The iPhone 5 News Blog

Apple is rumored to be adding bullets, links, colored fonts, and other word processor-inspired features to Notes, perhaps in a bid to make the iPhone and iPad even more business savvy.

The more we learn about the new bells and whistles that iOS 5.1 explorers are uncovering ahead of its official release — which is now rumored to take place sometime between March 7th and 9th — the more is seems apparent that 5.1 is much more than a nominal refresh of iOS 5. After already reporting on the battery life improvements, a new camera button on the lock screen, and expanded multi-language support for Siri, it now appears that Notes will be getting a serious upgrade as well.

According to Techno Buffalo, “the Notes app will soon gain the ability to include bulleted lists, links, underlined text and new font colors.”

While it’s easy to assume that this is little more than a novel upgrade of the Notes app in iOS 5, one could assume that Apple has the business user in mind with an improvement like this. With the addition of bullets, italics, bold, and other Word-like elements, presentation notes or ideas can be easily sketched on one of Apple’s mobile gadgets — particularly the iPad.

On February 16th, we suggested that the robust nature of iOS 5.1 could be significant enough to persuade Cupertino use it for both the iPad 3 and iPhone 5, opting to hold off on an iOS 6 release at this year’s WWDC in June. It would be the first time that Apple would fail to offer a new iOS iteration since iOS’s inception. but given all of the new features we’re hearing about, 2012 could be the year that Apple breaks with its iOS traditions.

By Michael Nace

In development since November 2011, iOS 5.1 is due for release, and developers have found clues indicating that it will be March 9th. Will Apple roll out the iPad 3 on date as well?

We wrote in another article earlier last week that Apple could utilize its upcoming iOS 5.1 on the iPhone 5 this year, rather than releasing an overhauled iOS 6. Considering that iOS 5 has been in development since November, it would seem that Cupertino has invested a great deal of resources in the updated iOS 5, looking to vastly improve battery life of the iPhone 4S and tweak the user interface as well.

Your Daily Mac are reporting that, thanks to clues uncovered in the iOS 5.1 beta internals, the date of March 9th has been divined: “The profiles that have been found by us are intended for operators in Japan, France, Greece, Finland, and Sweden. By updating the profile on the iPhone, it will make sure that the network connection will work correctly after Apple releases iOS 5.1. The iOS updates are normally rolled out at the same time worldwide, so everyone should expect iOS 5.1 to become available next month.”

To be sure, the inclusion of a specific date in the iOS 5.1′s code would appear to be a compelling piece of evidence about its eventual release. But Your Daily Mac also stipulates: “However, the question remains if March 9 is also actually going to be the release date. We expect that Apple could release iOS 5.1 simultaneously with the announcement of the next-generation iPad, which will likely take place early next month. But these are all rumors and it is hard to give a more precise indication about the iOS 5.1 release date.”

You will recall that, with the iPad 2 announcement, the official release came quickly after its announcement. In this way, it isn’t impossible to imagine that Apple will unveil iOS 5.1 and the iPad 3 sometime before March 9th — such as February 29th or March 7th, as have been rumored — with March 9th being the actual drop date for both the new mobile operating system and iPad 3. Logically speaking, it would be unlikely that the GM of iOS 5.1 would be released after March 9th, since there would be no discernible reason why the new iOS would be turned on before it was made fully available to the public. iOS 5.1, after all, has most definitely been tested and retested on the iPhone 4S, and is ostensibly ready for launch.

Thus, this clue about iOS 5.1 could also turn out to be our best clue for the iPad 3 release date as well.

By Michael Nace

Apple is apparently planning several feature upgrades for iOS 5.1, including a nifty transposition of the camera button on the iPhone’s lock screen, and a Japanese-speaking Siri.

We recently wrote about the prospect of iOS 5.1 and how further tweaking the battery drain from the software level may be its defining upgrade. However, it appears that Cupertino also intends to tweak some other software functions related to the camera and Siri.

According to Apple Insider, a Brazilian tech website has uncovered a change to the on-screen camera button for the iPhone: “The publication reported that the leaked software featured a fixed camera icon on the lock screen, whereas the current version of iOS 5 adds the camera button when users double tap on the home button. According to the report, sliding a finger up on the icon pulls up the camera screen.”

This little innovation was discovered in a pre-Golden Master version of iOS 5.1. It would seem that Apple continues to try to innovate the iPhone from the camera perspective, as smartphones continue to outpace autofocus digital cameras as the most popular means of taking snapshots. This new camera button upgrade gives iPhone users an even more fluid manner in which they can quickly and easily snap a photo.

