Been a while since I’ve written something substantive, so after a few days with iOS5, I finally have something real to talk about.
iOS5 was released on Oct 12 and I immediately downloaded and upgraded the device. The first warning box that came up was a tool to back up the phone, which came with a dire warning; ‘upgrading will remove all content, apps and media from the device’. With some trepidation I clicked the continue button and began the hours long process of upgrading. About 90% of the download made it to my machine before apple’s servers got hammered by everyone else trying to upgrade. The last 10% took about 30 minutes to download, but that was no big deal. I knew it would be intensive and contentious to get the download. So the Mac chugged quietly away helping the iPhone get set up.
After about an hour and a half, the phone rebooted and rather to my surprise no apps or music were available. Guess my expectations were slightly off and I got a little annoyed. I was hoping that the device would be just as i left it with everything good to go.
Replacing the apps would take a couple of hours later on that night. It was relatively simple to select them from the iCloud back up that exists within the app store by clicking the cloud icon in each app. But it was frustrating as well, the iCloud list has no organization what so ever that I could discern.
It would have been a much easier process if there could be some way of organizing the apps. I penned a quick complaint/ feedback note to apple, suggesting that an interface like the Contacts app would be much handier. A simple alphabetical list with a one column alphabetical guide down the right-hand side would be a great step in the right direction. Another or additional option would be to add categorical listing, much like the app store itself. I am assuming that the category is a part of the XML list that makes up the back-up, but if it isn’t, it should be hard to add. Guess I could go find that listing and check it out.
All in all, it was annoying but easy and allowed me to be more selective about the apps I replaced, clearing out some of the old less or unused apps that were on the iPhone.
The loss of the music caused me the greatest grief. The iTunes sync has changed dramatically, from a very simple drag and drop of song, albums or artists to a more complex interface with a bunch of panels for genres, artists, albums, and types of purchases that encouraged me to check boxes for everything. However, when you combine all of these check boxes, it only partially moves albums, giving me a selection of the songs on it. I will need to spend more time to sort this out later.
I really preferred manual sync. Sure it had some issues, but it was very simple to manage for me. I would love to see this option make its way back into iTunes. Heres to hoping.
Once i finished though, I have to say I really like iOS5. It’s faster when loading apps, switching is quicker and the new notifications just rock. No more interrupts during a game causing level resets or any of those types of issues.
I did find that setting the ‘push’ notifications on email were a little hard on the battery, but then there are a lot
of emails flying thru my inboxes. Maybe I’ll turn that on during weekends and leave it off while in the office. That’ll help save battery life.
Haven’t played with the new camera settings yet. Taking a pic with the home screen locked is an advantage though I would love to be able specify what camera app to use. Camera+ is my favorite though Instagram is good too.
Other like snapbucket, picplz and color I will be less likely to use, though color’s pivot to become a Facebook photo app is nicely done.
We’ll see what becomes of it. I am lusting after the 64gb iPhone 4S. I have found the 16gb version a little too restricting since there are always new apps I want to play with.
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gear, on the job
by
Bastien
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Tags: apple, iOS, iPhone, iPhone4
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