While Apple customers in the US were able to download iOS 6.0 from 10am San Francisco Time and 1pm in New York on the 19th of September, the rest of the world had to download at the equivalent of those times in their local areas.
Those on the east coast of Australia were able to start downloading from 3am on the 20th of September, which is what I did this morning when my alarm went off.
This meant I could reach over to my phone in a sleepy daze, go into the settings, then general, then software update and finally, the download of the world’s most anticipated new mobile OS update could finally begin.
When I woke up a few hours later, my iPhone 4S presented me with a screen welcoming me to iOS 6, after which I had to log in with my Apple ID, go through a couple of other screens and then finally, the new home screen appeared, with Passbook in the bottom right hand corner (pushing that icon to its lonesome on the second home screen), and with tons of other features as Apple has announced at its iOS 6 site.
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I’m guessing it’s something that Webmasters will be able to tweak and work around, rather than end-users ending up having to wait until iOS 6.0.1 is released, but there is always something with a brand new OS “.0” version that’s bound to not quite work as expected on day one.
Taking Panorama photos with the iPhone 4S camera (under Options) is a fun blast – it’s almost like a very simple game – just keep the arrow level with the line and move the iPhone in an arc until you have taken your panoramic photo.
Along with the previous answers, Siri also seems to have some new answers for "open the pod bay door".
These include: "Ok, but make sure you wipe your feet first", "ok, but I'm not signing any petitions", "you would think someone would have opened it by now...", "doesn't anybody knock anymore?", "Without your space helmet, Alex, you're going to find this rather... breathtaking", "can't you just slide it under the door?" and "but the cat will get out".. before finally, finally saying "I'm sorry, Alex, I'm afraid I can't do that. Are you happy now?".
Undoubtedly there are other cool questions and answers to be found, asked and answered!
As for my other iDevices, I didn’t get around to downloading iOS 6.0 for the iPhone 3GS or new iPad until a few minutes before I started writing this article.
The new iPad took less than 20 minutes to download iOS 6.0 (which is amazing considering the planet must be absolutely HAMMERING Apple’s servers right now) but given I started the iOS 6.0 download on the iPhone 3GS a few minutes after the new iPad, on the same Wi-Fi connection, it’s no surprise to see it took a bit longer.
The 3GS download kept on fluctuating between a couple of minutes to go and then 20 or 30 minutes, harking back to the “Microsoft minutes” era when you never really knew how long things would take, but on day one of the new OS, this is to be expected – and as I type, the download has finished, with the “preparing update” bit now having begun.
I’m very keen to see just how well the iPhone 3GS performs with iOS 6, and whether it will perform admirably, or whether it will be a case of users needing to wait for iOS 6.0.1, but I’m hoping that Apple has learned from the past and has done everything in its power to ensure as smooth a iOS 6 experience for 3GS users as possible.
I’m also very keen to try out Siri on the new iPad, but the iPad is still in the final stages of the “preparing update” section of the iOS 6 update, after having downloaded the 700+ MB iOS update.
If you’re the type of person who likes to play it safe, you’re probably planning to let everyone else download iOS 6.0 first to see if there any larger issues, or perhaps to wait until iOS 6.0.1 instead.
But I’ve been waiting so long for this new iOS update that I didn’t want to wait any more, and if there are any further issues, I’ll just have to deal with them.
For now, aside from the lack of Discus commenting visibility at iTWire articles, the experience has been smooth thus far, with plenty more iOS 6 experiences to come - and to be reported.
Happy downloading!
