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Our advice? Hold off upgrading to iOS 5

Publié: octobre 12, 2011, 11:42pm CEST par Ed Oswald

You've been waiting months to upgrade your iPhone 3GS or 4 to iOS 5. Today was supposed to be the day. If you don't mind sitting around waiting for downloads to drip, drip, drip bit by bit, we suggest doing something else more useful with your time.

Updating to iOS 5 is becoming quite the ordeal for some, as Apple's servers are struggling to keep up with demand. Betanews has received and seen numerous reports of unusually long upgrade times, or upgrades failing altogether.

Given that iOS 5 also requires users to install iTunes 10.5, those who didn't update yesterday are experiencing even slower upgrade times.

That's what we're doing here at Betanews: we're still stuck downloading the desktop update, which now have taken over an hour on its own! God knows when we'll get to the actual process of updating to iOS 5.

In some cases, iTunes users are seeing a popup saying "An internal error occurred (3200)." Referencing Apple's support documents, errors in 3000 range deal with issues in accessing Apple's upgrade servers.

"Error codes in the 3000 range generally mean that iTunes cannot contact the gs.apple.com server on ports 80 or 443," Apple says. Noted Apple jailbreaker Jay Freeman aka "Saurik" also says this is the case.

"To anyone getting 'An internal error occurred.' (3200) while installing iOS 5.0, Apple's servers are swamped, and failing half the requests," he tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

The failure seems to most commonly occur at the point when Apple requires iTunes to verify the download. Since it is unable to reliably reach the required server, the upgrade will then fail.

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation that its servers were failing due to the onslaught of upgraders. What's clear: The number actually completing the upgrade has been few and far between.

The best advice? Probably wait. "Just looking through tonight's tweets. Think I'll wait a couple of days to upgrade to iOS 5!" tweeted British tech blogger Dan Grabham earlier this afternoon. He might just have said the smartest thing about iOS 5 on the Internet all day.

If you insist on trying, iOS 5 FileForm download pages: iPhone 4 GSM; iPhone 4 CDMA; iPad 2 GSM. iCloud is accessible from the web and OS X 10.7.2 from Mac Software Update.

Photo Credit: Andresr/Shutterstock
BlackBerry services are still down internationally, America feels effects

Publié: octobre 12, 2011, 5:09pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Research in Motion's BlackBerry services are now out of commission for their third day in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.

"We know that many of you are still experiencing service problems. The resolution of this service issue is our Number One priority right now and we are working night and day to restore all BlackBerry services to normal levels. We will continue to keep this page updated," a service update from RIM on Wednesday said.

On Tuesday, RIM said the widespread disruption to BlackBerry Messenger and mobile Web browsing was caused by a twofold core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure. The company said the first switch had failed, and the failover backup switch also failed.

The company notes that BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas might also be experiencing service delays, but did not say whether they are a result of the service lapse in the rest of the world. We have gotten reports from users in both the United States and Canada who complain of long delays.
We want your iCloud and iOS 5 stories

Publié: octobre 12, 2011, 3:31pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Today, Apple releases iCloud and iOS 5, two days before iPhone 4S launches in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. The new operating system is a significant upgrade that can be installed on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. iOS 5 works in tandem with iCloud, which is Apple's Internet-enabled synchronization service; it replaces iTunes as the company's major sync hub.

We're crowdsoucing our initial reviews, and I ask for your first take ahead of anything that we might do. If you've got something to say about either iCloud or iOS 5 -- or both -- we'd like to get it right away. If you've tested either or both before their release, we request your full or mini-review even sooner.

Many people are debating whether or not iPhone 4S is a worthy upgrade. I expect little debate about iOS 5, which borrows (okay copies) some of Android's best features, or iCloud, which adopts a push rather than pull model for your digital content and even applications. iCloud is an online sync service rather than storage one.

I'll collect your reviews into one post, but also welcome -- actually encourage -- longer first takes that can run with your name, bio and photo. We love user submissions! Either comment your first-impression reviews here or send them to joe at betanews dot com.
You might be reading this story on your phone or tablet, says comScore

Publié: octobre 12, 2011, 1:59am CEST par Ed Oswald

Smartphones and tablet devices are increasingly becoming a more common way to access the Internet, says a new study from analytics firm comScore. As of August, 6.8 percent of all Internet traffic came from those devices, with about two-thirds of it coming from mobile phones.

comScore found some interesting trends, such as the increased use of mobile phones over a WiFi connection. About 37.2 percent of all digital traffic came from phones using WiFi, up three percent over the past three months. On the flipside tablets using mobile broadband are also on the rise, with 10 percent of tablet traffic coming from that type of connection.

The increasing number of hotspots in both the home and public spaces is driving phone usage over WiFi, while an increasing number of devices are now coming with mobile broadband connectivity by default, likely the cause of the rise in Internet traffic there.

Despite Android's best efforts, iOS still dominates in the tablet market, with 97.2 percent of all tablet traffic coming from the iPad and iPad 2. Apple tablets have also become a higher share of iOS traffic overall than the iPhone in August (46.8 percent vs. 42.6 percent).

Android's reach shouldn't be underestimated, though. In smartphones, Android devices made up 43.7 percent of traffic. When adding tablets, iOS leads overall with 43.1 percent of the market versus 34.1 percent for Google's mobile OS.

What are consumers doing on their tablets? It is certainly beginning to mirror their PC activities. comScore said that over half of tablet owners have already completed a purchase on their devices, and nearly three in five read news on them -- a quarter of those on a daily basis.

"The popularization of smartphones and the introduction of tablets and other web-enabled devices – collectively termed ‘connected devices’ – have contributed to an explosion in digital media consumption," mobile research chief Mark Donovan said. "Advertisers and publishers must learn to navigate this new landscape so they develop cross-platform strategies to effectively engage their audiences."

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox