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iOS 5 Update Available

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."

61 of 473 comments (clear)

  1. umm... by Mockylock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "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.

    --
    "Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
    1. Re:umm... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Doesn't the hate and bashing ever get tiring?

    2. Re:umm... by mlts · · Score: 2

      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 functionality. Not as in depth as Android, but at least it is there for stuff at a glance.

      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. Same with downloading movies.

      The ability to have pictures uploaded to the cloud immediately is useful. I'm sure there are Android apps which give this, but don't know any offhand.

      The one thing I wish iCloud could offer -- ability to save and archive off app data, is missing. Say I want to uninstall a game but keep the saved game, I have to resort to jailbreaking, and then using PkgBackup or AppBackup to pull the data to a safe place. With Android, any backup utility (I prefer Titanium Backup, but I'm sure others are able to do it) will allow you to save off the latest Angry Birds scores and uninstall the app if you need the space.

      iOS 5's main feature is iCloud. Time will tell how useful it is. I do hope for a tethered JB, so I can have it do iCloud backups without needing a Wi-Fi connection though.

    3. Re:umm... by Thantik · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    4. Re:umm... by rthille · · Score: 4, Funny

      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...

      --
      Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
    5. Re:umm... by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 2

      "Official Android player for Music Beta by Google."
      "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.

      --
      If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
  2. Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by johnthorensen · · Score: 2, Funny

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

    1. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You need iOS 5 for this lol

    2. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by jrmcferren · · Score: 2

      Yes there is, the files are fucking huge!

      --
      sudo mod me up
    3. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by ArrowBay · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      Domains, shared and dedicated hosting, SSL certs, and more: ArrowBay.net
    4. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because iOS 4 doesn't have OTA updates. Don't you Slashdot people know how to read?

    5. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by grub · · Score: 2

      iOS 5 features delta updates. You don't download the whole OS anymore.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    6. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by Wovel · · Score: 2

      Why did you enjoy that. There is nothing about it that is funny or unclear...

    7. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by fishnuts · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When Android became decent: When more than 5 major players in the mobile communications market realized they have a strong, extensible, customizable platform to build a phone on (Samsung, Motorola, LJ, HTC, Sony-Ericsson, etc)
      When Android became stable: From personal experience, I've only had to hard-reset my phone twice in the last year. The OS has a few minor inconsistencies, but they're specific to my model and Sprint-customized release of the OS, thus caused by something other than just "being Android"

      When Android became something people desire on their phones: Years ago when people realized they could buy a very capable smart phone with features Apple doesn't offer, and not be locked into one carrier or one manufacturer.

      Crappy screens: You must have only experienced a small screen on an old phone. At least half the Android phones sold now have resolution and screen size equivalent or better than iPhone's, and some even offer 3D (Which I've played with, and is quite cool)

      Netflix must have taken "years" because, like many other vendors, Netflix may have had an exclusivity agreement with Apple for a while, or they're just a slow adopter of technology that's outside of their primary distribution path (Personal computers). I don't remember having any problem using Netflix from within my web browser, anyway, so it's not like the system was completely unreachable from Android users.

      5% of the games available for iOS? This is quite subjective. iOS may have 20 times as many games on the iTunes store, but there are still only 50 or so games that dominate both markets, the other 10,000 games get buried in the noise and never take off, so your point is moot.

      Most Androids have talk times of 2 hours? [Citation Needed] I've experienced talk time over 3.5 hours on my Samsung, because I was close to a cell tower and had GPS/Bluetooth/WiFi disabled. Conversely, I've known people who've complained that their iPhones had short call times, due to either old batteries that they've been unable to replace, or due to being far from the cell tower. "Most Androids" is subjective and depends on the experiences you've exposed yourself to.

      The back button on the Android has completely random behaviour because you must have been using an app that randomly changed its function. In my experience, and the experience of most Android users, the back button does what it needs to do. At worst, it serves exactly three functions: 1) Previous screen within an app, 2) previous page in the web browser, or 3) previous page in a settings dialog. If that's too many functions for you to handle in one button, I'm sorry.

      Any changes in behavior caused by the vendor is something you should bring up with the vendor. I happen to enjoy having the choice of what vendor to buy from or what OS version to use. Last I heard, if something in iOS didn't do what you liked or what you expected, you have absolutely no choice to change it or choose another OS vendor. Sorry that you're so bitter about this.

