Apple operating system for iDevices – iOS5

The upgraded operating system, iOS5, will be made available in the “fall”, meaning our Spring of course.

Apple said iOS5 has more than 200 new features. Below are 10 highlights.

New features iOS5

Notifications –Available for more apps, easier to use. Notification centre combines all notifications in the one place. To bring up notification centre, swipe finger down from top to show missed calls, messages, scores, fb, etc. Notifications will no longer interrupt your game, movie, call etc. A notification at top of screen will show briefly.  Slide right on particular notification to open app to action/respond. In locked screen mode, you’ll see more of the notification (not just brief one line).

Newsstand – Subscriptions have been added, more newspapers and mags. When purchased they are reside in newsstand. Background downloads so if new issue arrives, it’ll be there next time you go in. Items can be read offline as well.

Twitter – Single sign on, saved to app store, don’t need to re sign in. Has been integrated with camera/photos, articles/web pages from safari, vids from YouTube, contacts (adds their photo from Twitter to your contact list (and their @twitter).  Hmm, hows this work with privacy?? I guess it’s a “share all” world we now live in.

Safari –

• Reader – Easy reading, (for eg) when reading an article in newspaper, tap reader (top) and you get a clean copy of that article in its entirety (without other ads, articles, ‘noise’). You can email & tweet it too.
• Reading List – save a webpage for reading later (saves to all devices & Mac).
• Tabbed browsing – new, easy nav, fast load.

Reminders – To Do List with reminders. Reminder by date, time, location via GPS (eg, reminder to call when leaving work, GPS activates when you leave and reminder comes up), searchable and will sync with iCal, Cal and Outlook (via exchange).

Camera – faster access to camera. From locked screen, double click home button and camera icon appears. You’re ready to go! Use volume up to capture (finally!).  Optional gridlines for picture alignment, pinch to zoom in camera, auto exposure/auto focus can be locked.  Can now edit – adjust, crop, rotate, red eye reduction directly on the iPhone (finally!).

Mail – Formatting (bold underline, bullet, indent etc). Drag drop addresses between to, cc etc. Messages can be flagged. Entire content of messages is now searchable (not just from / to etc) on device – and mail server.  Built-in dictionary for use by all apps throughout entire iOS. Multi touch display, plus split keyboard (for those typing with thumbs whilst holding).

PC free – No need to have a computer to set up & activate, software updates, iTunes etc now over the air. Delta updates (only updates what’s changed, not entire update). You can now create/delete calendars, edit photos, create and delete mailboxes, etc all from device (not pc).

Game Centre – Can now add photos, compare against friends, see friends of friends, recommended friends with similar like games, game recommendations, find a game and download direct from game centre. Added support for user turn-based based (like Scrabble etc).

iMessage (SMS) – New messaging service between all iOS users, bringing to iPad and iPod touch. All same features as iPhone previously, plus delivery receipts, read receipts (delivery/read receipts able to turn on/off??), typing indication, pushed to all devices, so you can continue a conversation on another device later. Support for 3G + Wi-Fi, all sent encrypted.  Message comes in but doesn’t interrupt (briefly displayed at top), swipe down for messages.  You can send photos, videos etc via Wi-Fi as well as 3G.

Other exciting features for iOS5

• Daily Backup
• New iPod music app
• Wi-Fi sync to iTunes (backed up first)
• AirPlay mirroring – mirror to your TV wirelessly via Apple TV
• Personal dictionary
• Email emoticons
• Alternate routes in maps
• Hourly weather forecasts
• Option to speak text selection

More information on iOS5

iOS 5 will be available on all same devices  as iOS4 – namely iPhone 4 and 3GS, iPad 2 and iPad, iPod touch 3 and 4.

Developers beta available right away.

Click image below to find out more:

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