Apple has officially stated that pre-orders for the new iPad are sold out, which probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s watched the “shipping by” date at the Apple Online Store slip by a week or several weeks over the last few days. According to a statement Apple gave several media outlets, including CNET:

Customer response to the new iPad has been off the charts and the quantity available for pre-order has been purchased. Customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. Beginning Friday, March 16, the new iPad will be available for purchase at Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers on a first come, first-served basis.

So if you haven’t pre-ordered yet but still want to grab a new iPad on launch day, you’ll be lining up outside an Apple Retail Store or hoping your local big box has sufficient stock of the model you want.

No word yet on when sales will start on Friday, but they’re usually either early in the morning or at 5pm local time following a brief store re-dress. Hopefully Apple will provide that information this week.

If you’re still not sure which new iPad model to buy, here’s some help:

• 2012 iPad buyers guide
• New iPad discussion forum

Source: CNET

Complete feature guide to Apple's iOS 5.1 software update for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

Apple typically ships iOS x.1 updates with new iPod touches in the fall and includes several new, fairly nifty features. Last year, however, there was no new iPod touch and so iOS 5.1 comes to us in the spring, and with only a few, small changes and enhancements (and one arguable feature reduction). Maybe that’s because iOS 5 was such a huge update, or they’ve saving more for a potential iOS 5.2 later this spring or summer, or iOS 6 this fall.

Either way, iOS 5.1 is here, and so is your walkthrough.

Previously on iOS

iOS 5.1 is based on the huge iOS 5 update that happened in October of 2011, and all versions of iOS that came before. For a complete rundown of those releases, see our previous walkthroughs.

• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough
• iOS 4.3 for iPhone, iPad walkthrough
• iOS 4.2 for iPhone | iOS 4.2 for iPad
• iOS 4.1 for iPhone
• iOS 4 for iPhone
• iOS 3.2 for iPad
• iOS 3.1 for iPhone
• iOS 3.0 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.2 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.1 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.0 for iPhone

iOS 5.1

If you don’t have time to read all this now, hit play on the video and we’ll tell you everything you need to know about iOS 5.1 in just under 2 minutes. Then, when you’re ready, soldier on for the full test details.

iOS 5.1 feels like it had the longer beta period of any iOS version, the first beta arriving on November 28, 2011, the second on December 12, 2011, the third on January 9, 2012, and the Gold Master (GM) seed… arriving never. Unlike any previous beta I can remember, Apple didn’t release any final build for developers, they simply released it to everyone on March 7, 2012, as part of the new iPad event. That neatly put an end to any hope that the especially long beta period would lead to a plethora of new features. Indeed, there are only a few.

Lock screen camera access (iPhone and iPod touch only)

In iOS 5, double-clicking the Home button caused a camera icon to pop up on the lock screen, and tapping the camera icon sent you straight to the Camera app (even if your iPhone was password protected). It was a fast way to take a picture, but apparently it wasn’t fast enough. With iOS 5.1 the camera icon is always on the lock screen and instead of tapping, all you have to do is swipe up to “lift away” the lock screen and reveal the Camera app.

While in the Camera app, you can take pictures and tap through to the Camera roll and see any of the photos you’ve taken, but if your iPhone is passcode locked that’s all you can see. (If it’s not passcode locked, you can click the Home button and use your iPhone as if you’d unlocked it normally).

When you’re done, or if you choose not to take any photos, you can swipe down from the status bar to “pull down” the Lock screen once again. (It’s the same gesture as you’d used to access Notification Center.)

Siri

Apple’s intelligent, voice controlled assistant, Siri, remains in beta some five months after it was first released. And that’s a good thing. Voice control required a ton of data and Apple’s not doubt collecting and analyzing as much as they can to make the service better. Since Siri still fails on occasion — though it at least tells you when that happens, unlike dictation which just returns to cursor, laughing at you — there’s no need to rush. Get it right.

Japanese support (iPhone 4S only)

With iOS 5.1, Apple has added a single, solitary new language to Siri. It’s not English (Scottish), so Siri still won’t understand “jammy dodger” or “chip butty”, and it’s not any other English localization or Romantic language like Italian. It’s Japanese, the first Asian language to be supported.

Dictation (iPad 3rd generation only)

The new iPad (3rd generation) didn’t get full-on Siri support, perhaps because of the challenges involved in porting the user interface over. However, the new iPad did get the very useful Dictation, which handles speech to text input anywhere keyboard entry is possible, including built-in apps and App Store apps.

To activate Dictation, just tap the microphone icon on the keyboard.

Home screen

The iPhone home screen received one of the most notorious updates in recent history, and also lost functionality that many power users considered extremely convenient.

Geo-fencing indicator

iOS previously added a small, northeast pointing arrow to the status bar to inform users when location-based services were running, either actively in an app like Maps, or in the background like turn-by-turn navigation or Find my Friends. iOS 5.1 adds a new variation to this icon — an outline form that indicates a geo-fence has been established. For example, if you’ve used Reminders to set up an alert for when you leave or arrive at a specific location.