The Apple Insider piece also highlighted a new upgrade for Siri, which will now apparently include the Japanese language as one of its multilingual options. This story joins a report from earlier in the month that suggested Siri would offer an expansion into Mandarin and Russian, in Apple’s pitch to accommodate eastern emerging markets for the iPhone whose languages to this point have remained unsupported by Siri.

iOS 5.1 Release Date To Coincide With iPad 3 Release

The tech media is also reporting that the GM version of iOS 5.1 is likely to get its official release at the same event where the iPad 3 will be announced. Given the fact that many feel the iPad 3 will feature Siri, Tim cook may seek to cross-promote iOS 5.1 with the new iPad in a bid to encourage Apple users to onboard both the new operating system and tablet.

The iPad 3 announcement date still remains a mystery, with many in the tech community believing that March 7th will be the date. March 29th has also been rumored.

By Michael Nace

Apple may be preparing to upgrade iOS 5 to 5.1 in a matter of weeks. Will this foreshadow a refreshed iOS 5.2 for the iPhone 5, and not a full iOS 6 overhaul? [UPDATES at the bottom of this article.]

Ever since the release of iOS 5 at last year’s WWDC, there has been a great deal of attention paid to Apple’s mobile operating system. Considering that the iPhone 4S turned out to be a mixed bag of refresh and overhaul as far has hardware is concerned, Apple wagered a lot of the 4S’s success on software upgrades in iOS 5. But for as much as iOS 5 ushered in a feature-rich platform for mobile Apple users, it has also been branded as at least partly to blame for the iPhone 4S’s battery life issues, with Cupertino developers issuing new versions in hopes that they can further optimize the software for energy economy.

It would appear that they are now preparing to release iOS 5.1, ostensibly as another fix for the energy use issues. According to News Sizzle, “Carriers of the iPhone in Europe and Japan are now indicating that the new OS may be released on March 9^th.”

News Sizzle is quick to point out that “Perhaps not coincidentally the iPad 3 release date is widely speculated to be or at least be revealed in the same timeframe,” assuming that the iOS 5.1 build could not only seek to fix battery issues on the iPhone 4S, but also give the new iPad 3 — which is expected to feature battery-sucking 4G LTE and a load of new display-related upgrades — a better start as far as energy consumption is concerned.

What remains to be seen, however, is if Apple will continue to upgrade iOS 5 heading into the iPhone 5 release, of if June will see the release of iOS 6.

Historically, Apple has released a fresh, new version of iOS, starting in 2007 with iOS 1. Thus, for Apple to opt for equipping the iPhone 5 with iOS 5.2 would break with a long-held tradition of deploying a new mobile operating system at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference. Add to this the rumors that the iPhone 5 could feature an approved Siri — dubbed “Assistant” — as well as NFC, and it would seem that a new iOS 6 might still be in order.

Regardless, an iOS 5.1 that improves battery life on the iPhone 4S would most definitely be a welcome addition at this juncture for many iPhone 4S users who remain frustrated with their smartphone’s energy limitations.

By Michael Nace

[UPDATED 2/18/12] — A recent report indicates that iOS 5.1 is set to get two new features. One is a new camera button located on the iPhone’s lock screen, while the other is a Japanese language Siri. you can read about it in our post here.

If you were here last week, you may recall that I was congratulating myself for delaying an upgrade to iOS 5 with regard to issues early adopters were reporting, much of that presumably due to server congestion in the initial demand spike.

I also don’t have OS X 10.7 Lion installed on my production Mac, and don’t intend to make that jump anytime soon, so the data synchronization aspect of iCloud would be unavailable to me, and DropBox and Box.net (50 MB free storage offer for iOS users!) are doing a good job in that department.

However, curiosity got the better of me, and with the dust having settled a bit, I decided to take the plunge. First up was to download and install iTunes 10.5 on the Mac. I discovered that there were quite a few other upgrades I hadn’t gotten around to installing, and I ended up checking off nine to run concurrently, which ate up over an hour for the download, installation, and a couple of reboots.

With that taken care of, I plugged in, opened iTunes 10.5., and was duly informed that a software update was available and some synchronization issues needed to be attended to.

The progress bar initially estimated about 50 minutes for the upgrade, but 50 minutes passed, then quite a few more minutes, and finally the download entirely terminated with the helpful message appearing that the server had timed out. At least I didn’t get the dreaded Error 3200. Back to square one. I initiated a second attempt to download the IOS 5 install. This time it actually did take about an hour and fortunately seemed to have completed successfully, but some warning dialogs then appeared, with the ultimate upshot being that I would have to do a Restore run.

