Apple on Thursday released a software update for its iOS 5 operating system to fix complaints on the performance of the new iPhone 4S battery. Apple, after facing complaints on the new phone's short battery life, had promised earlier to release an update to address the issue.

Besides fixing bugs affecting battery life, the update also adds multitasking gestures for the original iPad, resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud and improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation, according to Apple.

On the security front, Apple patched five vulnerabilities and also revoked the digital certificates of a Malaysian CA (certificate authority). Another notable patch was for the bug discovered earlier this year by security researcher Charlie Miller, who had found a software flaw in Apple 's iPhones and iPads may allow hackers to build apps that secretly install programs to steal data, send text messages or destroy information.

To get the iOS update, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad owners have to go into their "Settings" app, select "General" and then select "Software Update." From there, the device will ping Apple to see whether an update is available -- and it should be available for everyone at this point -- and then the iOS 5.0.1 prompt appears.