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iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)

By | November 10, 2011, 7:05pm PST

Summary: Apple released iOS 5.0.1 as a 44.6MB over-the-air update. It fixes bugs affecting battery life, according to the release notes.

As our own Adrian Kingsley-Hughes covered earlier today, Apple has released iOS 5.0.1 via a 44.6MB over-the-air update to address problems that some users have been experiencing with decreased battery life.

Apple specifically mentions the following fixes:

  • Fixes bugs affecting battery life
  • Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
  • Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
  • Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation

I downloaded it OTA on my iPhone 4/GSM but it never rebooted fully and was stuck on the black screen with the white Apple and progress bar for a while. I waited a few minutes and powered it up again and it rebooted to the springboard without a problem.

I haven’t experienced the battery issue on my iPhone 4 with iOS 5, but my loaner iPhone 4S seemed to have less run time than I was used to — although I never performed full benchmarks.

Unless you’ve been having issues, my advice is to wait until at least Monday before installing iOS 5.0.1 to see how things shake out. Either way, make sure that you perform a full backup before installing that bad boy.

Update: more screenshots from the installation process on my iPhone 4/GSM:





Have you installed iOS 5.0.1 yet? Are you going to?

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Topics

Battery, Engineering, Apple iOS, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
non-biased 17th Nov
@dforst@... I did 4 in my house, iPhone 3GS, 4, iPod Touch and iPad 1. All went flawlessly and while I didn't really see any really battery issues on my 4 (others are the wife's devices) it does appear that the battery is lasting longer now.
View in thread
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
Peter Perry 10th Nov
I didn't notice a difference sorry.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
nomikhokher 11th Nov
@Peter Perry I won't think that ios 5 can beat this phone in my think of view....here: http://www.technologyfazer.com/the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-approaching-to-u-s-in-august.html
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
marcandsebe 12th Nov
@nomikhokher Another Android fanboy who cannot command the English language. Plus we are talking about the iOS 5 update, not about the Samsung Galaxy S 11.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
DJL64 14th Nov
@ marcandsebe In the English language that's Galaxy S 2 or Galaxy S II (or perhaps ii), not Galaxy S11 (eleven) as you wrote it.
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This is just one more proof
ego.sum.stig@... 10th Nov
That Australian is a foreign language, on a par with Klingon or perhaps East London.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
joaolcbarros@... 11th Nov
Nice... Allready installed on my IPAD (original one). Smooth over-the-air install and restored multitasking gestures missing from iOS 5.0 for this device (why I don't know).
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iOS 5.1 Install
rhonin Updated - 11th Nov
OTA worked fine for me for my i4 and iPad2 but it was slow... approx 30 minutes

i4 suffered from slowness and lower battery life with iOS5 and taking the suggestion from the GB I turned off the iCloud functionality.
After the update I did notice a speed improvement so I turned the iCloud back on - oops. Phone was dead this morning. Turned it back off, and recharged (converso) - will monitor over the weekend to see what it looks like.

iPad2 - With iOS5 and iCloud the battery life was lower and I have a bug relating to keyboard functionality - GB wanted to replace but it is an engraved gift and they would not replace with an engraved iPad. After the update I have not noticed any real change at this time - will monitor through the weekend for battery life. I have encountered a new keyboard bug - at times hitting the enter key will close the keyboard when typing in the web.

