President Obama Statement on Gaddafi’s Death

U.S. President Barack Obama is statement he made at 2 p.m. ET in the Rose Garden of the White House about the killing of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Reports of Gaddafi’s death began circulating Thursday, October 20, 2011 but the U.S. government has not yet confirmed it.
Obama made a similar televised statement to announce the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Thursday October 20, 2011

"Good afternoon everybody.

Today the government of Libya announced the death of Moamarra Gaddifi. This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine there own destiny in a NEW and democratic Libya. For four decades the Gaddafi regine ruled the people of Libya with an iron fist. Basic human rights were denied, innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed and Libya's wealth was squandered. Enormous potential of the Libyan people was held back and terror was used as a political weapon.

Today we can definitively say that the Gaddafi regime has come to an end. The last major regime strongholds have fallen. The new government is consolidating control over the country and one of the worlds longest serving dictators is no more.

One year ago the notion of a free Libya seemed impossible. But then the Libyan people rose up and demanded there rights and when Gaddafi and his forces started going city to city, town by town to brutalize men women and children the world refused to stand ideally by. Faced with the potential of mass atrocities and a call for help from the Libyan people the United States and our friends and allies stopped Gaddafi's forces in there tracks. A coalition that included the United States, NATO, and Arab nation's persevered through the summer to protect Libyan civilians and meanwhile the courageous Libyan people fought for there own future and broke the back of the regime.

So this is a momentous day in the history of Libya. The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted and with this enormous promise the Libyan people now have a great responsibility to build an inclusive and tolerate and democratic Libya that's stands as the ultimate rebuke to Gaddafi's dictatorship. We look forward to the announcement of the couturiers liberation and the quick formation of an interim government and a stable transition to Libya's first free and fair elections and we call on our Libyan friends to continue to work with the international community to secure dangerous materials and to respect the human rights of ALL Libyans including those that have been detained.

Were under no illusions, Libya will travel a long and winding road to full democracy. There will be difficult days ahead. But the United States together with the international community is committed to the lybian people. You have WON your revolution. and now we will be a partner as your forge a future that provides dignity, freedom and opportunity.

For the regime today's events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably come to an end. Across the Arab world citizens have stood up to claim there rights. Youth are delivering a powerful rebuke to dictatorship and those leaders who try to deny there human dignity will NOT succeed.

For us here in the United States we are reminded today of our those Americans that we lost at the hands of  Gaddafi's terror. There families, friends are in our thoughts and in our prayers. We recall there bright smiles, there extraordinary lives and there tragic deaths. We know that nothing can close the wound of there loss but we stand together as a nation by there side. For nearly eight months many Americans have provide extraordinary service in support of our efforts to protect the Libyan people and to provide them a chance to determine there own destiny. Our skilled diplomats have helped to lead an unprecedented global response. Our brave pilots have flown in Libyan sky's. Our sailors have provided support off liybias shores and our leadership at NATO has helped guide our coalition.  Without putting a single US serviceman on the ground, we achieved our objectives and our NATO mission will soon come to an end.

This comes at a time when we see the strength of American leaders across the world. We've taken out Al-Qaeda leaders and we put them on the path to defeat. Were winding down the war in Iraq and begun a transition in Afghanistan and now working in Libya with friends and allies we demonstrative what collective action can achieve in the 21st century.

Of course above all today belongs to the people of Libya. This is a moment for them to remember all those who suffered and were lost under Gaddafi and look forward to the promise of a new day and I know the American people wish the people of Libya the very best in what will be a challenging but hopeful days, weeks, months and years ahead.

Thank-you very much."

I'll Chime.iN - My Review & BRIEF chat with Bill Gross

UPDATE: 10/20/11- The new social site Chime.in is DOWN again. It started a little before 8pm edt. The site wont even load. At first got an error message :We couldn't find this user. We wonder what he is doing and where he is". Obvious Chime is having MAJOR growing pains. Will keep you informed!
There is a NEW social media site that has entered the market to attract your attention and compete with the likes of FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, MySpace, Reddit....Am I missing anyone?

It's called www.Chime.in: "Connect around your interests"

What is it? This is how they describe it on there web site;

"At Chime.in we’re building the world’s richest interest network. A place to learn and share with others who have the same interests. Where one day, your every interest, no matter how big or small, serious or silly, will have its own vibrant community of people who are just as passionate about it as you are.

Our goal is to be the most democratic publishing platform in social media. So, we’re building in tools to give everyone a bigger voice: analytics on your posts and followers, ways to connect people with the most relevant and quality content, and, eventually, ways to monetize your content with partners."

 

(Chime.in is part of UberMedia (www.ubermedia.com), the world’s leading independent developer of feature-rich social media products that make it easy to publish, consume and engage, no matter who you are.)

It comes from the folks at UberMedia founded in 2010 by Chief Executive Officer Bill Gross. Bill is also the CEO of Idealab, where he has started over 75 companies.

When Twitter suspended UberTwitter on February 18, 2011, owned by UberMedia, for violations "including, but aren't limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users' Tweets in order to make money." (In my opinion Twitter did the same thing that Apple did, STOP USING OUR NAME.) CEO Bill Gross changed the name to UberSocial, complied with Twitters concerns and was back up and running with this popular App in 2 days.

 Now comes Chime.in

I joined as soon it became available on Tuesday October 18, 2011. I was exploring it and getting familiar with it's many features when all of a sudden I got this screen→

Seemed that so many new people have signed up the system crashed. At first I thought it was something I did,getting tossed of the site. But through other social media found out it was truly down.

I quickly took to the other social sites an Tweeted this,

"The NEW Start Up by @Bill_Gross http://www.chime.in CRASHED on first night in operation....."

Never gave it another thought. I was actually having fun on it and surmised that it must be traffic congestion.

But to my surprise hours latter I get a Tweet response from the man himself @Bill_Gross "@UBtalkin We got huge surge in traffic at http://www.chime.in , but we think we've fixed it now. Would love to hear what you think. How can we improve?

My response, @Bill_Gross I REALLY love it! It's got a little of Everything from ALL the other social media sites! Will continue to test & let u KNOW!

  

He responded; @UBtalkin Thanks. We're trying to make something that is more engaging and more relevant. That's challenging, but we think we have a shot.

A shot?! I think so. To take time to interact with the same people you are depending on to use the site and help it grow is smart business savoy!

 My first quick review:

Chime Post Screen

www.Chime.in has "Followers" & "Following" like the others sites do except they also have "interest's" where you can see specific topics on a wide rage of subjects others have posted without having to "Follow" that person and even comment on it as well.
You can also create or join a specific community "Interest" and post/comment into that.

You can see chimes from people you are following, if someone has mentioned you, your sent and saved chimes by just clicking a button.

Chime Poll

The chime post screen is easy to use. It has an Headline area up to 200 caricatures and a text area up to 2,000 caricatures. WOW!

You can Chime a Link, Photo, Video or just a thought and sub catorgory it to up to 5 interests separated by commas for better exporsure of your chime. One feature I love is how easy it is to create a Poll.

Posts then can Like it, Share it and comment on it up to 200 caricatures even if your NOT following that person.

It has a Popular section of the most "Liked" chimes, media, links and polls for quick access to see what's the best of the best.

It has a Notifications section to see My Chimes: See who's liked, commented on or shared your Chimes.

My Activity: Updates on Chimes you've liked, shared or commented on. New to Chime.in:  Friends from your other social networks who just joined Chime.in. and Network Activity: See what the people in your network are doing.

You can Browse Users: From the  Popular People to New to Chime.in or Search People by name, interests or bio.

In the Settings: section you can edit your Profile Settings: Customize your profile Account Settings Change your Chime.in account information Notification Settings: Set your preferences for receiving notifications and even Edit Following: Manage the people you follow.

 All of these features are conveniently accessible from the toolbar at the top of the screen.  

Some downside. The profile section is pretty sparse. There's not much you can do except your name, small bio, website, location and add a background and profile picture. Who's following you, who your following, your interest and communities and shared media. I would like to see this expanded and improved on.Also the Time. Everything is in west coast time. No matter where you are or whatever you do it will show the time as Pacific time zone. This can get very confusing.There's a lot going on. I'm sure I've missed something that I haven't discovered yet. This can be a good thing or a bad thing as users might just get too confused or frustrated in trying to navigate everything.  Posting: When you post something the only option is to ALL Followers. I haven't found a way to send something or mention a specific follower or even a non-Follower even though it says "add recipients". In the comments section you can, but NOT in the main posting. At least I haven't found out how.Also the Help Section or "Lack of Help". There is really nothing there to help you.
There is one feature I can't wait till they include. Revenue sharing. 

Chime.in, plans to sell ads on behalf of users’ posts, giving them 50 percent of the revenue, or will allow them to sell their own ads and keep all the revenue.

“I never thought there would be an opportunity as big as keywords,” Gross said in an interview last week. “But social signals are so much stronger than search terms.”


“The biggest example of success is blogs and Google AdSense and Federated Media,” Gross said — where bloggers build up their own audience and then layer on advertising.
  
Conclusion: Chime.in has great potential and expandability.  The potential of sharing revenue is titillating. To survive in this Social Media jungle one must distinguish themselves apart from the others. As of right now I think they are on the right path.

STAY TUNED! and CHIME.IN

Born on October 17 Happy Birthday - EMINEM &.......

"Uncle" Bill...

Yes ME!

Today is my birthday and I just noticed on twitter it is also Marshall Bruce Mathers III a.k.a. Eminem. I never knew that till today. He shares MY birthday, I got him by a "Few" years. So I thought it would be interesting to see who else was born on the same day, October 17, as me and Marshall.

Here is a short list of those I could find that everyone should know. If you know of anyone else, please leave a comment.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ALL!

Matthew Macfadyen: Actor, (1974) is an English actor, known for his role as MI5 intelligence officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks (also known as MI-5) and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice.
In June, 2010 Macfadyen won a BAFTA Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Eminem: Rapper/Actor; (1972) .a.k.a.Marshall Bruce Mathers III , is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number one albums on the Billboard 200. He has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 39.6 million albums in the United States alone.

Rita Hayworth Actress, (1918)  Margarita Carmen Cansino was born in New York on October 17, 1918 into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo was a dancer as was his father before him. He immigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita's mother met Eduardo in 1916 and were married the following year. Rita, herself, was trained as a dancer in order to follow in her family's footsteps.

Margot Kidder Actress, (1948) Born Margaret Ruth Kidder to Jill Kidder and Kendall Kidder, a mining engineer, in Yellowknife, Canada, on October 17, 1948, Margot was a delightful child who took pride in everything she did. At an early age she became aware of the great emotions she felt towards expressing herself, and caught the acting bug. best known for playing Lois Lane in the four Superman movies opposite Christopher Reeve, a role that brought her great fame.


Michael McKean Actor, (1947) actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap.

Montgomery Clift Actor,  (1920) Monty was born just after his twin sister Roberta and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. Their father William made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. Their mother Ethel "Sunny" was born out of wedlock and spent much of her life and the family fortune finding her illustrious southern lineage and raising her children as aristocrats...

George Wendt Actor, (1948) George Wendt was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He attended a strict Jesuit prep school and then dropped out of Notre Dame University after a few uneventful years. He worked with the Windy City's famed Second City comedy troupe from 1974-1980. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the hit televison series Cheers.

Norm MacDonald Actor, (1963) Norm MacDonald was born on October 17, 1963, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He began his career in stand-up comedy. MacDonald's first job was writing for The Dennis Miller Show and then Roseanne. While writing for Roseanne, he was noticed by Lorne Michaels, who liked Norm's stand up, and gave him his job on Saturday Night Live. Also starred in the TV show My Name is Earl.


Jean Arthur Actress, (1900) This marvelous screen comedienne's best asset was only muffled during her seven years' stint in silent films. That asset? It was, of course, her squeaky, frog-like voice, which silent-era cinema audiences had simply no way of perceiving, much less appreciating. Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna Greene in upstate New York...

Arthur Asher Miller Playwright, (1915) was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (one-act, 1955; revised two-act, 1956).
Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, a period during which he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was married to Marilyn Monroe.

Beverly Garland Actress, (1926) was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, "Barbara Harper Douglas", in the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons (a role she played from 1969 until the series ended in 1972 and for which she is mostly identified). In the 1980s, she co-starred as Kate Jackson's widowed mother, "Dotty West", in the television series Scarecrow and Mrs. King, on CBS. She also had a recurring role as Ginger Jackson on The WB Television Network series 7th Heaven.

