iOS 5: In It To Win It

After all the excitement of E3 has died down, I've finally had a chance to sit down and digest the recent unveiling of Apple's newest mobile operating system, iOS 5. As much as I'm sure iOS 4, where the OS was overhauled for multitasking, was a major effort for the coders, it didn't result in much polish or features for the common end user. And waiting extra months for the update to hit the iPad, currently my only iOS device, was a bummer.

Thankfully, this year, Apple will be releasing iOS 5 for all platforms simultaneously in the Fall. And what an update it is. From a user's perspective, this is as significant an upgrade as been ever seen for iOS. Specifically:

First Party Apps -
Significant changes for Mail, Weather, and Stocks. Mail sees the biggest upgrade with better message formatting and the tracking of conversations.

Notifications -
Rather then obtrusive, interrupting popups, Apple has designed a dedicated notification center to smoothly handle notifications and include quick links to the corresponding app.

Safari -
In addition to finally adding tabbed browsing, the new "reader" functionality allows users to save internet articles for offline viewing as virtual PDFs, sans ads and multiple page links.

Keyboard Updates -
Finally, a split ergonomic keyboard as a more comfortable option on the iPad. This will make mobile blogging, such as I am doing now, much easier. (pictured)

Newsstand -
Finally, an organized place to subscribe to, store, and read auto delivered periodicals. Oh and did I mention they load over night and are ready to read offline first thing every morning? Brilliant.

iMessage -
My least favorite addition, an iOS 5 to iOS 5 only messenger. Messaging locked to only one iOS is a step in the wrong direction.

Camera -
Better integration of picture editing and quick photo snapping.

Reminders -
A dedicated, calendar integrated app for maintaining lists across all your iOS devices. This is long overdue.

AirPlay mirroring -
iOS 5 allows users to mirror their iPad on their TV through the Apple TV device. Presentations, YouTube, and movie sharing just got easier.

WiFi Backup and Wireless Updates -
Yup, I can finally cut the cord between my beloved iPad and my iMac. The iPad will automatically backup and look for updates when charging and within range of your home network shared with your iTunes PC/Mac. Finally!!!

iCloud -
There is a lot of confusion out there as to what this is. To simplify, Apple will give each iOS user free backup on their servers for up to 8GB to auto sync calendar, apps, etc across multiple iOS devices. This is in addition to free redownload of any iTunes purchased music and movies. All this of these backup services are free. In addition, for $25 a year, Apple will allow users to insure non-iTunes purchased music, thus if you bought a song elsewhere and lose your iPhone, you can download the track from iTunes for free. Lastly, if you buy a song on one iOS or Mac device, it will automatically be made available for download on all devices synced to your iTunes account.

Twitter -
Apple is embracing the only social media site I frequent, with full integration into messaging, browsing, and camera apps.


These upgrades continue Apple's efforts at being feature rich without sacrificing ease of use and position iOS as the mobile operating system to beat for the foreseeable future. Apple pulled no punches with this update and I can't wait to give it a spin this Fall. Jobs and company are in it to dominate the mobile market. Your move Android.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 3G.