how do you change the iOS 5 tabs back to the page of previews

I don't think that you can - iOS 5 uses tabbed browsing and not the thumbnails/pages view of the old iOS versions

Are you referring to the new tabs in Safari for the iPad in iOS 5? If so, you cannot change it back. That is the way that Safari on the iPad will now work.

I'd like to know the answer to this as well. Does everyone at apple have tiny thumbs? Th tab close button is right below the back button. I've accidentally closed the page I was viewing 10 times in the past hour...time to switch to opera.

I don't tabs at all on the iPad. Previously, If you were comparing several items you could display up to 9 little windows and easily jump back and forth between them. With tabs, you have no idea which item is on which tab - especially if you have several windows open because the tab gets smaller and smaller with each window you open. Are you supposed to memorize which tab a particular item is on? There should be an option to change the view.

If it's something that you'd like then try leaving feedback for Apple : http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

These new tabs are useless for those with low vision too, bring back thumbnails, better still give us top sites that we can lock in, as we do on the Mac.

You can't, I think tabbed browsing on iPad is a pro not a con.

I did not expect to like it, but after using it for a day, i like this better than the old preview style. I wish they would do this on the phone. It is easier for me to bounce back and forth from the tabs than to call up the previews, find which one i wanted, then pick it, then go back thru the process again to get back to where i was.

I have sympathy with the low vision comment, but i am more or less dependant of readers now any way. One suggestion, when you are sure you are done with a tab, close it. Keeps the others you are using a little bigger and easier to see and hit.

I also wish I could return to the thumbnail view. At the very least, I would have thought the option would have been available. Perhaps it will be...in the next update.

I agree...Users revolt! Give us the old Safari thumbs back.

I personally like the new safari better. It reminds me of tabbed browsing on my Mac. I wish they would just add the top sites thumbnail thing. That would be even better.

I hate the tabs and would revert back to the old iOS if I could just to get the old Safari back. I often keep websites open that I want to revisit later, and being able to look at the preview to remember what it was was very helpful... now I have to flip through the tabs, wait for the pages to load, and look at the content in order to figure out if that's the page I want or not. To me this really negatively impacts my entire iPad experience. Hopefully there is another browser I can download that has the old functionality, and hopefully Apple listens to these complaints and gives users the option to go back. I complained to Apple... hopefully they listen like they did when they gave us the screen lock button back.

ICab-Mobile still has the "page preview" tabs (as well as new school tabs). It had been sitting unused at a far away homescreen, but since the 5.0 upgrade it moved to the taskbar.

The plane fact is that anytime some geek in a cube (GIC)removes a long standing feature, it's wrong. GICs should never dictate, they should only accommodate. GICs are not just programmers but managers too. Having been a GIC for 30 years, both programmer and manager, it was always my policy to insure this sort of foolishness was never released into the field.