Tom Poston Actor, (1921) was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950. He appeared as a comic actor, game show panelist, comedy/variety show host, film actor, television actor, and Broadway performer. Probably best know for his recurring guest star on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s. He later played the role of Franklin Delano Bickley on Mork & Mindy.

Wyclef Jean Musician, (1969) is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country. He first received fame as a member of the acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees. Along with being a world famous and highly respected performing artist, he is now a visiting fellow at Brown University in the Department of Africana Studies.



Alan Jackson Musician, (1958) is an American country music singer, known for blending honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista Nashville label. More than 50 of his singles have appeared on Billboard's list of the "Top 30 Country Songs". Of Jackson's entries, 35 were number-one hits, with 50 in the Top 10. He is the recipient of 2 Grammys, 16 CMA Awards, 17 ACM Awards and nominee of multiple other awards. Jackson is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Evel Knievel Stunt Performer, (1938), born Robert Craig Knievel, was an American daredevil and entertainer. In his career he attempted over 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, and in 1974, a failed jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket. The 433 broken bones he suffered during his career earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of "most bones broken in a lifetime." Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.

Dan Wheldon - Autopsy Details & Funeral (photos/video)

Indycar Drivers carry Dan (ap)

UPDATE: 10/22/11 Today two time Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon's funeral took place at 10:00am at First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Among the Pallbearers were Indycar drivers Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. 

Dan's Father(r),Wife(c)&Her Father (ap)

Wheldon's business manager, Adrian Sussman, reminded the gathering of how suddenly Wheldon's death had disrupted the lives of those who loved him.

Ashley Judd (splash news)

"Three years ago I thought I had the toughest job in the world when Dan and Susie asked me to give the best man speech at their wedding," Sussman said. "I was wrong. Our hearts have never been so heavy."

Danica Patrick (splash news)

Wynona Judd sang two hymns at the funeral for racer Dan Weldon. Her sister, Ashley Judd, is married to racer Dario Franchitti who was a pallbearer.


UPDATE: 10/17/11  An autopsy on Monday has determined that Dan Wheldon died of blunt force trauma to the head.
The 33-year-old Wheldon was pronounced dead at 1:54 p.m. Sunday at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was flown by medical helicopter after the crash at the track about 19 kilometers (12 miles) away.

After an autopsy, Murphy ruled the death an accident, the result of blunt trauma to the head due to a motor vehicle collision, and offered condolences to friends and family of the married father of two from England.Wheldon was pronounced dead less than an hour after the fiery crash, which included 15 cars.

I love ALL sports. I, as I've said, will watch anything. But my favorite has and always will be RACING. Nascar, Formula1, Indycar all of them.
On Sunday October 16, 2011, Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after his car became ensnarled in a fiery 15-car pileup on Lap 12, flew over another vehicle and landed in a catch fence just outside turn 2. Dan Wheldon was airlifted from the track to University Medical Center but to no avail.

Oct. 16, 2011, in Las Vegas. (Credit: AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Randy Bernard, IndyCar CEO, came into the press room about two hours later, after his colleagues were told of his death and made the following statement;

"INDYCAR is sad to announce that Dan Wheldon passed away from unsurvivable injuries. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dan and his family. INDYCAR, its drivers and teams have decided to end the race. We will run a five-lap salute in honor of Dan."

The race cancelled, drivers, many sobbing openly, took part in a five-lap salute around the oval in honour of one of the sport's biggest stars.

Drivers were fearful of this as many raised concerns of the great speeds, over 225 miles per hour, they were attaining on the only 1.5 mile oval at Las Vegas.

“Within five laps people were starting to do crazy stuff. I want no part of it. This is not a suitable track,” Scottish driver Dario Franchitti said.
Pole-sitter Tony Kanaan labelled it a “potential for disaster”.
“You always worry about that at these speeds on a mile and a half (oval),” Power’s team owner Roger Penske told ESPN.
"We all had a bad feeling about this place in particular just because of the high banking and how easy it was to go flat. And if you give us the opportunity, we are drivers, and we try to go to the front. We race each other hard because that's what we do," driver Oriol Servia said. "We knew it could happen, but it's just really sad."

