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iOS 5.0.1 now available to download

| Latest News | November 11, 2011

iOS 5 Logo

Poor battery life on your iPhone 4S? You can now update iOS to 5.0.1 to fix the issue!

Apple have released this anticipated update to its mobile OS in order to solve poor battery life issues that have affected some users. Even more exciting: this is the first iOS update you'll be able to do without connecting your iPhone or iPad to your computer!

Just go to Settings them General and hit Software Update when connected to WiFi:

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It's only 39.1mb if you update on your device, far quicker than previously with iTunes. Why? Well if you decide to do the update through iTunes then you'll need to download a much heftier file that contains the whole of iOS 5.0.1 rather than just the changes. No point doing that is there?

Even better if your an owner of an original iPad. This update adds multitasking gestures support which previously was only for iPad 2 owners. We've just tried it and it works well. An unexpected bonus! You may need to switch them on in Settings after you've updated:

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The update also addresses general security and bug fixes, issues with Documents in the Cloud and it makes Siri compatible with Australian accents...

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iPhone 4S battery life issues? Read on…

| Latest News | October 29, 2011

Siri on the iPhone 4S - Courtesy of Apple Inc

Some iPhone 4S's are nailing their batteries too quickly. Has anyone asked Siri how to fix it?

iPhone 4S users are contacting Apple's support forums complaining of poor battery life. Early adopters of Apple's new voice controlled iPhone and the latest version of its software iOS 5, have been saving enough battery life in order to get online and complain about losing up to 15% of battery life an hour.

So far there are no fixes or solutions from Apple themselves. Luckily this hasn't stopped others trying to work out what is causing it though. One blogger has made the most of the extra Location Services options that Apple have added in iOS 5 to do some detective work himself. Oliver Haslam of iDownloadBlog.com has found a bug which means that automatic setting of your time zone by your location is constantly accessing GPS. If anything is going to where out your battery quickly it's either a bright screen, lots of 3G use or activating GPS.

Other people have found that corrupted contacts syncing with iCloud have led to services crashing or running the CPU too hot, which will also kill battery life.

Here at UsedMac we have been using iOS 5 since its early beta days on an original iPad but battery life seems to have been unaffected adversely up until the last few weeks. It has been a bit more battery hungry but we've presumed that is down to iCloud calling home more. We've tried switching off the sending of Diagnostics and Time Zone by Location to see if it helps.

You can head here for tips on troubleshooting your power hungry iOS 5 device.

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Asking Siri to pour you a beer

| The UsedMac Blog | October 28, 2011

Siri on the iPhone 4S - Courtesy of Apple Inc

Siri on the iPhone 4S - Courtesy of Apple IncThose lucky enough to have got hold of a new iPhone 4S are getting used to talking to their phones, or at least to the new Voice Assistant known as Siri. For once it seems that Siri could have some uses beyond being a bit of a gimmick. Dictation and operating your iPhone 4S when you are driving seem a great reason for voice control that actually works.

That just seems utterly boring though when you and your friends have too much time on your hands.

Ok so is quite crude, but it sort of works. I think it's time for us to get the UsedMac soldering iron out and get a four pack of Carling to see if we can do better...

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Apple announces the iPhone 4S but no iPhone 5

| Latest News | October 4, 2011

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Apple has announced the iPhone 4S at its iPhone press event today. Tim Cook, it's new CEO, took to the stage for the first time since succeeding Steve Jobs to introduce the latest member of the iPhone family.

Speculation had been predictably rife for the last few months as to whether Apple would release an iPhone 5 or simply an update to the existing iPhone 4, as they did with the 3GS. Some had predicted a new case design and a bigger screen for the hypothetical 'iPhone 5' but it was not to be. The iPhone 4S looks the same as the iPhone 4, even if the insides of it share little resemblance.

So what is new? Well it gains the same A5 processor as the iPad 2, with very similar performance boosts over the A4 chip: twice the power, 7 times graphic performance with a slight increase in battery life. This was expected, along with an improved camera taking the iPhone 4S up to 8 megapixels over the iPhone 4's 5 megapixels. We hope that this doesn't have a negative effect on performance though and that Apple have improved the cameras sensor as well as upped the figures. Megapixels aren't always everything. Video is though and that is up to 1080p.

So what can the iPhone 4S do with all this extra grunt? Well it will obviously run iOS 5 rather quickly, which will be released on October the 12th for free if your device supports it. It'll also let you run the biggest headline of the event: Siri.

Siri is a voice recognition app that allows you to control the iPhone 4S. Just think Star Trek and being able to speak the iPhone 4S a command such as 'Where is the nearest Apple Store' and you've got the idea. It uses the excellent Wolfram Alpha search engine for queries, which we think is the next best search resource after Google themselves. It's not just knowledge at your spoken beck and call, it's also controlling commands. We suspect 'Play Angry Birds HD' may be a common voice command.

Anything else? Well a bit more space if your prepared to pay for it. You can now have up to 64GB for your media. Apple have improved wireless performance for data speed over 3G from a theoretical 7mbps to 14mbps, as well as improving the previously criticised antenna design.

So basically this is a solid evolution of a very popular smartphone. Perhaps the best smartphone around right now. If you already have an iPhone 4, there's not a lot to get excited about. In fact Apple's share price is reported to have fallen by 3% after this announcement, however this is sure to be more of a sign of the hype that an Apple announcement can whip up.

If you've been waiting a while for an upgrade though, then it's a no brainer. A great camera, more power and iOS 5 keep the iPhone 4S ahead of the competition. For now.

© 2012 Used Mac. All Rights Reserved.

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