the version and indeed I'm running an old version. No idea why it downloaded 65MB of iTunes before, but fine, hit software update again. "Your software is up to date". Um, no, it's clearly no

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @03:03PM (#37694836)

    In iTunes make sure to select "encrypt backups" before your backup, that way a restore will also restore encrypted items like your email passwords.

  • Update process (Score:5, Informative)

    by Superken7 ( 893292 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @03:12PM (#37694954) Journal

    1. Connect iPad to macbook
    2. iTunes detects iOS 5 is available, I hit update button
    3. WARNING! Unsynced items, I am going to delete all your precious apps, do you want to continue? Mind you, I won't offer an option in the dialog that says: "backup my stuff and then continue".
    4. I click sync and the system detects that this is a new macbook: "Looks like this is a new, unauthorized device! If you proceed, all your iPad contents will be NUKED! haha!"
    5. Cancel and look around for a while trying to find a way of doing the obvious thing.
    6. Find the "transfer my stuff" option that warns that only authorized content will be transfered. Duh-huh.. OK.
    7. Need to authorize my device, only 3 left. Geee... well, OK..
    8. Everything but 4 items get transferred. Not pretty, but good enough.
    9. Try to update now: warning about unsynced items persists. Scary, but I go on since step 7. doesn't improve even after trying several times in different ways.
    10. ..Long update process, its 700MB after all... BANG! Your device coul not be restored, internal error occurred.
    11. iPad library must be deleted because it can only be synced with one device at a time. .. bla bla bla all the iPad contents will be replaced by this macbook's library contents. VERY SCARY, but there is no other way as far as I see. Well... OK.
    12. Update again...wait...wait...wait... yes, I want to use iCloud, yes I want to use localization, re-enter my apple ID, yes, yes yes a couple more times...
    13. .. and all my stuff is __GONE__ !
    14. Go to iTunes, explicitly tell it to sync applications, hit sync..
    15. Only a few apps have been restored
    16. Back to iTunes, manually check all applications that you want to have restored (why are most of them unchecked and not synced by default!?)
    17. Sync..
    18. ..wait..wait..wait...wait.... FINALLY. DONE.

    Conclusion: ARE YOU F****** KIDDING ME?

    NOT pretty, VERY SCARY.
    But in the end it worked (miraculously).
    Seriously, why on earth would someone design a syncing process that makes it SO EASY to lose all your stuff? Why not a single step?

    Let's hope that OTA updates take this nightmarish process away. We'll see.

    • by tgd ( 2822 )

      You screwed up on step 1:

      1) Upgrade your six month old Apple device, its out of date.

    • While I agree that that royally sucks and the process could be improved ... I don't think that's the average experience. For me and my wife (with 4 iOS devices between us) it was:

      1. Plug in device. iTunes immediately does a sync and backup automatically (like normal when you plug the phone in)
      3. Hit 'Update'
      4. Wait as it downloads 700 MB (for the first device only - otherwise it's cached on the HDD)
      5. Select 'restore from [previous backup file]
      6. Done. Everything is as it was before.

      Sounds like your machine

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