Too early to tell at this point......
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
rocketboy5114 11th Nov
im not sure why i read its 44mb on my verizon iphone 4 it said its 53mb
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Still Bad
camcost@... 11th Nov
Nope. My original iPad once lasted about ten hours on a charge, went wayyyy down to about five or six hours when updated to iOS5 (it was instantly noticeable the first day). I upgraded to the 5.0.1 fix a couple days ago and.... it still has lousy battery life!!
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
rp518 11th Nov
@camcost@... another thing you might consider is that batteries have a limited life. Yours may be on the way out.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
camcost@... 11th Nov
@rp518
Yeah, I've considered that.
Could be just an incredible coincidence that the batteries instantly went bad the day after I updated the OS.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
marcandsebe 12th Nov
@rp518 Yes I have had my iPhone 4 from day 1 and charge it every day, so this could be the case. Although my battery has not been as bad as others have mentioned. With iOS 5 or updated iOS 5.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
thisnameisok 11th Nov
@camcost@... they just told people it's a battery fix so they'll install the jailbreak vulnerability patches :P
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
marcandsebe 12th Nov
@thisnameisok I don't want to jailbreak mine anyway.
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No issues so far
fabman69 11th Nov
No issues at all on iPhone4. I did it over the air this morning on AT&T's network with only two lines of signal and as of 1:18 today 11/11/11 I still have 73% battery. No problems to report so far.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
ZAXDAD66 11th Nov
Apples fix is akin to the "fix" for the reception issue. The battery level icon will now appear full no matter what the actual battery level is.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
race_1 11th Nov
@ZAXDAD66 WRONG.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
marcandsebe 12th Nov
@ZAXDAD66 My IPhone 4 and iPad 2 battery levels show percentages, so I can't see how they can appear full.
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3 IOS Devices no issues
dforst@... 11th Nov
We have 3 IOS devices in our house. Upgraded all 3 this morning a 3GS, a 4 and and iPad 1. This is a significant improvement for IOS. All 3 were seamless and a major improvement over tethered upgrades. Well done!
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
non-biased 17th Nov
@dforst@... I did 4 in my house, iPhone 3GS, 4, iPod Touch and iPad 1. All went flawlessly and while I didn't really see any really battery issues on my 4 (others are the wife's devices) it does appear that the battery is lasting longer now.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
PScooter63 11th Nov
Unscientifically speaking, once the update was installed (my 4S update was initially unsuccessful, requiring Apple assistance), I HAVE noticed an improvement in battery life. Not dramatic, but noticeable.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
Donn_z 11th Nov
iPhone 4s had great battery life before the update, I updated yesterday over wifi it was flawless. The battery life today 100% charged @ 6:00 AM, it is now 6:00 PM battery is at 87%. I have had all features on taked approximately 15 phone calls 11 text messages and surfed the internet over ATT 3g network for approximately 20 minutes. I never switch off the bluetooth or the wifi on the phone whether I am at home with access to the network or at work (construction) with no network access.
Battery problems I sure haven't had any. My iPhone battery lasts double compared to my HTC Tilt that I replaced.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
tech727 11th Nov
I've three (3) iOS devices here also, two iPhone 4's and an iPad 2. The update to iOS 5.0.1 went FAST with my FIOS 35/35 system doing the leg work, less than 10 mins on the phones and just about 7 mins mins on the iPad 2. I was getting great battery life on the iPad 2 before this, and don't notice any difference there yet. I'll wait for a week or two, sync the battery (zero it out), and then see if there's a difference.

Same for the iPhone 4's, was already getting incredible battery life from both of them, so nothing to compare with yet...will do same sync of battery as to the iPad 2 next week, start over, and report back here if possible about my experience with the new iOS 5.0.1 and battery life. Perhaps Jason will see fit to offer up a blog on the battery phenomenon as it existed before this update, and how the affects either helped, or didn't help a variety of customers from AT&T and Verizon at least.

Great story Jason, it's appreciated very much by the lowly average business user/consumer like myself, rock on!

Like others I suspect Apple wanted to kill off any/all liberating software hacks with this update too, ie it wasn't just for us poor consumers to benefit, you dig? Anyway, I'm thankful for the glitch-free updating, and great apps available for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, which is the best iPhone yet. Even though I'm due an update anytime from now through June 2012 I'll keep it until Apple actually releases the iPhone 5 with 4G LTE capability on AT&T, and Verizon too of course.

AT&T rolled out the open door on its LTE network this past week, and it will service the West Coast and East Coast rather comprehensively, especially in troubled markets like San Francisco Bay Area and New York, NY! I look for many problems in that switch to LTE 4G services, at least I won't be surprised if they happen quite often, and in a major way to boot, as things get turned on and functioning. We shall see about the whole deal, but I definitely want 4G LTE service on my next iPhone, and/or I'll keep my iPhone 4 till the cows come home!
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
marcandsebe 12th Nov
I suppose it's understandable that battery life is not so good when connected to iCloud. If its constantly searching to see what has been changed on other devices. One of the annoying things for me, is that when I take a photo on the iPhone and it goes into the both Photo stream folders of my iPhone 4 and iPad 2, I cannot delete them from this folder. This needs to be addressed.
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RE: iOS 5.0.1 available over-the-air; fixes battery bugs (Gallery)
leonbakhan Updated - 12th Nov
No difference experienced. The download was easy and smooth within five to seven minutes but i couldn't find that it made any difference on m iPhone 4

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