Upgrading our iPad 2 from factory-installed iOS 4 to iOS 5.1, blow-by-blow

9:15am I read this: Gizmodo.com – The Complete Guide to Updating to iOS 5

And this: tested.com – How to Properly Upgrade to iOS 5 in Five Simple Steps

9:30am Ran iTunes, ensured it was upgraded to the latest version using Help > Check for Updates. Plugged in the iPad, received the "A new version of iOS is available, do you want to upgrade?" dialog in iTunes, clicked "Download and Upgrade". iTunes reported it was downloading the iPad Software Update which would take four minutes. Then it said it was Backing up my iPad.

9:38am "Extracting software…" 9:42am "Verifying iPad restore…" "Restoring iPad software…" 9:48am "Restoring iPad firmware…"

9:50am The device is rebooting. "Restoring iPad from backup…"

9:52am The device is again rebooting. "Restoring iPad apps…"

10:00am "Restoring iPad music and videos…" We only have about 2GB, so this shouldn’t take as long for us as it might for some people.

10:01am Hmmm… iTunes isn’t reporting any activity, and neither is the iPad. The iPad is showing up in the Devices list in iTunes. Is it possible it’s done? It would be nice to have a big "Congratulations!!! You’ve successfully upgraded to iOS 5.1!" dialog, but no.

10:04am Oh, OK – when I slide to unlock the iPad, I get a Setup Assistant… I’m going to take a break for a few minutes.

10:48am Ok, we’re back. Location Services (enable), WiFi Network (chose an existing network), Apple ID – used our existing Apple ID. "It may take a few minutes to set up your Apple ID…"

10:50am iCloud setup – I skipped this for now.

10:53am "You are now ready to use your iPad!"

First impressions:

I’m disappointed: I had read that Mail can now do rich text (bold, italics, underline, fonts) and I don’t immediately see how to do that – when I tap and hold, I don’t get those options.

I’m disappointed: I had read that Safari will reflow text when you enlarge the text, yet I donn’t see that immediately.

I’m disappointed: I use Home Sharing from my PC music library. I couldn’t immediately see how to access the shared library in the iPod app, which has changed names to Music. I did find it, under "More" on the bottom right of the Music screen.

I’m disappointed: When playing music, I can’t find music controls on the Unlock screen.

I’m disappointed: When I see the new tabbed browsing in Safari, it’s not clear to me that we can do more than the nine pages we were allowed in iOS 4.

I’m disappointed: When I see the new tabbed browsing in Safari, I’m worried that my wife will be upset when she sees her usual "pages" icon missing and replaced with the tabs. I’m not 100% sure this interface is easier.

I’m sure it’s great, but it will take some getting used to. At least the process was painless and only took about 30 minutes.

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