    8. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by ArcherB · · Score: 2

      When Android actually becomes decent and stable, perhaps we will say the same thing about it?

      It is excellent and stable.

      Perhaps when Android becomes somethign people desire to have on their phones, we will same the same thing about it.

      Seeing as it is outselling IOS, I would say that it is something people want on their phones. Certainly more want Android than IOS.

      Why do the Android phones all have such crappy screens?

      What do you mean? My Evo3D has an awesome screen. Not only is bigger than any iPhone/iTouch screen you can buy, but it also does glasses free 3D.

      Why did it take years to get Netflix on Android after it was on iPhone?

      Ask Netflix. Why can't I get FREE navigation, like GoogleMaps on an iPhone? Why must I pay for something that Google will give me for free, if Apple would allow me to have it.
      Why must I have Apple's permission to run an application?

      Why does Android only have about 5% of the games available that iOS does?

      I can play Angry Birds, Need for Speed and tons and tons of other games. Oh, and Spiderman... in 3d!

      Why do most Android phones have a talk time of 2 hours?

      Because dual core 1.5 Ghz processors take some power. However, my Evo3D outlasts my buddies iPhone4. Or are you talking about the android phones released 2 years ago?

      Why does the back button on Android have a completely random behavior?

      I could say the same thing about Apples back button... except it doesn't have one. Are Apple users too stupid to use more than one button? Apple seems to think so. We saw the same behavior with mice for years on Macs.

      Why does that behavior change depending n who you buy your damn phone from?

      It's called options. I have them. I am smart enough to compare and find the one with the features that most meet my needs. You know, like the ability to play Flash.

      Any other questions I can answer for you?

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    9. Re:Is there a technical reason for no OTA updates? by Relayman · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
  3. Some of these updates are stupid.. by iONiUM · · Score: 2

    While reading the iOS5 features page (http://www.apple.com/ios/features.html), 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..

  4. Re:Neat. by Hope+Thelps · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cue antidisestablishmenterianist Apple apologists in 3...2...

    I believe they prefer to be called iPologists.

    --
    To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
  5. Re:iDevice by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Funny

    Day terk hiz werb!

  6. This is advertising by chrism238 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Slashdot should demand 30% from Apple for these advertorials.

    1. Re:This is advertising by Now15 · · Score: 2

      30% of... ten million theoretical dollars!

      --

      Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
  7. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by Mike+Buddha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But Time Machine just rolls it all up to work perfectly with no learning curve.

    ...except when it doesn't work, ditches your backup volume, and requires a complete new backup. Please stop pretending that Apple technology is more than it is.

    --
    by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
  8. Re:Mandatory by Duradin · · Score: 2

    Someone needs to lay off of the haterade.

  9. Re:iDevice by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2, Funny

    Der turkin iz weeeeerbs! >_<

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  10. is OTA really a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:is OTA really a good thing by harperska · · Score: 2

      Because OTA updates in the Android world have completely killed off rooting, right?

  11. That didn't take too long to fail by _xeno_ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
    1. Re:That didn't take too long to fail by quietwalker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:That didn't take too long to fail by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

    3. Re:That didn't take too long to fail by _xeno_ · · Score: 4, Informative

      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!)

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
    4. Re:That didn't take too long to fail by maccodemonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

      "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.

    5. Re:That didn't take too long to fail by Wovel · · Score: 2

      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.

  12. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by Quila · · Score: 2

    I've never had a problem in years of using Time Machine.

    Apple took some basic technologies: inodes in the file system, the Spotlight search and indexing system (to keep track of what's been updated), and put a brain-dead easy to user interface on it. Now you can browse through your backups as if you were browing through your file system. Even better, it enables one-click restore of everything (including user accounts and applications) when reinstalling the OS.

    Does it break occasionally? I guess it might. Nothing in computers is 100% perfect. But it was revolutionary as far as getting users to do backups without even having to understand a thing about backups.

  13. Re:I did mine a year and a half back. by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't see iOS becoming too much closer to Android for one big reason: Google offers adb install for free, while Apple charges $99 per year for the privilege.

  14. Re:I did mine a year and a half back. by BitZtream · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Really, in a year my iPhone will be all laggy, slow and unintuitive as an Android phone? Guess I'll have to switch to something better by then.

