Apple releases Find My Friends and Airport Utility apps

 

In anticipation of today's public launch of iOS 5, Apple has already made the new Find My Friends and Airport Utility apps available on the App Store. 

 

While the Airport Utility app is probably the most useful, most users will be more impressed with the Find My Friend app's ability to let you track your friends' location on a map and share your own. Perhaps most useful for parents that want to check up on the whereabouts of their children, but nonetheless this app could be the groundwork for a location-based social network of sorts. Most users should be able to get the app directly through the App Store, but if it hasn't gone live just yet you can visit iCloud.com on your iOS device and tap the direct link to install it. 

 

We've had the Airport Utility app's features on Mac OS X for quite some time, but now you can maange your Airport Express, Time Capsule base station, and Airport Extreme, right from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. From within the app, you'll be able to check on the status of your Apple wireless devices as well as perform firmware updates and other tasks. The Airport Utility app should hit the App Store any minute, but until then can be downloaded through your Settings app by navigating to Wi-Fi, tapping the small blue arrow next to your network, and selecting Manage This Network. 

 

Both Find My Friends and Airport Utility require iOS 5. 

 

Additionally, the Newsstand app store has gone live today and is now populated with a selection of publications and the iTunes in the Cloud portion of Apple's new iCloud service has rolled out internationally to Canada, Mexico, Spain, Ireland and elsewhere.