Tag Archives: iOS 5

First Over-the-air iOS Update Seems to Have Gone Well

by on in iOS

iOS501Download

Yesterday’s iOS 5.0.1 update was the first iOS firmware update to be made available as an OTA (over the air) update. And it appears to have gone very well – at least from what I can gauge from my own results on three iOS devices, good results for all my colleagues at iSource.com, and reactions I’ve seen round the web so far.

I did the OTA update yesterday on the original iPad my wife and daughter share, my iPad 2, and my iPhone 4S. Each of them downloaded the update in 3-5 minutes and ran the install in 5-8 minutes.

OTA updates were seen to be working nicely in the later rounds of the iOS 5 betas, but it’s good to see the first one available to the general public go smoothly.

How was your iOS 5.0.1 update experience? Did you do the OTA update? If so, how did it go for you?

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iOS 5.0.1 Update Fixes iPad 2 Passcode Lock Bypass Security Issue

by on in iPad News

ipadPasscodeLock

As expected, the iOS 5.0.1 firmware update released today for iPad (and iOS devices) has fixed the recently exposed iPad 2 security issue, the one that allowed anyone with a smart cover to bypass the iPad 2’s passcode lock.

I’ve just tested this on my iPad 2, after installing iOS 5.0.1, and the passcode lock bypass no longer works. If you want to test for yourself, here are the steps that worked up until the 5.0.1 update:

  • Take a locked, passcode-protected iPad, and wake it up, but do not enter a passcode
  • Hold the power button until the “Swipe to turn off” button appears.
  • Close the Smart Cover (or use a magnet)
  • Open the Smart Cover
  • Hit “Cancel” at the bottom of the screen (to cancel the shutdown)

This would leave you wherever the iPad 2 was prior to being locked. Now this leaves you where you still need to enter your passcode.

Good to see that vulnerability eliminated fairly quickly.

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First Update for iOS 5 Will Bring Multitasking Gestures to the Original iPad

by on in iPad News

iPadMultitaskingGestures

Here’s some very good news for owners of an original iPad. The first update for iOS 5 – iOS 5.0.1 – will ad multitasking gestures for the original iPad.

These slick new gestures – which were added to the iPad 2 with the release of iOS 5 – allow you to use four or five fingers to: pinch inwards to return to the home screen from any app, swipe up to launch the multitasking bar, and swipe left or right between apps. They’re one of my favorite things about iOS 5 and they make it much easier and faster to do things on the iPad – especially in terms of rapid app switching.

There was never any good reason that I’m aware of to not have these gestures available on the original iPad – so it is very good to see that they’ll be added in the first iOS 5 update. Hopefully this update will be released quite soon, as it also address some battery life issues and a security and the iPad 2 passcode bypass security vulnerability.

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Would You Like An Option To Turn Off Tabbed Browsing on the iPad?

by on in iOS

iPadTabbedBrowsing

In iOS 5 the iPad’s Safari browser no longer shows a separate view with thumbnails for each page currently open, as it did in previous iOS versions. Instead Safari now uses tabbed browsing, which has been popular for some time on desktop browsers and even several alternative browsers for the iPad.

Judging by the comments on my first post about tabbed browsing in iOS 5, there are a number of you who hate this change in Safar, hate tabbed browsing.

I like tabbed browsing a lot. I‘m always running a crazy number of open tabs in Chrome on my MacBook Pro, and I generally have quite a few open on the iPad 2 as well.

So now I’m a little curious about how all of you feel about the change to tabbed browsing in Safari. Do you love it or hate it? Or not too fussed either way? Would you like to see an option to choose to turn tabbed browsing on or off? (I have no idea how viable or not that would be, but just for wish list sake here)

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