For Apple users who have successfully slogged their way through update errors and torturous download times there’s been some not inconsiderable disappointment: the promised land might not be all that it was cracked up to be.

However, there really is more to iOS 7 then meets the eye (see below to read our tips to get the most of the update) and with reports of limited stock available for the iPhone 5s, it might be your best best to get your hands on the latest 'Apple experience'.

If you're yet to install the update and are curious about the changes then you can find it bynavigating from your Settings menu to General, then Software Update. The size of the download is roughly a gigabyte though, so it might be best to connect to Wi-Fi to avoid costly data charges.

(click here to read our guide to the major changes in iOS 7)

(click here to see our reviews of the iPhone 5c and 5s)

Navigate apps & flick-to-quit

In iOS 6 switching from app to app was achieved by double-tapping the home button and scrolling across a ticker bar of icons at the bottom of your screen. iOS 7 provides a full-screen update to this. You still double-tap the home button to see what’s running but you’re now presented with a scrollable gallery of app windows – simply find the app you need to close flick upwards to shut it down.

Also remember: when you’re viewing these apps, pressing the home button again will take you back to the app you were in, not to the home screen itself.

Double press the home button see what apps you've got running and swipe up on a screenshot to close the app; goodbye to London's weather!

Sleep easy

Although there might have been a couple of Apple fans who were caught out by the update (leaving the download on overnight meant that alarms didn't turn on this morning...) but iOS 7 allows quicker access to the iPhone's 'Do Not Disturb' function. Simple swipe up to access the Control Center (itself full of all sorts of handy toggles and quick access to the phone's flashlight and calculator) and press the Moon icon to silence all incoming calls and texts.

And for people who might want to let some calls get through in case of an emergency, you can create a list of exceptions by navigating to Settings, then Do Not Disturb and then adding contacts to Allow Calls From.

...and get better security

iPhones have always been prime targets for thieves but with iOS 7 Apple is giving owners more tools to fight back. Setting up the 'Find My iPhone' features is necessity for owners. First grab your Apple ID (the login you use for the App Store and iTunes) and then simply head to iCloud.com. Log in and then select the Find My iPhone icon to go through the setup.

Once this feature has been activated you'll have a range of options if your phone is lost or stolen. Head back to iCloud.com on a computer and log in to your account; from there you can remotely turn on GPS and figure out your phone's current location or (if GPS was on already) track where it's been. You can also chose to lock the device, erase its content, or even send a message to the screen.

The Find My iPhone app feels like a crime-fighting hub, hopefully it will help deter thieves.Shine a Spotlight on anything

Spotlight - Apple’s search engine for messages, apps and contacts - used to be found to the left of the homescreen on iOS 6. With iOS 7 it’s on every screen – just swipe downwards to load it up and find what you need. Somewhat annoyingly Apple has removed Spotlight’s capacity to search the internet (available in iOS 6) but with the newly empowered Siri, that’s not a terrible curse.

Find more with Siri

Siri, Apple’s personal assistant, is now on-hand to answer even more questions – as long as you know how to ask properly. Apple has always been good at keeping a big list of natural language commands for Siri, but it’s good to remind yourself of what you can ask. Set an alarm with the instruction “Wake me up at …” or a pen a quick reminder by saying “Remind me to …”.

New for iOS 7 Siri can also search Twitter or find pictures with the words “Find me images of …”.These search answers will now be returned from Bing, rather than Google, and although you can’t change the default search engine, you can use your provider of choice by prefacing your query with their name. Eg “Google what is happening in Syria” or “Yahoo what is happening in Egypt.”

As with iOS 6, hold down on the home button to bring up Siri and begin speaking to perform web searches; schedule reminders in your calendar; or find pictures and Tweets.

