iOS 5

IT BEGINS

*discuss*

At 1:15 PM EST, my mom is bringing over her MacBook to my apartment, and my iPad will join the Age of iOS 5

I have waited months for this day, and now that it is here, I couldn't be more excited. In some ways, it feels like this is the update I have waited for my entire life

I am saddened I won't yet get my hands on Siri (it is in BETA and currently only on the revolutionary iPhone 4S), but I have no doubts that it will make it's debut into the larger iOS ecosystem with the next version. The ability to PINCH TO CLOSE more than makes this an update that will go down in history, rendering the iPad HOME BUTTON completely unnecessary with a single download

The future... brought to you by Apple INC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah Robinson 

How does one wait their entire life for a software update to a product that has only existed for the past four years?

I mean to say that I've been waiting my entire life for a device with the capabilities my iPad (or one's iPhone) will have once it's running iOS 5. This is the future tech I've always needed, going back to my earliest sci fi fantasies. To be able to realize that dream in 2011, The Year of iPad 2, is a mind bendingly drastic acceleration of even my most hopeful estimates for when I'd get my hands on such a tool

I am crushed...

I spent literally all afternoon downloading iTunes 10.5, and then iOS 5. I took a nap through most of this and it only finished right as I woke up. Then it backed up my iPad, and proceeded to the step labeled "extracting software"... and then everything got FUBAR, and fast...

First it popped up with an error "3004", the three thousand and fourth error of them all... What this means, I know not

It said it was unable to restore the iPad because of some sort of trouble talking to Apple

Then I tried quitting iTunes and unplugging my iPad. When I plugged it back in, it said that it had detected an iPad in RESTORE MODE, and needed to restore the iPad before it could connect to iTunes. I clicked "restore" (making peace with losing all my stuff), only to have the restore process fail three times in a row. The most recent time it went back to saying it couldn't connect to Apple servers, but the other two times it said it "couldn't find an iPad" or something

I was initially planning on calling up APPLECARE when I get home and have them try to save me, but I just don't have the energy tonight. My apartment move is now in it's final stages, and I'm beat. I need to eat food or else there could be disastrous consequences, and so that's what I am going to set my mind to when I get off work

Instead my mom will pick me up at 8 45 AM tomorrow to spend hours on the phone trying to save my iPad. I am worried that it won't be fixable, and will require me to get to the APPLE STORE in Albany NY and swap out my iPad... which would be terrible, since my iPad was specially engraved in honor of Enyalios, a minor deity of the ancient world. If I get a replacement iPad, it won't be engraved, and the gods may not look kindly on being slighted

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah Robinson 

Uh, aren't the biggest features iMessage (AKA what's been on Blackberries forever) and the notifications window that's been on Android devices for three years?

 

I guess there's "Newsstand" which I would've loved when the magazine industry wasn't in such dire straits. Other than that.....looks like a greatest hits from their competition for the past three years.

Exactly, they're taking the best stuff from the competition, leaving the public with zero reasons not to buy an iPad. It's genius.  And it's not just about the notification center, there is much more to iOS 5 than that. It takes a mobile operating system that was already years ahead of anything else, and moves it further into the future

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoonBaseNick 

Kate, the Apple servers are getting slammed with everyone trying to update. This could be the cause of your issues. Give it some time.. you should be fine.  Others are having this issue as well, so you're not the only one.

I feel like a giant stone lifted off my chest when I read that. I hope that is the case. I am terrified of losing all my stuff

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoonBaseNick 

Check out this forum Kate.

 

http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=154

 

People talk in great detail with the same issues are you are having.

 

The best thing to do is to backup EVERYTHING before you install iOS 5.  just in case.

Well my iPad told me it was "backing up" before it moved onto the "extracting software" step (where everything went wrong). Hopefully that is what you're talking about! I will read that thread, thank you, Nick

EDIT: Everyone seems to have slightly different problems from me, and I don't know what to do. That forum is too confusing for me. I will just hopefully be able to get APPLECARE to help me tomorrow.... :(

Yes! I am up! iOS 5 is live on my iPad! Currently typing this in portrait mode using the split keyboard! The only thing that went wrong was that after restoring my APPS, it somehow deleted them (and my intricate system of folders), and so now I need to  redownload and reorganize 'em all

I am officially ready to vote in the poll. Pinch to close out, Chewers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

Does it have Flash now? ;p

 

And sorry Kate but the scahdenfreude I felt when I read of your issues (after you said Bill Gates wasn't very good at computers) waHs immense.

