Now that we have our hands on the iPhone 4S we have been busy getting to grips with iOS 5, yesterday we revealed that iOS 5.0.1 had been released by Apple, therefore we thought we would try out the operating system’s new feature which allows you to update your software without using iTunes.
Sadly our iPhone didn’t receive any notifications telling us that a new update was available, however we went into Settings, General, Software Update and saw that an update was available. The update is 55MB in size and is the beta version of iOS 5.0.1, as we explained yesterday it consists of many bug fixes and improvements.
To install the update you need to be connected to a WiFi hotspot, which is a shame considering how fast some cellphone networks are these days, however it does at least ensure that you don’t accidentally install the update over a connection which you will get charged a lot for. Below we have embedded three images which show the first three steps of the update procedure – its really straight forward.
Simply tap “Download and Install”, agree to the terms and conditions, ensure that you have plenty of charge (or plug in a charger) and tap “OK” and then wait for the download to complete (it took me less than 3 minutes). Once all the files have been downloaded you will receive a notification which tells you a restart is required to finish the update – agree to this and your iDevice will reboot and carry out the final steps of the installation, this took me less than 5 minutes.
Once your iDevice is back on you will not notice anything different initially, but we are told that we should expect much better battery life in the long run. You can check to see if the update installed correctly by going into Settings, General, About or Settings, General, Software Update – here you should clearly see that your device is running iOS 5.0.1 (see images at the bottom of this post).
It is nice to see that Apple’s new update procedure has been implemented in such a simple and effective manner, let’s face it using iTunes on your PC / Mac to update a portable device seems a bit archaic for such an innovative company – we just think that consumers should be able to choose to install the update via their carriers mobile data network – do you?
Did you experiencing any problems installing iOS 5.0.1 over-the-air?
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