Manage your data

Apple has always taken flack for underestimating how much control some users want over their data and although iOS 7 isn't perfect, there are certainly more options to play with. iPhones have always tracked browsing habits in order to target ads to the user (the data is anonymised of course) but now Apple has made the option to disable this more apparent - just head over to Privacy and then select Advertising to find the toggle.

iOS 7 also now downloads updates and data for apps automatically. For example, if you click on a news app you won't have to wait to download the latest stories - your phone will have handled this in the background. However, this isn't the most data-friendly feature and so Apple is letting you decided on an app-by-app basis which will get automatic updates: head to Settings, General and then click on Background App Refresh to decided which will update.

From left to right: the toggles for which apps automatically update, accessed through Settings >> General; and then the Privacy settings which include the option to 'Limit Ad Tracking'.

Getting the balance right

How often have you been hanging a picture or putting up shelves only to throw up your hands in despair and ask ‘just where has my spirit level gone?’ Okay. Probably not ever, but swipe to the left on iOS 7’s Compass app and you’re presented with a solution: a super-minimalist bubble level. Simply place your iPhone on any surface and when the screen goes green, the surface is level.

From left to right - the newly designed compass app; swipe to the left to find the spirit level; then the far right screen shows the green light you get on flat surfaces.

And if you’re still missing iOS 6…

And for those of you who are finding the switch over just a little overwhelming, there’s a couple of options to bring the UI back to iOS 6. Text is a big part of the update and whilst Apple’s choice of font is certainly attractive (it’s reportedly their own variation of Helvetica Neue Ultralight) it can be tricky to read. Click Settings then Accessibility to activate ‘Bold Text’ – then restart your phone and voila, slightly chunkier text is yours. Whilst you’re there you can also choose to toggle ‘Reduce Motion’ to turn off the Parallax effect that gives the illusion of depth on the home screen
.

Longtime Nintendo president dies

Hiroshi Yamauchi, who built Nintendo from a small playing-card company into a global video-gaming empire before buying the Seattle Mariners, died Thursday in Japan. He was 85.

Yamauchi took over the company from his ailing grandfather as a university student in 1949 and ran it until 2002 -- a remarkable span of 53 years.

He guided Nintendo from its pre-electronic days as a maker of children's games through its emergence as the creator of hugely popular video-gaming platforms such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Game Boy, hit games such as "Donkey Kong," and iconic characters such as Mario, the mustachioed Italian plumber.

Nintendo confirmed the news Thursday in an e-mailed statement to media outlets. The company said Yamauchi died of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan.

Photos: People we lost in 2013

"The entire Nintendo group will carry on the spirit of Mr. Yamauchi by honoring, in our approach to entertainment, the sense of value he has taught us -- that there is merit in doing what is different -- and at the same time, by changing Nintendo in accordance with changing times," said current Nintendo President Satoru Iwata in a statement sent to CNN.

Forbes in April estimated Yamauchi's net worth at $2.1 billion, placing him 831st on its list of the world's richest billionaires.

After Yamauchi stepped down Nintendo had another blockbuster hit with its Wii motion-control gaming system, although the company's recent product launches have not fared so well.

Although not a baseball fan, Yamauchi bought a majority stake in the Seattle Mariners in 1992 to help keep the team in the Pacific Northwest when it looked like it might be relocated to Florida. He famously never saw the Mariners play live.

Apple promises to fix iOS 7 lock screen hack

A lock screen vulnerability in the new iOS 7 leaves users' e-mail, photos, Twitter, and other apps open to being used without permission.

The passcode lock screen on iOS 7 suffers from a bug that allows anyone with direct access to the iPhone or iPad to bypass the lock screen and open apps.

The bug, discovered by 36-year-old soldier Jose Rodriguez, who lives on the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain, is remarkably simple to exploit, reports Forbes. Swipe up from the lock screen to access the new Control Center, then open the alarm clock app.

The exploit has been tested successfully on iOS 7 when running on the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S, and the most recent iPad model.Hold the phone's sleep button, but instead of swiping to power down the phone, tap cancel and double-tap the home button to access the multitasking screen. From there, you can jump to the camera and share stored photos, which gives you access to the user's communication accounts such as e-mail, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment. However, an Apple spokesperson told Forbes and others that the company "takes security very seriously" and that it's "aware of this issue. We'll deliver a fix in a future software update."