 

But I'm not THAT much of a twat, so I'm pleased you got it sorted in the end :)

 

Personally I get one day with iOS5 before I have to hand my iPhone back in when I finish my job tomorrow

 

Onto Android and the Galaxy S2 for the next one.

Andy, no worries.  I was a bit annoyed with the errors, but it sorted itself out without me having to do any trouble shooting, and given the circumstances (unprecedented demand for the new iOS), it was understandable

I can appreciate the humor of the situation too, at least now that it's all cleared up and I am switch swiping and pinch closing my way around like nobody's business

As for flash? iOS has it covered. Apple allowed remote code transforming and cloud computing APPS into the APP STORE. I now use a 5$ APP called iSwifter for all my flash needs, and it  works with literally every flash site I find without ruining my battery or endangering my iPad. It's a thing of beauty 

It is with a heavy heart I must report I find myself despondent in the wake of the elimination of the iPod APP ICON from my iPad's HOME SCREEN, and I assume from iPhones running iOS 5 as well. Apple's ICONS are uniformly gorgeous, but I've always had a soft spot for the classy orange iPod APP ICON, with it's faint diagonal color bars in the background and the iconic iPod outline in white:

The iPod APP ICON dates back to 2007 and Steve Jobs' unveiling of the iPhone. He made history that day, and if you'll recall, initially the iPhone rumors were for a far lesser device,  one crippled with a CLICKWHEEL. Jobs broke the news of just what sort of device APPLE had created by first telling the audience He was there to introduce three new products: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a phone, and a break through Internet communicator. Like a mantra, Mr Jobs began to chant "an iPod! A phone! An Internet communicator!" before at last asking "do you get it??"

To discard that history, for the comparatively bland MUSIC APP ICON from the iPod TOUCH, just strikes me as a mistake

​

It's not an earth shattering miscalculation, but it stings all the same

EDIT Not to mention that iPod is a better description of what the APP does and the content found inside than simply "music". Most of the content in my new "MUSIC" APP is actually audiobooks, podcasts and video podcasts

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoonBaseNick 

I don't mind it saying music.

 

I'm glad you got it working Kate.

 

A $5 app to view flash? fuck.

1) It is not just the label, MBN, the entire ICON no longer makes clear that your iOS has an entire iPod built right in. In case you've never used an iPod TOUCH, this is the icon we are talking about:

An iPod having an iPod APP icon would be odd, so they called it MUSIC. However, I feel like an iPad or iPhone *should* make clear you have an entire iPod in an APP. Plus as previously stated:

A) the storied  history of the iPod ICON

B) the superior aesthetics of the iPod ICON

2) Me too! You were a big help, you gave me hope to give it one more shot, and that's when it worked

3) less than the price of a sammich to solve the FLASH thing, the one thing about iOS people winge about more than any other? Sounds good to me. You can even FLASH game with it. It's a great APP. Now it feels like there is basically nothing my iPad can't tackle

EDIT: and going by reviews I've read, iSwifter does FLASH better than android, since it's not draining your battery and computes it remotely. It also works better and is less glitchy since a remote desktop runs the actual flash, and then just streams the screen image to you. In my own experience, it's a brilliant solution

Eh, I'm not an iPhone user so I don't have to worry about all those different alert sounds, but I for one very much resent that when using the volume toggle it now pops up with a label like "SOUND EFFECTS" or "RINGER", when a plain volume icon is really all that's needed. I don't understand what it means by the different labels so it just ends up confusing and angering me. I get the feeling that was a concession to the "it's not enough like other phones!" whiners, when APPLE should have stuck to their guns and kept things simple

With that said,

iOS 5 is pretty much everything I hoped it could be. The ease of use and intuitive nature of iPad navigation has increased a hundred fold. No longer do I have to adjust how I'm holding the device simply to reach the HOME BUTTON and or switch the APPS. The FIVE FINGER PINCH I mastered as soon as I updated (I think I'd spent so much time thinking about that one I'd already internalized the gesture), and others I have now perfected as well*

It is so much fun swiping and pinching my way around the desktop and the web. I feel so cool pulling off the gestures with ease and almost no thought, and features like TABBED BROWSING work even better than I could have imagined too

iOS 5, it's nothing less than a revolution

*the APP SWITCH SWIPE I still am fussy with because my mind tells me I should be swiping left to get to my previous APP, as if my timeline of APPS were a sentence, and I wanted to look back towards the start of the sentence

That seems like a pretty basic rule of hand eye coordination, so I am surprised APPLE seems to have reversed it for the SWIPE. I'll get used to swiping right, but it's not quite as intuitive as the other gestures