iOS 5 Announced for Fall Release

ByMike Moffit

Following its Lion announcement, Apple previewed iOS 5, the next major iteration of its mobile iOS operating system. Sporting a fall release, iOS 5 contains over 200 new features, several of which were highlighted at Monday’s WWDC keynote presentation. Additionally, the new mobile operating system integrates heavily with Apple’s simultaneously announced iCloud service. This inclusion will allow users to wirelessly sync their devices’ information—including full device backups—without the need to connect to a computer when the service debuts this fall. Among the features presented, the following stand out the most:

Notification Center:

Notification Center offers a much needed solution to the notification problem identified by many users in previous versions of iOS. Alerts quickly appear at the top of the screen, and are then collated into a single menu. This menu can be conveniently accessed at any time by swiping down on a device’s screen. Additionally, notifications appear on the lock screen, providing easy access to their corresponding apps with a single tap.

Newsstand:

Borrowing heavily from iBooks, Newsstand works with the newly announced subscriptions portion of the App Store. From within the app—which works like a folder—users can easily view, manage and organize their subscriptions. Newsstand automatically updates in the background to ensure the most current edition of a given publication is available for offline viewing.

Safari:

Safari for iOS 5 introduces many highly requested features including tabbed browsing, Safari Reader—inspired by its OS X counterpart—and Reading List, an Instapaper like service for saving articles to read later.

Twitter Integration:

iOS 5 features system wide Twitter integration. This enables users to sign in once, and then tweet directly from 1st and 3rd party Twitter enabled apps. Though similar support is already featured in a variety of 3rd party apps, Apple has built Twitter support into its collection of 1st party offerings such as Camera, Safari, Maps and YouTube.

iMessage:

iMessage is a substantial reworking of the iPhone exclusive Messages app. Bringing support to iPad and iPod touch, iMessages allows all iOS 5 users to communicate with each other via text message, photo or video. Making use of Wi-Fi and 3G networks where applicable, conversations are pushed across devices. This means a conversation can be originated by an iPhone, and concluded later from an iPad over Wi-Fi.

Reminders:

Taking a cue from the myriad of 3rd party to-do list apps, Apple has created a task management app of its own, dubbed Reminders. This app enables users to create and group related tasks together; and set time or location-based reminder alerts, priorities and due dates, so you can be reminded of a task as its deadline approaches, or when you arrive or depart a given location.

Camera:

Making much needed updates to its default Camera app—which has been largely untouched since the debut of the original iPhone—Apple has listened to user feedback and modified the app accordingly. iOS 5 brings camera access to the lock screen by way of a double tap on the home button, volume-up shutter control, optional grid lines and many additional enhancements.

iOS 5 is slated for release this fall, and is compatible with the following devices:

  • iPhone 4
  • iPhone 3GS
  • iPad 2
  • iPad
  • iPod touch 4th gen.
  • iPod touch 3rd gen.

For more information on the features of iOS 5, click here.

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