Rodriguez has a knack for finding iOS lock screen hacks. Earlier this year he found vulnerabilities in the iOS 6.1.3 lock screen and a lock screen in a beta version of iOS 7. Apple fixed both, but this is a new one that he found "within an hour" of installing iOS 7 yesterday, Forbes wrote.

While many people probably appreciate Rodriguez's efforts because he discloses the hacks in a responsible manner, those who don't can breathe a sigh of relief: the soldier's new responsibilities, he tells Forbes, will keep him too busy to figure out ways to break the new version of iOS

No joke, iPhone 5S Touch ID faces hack bounty

Apple's new fingerprint sensor Touch ID becomes the focus of a hack bounty, but with a twist. Rewards include cash, but also a patent application, some Scotch, and a book of erotica.

The iPhone 5S won't hit the streets until tomorrow, but there's already more than $16,000 in cash offered to the first person to hack its Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

IsTouchIDhackedyet.com is the brainchild of Nick DePetrillo, an independent security researcher whose last major public research was 2010's Carmen San Diego Project.

At the time of writing, the overall bounty is valued at more than $16,000. The cash bounty stands at $14,609 in US dollars, two-thirds of which comes from one researcher, and 8.151159 BitCoin, which currently converts to US$1,021. Other incentives include a free application from CipherLaw to patent the hack; several bottles of alcohol including Laphroaig, Maker's Mark, Argentine wine, Patron Silver, and Bulleit bourbon; a "dirty sex book," and aniPhone 5C.Soon after DePetrillo promoted the Touch ID site on Twitter, he was joined by Robert David Graham, a security researcher at Errata Security who created one of the first personal firewalls, and most recently the sidejacking technique for "eavesdropping" on browser cookies. Graham manages the pledges and runs IsTouchIDHackedYet.com.

To earn the bounty, DePetrillo spelled the rules out on Twitter. He wants to see video evidence of a successful iPhone unlock with a copied fingerprint. The video must show evidence of the fingerprint enrollment, the lifting of the print, the print reproduction, and phone unlock using the print.

Apple's faster iPhone 5S features fingerprint scanner (pictures)

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Originally, Graham and DePetrillo believed that it would take a long time for the Touch ID sensor to get hacked. The rapidly-growing bounty, only two days old, has changed that.

"Now that it's up past $16,000, the problem may get solved sooner than we thought," Graham said. But, he said, Touch ID will be hacked independently of the bounty value.

"I'm guessing the amount of the bounty correlates more with how much press this gets, rather than the actual difficulty," he said. And difficult it is, they said, describing hacking the sensor as a "tough problem."

Apple, said the researchers, is probably enjoying the attention the sensor is getting. "I think Apple is quietly amused," said Graham. "I'm sure their engineers are confident in their abilities to address all conceivable weaknesses -- yet worried about inconceivable techniques hackers might come up with," he said.Apple did not respond immediately for comment. CNET will update the story when they get back to us.

The bounty site got started when DePetrillo invited Graham to manage the bounty. DePetrillo chose Graham, whose grandfather was a World War II code-breaker, because he's "trustworthy, honest, intelligent and quite handsome," he told CNET.

Once Graham put the first four bounties offered on the site, they started using the eponymous hashtag. The bounty resembles one from a few years ago, when Adafruit Industries offered a bounty to hack the Kinect's motion sensor.

Assuming the sensor does get hacked, Graham and DePetrillo will pay out the bounties they've offered immediately. However, it will be up to the winner to collect the bounties from everyone else. So, if you're the lucky hacker who can crack the Touch ID sensor, you might wind up more of a literal bounty hunter than you expected.

