I'm on holiday for a month! What would happen is I tried to install iOS from a friend's PC? I.e. because it's not my instance of iTunes would the installation wipe my iPhone / iPad or would I still have access to my apps and music?
Any advice guys?
You would do a backup first, install iOS 5, and then restore from the backup.
Doing this would give you the new OS, but all your music and videos would be gone as there would be no media you own on a friend's PC to sync to.
The good news is that you can re-download the iTunes bought music and video for free until such time that you got home. All over the air, so long as you have wi-fi it'll be quick.
Here's what's backed up (from Apple):
Backed-up information includes purchased music, TV shows, apps, and books*; photos and video in the Camera Roll; device settings (for example, Phone Favorites, Wallpaper, and Mail, Contacts, Calendar accounts); app data; Home screen and app organization; Messages (iMessage, SMS, and MMS), ringtones, and more. Media files synced from your computer aren’t backed up, but can be restored by syncing with iTunes.
BJ