    You can talk like Android is bad ass, but anyone who's used both knows your just being a fanboy. Its one thing to prefer one over the other, but when you go off and do things like this everyone knows your nothing more than a mouthy fanboy and you get blown off by everyone except other rabid fanboys.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  15. Re:iDevice by elguap0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, Siri's speech-to-text is horrible!!

  16. Re:hardware requirements by harperska · · Score: 3, Insightful

    iOS 4 runs so craptastically on my 3G that it probably shouldn't have been available for that phone in the first place. There was absolutely no surprise whatsoever that it is only available on the 3GS and better.

  17. Re:Neat. by atrain728 · · Score: 2

    What kind of technology website keeps people up-to-date on technology!? Inconceivable!

  18. Wrong Comparisons by Anubis350 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What, you think there won't be an article when Android ICS comes out? That's the equivalent....

    --
    "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
  19. Important tip to preserve email passwords by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

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

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  20. Re:Titanium Backup requires root. by scot4875 · · Score: 2

    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?

    Agreed, it should be a standard feature out-of-the-box on every smartphone sold. However, if you sync your phone with your Google account, it really does do a pretty respectable job of backing most everything up.

    And fortunately, that's not the only reason I choose Android over iOS, so I don't have to live with some sort of cognitive dissonance label. There are pros and cons to both environments, and I feel that Android is a better overall solution and less harmful to customers' rights in the long run.

    --Jeremy

    --
    Jesus was a liberal
  21. Update process by Superken7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Update process by tgd · · Score: 2

      You screwed up on step 1:

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

    2. Re:Update process by Cimexus · · Score: 2

      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 wasn't properly synced with the device, which gets you into a world of hurt with iTunes even if you AREN'T trying to do an iOS update at the same time. :(

      iTunes works very well ... but ONLY if you stick to Apple's "1 device paired and synced to 1 computer" paradigm. Soon as you start dealing with multiple machines/iTunes libraries or manual file management it gets messy very quickly. Which I agree is a massive shortcoming of the whole iOS ecosystem, but it's not worth fighting it IMO ... just play along with Apple's game and everything works flawlessly. (Or, buy an Android if you hate the concept of single-machine syncing and prefer to manually manage files, which is a perfectly legitimate and understandable choice).

  22. At least recent buyers are getting updates by Quila · · Score: 2

    I have an Android phone that was an official software upgrade orphan less than six months after it was introduced. IOS 5 supports hardware a couple years old.

  23. No, it doesn't get tiring by Oh+Gawwd+Peak+Oil · · Score: 2

    No! I hate teh Apple and by arrogantly pouring scorn on teh Apple and its products, I try to convince myself and others that I am superior. This helps to suppress my deep feelings of inadequacy.

    So the hate and bashing is necessary! It never gets tiring.

  24. Troll? Re:That didn't take too long to fail by Moridineas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

    1. Re:Troll? Re:That didn't take too long to fail by _xeno_ · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
    2. Re:Troll? Re:That didn't take too long to fail by jittles · · Score: 2

      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 3G not respond to the double button press. I didn't have to wait for the battery to drain, but it did take 5-10 minutes for the watchdog to kick in.

    3. Re:Troll? Re:That didn't take too long to fail by Kalriath · · Score: 2

      The last time I tried deleting iTunes, OS X (Lion) told me it was a system component and I wasn't allowed to. Off to Terminal to "sudo rm -rf /Applications/iTunes.app/" I went.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    4. Re:Troll? Re:That didn't take too long to fail by jittles · · Score: 2

      I wasn't annoyed with your post. I just wanted to voice my opinion that he wasn't trying to troll. And I caught his correction about the iOS download being the 700MB. I just assumed that he was counting the entire update because he didn't pay attention (and we all know what happens when you assume).

      As for the DFU mode problem, that was with a buggy iOS release. I want to say it was 3.0.1 or something along those lines. That update also happened to turn my iPhone into an egg cooker. For some reason one of the radios (I think 3G) would get stuck on and the phone would become physically hot to the touch through a bulky Agent 18 case. It wasn't so hot that I would drop it, but it was uncomfortable. When that would happen it would occasionally cause hangs. The next release fixed that particular problem.

  25. Re:And ease of use has tanked since Steve died... by edremy · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And to add insult to injury, the update failed. "The iPad XXX could not be restored. An internal error occured."

