ios5

Anyone who carries his or her life on an iDevice will run to iOS 5, Apple's new mobile operating system (compatible with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2, and the third and fourth generation of the iPod Touch) that makes day-to-day tasks easier to complete on the go.

We're excited about it, too, so we dug our hands into iOS 5 and created dozens of tutorials to help you master the new apps (like iMessage and Reminders), customize the interface, control your privacy, and uncover some hidden features.

Bookmark this page for future reference, … Read more

Whether you preordered, stood in line, or slept on the doorstep of an Apple store overnight, there's a good chance you forgot about all your troubles when you unboxed your new, shiny iPhone 4S.

But before you start taking high-definition videos and commanding Siri, you need to activate your iPhone. This process associates your phone with your Apple account (or gives you a new one), and ties your phone to its carrier.

Upon powering-up, the activation process will begin, and you'll be asked to configure several important settings concerning your account, privacy, and features. Follow the slideshow to … Read more

CNET has told you all about what's new in Apple's iOS 5 operating system and in the iPhone 4S that launched today, but this here's a deep dive into the Notifications Center, one of the new features to hit iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

Pull down notifications The new notifications center is one of the biggest changes to iOS 5, and also among the best. Previously, if you missed or dismissed an alert, that's it, it was gone. Now you can place a finger at the information bar at the top of the screen and pull down to reveal a whole collection of messages, e-mail, reminders, calendar events, and other notifications you may have missed.

Comparisons with the pull-down menu in Android's operating system have been plentiful, and I'll get to them later on. But yes, the surface similarities are apparent.… Read more

One of the biggest changes iOS 5 brings for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users is Wi-Fi Sync. With it, you no longer need to physically connect your iOS device to your Mac or PC to sync its contents with iTunes. Instead, you need only to be on the same Wi-Fi network for iTunes to see your device and sync it. Here's how it works.… Read more

Safari in iOS 5 brings an entirely new experience for those who spend much of their time browsing the Web on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

The new OS introduces tools for better news reading, Twitter integration, and a new private browsing option.

Use Reader and Reading List to keep up with news Of the new features, Reader and Reading List take center stage; it makes reading news and blogs a more enjoyable experience on the new OS. Now, if you navigate to an article, "Reader" will appear in the address bar. Tap it, and an e-reader-style … Read more

An attempted upgrade to iOS 5 bricked my iPod Touch, forcing me to spend hours restoring the device. What steps should you take if this happens and how do you protect yourself before you update your iOS device?

The upgrade to iOS 5 started smoothly enough on my end as iTunes seemed to be chugging along updating my device. But about halfway through, an error message popped up, and the process was aborted. When I checked my iPod Touch all the data had been wiped out, and iTunes refused to recognize the device.

After plugging and unplugging my Touch and … Read more

There's a new iOS in town and and it comes bearing gifts. iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch owners are kicking their old OS to the curb and embracing this handsome stranger.… Read more

New apps like iMessage, Newsstand, and Reminders are taking the spotlight in iOS 5, so it's easy to miss the little things, like Mail. Apple's well-respected mail client got a minor refresh, introducing several features iPhone users have been begging for.

If you browse through your Mail app in iOS 5, it's seemingly unchanged. But look again to find three key differences: text formatting, flagging, and mailbox management.

Yes, this means you can finally bold, italicize, and underline text (seriously, what took so long?), flag e-mails as important, mark e-mails as unread, and create or delete mailboxes. … Read more

How useful you'll find Photo Stream depends a lot on what you need or expect. If you just want a completely automated way to mirror all the photos you shoot on with your iPhone and iPad to your other computers and devices, then congratulations, this app's for you. If your needs stray beyond that to selective syncing/backup, the ability to manage what's in your Photo Stream cache, integration with other applications, and so on, then you're out of luck.

On each supported platform Photo Stream monitors a a pair of folders, one for uploads and … Read more