Go-Daddy race car driver Danica Patrick said she was "easing off the throttle" something that race car drivers don't ever want to do but as she said she thought things were getting a little bit crazy and that she felt very uncomfortable and wanted to give herself more breathing space.

Wheldon was expected to replace Danica Patrick next season in the Go-Daddy-sponsored car for Andretti Autosport. Patrick is moving to NASCAR full-time in 2012.
 

Wheldon married his long-time personal assistant, Susie Behm, in 2008. They had 2 sons: Sebastian, who was born in February 2009, and Oliver, born in March 2011. The family lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. All was at his side at the hospital when he passed away.

Dan was writing a blog for USA Today leading up to the race. He wrote; "This is going to be an amazing show," Wheldon wrote. "The two championship contenders, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, are starting right next to each other in the middle of the grid. Honestly, if I can be fast enough early in the race to be able to get up there and latch onto those two, it will be pure entertainment. It's going to be a pack race, and you never know how that's going to turn out."

The accident spoiled what Bernard had hoped would be a showcase event for the struggling IndyCar Series.
The second-year CEO worked the entire season on turning the finale into a spectacle and said he'd offer his resignation to the IndyCar board of directors if ABC's broadcast didn't pull a .8 ranking. His goal was to improve upon last year's season finale's horrible television rating and give the series some momentum for what's hoped to be a strong season in 2013 with the introduction of a new car and new manufacturers.
So Bernard poured everything into Las Vegas, renting the speedway from owner Bruton Smith and agreeing to promote the event himself. He landed enough sponsorship to at least break even on the race, and the $5 million challenge bought him an enormous amount of publicity the entire year.
The  $5-million challenge to any driver not competing in the series who won the Las Vegas race, dubbed the IZOD IndyCar World Championships together with one lucky fan.

It is a very dangerous sport. Some say that it is meaningless, crazy, way too dangerous and should be done away with. They said that after Nascar great Dale Earnhardt lost his life at Daytona on February 18, 2001. They will say it again now.
The sport has come a long way in safety. They have the best doctors and medical teams in the world that just travel with each racing organization there to help when needed. It's not perfect, nothing is.  

Dan Wheldons Indycar Racing Career:

Years		Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)**		Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
10		133	5	16	27		2 (2005, 2011)	1 (2005)

iOS5-Trouble iPhone Battery Drained Problems

IT APPEARS APPLE HAS IT'S HEAD IN THE CLOUDS! 


UPDATE: 11/15/11- Apple’s iOS 5.0.1 update evidently addressed some, but not all of the battery issues troubling iPhone users. In a statement issued moments ago, the company acknowledged there may still be a few problems that need troubleshooting. “The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” the company said in a statement. “We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”


UPDATE:10/13/11- Apple customers are complaining that iCloud, one of the key features of the new iOS5 mobile operating system launched on Wednesday, is not working properly. On the Apple support system icloud status page you get these two mesages:(iCloud: Account - Users Affected: Some) "Users may experience intermittent slowness when signing in to iCloud. Normal service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience."(10/13/2011 09:55 PDT) and this; "Some users are experiencing intermittent authentication errors when trying to use mail. Normal service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience."(iCloud: Mail & Notes - Users Affected: Some 10/13/2011 09:58 PDT)
Numerous reports, including users of Apple's existing online service MobileMe attempting to migrate to iCloud, are seeing a blank screen and error messages asking them to try again later. Others having problems after installing OS X and trying to enable iCloud. 

SOLUTIONS: FIRST be patient. My best advice is to wait till the traffic has cleared. Let the others who want to be first wait in a LONG line. It's NOT going anywhere. SECOND: After installing OS X 10.7.2 and enabled the new iCloud services a number of users have found that the system is displaying a Guest User account at the log-in window. Upon clicking on this the system will show a warning that states the system will restart into a Safari-only mode for the guest user, and if any accounts are currently logged in then they will be forced to log out and may lose unsaved work.
To solve this: Cnet has the solution which you can find here→THE FIX!!

Today was the day, October 12, 2011, that Apple released there new operating system the iOS 5. UNFORTUNATELY many users are having MAJOR problems in downloading the update as Apple's servers obvoiuly can NOT handle the massive demand for the new system


If you have an older iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, you can upgrade it to Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 5.