    Thanks Apple. It just works- until it doesn't, and then you're fucked because there's no obvious way to fix anything since it's all locked away in the shiny box.

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  26. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    It might have a shiny button on top, but underneath it all are still ASCII text files, steeped in the panicked cold sweat of a million UNIX hackers looking for a quick fix.

    Which is the power and the failing of things like Time Machine. When it fails for a computer illiterate person, it can fail hard (just look at the Apple support forums). Often the fix is pretty simple, edit a preference file, rebuild an index. Of course, if my mom understood 'edit a preference file' she wouldn't need Time Machine, she could just use rsync.

    What I'm annoyed with is that Apple really hasn't gone the extra distance to make the thing *really* bullet proof. The system should be able to restore itself to some useful state without dropping into terminal or resetting the drive.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  27. Re:UID 1000000, of course by Uberbah · · Score: 2

    Actually, the site was pretty much the same 10 years ago.

  28. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    I've never had a problem in years of using Time Machine.

    I have. Three times it failed and trashed all the backups. Twice on a remote disk, and once on a non-apple USB drive.

    My wife uses an Apple branded USB drive, and has never had a problem with Time Machine.

  29. Re:Neat. by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Informative

    "free with contract" is what, $2400 for a phone?

  30. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by jo_ham · · Score: 2

    Apple don't make a branded USB drive.

    I think you were attempting to make a sly point that it only works with Apple stuff, but the only external hard drives Apple sells are the Time Capsules, which are not USB hard drives (and by all accounts, are *not* the devices to use if you want reliable backups due to overheating issues since they are passively cooled).

    FWIW I have about 10 or so Macs under my care (my own, and family and friends' machines) with an assortment of Time Machine solutions: my own via FireWire, and then assorted USB drives and network volumes, some on an Airport Extreme, some on non-Apple SANs, and have never had a problem.

    I've had to fully restore from backup on two separate occasions (on two different machines). Once for a drive failure in my 2006 iMac. I dropped a new HD in there and installed OS X and Time Machine picked ip up right away and had me back to pre-crash desktop with two or three clicks, and once due to a drive upgrade in a Macbook Pro, this time over USB (using a WD branded drive).

    Maybe you just had bad luck?

    Disclaimer: like any computer system, it is not perfect and will be subject to issues from time to time. On the whole it has been extremely good in my experience, but YMMV. Void where prohibited.

  31. Re:Neat. by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

    3GS is current generation. They are selling them new, direct from Apple today.

  32. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

    But as usual, the first to make the whole concept work together so well even the average brain-dead consumer has no problem using it to its potential.

    Ironically, one major feature - the overhaul of notifications, in form of the new slide-down-from-status-bar drawer - seems to be taken essentially verbatim from Android, with no obvious changes for better or worse.

  33. Re:As usual, not the first for the basics by smash · · Score: 2

    I had trouble with time machine. It ended up being a faulty drive that i was backing up to (i.e., time machine would crap out when my backups reached 550gb of a 750gb drive).

    But that isn't really time machine's fault.

    --
    I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
  34. Re:Update process = Troll by adolf · · Score: 2

    8. Did I mention that it sounds like you had two different iTunes libraries at this time? Oh, well let me re-iterate; YOU HAD TWO DIFFERENT ITUNES LIBRARIES ON TWO DIFFERENT COMPUTERS!!!!

    Is this an appropriate time to point out that I can easily make an independent back up my entire Android device on any computer able to read a micro SD card, in just a few minutes? Without worrying about having "TWO DIFFERENT ITUNES LIBRARIES ON TWO DIFFERENT COMPUTERS!!!!"

    Or is this a more appropriate time to point out that I can easily upgrade my Android device without using a separate computer at all? Or that I can just sync the thing with Dropbox no matter I'm at?

    All of this iTunes nonsense seems to be very silly, when the device in question has multiple GHz-ish cores, hundreds of megabytes of RAM, tens of gigabytes of storage, and multiple Internet connections. Why can't it just handle the upgrade by itself, like every other computer I've ever owned?

    Even my router does better than that, with a mere fraction of the speed and capacity of a modern iDevice. (And before anyone tries to form an argument to justify this behavior, please realize that at their heart, they're all just little *nix boxes, and are capable of all the standard *nix tricks. And all of them are faster/better than my first Linux box was (which also didn't need any outside help to get things done)).