INTERNET HACKING
Netspionage Costing Billions
by Linda Lee, 18

Two years ago, a fifteen-year-old boy logged onto the Internet under the alias 'Comrade'. To some of us, our idea of hacking might include breaking into an email account or viewing confidential company information. However, no one expected that 'Comrade' would cause a three-week shutdown at NASA, steal government email passwords, intercept over 3000 emails and download close to $2 million worth of software used to operate the international space station. If that was not shocking enough, he had twice gained access to the computers used by the Pentagon to monitor threats of nuclear and biological warfare.

---

Computer hacking has been around for as long as we can remember - certainly as long as we have had a World Wide Web.

Occasionally, the news speaks of silly pranks which imply nothing more than a temporary shutdown of a website, although 'Comrades' hack forced a three-week shutdown for repairs and cost the U.S. government $41,000.

Recently, the case of the hackers tampering with the CIA's website, changing the title to 'Central Stupidity Agency' and filling it with obscenities was merely a nuisance for the agency. It posed no real threat because the CIA's files are inaccessible via that Internet site.

Undoubtedly, there are some who see humour in this - a civilian, probably not even a professional, outwitting an elite US agency.

Then there are more serious crimes, which are no laughing matter.In one case of corporate espionage, two 'heavy manufacturing' firms were bidding on a $900 million contract; one outbid the other by a fraction of a percent.
This was no co-incidence as the losing company later discovered that someone had broken into the company's computer network and accessed files that contained bidding strategy information.

In another case, authorities are chasing an individual who regularly hires U.S. teens to access confidential documents. One young hacker was paid $1,000 - and promised $10,000 more - for stealing design documents for kitchen appliances from U.S. firms.

Beyond selling the trade secrets to a company's competition, some hackers resort to extortion of the company. In Sweden, a 15 and 17 year old tried to extort $2 million from a cellular company to destroy information they had illegally downloaded.

Like most cases of extortion, the criminal's identity is especially difficult to trace and is magnified because of the nature of the Net.

When the Internet was gaining immense popularity, businesses were scrambling to secure domain names and using the technology to expand their market. Seeing e-commerce as an untapped goldmine, many were eagerly diving headfirst into a slew of problems, including security breaches.

Companies like eBay, Buy.com, Yahoo! Amazon and Excite were not prepared when 'Mafiaboy' decided to strike. The 16-year-old Montreal teen crippled their sites last year when he bombarded them with thousands of simultaneous messages, preventing legitimate users from gaining access. His five-day tirade caused an estimated $1.7 billion in damages.

These malicious and insidious attacks threaten security and cost companies and organizations billions of dollars. A survey of the Fortune 1000 companies in 1999 estimates a loss of $45 billion from information theft.

Of course, many organizations are taking extra security measures, including the usage of firewalls (a security mechanism that allows limited access to sites from the Internet).

Still, hackers will gain access. If a fifteen year old can shutdown NASA, what hope is there?

Recently, Ernst & Young, a major consulting and accounting firm, set up computer labs across North America which allow information security consultants to perform 'ethical hacks' to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a client's networks and systems.

By using existing hacker tools, they're fighting fire with fire.
'Ethical hackers' are being paid thousands of dollars to provide clients with clear evidence of how vulnerable their networks are to attacks that could compromise their most sensitive information.

This is proving an effective way of gauging the level of security within a system.

Hacking has become so prevalent that it is almost synonymous with the computer subculture. This "computer geek" culture is portrayed on television (X-files, the Lone Gunmen) and in movies (Hackers, Anti-Trust) as cynical and often self-righteous.

With that, there is a sense of rebellion against big business; the proverbial David struggling against a corporate Goliath. In many of these crimes, people do them to defy corporations or the government; money is not always the motive. However, it is an act that is still unacceptable that victimizes all who use the Internet.

Viruses, shutdowns, crashes and email hacking will be the burden of the user, a company's money lost to theft will be the burden of its customers and a government's money spent on security will be the burden of its citizens.

Is there anyone not affected by Internet crime? Nope.