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.
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]".
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.
For the impatient: after downloading and backing up at least once -- you can put your device in DFU mode to try again (and again) without having to repeat the backup process.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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...
This makes me wonder how the majority of the people are even going to use it if it isn't immediately obvious how to activate it. I used this gigaom article to setup it up on my 3gs: http://gigaom.com/apple/ios-5-imessage/
It works pretty well and I can't wait for the mac version.
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.
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.)
Why not? All it would take is for Apple to standardize the spec and all of a sudden your BlackBerry/Android using friends are on board. My SMS usage is going to plummet with just iPhones on board, but add in the others and I'm down to reminders that are sent programmatically.
I agree with jbondeson and in addition to that, Apple probably won't want to standardize and share this, it's a new incentive they've created to buy an iOS device.
Because it would be better for every handset maker to not be held by the nuts by carriers. In most markets Android has more market share, Apple would be wise to be able and set the standard for future messaging.
The iPhone has 4-5% market share of worldwide mobile phones. Even if you could get every smart phone manufacturer to convert that still would only get you to a ~20% market share.
The fact that the iPhone has a 5% market share does not mean it represents 5% of all SMS messages sent. Smartphone users text message more frequently than your grandmother with an LG handset.
I would argue that the frequency of SMS usage has very little to do with the type of phone you have, and much more to do with the demographic. There are plenty of iPhone users (such as my mother) who don't use SMS at all, and plenty of 14 year olds without smart phones (like my cousin) who text dozens of times a day.
Either way, I've never seen a breakdown of SMS usage by either category.
I had peers in junior high/high school (before I even had a cell phone) who sent hundreds a day. One girl bragged about reaching something like 30,000 one month.
It doesn't have to go anywhere soon in order to die a slow, painful death. Moreover, it's a question of one's social circles. In my case, it hardly matters what the worldwide share looks like since nearly everyone I currently text has an iPhone.
It might not kill SMS itself, but it has a decent chance of killing the need for an SMS plan. If most of your text messages are free anyway, then buying a text plan starts to become a poor idea.
I haven't had a text plan on AT&T for many months, mainly because I use Beluga to send texts to my friends. iMessage is similar but much more seamless. I have saved hundreds of dollars by paying for the few text messages I still send/receive as I go.
The only problem is that most people will stick to the unlimited SMS plan. If they have a small data plan (500 MB for example), they'd be using their limited data.
I feel I should explain myself. I understand iMessage is much more than SMS and I love it so far. What I am saying is that is has been difficult to convince friends to use it. They still require a SMS plan since not everybody has an iPhone. Using iMessage will cut into their limited data, while using their SMS plan will be unlimited. Once more people have iPhones, we can ditch the SMS plan and use the "cheaper" data.
I'm curious what the typical texting plan and actual usage numbers are. I have the minimum (400, I think) and I never go over it, but I'm also past the whole social butterfly period in my life.
Well, I doubt that my SMS messages are routed through an external third party outside my country if I send a local SMS. I rather have my local government control who can access my information, then a US company.
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.