Getting Ready For iOS 5

iOS 5 is almost upon us.  I've heard rumors that it is dropping today at 1:00 p.m. EST.  I'll be checking that out.

UPDATE 1: iOS 5 was indeed available at the time predicted above.  There's a HUGE rush right now.  If you're willing to wait hours for this, go ahead.  If not, you can probably wait until you come home from work.


UPDATE 2:  If you're getting an "Error 3200" or something similar all that means is that Apple's servers are getting pummeled.  I did manage to get my iPhone updated to iOS 5 but not without a lot of headache.  I actually disabled my firewall and virus protection.  I also unplugged all of my USB devices except for my mouse, keyboard and iPhone.  I'm not sure if that helped it or I was just lucky to get in.  I never had to do that before.  Even on an iOS launch day. Later tonight I'll update the iPad.

Here's a list of what you need to do:
Update iTunes to 10.5.  If you already have iTunes, you can do a software check.  In the Windows version, it's:  Help > Check For Updates.  Or you can download it at this page.

• Transfer Purchases and Backup.
 You need to save a copy of what you have on your iPhone, iPad and/or iPod Touch so you can put it back on when you're finished updating it with iOS 5.  To do that, go to the icon of your device in iTunes.  Right-click it and there will be a drop down menu.  Hit "Transfer Purchases."  When that is done, right-click the icon again and hit "Backup."  To check if your device has been backed up, in the Windows version go to:  Edit > Preferences > Devices.  There will be a list of your backups and when they were backed up.
• Restore As New; Then Restore With Backup.  Sometimes you can let iTunes do everything automatically and it all works out for you.  Sometimes it doesn't work that smoothly.  If iTunes allows you, try to restore your device as a new device with iOS 5.  Once that's done, restore the device again this time with your backup.  Sometimes doing it in two steps has less problems than doing it in one step.  Then again, iTunes may not let you do that.  Just keep this in mind if you run into problems.

Here's a video of a more detailed way to backup everything on your iDevice from Nonstop Honolulu:








The iCloud website is also live for everyone.  Right now, the only thing I can do is Find My iPhone or iPad since I already have that enabled.  You won't be able to enable the rest of iCloud until you have iOS 5 on one of your devices.

For a rundown of what iOS 5 will do, you can check out my preview article here.  As I use iOS 5, I'll be writing down my thoughts about each new feature on this blog.

While you wait for iOS 5, here's a video of the iOS 5 features to whet your appetite: