Apple’s iOS 5 Update Now Available For iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

[glhaynes]

List of things Apple is releasing today (perhaps incomplete?):

  iOS 5 (iPhone, iPad)
  Mac OS X 10.7.2 (and maybe 10.6.9?)
  Apple TV 4.4 Update
  updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iOS
  iPhoto 9.2
  Aperture 3.2
  Safari 5.1.1 (Mac, Windows)
  iCloud Control Panel for Windows
  the iCloud web apps
  Cards (and associated print/delivery service)
  Lion Recovery Update
  iTunes Movie Trailers app
  Find my Friends app
  AirPort Setup utility app
  updated iOS Remote app
  updated iOS iMovie app
  updated Find my iPhone app
  store for text message/alert tones
  iPhone Configuration Utility 3.4 for Mac OS X
  ...and of course the iCloud (and iMessage, etc) service itself, including migration tools for MobileMe, etc.

Oh, and the new phone is shipping this week [thanks, smackfu], including its Siri service that relies on a server-side component. And iTunes 10.5 yesterday. And the white iPod touch. OK, I'll stop now.

Just might be a stressful time to be an Apple employee.

I remember it being reported that in the Jobs-Makes-Everybody-Cry-After-MobileMe-Launch-Disaster meeting that he said that one of the major mistakes they made was releasing too much at once - that they should've let MobileMe simmer a while more instead of tying it to the iPhone 3GS launch. Guess we'll see what happens this time. Hard to transition your whole software stack to being integrated with a new cloud service without doing most of these updates at once, I suppose, but they could have shipped the software then waited a month and shipped the phone. Would've been contrary to the "integrated" hardware/software messages that Apple usually has, though.

edit: All in the shadow of a homepage that has nothing but a memorial to Jobs. Classy. And, if they pull it off, should give a nice confidence boost that such feats can be done even in the new era.

[lukeqsee]

First thought: That's a lot of bandwidth. Second thought: That's a lot of code.

I hope it's a lot of awesome-sauce.

[danh]

Also: Xcode 4.2

[smackfu]

New phone isn't today, so there's that.

[AdamGibbins]

Also OS X 10.7.2. Among other things, finally gives the ability to rearrange spaces.

[there]

the three-finger swipe up and down once again scroll to the top and bottom of the page in firefox after the 10.7.2 update.

the cursor movement seems to be faster at the same set speed, i had to turn it down a notch after the update.

[bryanh]

Various errors when trying to install iOS5 on my iPhone 4. I'm getting everything from error 3194 "This device is not eligible for the requested build" to a generic error 3200 "Unknown error".

Coupled with some crazy Lion crashes lately, my anecdotal experience is that Apple software is not "just work[ing]".

[jreposa]

The iOS 5 update errors are being reported as server failures on Apple. Although, I admit I'm not helping the problem. It took 20+ tries to finally get it to phone home correctly.

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/10/12/apples-ios-5-upgrade-...

[noisebleed]

Yeah... trying to update has actually completely screwed up my phone. I can't even get it to restore.

edit: finally got it to work again after going through the 'force into restore mode' process about a dozen times.

[davidhperry]

Anyone know how to do a restore without backing up first? Like a lot of others, the restore is failing for me when it communicates with Apple and every time I retry, it does a backup that lasts about 30 minutes. I'd love to just keep retrying without doing the backup each time.

[ottbot]

Try putting your device in DFU mode. This worked for me, after that clicking restore (then update/restore) went straight to the verification phase.. Previous backup was restored when I finally get the update installed.

[geuis]

I highly recommend you backup with iTunes first. I have run the beta for months and hadn't backed up in a while. iCloud was wiped last week and when I updated to the GM I lost everything. My last backup was in July, so that's where I had to start from there.

[0x0x0x]

Photostream... taking pics on the iPhone and watching them appear nearly instant in iPhoto is amazing tech.

[guelo]

Does anyone know how iOS 5 runs on a 3GS? Does it bog things down?

