Well, it's been two weeks since Apple released its new iOS5. Hopefully the servers have had time to settle down as millions of users have downloaded this update.
Now let's take a look at some of the features of iOS5. I'd like to start with my most anticipated feature, iCloud. iCloud was billed as a new service allowig you to synchronize your contacts, calendars e-mail and more between multiple iOS5 devices such as your iPad, iPhone, iPod and Mac or PC.
When Apple announced iCloud it was implied that you would be able to easily sync contacts, calendar events and documents between devices simply by saving changes. Well it doesn't appear to work quite that way. I've had little success in synchronizing my contacts between my iPad and my MacBook. I've had no success syncing my contacts, calendars, etc. with any of my PCs. It appears that you have to connect your iPad or other device to your computer in order to turn on sharing of contacts, calendars, etc.
Documents are an entirely different matter. Simply saving a document will not synchroniz it across devices. You have two actually save the document to a folder on the iCloud server. Then on the other device you need to open the document from that folder. Not exactly what I was expecting. The presentation announcing iCloud (see video) made it seem like you could save a document on your computer and then simply grab your iPad, take the presentation to the clients office, and open it with no extra steps.
Overall, though, I really like the new operating system. It has many new features that are both fun and useful. We"ll take a look at some of those in the coming days. In the meantime please feel free to add your thoughts about iCloud and let's have a lively discussion.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Mac's Latest Mobile OS
Last week Apple released its latest mobile operating system, iOS5, which is designed to power iPads, and newer iPhones and iPods. This new OS claims to have more than 200 enhancements. I plan to dig deeply into this claim and report my findings here. I'd love to get your input as well.
Le's take a look at the upgrade process. This is the last upgrade that is supposed to require a connection to a computer. I connected my iPad 1 to my Mac and kicked off the upgrade. I needed to upgrade my iTunes to the latest version, which added some time to what became a rather lengthy process.
Once I had upgraded iTunes, the system insisted on backing up my current iPad configuration, even though I had done so just a couple of hours earlier. The backup is horribly slow (a fact noted many times in Apple's support forums). I admit, my 64GB iPad is more than 2/3 full of books, music, magazines and apps, but still...
After more than four hours the backup finished and the iOS5 install began. It took about an hour for the software itself to download. Then the installer reformatted my device and installed a bare-bones version of the operating system.
Once the operating system was installed, it went on to restore my original configuration - settings, apps, etc. Again, this was a time-intensive process, but my only interaction was to keep checking to see if this process had completed. Finally, after another couple of hours the process was finished. Anxious to check out all the new features I picked up my and found -
Virtually all my apps had been restored to my desktop, not the original folders. I'm sporting a couple hundred apps, so it was a real PITA to have to go through eight or nine screens of icons and drag them back to their proper folders.
Total time for the upgrade: about seven hours (not counting the shuffling of the icons). Was it worth it? Cautiously yes. The Apple servers have been really slow (inundated no doubt by millions of people upgrading). Some of the cool new features like online backup iCloud and Newsstand are undoubtedly suffering due to the crazy amount of traffic. Hopefully things will ease up as the majority of people looking to upgrade complete the process.
Check back over the next few weeks to get some updates on the hottest features and find out what others are saying. Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences as well.
Le's take a look at the upgrade process. This is the last upgrade that is supposed to require a connection to a computer. I connected my iPad 1 to my Mac and kicked off the upgrade. I needed to upgrade my iTunes to the latest version, which added some time to what became a rather lengthy process.
Once I had upgraded iTunes, the system insisted on backing up my current iPad configuration, even though I had done so just a couple of hours earlier. The backup is horribly slow (a fact noted many times in Apple's support forums). I admit, my 64GB iPad is more than 2/3 full of books, music, magazines and apps, but still...
After more than four hours the backup finished and the iOS5 install began. It took about an hour for the software itself to download. Then the installer reformatted my device and installed a bare-bones version of the operating system.
Once the operating system was installed, it went on to restore my original configuration - settings, apps, etc. Again, this was a time-intensive process, but my only interaction was to keep checking to see if this process had completed. Finally, after another couple of hours the process was finished. Anxious to check out all the new features I picked up my and found -
Virtually all my apps had been restored to my desktop, not the original folders. I'm sporting a couple hundred apps, so it was a real PITA to have to go through eight or nine screens of icons and drag them back to their proper folders.
Total time for the upgrade: about seven hours (not counting the shuffling of the icons). Was it worth it? Cautiously yes. The Apple servers have been really slow (inundated no doubt by millions of people upgrading). Some of the cool new features like online backup iCloud and Newsstand are undoubtedly suffering due to the crazy amount of traffic. Hopefully things will ease up as the majority of people looking to upgrade complete the process.
Check back over the next few weeks to get some updates on the hottest features and find out what others are saying. Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences as well.
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