Yes that added another hour at least to the process on my 4 but the wifes phone never attempted to do it.

Seriously im not posting this on a wind up, i am though shocked at what you say?
I recieved an update on my phones (htc sensation & htc desire hd), one was.a patch the other was a os update i hadnt bothered with.
The os update was done in less than 15mins over the air with no need grief.

I thought by now apple would have made a step in that direction considering they copied google witg icloud concept?

Android updates are insignificant in comparison to how Apple does it.

Download the 700mb OS
Fully backup your device to your computer (up to 64gb data)
Install the OS
Restore everything to exactly how it was

Bear in mind though the number of iPhone users and the fact every man and his dog worldwide was trying to do it at the same time, though I am surprised it took that long.

Patents I think/would imagine.

One of the new features in iOS5 is OTA (WiFi) updates. These updates are not the full huge firmware every time like with previous iOS updates. They are only the changed files so are much smaller.

Of course though with the release of iOS5 everyone needs to do a full update from iOS4 first to get this feature.

Really? I had a few games on my girlfriends iPhone 4 and when she updates all the games were restored but the saves were lost.

Maybe it was an error, but I can backup everything on my Android including all saved settings/games and restore everything once the update is complete. Sure it's not automatic but it's effective.

I have yet to lose any game saves when updating iOS.

Well I thought so initially, but most of my games have lost all of their saved data. It's pissed me right off.

Did you backup?

iTunes did, apparently.

iOS 5 now available...
 

Its downloading to my machine as we speak...

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154809

Edit: Prepare for a 3200 error.

Tons of people getting hammered with that. My brother just called me in fact. He got that error and his phone is stuck in an endless reboot cycle.

One fix is to restart your PC after updating iTunes. That may just be the luck of the draw though getting a new connection to Apple's servers.

Another fix is to download the iOS 5 GM .ispw and doing a manual restore.

Anyone else underwhelmed with this one?

The last two iOS releases have been lackluster. I feel that these updates are just a disguise to push the older devices into obsolescence.

Its not the OS file itself that people are having problems with. Its the authentication that iTunes does to even allow the OS to be updated. If it can't get a timely response from the servers iTunes calls "No Joy" and gives the 3200 error.

Quote from my Console logs trying to update the phone.
2011-10-12 16:52:01.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: amai: AMAuthInstallDebugWriteObject: debug object written: file://localhost/tmp/PersonalizedRestoreBundle.sgTnzhzXal/amai/debug/tss-request.plist
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: amai: tss_submit_job: error from server=100 (An internal error occurred.)
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: amai: kAMAuthInstallRequestCacheLocalizedTssError: cached server error text: (3200) An internal error occurred.
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: amai: AMAuthInstallRequestSendSync: failed tss submission: An internal error occurred.
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: amai: AMAuthInstallBundlePersonalizePartial: server request error: An internal error occurred.
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: failed to personalize the restore bundle: An internal error occurred.
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:1142b]: AMRAuthInstallDeletePersonalizedBundle
2011-10-12 16:52:02.000 iTunes[387:13707]: iTunes: Restore error 3200

I was just relaying what I read.

Anyway, I've upgraded an iPad 1, iPhone 4 CDMA and am now in the middle of upgrading an AT&T iPhone 4 and haven't had any issue when doing a shift+restore using the ispw file. Maybe a coincidence, or I'm just lucky.

Edit: I have to do the ipsw restore on my phone and my ipad, but the verizon phone was a failed upgrade using iTunes. I tried the DFU mode restore with the ipsw and all is well now.

TFO is correct. You just have to keep trying until it works. That's what I did.

Before hand, Im honestly not trying to troll at all, whatsover. Im honestly sharing opinion/ asking questions.

So, im sitting on the toilet reading a few reviews of ios5, Im and android user, but I always like to keep up to date on everything in case I wanna switch etc. Every review started off by saying how OMG revolutionary this new OS is and how everytime Apple releases anything, be it hardware or software it takes "consumer electronics" to a new higher level of being. And im not really exagerating it, thats almost exactly what all of them said.

Now, Im ok with conceding that the iphone/ipod/ipad/itunes/appstore is a damn nice suite of electronics and services and I would and have recommended them many times. I feel that they are very well made peices of hardware, the software running them has a nice simple UI and they are easy to use and mostly without frustration, plus they are the most supported devices of thier kind.

However...that does not mean that they are revolutionary or are, as one article put it " have finally made the pc obsolete, the post pc era has finally arrived with iOS5!!" *clears throat* and then they list all the features of ios5. I keep my judgements witheld untill I read about 3 reviews but after that, I couldnt take it anymore. With the possible exception of Siri, just about every "update" has been on my android phone, which ive had for over half a year now and is pretty common features overall. Yet this is revolutionary? Siri is pretty cool though, but I bet we will see similar programs popping up very soon, already found several for my android.

So my question is this, why cant apple users appreciate new products they desire without declaring them to be revolutionary or groundbreaking? I have no problem with people luvin thier apple stuff, as said before, its a damn nice electronics suite. But they cant just be satisfied with that, it HAS to be the BEST and not only that BE REVOLUTIONARY....

Arrrghhh....

NEways, as said earlier, not trying to troll at all. Glad you guys got yer new OS after being let down by 4s, I know that sucks :(. Hopefully this will make up for it a little bit. Id like to hear how well Siri works!