A Few Basic Questions

I have survived my first 2 weeks with the new iPhone 5 (and the first 2 weeks of my first ever smartphone). I have learned a lot, but there are so many areas I am confused in.

I have not had the opportunity to install a version update for the iPhone yet. I am assuming the iPhone 5 is still using 6.0. There has been a carrier update which I received the day after I activated the iPhone. How will I know that there is an update to the OS? Is installing an OS update straightforward?

In the Settings----General---About---Version, it has 6.0 (10A405) What is the "Version" that is in the parentheses?

I have not used Personal Hotspot yet, but I would like to try it. There is a Wi-fi Password that appears can be changed when I touch the current password. Can that be done by just going to the next screen after touching the current password under Personal Hotspot and typing in a new password? Is there anything else I need to do or when I type a new password that is all there is to changing the password?

Finally under Personal Hotspot are several ways to connect. is there one that would be better or safer or faster than the other? I am curious to hear your comments about each one. "To Connect using Wi-Fi" or "To Connect using Bluetooth" or "To Connect using USB." I am assuming when they say to Connect using USB they are referring to connecting the new Lightening to USB cable that came with the iPhone to my MacBook Pro, and of course other devices one may have. Is this a way to use personal hotspot? If so, would I then turn airport on and look for my iPhone or what would I do to use the personal hotspot this way?

I know these are real basic questions, and I appreciate anybody who takes the time to help me.

Kooler said:

I have survived my first 2 weeks with the new iPhone 5 (and the first 2 weeks of my first ever smartphone).

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Talk about starting at the top!

I have not had the opportunity to install a version update for the iPhone yet. I am assuming the iPhone 5 is still using 6.0.

Click to expand...

Correct.

There has been a carrier update which I received the day after I activated the iPhone. How will I know that there is an update to the OS? Is installing an OS update straightforward?

Click to expand...

You'll get a notification and can do the update directly from there, or you can connect your iPhone to iTunes and you'll be notified if there is a new iOS version available and can update it from there. The latter method is much faster and provides the peace of mind of an up-to-date backup, so I recommend it.

You do NOT have to upgrade the moment you get the notice. You can do it at any time after your get the notification.

In the Settings----General---About---Version, it has 6.0 (10A405) What is the "Version" that is in the parentheses?

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That's called the Build number. Software of this complexity undergoes many revisions before being released, not all of which merit a version change, so build numbers helps identify which version of iOS 6 is which to developers (and can be useful in troubleshooting a problem found upon release).

I have not used Personal Hotspot yet, but I would like to try it. There is a Wi-fi Password that appears can be changed when I touch the current password. Can that be done by just going to the next screen after touching the current password under Personal Hotspot and typing in a new password? Is there anything else I need to do or when I type a new password that is all there is to changing the password?

Click to expand...

That's it. You are setting up the hotspot so you can change the password. Other devices that join the hotspot must know the password to get on, and cant' change it.

Finally under Personal Hotspot are several ways to connect. is there one that would be better or safer or faster than the other?

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Wi-Fi is *always* the fastest way of those listed. Bluetooth is the slowest and severely limited, but possible. I think you are probably right about Connect using USB but I've never tried it.

If you were using the USB method there would be no reason to turn Airport on. That applies only to Wi-Fi.

Awesome Chas-

You are the person of the hour! You knocked each one down, one by one.

Unless I have messed up the way the iPhone backs up by.….kind of hard to explain what I mean, but are you saying that connecting to iTunes and doing the update will give me a back-up and is much faster? Actually, I was being backed up by iCloud, but somehow I messed that up and I am currently not getting any back up now until I can get to the Apple Store. For some reason, even know when I check for duplicates on itunes, on the iPhone I have several copies of about 20 songs. I am not sure why the iPhone is doing that, but I think the first time I made the mistake of downloading the songs from the Cloud. why after that finished the next day I connected the phone to my MBP and iTunes took over and downloaded another copy of all the songs I have on itunes, which is what I downloaded the day before. Since this 2nd copy of the songs appeared on the iPhone, I have about 20 songs that were downloaded again, giving me 3 copies of about 20 of my songs in iTunes. I have checked in iTunes to only download the checked songs, so my One to One teacher had no idea how this happened and I do not know how the 3rd copy happened but the 1st copy and the 2nd copy I think happened because the first time I downloaded my songs, which are all in iTunes from the Cloud and the next day I plugged my phone into my MBP and opened itunes and "Synced" the songs. For some reason the iPhone downloaded all the songs again, even know the day before I downloaded them from the Cloud. Confusing? Not sure I am explaining it, but I will get it sorted out.

Thanks!!

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with the duplicate songs, but the Genius Bar will sort that out.