The best features of iOS5
Every generation of Apple’s portable digital devices provides a significant upgrade over the last. While these upgrades are largely due to each device’s improved hardware, it’s impossible to underestimate the importance of the improvements Apple makes to their portable operating system, iOS. Consider the fact that their most recent operating system, iOS 5, provides over 200 upgrades and new features for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. Read on for a summary of some of the operating system’s more prominent new features.
One of the most prominent features of iOS 5 is the system’s new Notification Center. Think of this center as your one-stop-shop to see what’s new in your digital world. All of us are inundated with a ton of different notification messages every day and need to chase them down from application to application, website to website to try and get a full view of what’s new. Notification Center combines all of these notifications from all of your applications and networks in one easy to read, scrollable and constantly updated listing.
Another great update in iOS 5 is iMessage. To boil it down pretty simply, iOS 5 is an instant messaging service that works from one iOS 5device to another. So if you have an iPad you’ll be able to use iMessage with anyone else who has an iPad, or an iPhone, or an iPod Touch. iMessage isn’t limited solely to text messages though as you’ll also be able to send photos and videos, as well as your location information and your list of contacts, not to mention a convenient group messaging feature. Maybe the best thing about iMessage is the fact that you can access your messaging service on any iOS 5 device you get your hands on, whether it’s yours or not.
Managing your subscriptions is a lot easier in iOS 5 due to its Newsstand feature. Newspaper and magazine subscription apps are more and more popular every day and it’s common for one person to have dozens of different subscriptions to try and manage at once. Newsstand not only groups all of your subscriptions together but also automatically updates them when possible, making sure you have easy access to your updated periodicals wherever you go.
iOS 5 also provides you with a great Reminders feature that makes it easy to create and manage your to-do lists. You’ll be able to set automatic reminders that will chime in and let you know when a project is due. Perhaps the coolest function of this feature is your ability to set reminders via location, so when you arrive at a specific location you will automatically get a reminder about what you need to do there.
A lot of external applications and website features are built into iOS 5, such as their integrated Twitter feature, which makes it easy to both check your feed and post updates as easily as you’d send a text message. With an easy autofill option iOS 5’s Twitter feature you’ll be able to reply to friends and include them in your tweets easier than ever.
Naturally iOS 5 also provides plenty of great features for getting the most out of its integrated technology with easy photo manipulation and posting to the iCloud, which also works great at connecting your web browser preferences and bookmarks between your portable devices and home computer.
These are quick and dirty summaries of just a handful of the features that you can look forward to with iOS 5. While they sound impressive enough on their own, we all know that their true value and importance will only come out in use, especially when you take into account the hundreds of other new features beyond the scope of this quick summary.
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