4G (AT&T iPhone 4S only)

Apple has changed the AT&T indicator in the top left corner from 3G to 4G.

While 4G is often thought to identify the next-generation LTE networks that can reach 72+ mbps, marketing has overcome morals and T-Mobile, AT&T, and others have begun to classify anything HSPA+ 14.4 or above as 4G. Since some versions of HSPA+ can reach as high as 42 mbps a case could be made that they’re reaching “4G-like” speeds. However, they’re still using 3G technology, which makes the marketing a fairly consumer-hostile thing to do. It may be easier for carriers to print 4G on boxes or change status bar graphics than build actual LTE networks, but it confuses customers and ultimately undermines trust.

Shame on you.

Note: Other carriers with similar or even better HSPA+ networks than AT&T still show up as 3G.

Settings Shortcuts

iOS 5 introduced URL schemes for Settings. By adding those URLs to the Home screen as icons, users could quickly tap into brightness controls, Wi-Fi toggles, Bluetooth toggles, etc. It was awkward but convenient. It was also a security risk and something Apple seems not to have meant to surface for the general public. iOS 5.1 no longer allows those shortcuts to work.

Photos

While iOS 4.1 brought HDR photos, and there remain rumors of panorama photos hidden in iOS 5, no such feature was surfaced in iOS 5.1. Instead, a rather important oversight was corrected.

Photo Stream deletion

Originally Photo Stream was an all or nothing proposition. If it was on, any photo you took, no matter how private, or a friend took, no matter how much of a prank it might be, was stuck in your Photo Stream for 30 days or 1000 photos, whichever came first. You could turn it off, or delete the entire Photo Stream, but you couldn’t delete individual photos.

Now you can. Just select the photo, tap the Action button, tap delete, and confirm.

Camera

In addition to the aforementioned fast Camera access from the Lock screen, iOS 5.1 adds a small update for the iPhone camera and something more substantial for the iPad.

Face detection (iPhone only)

While face detection itself remains the same, able to discern up to 10 individual faces, the Camera app will now highlight all of those faces, not just the most prominent. It might be more accurate, but it can also be more cluttered.

New Camera app (iPad only)

The iPad gets an entirely new Camera user interface with iOS 5.1, one that better suits the bigger screen. All the controls remain the same, if rendered differently now. In broad strokes, it makes the bar across the screen transparent, moves the Grid option to the bar, and swaps the Camera shutter button to the side, floating it over the live view.

For the new iPad (3rd generation), many of the iPhone Camera app features have also been added, including facial recognition, 1080p video recording, image stabilization, and Apple A5X chipset based digital signal processing.

Videos

There’s no way for a software update to fix the anemic speakers included with the iPad, but there is a way for them to address part of the problem. And with iOS 5.1, Apple does just that.

TV and movie audio (iPad only)

According to Apple, iOS 5 makes the audio for both TV shows and movies both louder and clearer.

1080p (iPad 3rd generation only)

Thanks to the incredibly dense 2048×1536 Retina display on the new iPad, the Videos app has been update to include support for playing 1080p TV shows an movies in full resolution. (iPhone 4S and iPad 2 have been able to load 1080p content, but down sampled it to fit their screens for playback.)

• 1080p iTunes video: Is the difference in image quality worth the difference in file size?

iTunes Store

Yes, Ping is still there, in the iTunes Store app. There are a couple of new features there as well, mainly to support Apple’s new content offerings and to expand on Apple’s iCloud integration.

1080p content

To compliment the new iPad and the new Apple TV’s ability to play back 1080p content, the iTunes store now sells 1080p content. It’s not specific to iOS 5.1, but the feature was added at the same time so we’re noting it here.

(Note: I’m not seeing 1080p content as an option in Canada yet, so it might be U.S. only at the moment or at least not rolled out internationally yet.)

Movies in the Cloud

iTunes now offers the ability to re-download previously purchased iTunes movies. Previously, you could re-download music and TV shows, so now the circle is pretty much complete. As with 1080p content, this isn’t exclusive to iOS 5 but the time coincided nicely.

Just tap the Purchased tab on the bottom of the screen and then choose which type of media you want to re-download. You can either view All your previous purchases or just the ones Not On This iPhone/iPod/iPad. You’ll be given an alphabetical list of songs, topped by options for All Songs and Recent Purchases. All Songs can be further filtered by Most Recent, Song Name, and Artist Name. Tap the iCloud Download icon to start re-downloading.

(Note: I’m not seeing Movies in the Cloud as an option in Canada yet, so it might be U.S. only at the moment or at least not rolled out internationally yet.)

App Store

While not exclusive to iOS 5.1, Apple did make an important change to the App Store and it’s worth noting here.

50MB download limit

At the same time Apple released iOS 5.1, they increased the iTunes cellular data download limit to 50MB. This is up from 20MB, which itself was an increase from the original 10MB limit. This may or may not be enough to enable modest (i.e., non-game) universal apps with iPad retina graphics to be download over-the-air (OTA).

When an app passes the cellular data download limit, users can no longer buy or re-install it when on the go, away from Wi-Fi, which is inconvenient.

60MB would have been better, but 50MB is a marked improvement none-the-less.

Settings

While Settings typically gets a lot of additions to support new iOS features, iOS 5.1 didn’t get a lot of new features to support. So, new Settings are thing this time around.

Wallpapers (iPad only)

The iPhone and iPod touch get left out in the cold this time, but the iPad scores four new, water themed wallpapers. The new ones, in order from top left, show an ocean horizon, waves gently rolling up on a beach, due on the grass, and rippled in a pool.

General: Siri (iPhone 4S only)

iOS 5.1 on the iPhone 4S adds Japanese as an option for Siri.

General: Network (iPhone only)

Removed in iOS 5, the Enable 3G toggle makes a triumphant return in iOS 5.1.

Safari

Perhaps in an effort to help mainstream users figure out just what to do when confronted with a blank browser, Safari has add the text “Go to this address” to the URL address bar.

Clock

In iOS 5.1, the Clock app remains iPhone and iPod touch only (sorry, iPad users), and continues the trend of small, incremental improvements.

Timer (iPhone and iPod touch only)

iOS 5 renamed the iPod app to the Music app, but left the Clock timer with a function called sleep iPod. Since it’s been able to automatically end more types of audio than just the built-in player for a while now, that label was inaccurate on multiple levels. Apple’s now fixed things by renaming it “Stop Playing”.

Music

Apple’s new iCloud gets integrated with their old recommendation engine in the iOS 5.1 Music app. The iPad music app also gets the same podcast controls the iPhone and iPod touch have enjoyed for years.

Podcast controls (iPad only)

With iOS 5.1, the iPad gets the same podcast controls to vary playback speed between 1/2, 1x, and 2x, and to jump back at 30 second intervals to re-listen to anything you may have missed.

Genius Mixes and playlists for iTunes Match

If you subscribe to Apple’s iTunes Match music locker service, you can now use Genius Mixes and Genius playlists with your iTunes Match music.

iPhoto

While not built-in to iOS 5.1, Apple’s iPhoto was released alongside iOS 5.1. Along with GarageBand and iMovie, it completes Apple’s move to bring their desktop iLife suite from desktop to mobile. With powerful, touch-based image editing options, while not perfect (it lacks any form of useful syncing options for photos or non-destructive edits), it further shows the content-creation potential of the iOS platform.

• iPhoto review

Pricing and Availability

iOS 5.1 is was released as a free update to all supported devices on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Although not all features are supported on all devices — or all generations of all devices — iOS 5.1 can be installed on the following:

• iPhone 4S (2011)
• iPhone 4 (2010 and 2011)
• iPhone 3GS (2009, 2010, and 2011)
• iPod touch 4 (2010 and 2011)
• iPod touch 3 (2009)
• iPad 2 (2011)
• iPad (2010)

Should you update?

Yes, absolutely and immediately with the usual caveats. If you’re on older hardware like iPhone 3GS and you’re reading this just as iOS 5.1 becomes available, you might want to wait a couple of weeks and make sure there aren’t any reports of excessive sluggishness or other issues. Second, if you’re jailbroken and rely on certain features, and don’t want to lose your jailbreak entirely or have to reply tethered Jailbreaks, you might want to wait until a nicely packaged iOS 5.1 jailbreak for your device is released (the new iPad, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S might take a while.)

Otherwise this is a very small update that doesn’t change very much but does improve several things from iOS 5 and is definitely worth downloading and install post haste.

How to update

You can update to iOS 5.1 either via iTunes or directly on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad over-the-air (OTA). Generally speaking, OTA updates are better because a) since they only include the changes (delta/bit differential), they’re smaller and faster to download, and b) the update happens in-place, without having to backup and then restore your device.

• How to update your iPhone or iPad software over the air (OTA)
• How to update your iPhone or iPad software using iTunes

Help and discussion

For more on iOS, check out the iMore forums. Whether you just want to discuss features, need help with bugs or other issues, or enjoy helping out other users, it’s great to get involved with the community.

• iOS 5 forum

Conclusion

iOS 5.1 was one of the longest betas, one of the fastest releases, and one smallest, feature-wise, we’ve seen to date. What, if anything, that suggests about the iOS roadmap is really hard to say. If iOS 6 keeps to last year’s pattern, we won’t even see a beta until Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June or July. That leaves plenty of time for an iOS 5.2 if Apple chooses to develop and release one.

If not, iOS 5 itself was such a major update, the new iPad such a phenomenal piece of hardware, and new apps like iPhoto for iOS doing so much of the heavy lifting these days, Apple might just be able to get away with it.