I complied, but not without consequences; either the iOS 5 upgrade or the Restore process, or a synergy of both, nuked my entire collection of third-party apps. Just gone. I was not enchanted.

On the upside, iOS 5 seems to work just fine, although I haven’t noticed any dramatic increase in speed At least there doesn’t seem to be any serious problems other than the necessity of downloading, and in some instances reconfiguring settings, all those applications –– the basics of which kept me up until after 3 AM before I finally decided to pack it in. At least I have fresh installs of my apps.

iOS 5 certainly isn’t revolutionary, at least if one doesn’t have an iPhone 4S for access to Siri and is not running OS X Lion (on a Mac) for iCloud synchronization. I’ve kept iCloud turned off for now. However, it seems like a solid OS once you manage to get it downloaded, installed, and things reconfigured.

As I have so many times in the past, I’m thanking myself this morning for not being an early adopter of operating system upgrades.

Indeed, I’ve been really dragging my feet about upgrading to OS X 10.7 Lion on my Macs, being un enchanted with, among other things, the seemingly arbitrary termination of support for applications containing PowerPC code, and that the Apple USB modem I bought less than three years ago is no longer supported either. In this neck of the woods, while we do have broadband, service outages are still commonplace enough that modem support for dial-up backup is non-optional for serious Web workers. But that’s another movie.

Today, the topical focus of my upgrade procrastination tendencies is iOS 5, upgrading to which has reportedly been tying early adopters (or at least their iPhones, iPads and iPod touches) up in knots.

The Register’s Dan Goodin reports that iOS 5 update attempts were was almost immediately met with error messages for many users trying to download it from Apple’s servers. The errors reportedly carried messages indicating Apple servers couldn’t keep up with demand, and users were receiving warnings their devices couldn’t be restored. Other users reported receiving error codes of 5000. Some reported that their updates did eventually succeed, after up to 10 failed attempts. Goodin suggests that iDevice users who haven’t updated yet are probably better off waiting until Apple sorts out the glitches (and server traffic slacks off).

“Updating To iOS 5 has been a massive headache,” says BusinessInsider’s Dylan Love, who reports that serial attempts to update have been in vain. Love says that the download goes through, but an error message keeps popping up saying the update can’t be completed and that the iPhone/iPad can’t be restored, and that not only has no one in his office been able to complete the upgrade, but they’re hearing from friends across the country having similar trouble.

Advice: If your iDevice has been rendered non-functional by a failed update, “keep trying.”

Apple-watching blogger David Alison also notes that in order to update his iPhone 4, he was directed to first upgrade his Mac’s OS X Lion OS to version 10.7.2 and iTunes to the new version 10.5, which burned up an hour or so before he could commence upgrading the iPhone. And that’s when the real fun began. His first stab at iOS5 produced an error after a very long time, but fortunately didn’t destroy data or brick his phone. After three more attempts, however, he says his iPhone was reduced to a restore state and not being recognized by iTunes, with the little “plug me in to iTunes” graphic appearing the screen. Subsequent serial attempts to run the upgrade failed several times until after three hours the iPhone appeared to restore and started up again, than flipped into “restoring” mode, ultimately taking about a dozen retries, but all of his data did survive intact.

Later in the day, Alison upgraded his iPad, and that time things went better, although he says it did take about 1.5 hours to execute.

InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman also reports that for many the iOS 5 launch has become an update disaster, creating manifold problems, with reports flooding Apple support forums, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks about difficulties in updating iDevices, and even those users who have updated successfully reporting lost/deleted applications and, worse – bricked phones.

On a brighter note, the issues may be transient for those who chose to sit out the early rush to upgrade until the dust settles. Zeman notes that iPhone users faced a similar problem in 2008 when the iPhone 3G launched on the same day that iOS 2.0 became available to the iPhone. However, he also suggests that with the iPhone 4S slated to begin arriving on consumer doorsteps in volume tomorrow, Apple’s servers will need to be in perfect working order to handle masses of new devices and accounts being activated.

If you’re determined to take your chances and upgrade sooner rather than later, it might be prudent to first check out Macworld’s thoroughgoing how-to on preparing for and updating to iOS 5 by Serenity Caldwell.

A somewhat less prolix how-to guide by MacTrast to the iOS 5 upgrade can be found at this link.

Apple Products compatible with this software update include:
iPhone 4S
iPhone 4
iPhone 3GS
iPad 2
iPad
iPod touch (4th generation)
iPod touch (3rd generation)

For more information, visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1456

Personally, I think I’ll wait until at least the weekend to give it a shot, and perhaps longer. First I’ve gotta’ get around to downloading iTunes 10.5 (for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard).