So I now have installed iOS5 andam distinctly underwhelmed and feels like a new device.You're kidding, right? Itfeels exactly the same to me because iOS seems to work fine on my 3GS,iPhone 4and even iPad.Like in 3GS, you can't find an option to turn the camera on viathe lock screen though.Apple has also updated a number of apps, includingPages, Keynote and Numbers to support iCloud.This means whenever you create adocument on any of these applications, a copy is also uploaded to iCloud. Apartfrom pure iCloud support, Apple has also just updated iMovie on the iPad andiPhone to not only support 1080p video from the iPhone 4S, but also from avariety of other cameras as well.As a developer who has worked on both iOS andAndroid I find that Apple helps developers with its solid set of tools andrigid control on compatibility while Google helps Android by its flexibilityand customization options but suffers from fragmented OS due to lots ofdevices.
Android users will rightly pointout that Apple's implementation here is very similar to the way notificationswork on Android. However,in my opinion,iOS ability to 'unlock' a notificationitself and go straight to the relevant application instead of unlocking the screenand then opening the app is a plus. If I get a notification on my Galaxy Tab, Ihave to drag the screen down, click on the notification and if it's an emailthen the relevant application will open.iOS 5 also brings major speedimprovements to the built-in Safari browser on supported devices, along withtabbed browsing. Yes, instead of the old thumbnail style, Safari on iOS 5 nowopens up various webpages in individual tabs.I can open up to nine tabs at atime and can tap to quickly switch between them without the long loading timesof the previous browser.
Android users will rightly pointout that Apple's implementation here is very similar to the way notificationswork on Android. However,in my opinion,iOS ability to 'unlock' a notificationitself and go straight to the relevant application instead of unlocking the screenand then opening the app is a plus. If I get a notification on my Galaxy Tab, Ihave to drag the screen down, click on the notification and if it's an emailthen the relevant application will open.iOS 5 also brings major speedimprovements to the built-in Safari browser on supported devices, along withtabbed browsing. Yes, instead of the old thumbnail style, Safari on iOS 5 nowopens up various webpages in individual tabs.I can open up to nine tabs at atime and can tap to quickly switch between them without the long loading timesof the previous browser.
Some supported webpages alsohave a "Reader" icon, which when tapped, will reformat your pages andtake away all the ads and various distractions.While reviewing it,I was able toadd pages to a "Reading List" which saves the link and syncs it acrossall my devices so that i can read it later on another device.However, unlike myinitial impression,adding a page into Reading List does not save the page foroffline reading. It only saves the link and you will still need a internetconnection to read the page.Reading List does however remember where youstopped on the page so you can continue where you left off when you startreading on another device.When it comes to Camera,I managedto launch it’s application faster right from the lock screen by double-clickingon the Home button when my iPhone is in sleep mode.
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| iOS 5 Logo |
I was happy that now am alsoallowed to snap a photo by pressing the volume up button on the iPhone, whichis certainly more convenient than tapping the screen most of the time.Photostream is another one of Apple's new iCloud-enabled features, and appears asanother folder in your Photos app. The idea is simple and entails to take aphoto on one device and have it appear on all iOS devices using the same iCloudaccount.In practice it works really well.Pictures that appear in the Photostream on all devices cannot be deleted.For some weird reason Apple does notallow you to delete any photos from the Photo Stream, which isn't great if youhave an embarrassing photo that you don't want anyone else to see.
By default, pictures will beautomatically deleted from Photo stream after 30 days, but there is a way toclear out the cache immediately by logging in to iCloud.com with your usernameand password and then choose "Reset the Photo Stream" from thesettings page.However, even at icloud.com, there is no way to delete individualphotos. iTunes WiFi SyncOne of the new features that iOS 5 brings is theability to sync your device with iTunes wirelessly over your local WiFinetwork.iTunes WiFi sync needs to be enabled by first connecting the device toiTunes via the sync cable and then choosing "Sync with thisiPhone/iPad/iPod touch over WiFi," after which the device's icon willappear permanently in iTunes.WiFi sync works automatically whenever i connectedmy device is in sleep mode and connected to power and it also does the same whenyou manually initiate it from either the device or iTunes.Tabbed browsing is astep backwards in my view because it ends up taking more screen real estate upand now I have to remember what each tab is instead of being able to see, if Ihave too many open.