[dmix]

There were benchmarks of the new 4S posted online that also showed 3GS with iOS5 outperformed iOS4.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4951/iphone-4s-preliminary-ben...

[_frog]

I've been running the developer betas since about Beta 5 and it's been fine, update away.

[joeguilmette]

if i had a 3GS i would wait until the next iOS update comes out unless there is a resounding "Wow!" from 3GS users.

[MrFoof]

Although there's no numbers for the 3GS and 3rd generation iPod touch, GigaOM did benchmark the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4 and 4th generation iPod touch to find small to otherwise noticeable improvements across the board: http://gigaom.com/apple/benchmarking-the-ios-5-update/

I have a 32GB 3rd generation iPod touch as my low-end development unit (the 8GB models can't be upgraded past 4.2.x), and I can also confirm that it is noticeably snappier.

[duarte]

Multitouch gestures don't work on the original iPad, even though they worked for developers on iOS 4.

I guess this is either to sell more iPad 2s, or because the performance when switching apps is slower (it is), which makes the app switching gesture worse.

Either way it's quite a dubious decision IMO. iOS 5 is all about being able to do more with the iPad. I've been using it a lot while writing my dissertation, and the main issue is how slow it is to switch between safari/iBooks and the writing app. The horizontal tabs in safari are a great improvement in this sense.

[navs]

sigh My poor iPhone 3G and I are completely left out.

I did update OSX to make use of the new iCloud but its really no use unless you have an i-device with iCloud. I use Pages.app and was hoping I could make use of the iCloud storage feature but it appears I HAVE to have its equivalent Pages app for iOS to activate it.

:(

[emehrkay]

I feel old school because of my 3G. Be proud, brotha!

[st3fan]

What is the build number of this release? Can anyone confirm it is the same as the GM from october 4th?

[avirambm]

Looks like it's the same as GM - 9A334 (source: http://ios.e-lite.org/)

[miles_matthias]

It also doesn't show any updates for me on my iPhone that is running the latest iOS 5 beta.

[vl]

With iMessage being released I wonder what is the plan for Facetime? Is it complementary, or is it going to be killed? Are we going to get iMessage on Mac/Windows as well?

[dhbanes]

Why would video chat be killed due to the release of a text chat service?

[miles_matthias]

Having lots of issues upgrading Xcode and iPhoto through the Mac app store. Just hangs. I thought it might be because my mini needed another restart after getting the lion update, but that didn't help either. Now since I tried to update them, the Mac app store is showing them as updated even though they aren't. No idea how I fix that...

[cf0ed2aa-bdf5]

Are there any unofficial mirrors yet? I have a 100mbit connection but the download is just awfully slow.

[nickpp]

Download stalled... :(

[modoc]

Akamai caches weren't pre warmed. It should get better soon.

[kpennell]

3G owner, made that mistake with 4.0....just reverted to 3.1.2

Not making that upgrading mistake twice...

[davidcollantes]

Tried to download, always ended up with a "corrupted" download. Trying again now, it says "5 Hours."

[simonhamp]

Downloading already here in the UK :)

[jasonabelli]

as doesn't auto correct to A's anymore. Yeah

[sigzero]

I'd definitely wait. Apple is swamped now.

[jayp08]

iMessage & location based reminders dont work on my 3GS :(

[artursapek]

Why does Techcrunch always offer such exaggerations as "SMS dies today?" I'm curious if people will actually use iMessage very much. It will be hard to keep track of the relatively small amount of friends you know are on iOS5, and people on iPods won't want to rely on having wi-fi for their SMSing.

[ugh]

You don’t “use” iMessage and you don’t have to keep “track of” anything.

If for friend has an iPhone you will automatically send her an iMessage, if not you send a text. You won’t even notice. (The “Send” button changes color. That’s all.)

(Yeah, TechCrunch is exaggerating but iMessage is very clever.)

[vl]

I use WhatsApp instead of SMS mostly. It has benefit of working not only with iPhone users, but with Android as well.