Apple iOS 5 Features & Availability

Day 1 of Apple WWDC 2011 has commenced. And Apple has announced iOS 5, iCloud & Mac OS X Lion. Pretty much the things that were rumored to be released. But Apple didn’t announce the next generation iPhone this year.

iOS 5 Features & Availability

Features

iOS 5 includes more than 200 new features including a brand-new notifications system, and system-wide Twitter integration.

Notifications Center

In the current iOS, notifications pop up while surfing, watching videos and even while playing games. In iOS 5, Notifications don’t interrupt you and disappear quickly. With Notification Center, you can keep track of all your notifications in one place. You can configure which notifications you want to see. This new notifications concept is based on the Jailbreak tweak, MobileNotifier. The developer of MobileNotifier was recently hired by Apple, hence the change.

Apple has taken the Android approach in iOS 5 for all notifications. Notifications appear after swiping the top of the screen. When you get a notification, it pops in from the top with a different color so it’s not missed, and if not addressed it disappears with a rotating-cube transition. Also weather and stock updates are now nested in the notifications tray for quick access, and it updates by location automatically.

iMessage

iMessage is built on the concept of RIM’s BBM. iMessage is integrated into the Messages app on the iPhone and the iPad. With iMessage, you can send unlimited text messages over 3G/Wi-fi to anyone who has iMessage on their device. You can send text, photos, videos & contacts. Group messaging is also enabled.

Newsstand

iOS 5 organizes all your newspapers and subscriptions in the Newsstand. Newsstand is a folder which lets you access your publications quickly. When iOS 5 launches in the fall, there will be a new section of the App Store for newspapers and magazines with subscriptions.

Reminders

Reminders lets you organize to-do lists, complete with due dates and locations. Priority sorting of tasks is also available in this new app. Reminders also works with iCal, Outlook, and iCloud, so changes you make update automatically on all your devices and calendars.

Twitter

Twitter is integrated right into the iOS 5. You can now tweet from within Apple’s native apps: Safari, Youtube, Photos, etc. The “Tweet” button is located under the sharing pane. You can log into Twitter from System Preferences. It’s a single log in.

Camera

Apple has updated the native Camera app in iOS 5. Now you can use the volume up button to snap photos. In addition to snapping pics and vids, the iPhone gets an option to lock focus and exposure by holding down on a part of the image. Zoom controls are now activated via pinch-to-zoom, which makes sense but feels a lot more sensitive than the previous tap-and-drag method. With iCloud, you can share your photos to other iDevices.

Photos

In iOS 5, it’s possible to crop, rotate, enhance, and remove red-eye without leaving the Photos app. You can even organize the photos in folders from the device directly, no need to sync via a computer. Also, you can quickly jump straight to the camera even if your iPhone is locked by double tapping the home button.

Safari

The updated Safari gives the feature of Tabbed browsing for the iPad. Tabs can be re-ordered by holding and dragging them sideways, and Safari appears to cache pages when not active so you don’t have to reload them when you switch back and forth. The new Safari also brings the Reader feature, displaying a website’s content in an easy text only view. Users can also bookmark content onto a “Reading List” for later reading or sharing over iCloud.

PC Free

With iOS 5, you no longer need a computer to activate and set up your iPhone, iPod or iPad. The device can be set up wirelessly. iOS updates can be downloaded OTA. Also, restoring the device is now easier through iCloud. No need to plug in into iTunes to restore your iDevice.

Other Enhancements

iOS 5 also boasts Wireless Sync feature. You can sync wirelessly to iTunes now. Also, the Mail app has received great features. Text can now be formatted using bold, italic and underline. Multi-tasking gestures are now available on the iPad.

Availability

iOS 5 is the most advanced available Mobile Operating System. It will be available this fall along with iCloud. Apple has already seeded the beta version to the developers for testing. You can sign up for email notification to let you know when Apple seeds out iOS 5 to regular users. Apple has also made available 1500 new APIs to the developers. iOS 5 will be available for iPhone 4 (GSM & CDMA), iPad 1 & 2, iPod Touch 3G & 4G.

[Images via Engadget & Apple]

Tagged as: announcements, apple wwdc 2011, icloud, ios 5, ios 5 availability, ios 5 features, mac os x lion