Apple iOS 5 now available to download

If you have an iPhone or an iPad, there's a very good chance that you tried to download the latest iOS 5 operating system last night. If you did, you'll probably know what I'm about to say.

Error messages, lots of them. A quick glance at the social networks was reassuring to Apple users, who quickly realised they were not alone. In fact, if you did the upgrade without a hitch, you seemed to be in a small minority. That was after huge download times too, as Apple's servers struggled to cope with worldwide demand. Messages like 'The iPad (insert your name) could not be restored. An internal error occured' probably led many to believe their gadgets had suffered a fatality too. Not good Apple. Not good at all.

But all is and was not lost. Those messages were temporary messages, caused, as we said, by huge demand. Indeed, we have just updated both an iPhone and an iPad quickly and without error this morning. Next time, perhaps sitting on your hands for the first few hours really is the best course of action. Backing up could take time if your phone or tablet is packed with content, but that's par for the course.

Once you do get the new OS, you'll be automatically offers the iCloud back-up service and have access to all of the 200+ new features that iOS 5 offers, Notification Center, iMessage and Newsstand amongst them, as well as wire-free updating.