Apple should be ashamed becausesomeone like me who have an iPad 2 and use Ubuntu on my Desktop there isnothing much to celebrate. As far as I can tell most of the features of iOS 5are not going to be relevant to me. I only use notifications for diary anddon't want them to change. I don't do twitter oftenly. People who Ioccasionally skype don't have Apple products so iMessage is a waste of time. iMessageis Apple's answer to the popular BlackBerry Messenger service, which takesadvantage to send messages to other iOS users for free.In iOS 5, theimplementation of iMessage is pretty seamless on the iPhone and it's completely integrated into the existingMessages application of the iPhone.When I tried to send my boss Ville Makinnena message via the Messages app, it went well because iMessages is colour-coded in blue and has a blue "Send"button.While testing,I tried sending a text message to my father who does notwithout iOS 5 and is not using an iOS device, the app defaulted to SMS and wascolour-coded in green, so am now able to always know when am being charged bythe carrier or when am using my data package.
Apple should be ashamed becausesomeone like me who have an iPad 2 and use Ubuntu on my Desktop there isnothing much to celebrate. As far as I can tell most of the features of iOS 5are not going to be relevant to me. I only use notifications for diary anddon't want them to change. I don't do twitter oftenly. People who Ioccasionally skype don't have Apple products so iMessage is a waste of time. iMessageis Apple's answer to the popular BlackBerry Messenger service, which takesadvantage to send messages to other iOS users for free.In iOS 5, theimplementation of iMessage is pretty seamless on the iPhone and it's completely integrated into the existingMessages application of the iPhone.When I tried to send my boss Ville Makinnena message via the Messages app, it went well because iMessages is colour-coded in blue and has a blue "Send"button.While testing,I tried sending a text message to my father who does notwithout iOS 5 and is not using an iOS device, the app defaulted to SMS and wascolour-coded in green, so am now able to always know when am being charged bythe carrier or when am using my data package.
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| iOS Features |
iCloud does not work with Linux.Better Safari with tabbed browsing seems like one of the few things I willbenefit from. When it comes this part,it seems like much excitement aboutnothing.By all accounts, the update to Apple iOS 5 has been far from a smoothupgrade experience for most users because it’s a combination of high demandstraining Apple servers to various problems with the update on some PCs meantthat many users failed in their first attempt at updating their iOS device.Ican say without shadow of doubt that the users were rewarded with a spankingnew operating system on their devices, which in many ways, brings a lot ofsubtle but very important changes to the iOS experience. In use, this is anextremely fast and convenient way to get back to the Home screen and will atleast save on a lot of wear and tear on the physical Home button.
Android users will find Apple'sNotification Center in iOS 5 very familiar and it's basically almost an exactcopy of the implementation in Android devices.Notification Center attempts tosolve the clunky single pop-up notifications from older versions of iOS and isthe new repository for all your incoming SMS, e-mail and other notifications.Now,instead of an annoying pop-up in the middle of the screen when you get a newtext message or Facebook notification, you get a less obtrusive banner on thetop edge of the screen and can ignore it and it will just disappear from thereafter a few seconds as I observed.If i want to read all my notifications,I justswiped downwards from the top edge of the screen down to open the NotificationsCenter.The Notifications Center also has a couple of widgets running a weatherwidget and a Stocks ticker will be running by default.Some users may find thisannoying, but luckily I was able to remove these widgets by going into settingsand the notifications to turn them off.
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| How Twitter Looks on iOS 5 |
In the Settings page,I was alsoable to customize every application that has notifications, choosing forexample, whether to receive notifications, and if accept,will it appear as a pop-up or as a banner.Overall,tome the biggest new feature of iOS 5 has to be the iCloud that brings onlinesync and backup to every iOS device.iCloud is actually a collection of severaldifferent cloud services and at its most basic, it can backup your contactslist, calendar events, reminders, browser bookmarks and notes online and keepit in sync across all your devices.Apple also offers 5GB of storage online for"Storage and Backup" which allows you to back up data from all otherapps, including third-party apps - such as the Camera Roll, game saves andother similar types of data.iCloud doesn't actually back up an app and it savesthe unique data for that app and in a restore situation, it will download thisdata, then re-download the whole app from Apple servers again for you, whichsaves you a lot of storage space because it's only backing up the save data andnot the app itself.In conclusion,this is such a significant overhaul that userswho have installed like me,are feelinglike they have a new device.Verdict:Go for it.
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