iOS 5 Available October 12 (that's next week!!)

On Tuesday Apple announced the October 12 launch of iOS 5—a free upgrade for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd and 3rd generation, iPad and iPad 2 and a standard feature on iPhone 4S. iOS 5 will include over 200 new features, and Scott Forstall—senior vice president of iOS software—gave an overview of the top ten new and enhanced iOS 5 apps:

Notifications
All of your notifications—from email and text messages to social media updates—will be housed in one location that you can access by swiping down from the top of the screen in any app or on the home screen. New notifications will be briefly displayed at the top of the screen in apps so as not to interrupt whatever you’re doing when they arrive. You’ll also be able to swipe to notifications from the Lock Screen.

iMessage
Send unlimited text messages to other iOS 5 users from your device via Wi-Fi or 3G. iMessage will support photo, video, location and contacts as well. Messages will be synced to all your devices so you can seamlessly switch from one device to another during a conversation.

Reminders
This brand-new app will help you organize your life with to-do lists that integrate with iCal, Outlook and iCloud. Location-based reminders will alert you to to-do items when you when you’ve reached the point where you want to be reminded. iPhone 4S users will be able to use Siri’s voice recognition capability to set reminders.

Twitter integration
Now you’ll only have to sign into Twitter once—in Settings—and you’ll be able to Tweet from multiple apps, including Camera, Safari and Maps.

Newsstand
Organize your newspaper and magazine subscriptions so you can access them from one location. Subscribe to a publication on the App Store and it will automatically be directed to Newsstand and updated when a new issue drops.

Camera
Accessing Camera will be easier than ever in iOS 5 because you can open the app right from the Lock screen. The volume-up button will function as a shutter button for added usability.

Game Center
A number of new features will be available in Game Center, including friend recommendations, new game notifications and enhanced opponent score information.

Safari
Enhancements to the built-in browser will include Reader, which allows for easier reading of articles, and Reading List, where you can save articles to read later (saved articles will be synced across your devices via iCloud). Tabbed browsing in Safari will be available on iPad.

Mail
Text formatting, flagging, mailbox creation deletion, search features and more will be available in Mail. Plus, you’ll be able to create a free email account that iCloud syncs across your devices.

PC Free
Device activation, software updates, back ups and more will no longer require syncing your device to your computer. (This is huge!)

According to Forstall, Apple has seeded iOS 5 to 100,000+ developers who “love it,” and we’re sure we will too! Visit apple.com/ios for more details.