iOS 5: Hands On w/ New Features

Apple announced the iOS 5 software update yesterday on June 6th at the WWDC keynote but it wont be released to the public until this fall. Yesterday Apple released a iOS 5 for developers and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on it. In this post we will be going over some of the new features and have some screenshots to go along with it. There are over 200 new features in iOS 5 so if you know any that I missed, leave a comment letting me know!

Notification Center

• Combines notifications from all apps including email, texts/SMS, friend requests, calendars, reminders, missed calls, and more


• Swipe down from any app to see all your notifications in the Notification Center


• Lock Screen will now display notifications


• Access notifications from any app without interrupting app usage


• Weather & stock widgets included inside the new Notification center


• You can switch back to the old style of notifications if you don't like the new ones.

 

Wireless Syncing & Setup with PC Free

• Activate and setup any iOS device right out of the box, no more hooking up to iTunes first


• Download iOS software updates directly to the device from Apple


• Backup and restore iOS devices automatically once per day to the free iCloud service


• Updates are delivered as ‘delta updates’ meaning only the changes are downloaded, dramatically reducing file transfer size


• Automatic syncing of content to iTunes on a Mac or PC when connected to a power source

 

Safari

• Tabbed browsing on the iPad


• Reading List sinks bookmarks to iCloud so you can access and continue reading articles from another device, including Safari in Mac OS X Lion


• Safari Reader removes any clutter and ads from content and allows for distraction free reading


• Improved performance


• Open Safari links in background

 

iMessage

• Works over Wi-Fi and 3G


• Allows you to send text, pictures, videos, map locations, and contacts


• Group messaging


• Resume conversations from another iOS device


• • SMS/iMessage are the same app, sends depending on what receiver can handle (AT&T/Verizon must hate that)

 

Reminders

• Manage, add, delete items from a to-do list


• Set calendar and time reminders for time sensitive tasks


• Location based alerts and reminders – near the grocery store? Your shopping list will automatically show


• Syncs with iCloud, iCal, and Outlook – all your tasks will be updated everywhere you check them

Camera and Photos

• Access to Camera from the iOS lock screen


• When open, Camera app turns the volume up button into a physical shutter button


• Addition of grids for better image composition


• Pinch to zoom and tap functions to focus and adjust exposure


• Automatically tied to iCloud for instant uploading of photos to iCloud and then syncing to all your other devices


• edit photos: crop, enhance, reduce red eyes in the photos app


• Move Camera Roll photos to existing albums or create new ones

 

Newsstand

• Automatically updates and downloads the latest issues of your subscriptions


• Interface is basically like iBooks but for digital subscriptions


• Separate App Store section exclusively for magazine and newspapers that you can subscribe to

 

Game Center

Achievement points.

Access friends of friends, so you can compare and play with a wider range of people.

Photos in your profile, so you can flirt with other nerds pretending to be women online.

Game discovery, to play with whoever wants to play with you at any given time.

Game downloads within Game Center.

Support for turn-based games like Words for Friends and Scrabble.

 

Mail App

• Rich Text Formatting, which will allow you to annoy the hell out of everyone bolding every sentence in your mails.


• Show more Recent Messages in mail -500 -1,000


• Indentation control, which allows you to control the level of indentation of your quotes from other messages.


• Draggable email addresses, which allows to drag and drop email addresses into to, cc and bcc fields.


• Message flagging to call your attention over a particular mail later.


• Swipe to Inbox, which makes it very easy to access the list of message in portrait mode on the iPad, instead of clicking on a button for a weird pop-up dialog.

 

Twitter

• tweet from anywhere: safari, youtube, maps, photos etc.


• set login once through the settings app


• share twitter and phone contacts to sync up pictures

 

iCloud

• Everything is backed up to your cloud once a day including music, apps, books, camera roll, device settings, and app data.


• 5GB of data for documents, mail, and backups


• There’s a “buy more storage” button in iCloud


• works w/ pages, numbers and keynote


• There’s a wireless iTunes sync setting


• see all the songs you've purchased


• works on mac/pc's (if using lion, no idea about PC's.)


• Photostream sync your photos across all devices and backs up the last 1000 photos taken and they are stored for 30 days

More Features: (leave comments if you come across new features)

• Undock and split the iPad keyboard for easier typing



• There is no more iPod app, its now just like the iPod touch w/ separate Video and Music apps



• The weather app now shows on the hour forecasts.
  
  
• Airplay mirroring



• The "Top Free" and "Top Paid" categories are now combined into one top chart App Store.



• Accessibility options: LED flash and custom vibration settings


• You can update more than one app at once


• The square toggle sliders are round now


• Storage usage by app

Don't miss this: How to Install & Activate iOS 5 for Free - http://bit.ly/mjzEkc

Comments

[How to get the iOS 5 beta toda]

[...] Don’t miss this: iOS 5: Hands On w/ New Features – http://tysiphonehelp.com/ios-5-hands-on-w-new-features/ [...]

[Zach]

Does anyone have wallpapers (Settings-Wallpaper-(Two Screens)-Wallpaper). I don't have any wallpapers here.....I'm on iOS 5 b1 on iTouch 4G 32GB....UDID Registered.

[Patrick S.]

Wow, I love the look of the new iOS 5 with the notification layout etc but i am REALLY pissed that apple has unmerged the ipod app into seperate music and video apps :/ thats an ipod touch feature, not an iphone one!

[itay]

hey just saw ios 5 review, i gotta hand it to u its the best ive seen yet. i was wondering, did they do something with maps? cause in WWDC video, i saw that in the over 200 features slide that they made, maps is now able to provide other directions if u are traveling and going in the wrong direction for example. it would be cool to get a peek lol but thanks for the snap shots

[Mufasa Venice]

You forgot there's a new iPad music app (wud like to see demo of that)

And an iTunes ringtone store (engadget)

[Otepski]

Hey tys,

i saw another new feature for the iOS5. At lockscreen, when you double tap the home button, instead of just showing the ipod controls, a camera button also appears. By tapping, it directly goes to the camera app.

[Renzo Luzon]

Just wondering, does the new camera features in IOS 5 work on the IPod touch 4G?

[Brian]

Hey Ty I was wondering since they gave thew ability to set custom vibration sequences for different contacts in your phone, did they give us the option to add custom text tones that are different than the standard ones that apple has supplied for us?

Thanks

[Vick]

Hey I just got iOS 5 by being connected to a developer account although I have all the features you stated exepted the reader. Is there a certain place where you turn it on?

[Aradl]

Thanks

[Ellena Warga]

This is really cool

[tim]

Thank you

[kyle sheppard]

you should do a video how to do this

[FrgDFGFDH]

Damn ur sexxy

[Guest]

Can't you just pull the keyboard into two with your fingers????

[Linda]

Do you want to buy high quality watches online? if you say "yes", please enter replica Tag Heuer Carrera, you will see all kinds of cheap Tag Heuer Grand Carrera replica), such as replica Tag Heuer Monaco watches, tag heuer link replica and so on. if you want to getting them, please visit this store. you will have a good time!!!