So, too, can iPad and iPad 2 owners, and those with a third or fourth generation iPod Touch. Note that many people are reporting problems with the iOS 5 installation; the following covers the basic procedure as it's supposed to go.

To get iOS 5, the first order of business is to update to iTunes 10.5.→ Open iTunes and then click iTunes > Check for Updates to install version 10.5. 

←Once iTunes is up-to-date, connect your iOS device. 

If you aren't prompted automatically to start downloading iOS 5, select your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch under the Devices header in the left-hand column and click Check for Update. 

A pop-up window will appear,→ alerting you that a new iOS version is available for your device. Click the Download and Update button. (Or, if you are going to need your phone in the near future, opt for the Download Only button to download it now and install later. iOS 5 is a 668.8MB download for the iPhone, which could take an hour or more, depending on your connection and the amount of traffic hitting Apple's servers.)

←Click through the next three screens to start the download. If you want to see its progress, click Downloads under the Store header in the left-hand column of iTunes. It shows you the estimated time remaining and how many megabytes have been downloaded.

Once the download completes, the installation will begin automatically if you chose the Download and Update option. Once iOS 5 is installed, you'll need to hop through a few setup screens on your device before it's ready to use. You'll be asked to enable location services, sign in with your Apple log-in, enter your birthday, agree to terms and conditions, set up iCloud, and enable Find My iPhone. 
 
On an iPhone 3GS, it looks like this: 
You phone may be different.

(SEE PICTURES)

Apple says that iOS 5 includes more than 200 new features.Lets look at the top 10! 

1- Notifications Center: No longer interrupts, Now an animated on top can touch to go, single place combines ALL, Get to it by swiping finger from top downward. And the Lock screen displays notifications so you can act on them with just a swipe. Notification Center is the best way to stay on top of your life’s breaking news.

YouTube,Contacts Integrated.

2-Newsstand: Subscribed PAID service in App store.Read all about it. All in one place. iOS 5 organizes your magazine and newspaper app subscriptions in Newsstand: a folder that lets you access your favorite publications quickly and easily. There’s also a new place on the App Store just for newspaper and magazine subscriptions. And you can get to it straight from Newsstand. 

3-Twitter: iOS 5 makes it even easier to tweet from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Sign in once in Settings, and suddenly you can tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps. Want to mention or @reply to a friend? Contacts applies your friends’ Twitter usernames and profile pictures. So you can start typing a name and iOS 5 does the rest. You can even add a location to any tweet, no matter which app you’re tweeting from.

4-Safari: Reader tap on button, E-Mail contents of story, Reading List Save story and read it latter, Tabbed Browsing. Safari Reader displays web articles sans ads or clutter so you can read without distractions. Reading List lets you save interesting articles to peruse later, while iCloud keeps your list updated across all your devices.

5-Reminders: Store list of things, Dates, Locations, Sync with iCal & Microsoft Exchange. Next time you think to yourself, “Don’t forget to...,” just pull out your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and jot it down. Reminders lets you organize your life in to-do lists — complete with due dates and locations. Say you need to remember to pick up milk during your next grocery trip. Since Reminders can be location based, you’ll get an alert as soon as you pull into the supermarket parking lot.

6-Camera: Lock Screen shortcut for quick access even with passcode, use volume-up button to take picture, optional grid lines, pinch to zoom, AE/AF lock with finger touch, edit photos on your device.Use grid lines, pinch-to-zoom gestures, and single-tap focus and exposure locks to compose a picture on the fly.

7-Mail: Adding rich text formatting, Indentation control, dragable a dresses, flag messages, search entire message on device and in mail center, for iPad swipe to inbox, added support for S/Mime.

8-PC Free: If you want to cut the cord-You Can, Now more sync to Mac or Pc through iTunes, activate on device, software updates over the air, Delta updates just downloading what has changed.

9-Game Center: Adding Photo's, Achievement points, friends of friends & discovery game downloads, turn-based game support.

10-iMessage: Now supporting iPad & iPod Touch as well as iPhone, text,photo's,video,contacts,group message NEW - Delivery Receipts, Read Receipts, Typing Indications, Pushed to ALL Devices, 3G & Wi-Fi, Secure encrypted.


And of course Apple's iCloud in the sky!

SO WAS IT WORTH THE WAIT AND THE DOWNLOAD HORRORS?