iOS 5.0.1 Arrives with Battery Fix

Apple released the first update to the latest version of iOS 5.0.1 that should fix the bugs resulting in poor battery life on their mobile phones. The battery fix comes more than a week after the company acknowledged that some of their users really had problems with the low battery life caused by bugs in the new version of the software.

Apple has not copped to any specific reason as to why some users were experiencing shorter than usual battery life as part of iOS 5. Originally it was believed to be related to some of the hardware changes with the iPhone 4S, including a move to a dual-core processor, though some iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users were experiencing issues as well.

Besides tackling the battery life issue, one of iOS 5.0.1's headlining features is that it brings multitasking gestures to original iPad owners. The feature lets iPad users take advantage of multi-finger gestures to navigate between apps, and access certain features--notably pinching together the screen to go back to the home screen. Apple originally included the feature in an earlier developer beta, though removed it entirely in the final version of the software that went out to users with the first-generation iPad. 

The update also fixes a security issue with Apple's Smart Cover for the iPad 2 that would let users gain access to whatever app the owner of that device was running, even if they didn't know that user's lockscreen password. That bug was discovered late last month, after iOS 5 was released.

Other fixes include a bug with documents in Apple's iCloud service, and improvements to voice recognition accuracy for Australian users using Apple's dictation feature on the iPhone 4S.