iOS gets a major revamp

IT'S hard to keep a good man down, as an evidently thinner Steve Jobs proved as he appeared on stage at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) to introduce what the company has in store for its MacOS and iOS offerings.

Probably the most interesting new announcement is that of iOS 5, the update to the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

With iOS 5, Apple has added over 200 new features into the mobile operating system, some of which are tweaks while others are completely new applications.

Also announced was the demise of Apple's MobileMe service - it has now morphed into a more extensive and powerful service known as iCloud.

Here's a rundown of what iOS 5, and iCloud will have on offer when iOS 5 (and consequently iCloud) becomes available at the end of the year.

iOS5

Being a major update (rather than a point update), Apple has brought many new features to iOS 5 as well as tweaked almost every single application in its mobile operating system.
Chief amongst these new features is the Notification Centre which aims to update the one currently found in iOS devices.

In the current version of iOS, notifications appear as a pop-up which can be a nuisance since it pauses your currently running app and overlays the notification over whatever you're doing.

The other problem is that there is no single place where you can view and dismiss all these various notifications on your various apps.

The Notification Centre attempts to solve this by introducing a system similar to what is currently available on Google's Android operating system - a swipe downwards from the top of the screen opens the Notification Centre, where all your various notifications (be it SMS, Facebook updates, Twitter etc) will be nested together along with stocks and weather information.

If the user is currently running an app, the notification will not pause a running app - instead a less obtrusive notification will appear across the top of the screen, which can then be easily dismissed.

iOS 5 will also integrate Twitter into the entire operating system, allowing you to easily tweet photos, videos and even webpages from within native iOS apps.

Apps like Safari and Photos, for example, will come with a Tweet option so that you can immediately link webpages or share photos on Twitter.

More importantly, iOS 5 will have a feature which should be familiar to Android device users - incremental over-the-air (OTA) updates, which means that operating system (and even third-party app) updates will no longer require you to link to iTunes.

With the current version of iOS, third-party apps can be updated over the air, but operating system updates still require a connection to iTunes.

Taking it even further, iOS 5 device buyers in the future will no longer need to unlock a new device by first connecting to iTunes - activation and setup can be completed on the iOS 5 device itself.

Apple has also finally included a much-requested feature - WiFi synchronising with iTunes so that a user will not be required to cable the device to the PC when synchronising and backing up the iOS 5 device.

Updated apps

Apart from the many updates to the operating system, Apple has also worked to update many of the standard apps in the iOS as well as adding a few new ones.

Most notable among the changes is in Safari, where quick tabbed browsing will now be available as well as a new Reader and Reading List feature.

Tapping the Reader button in Safari will remove distractions and ads from the webpage and present the whole story in a single, scrolling page.

Even if the story is on multiple webpages, Reader will take the all the pages and present it in a single page - for example, a DPReview.com camera review which usually takes up 20 webpages can be viewed in a single, down-scrolling and properly formatted page.

Adding webpages to Reading List in Safari copies the web content so you can read it later offline. Reading List also syncs with all your other iOS 5 devices and remembers your place in the page so you can read it later on other devices.

The Camera app has also been updated with some basic editing features as well as better control over exposure by integrating an autofocus- and autoexposure-lock via a tap-and-hold gesture.

More importantly, the Camera app is now more accessible with a button on the Lock screen, allowing the user to get right into taking photos without first having to unlock the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch and going into the app.

In an apparent backpedal from their previous policy, Apple has also allowed the taking of photos by pressing the "+" volume button on the iPhone.

Apple has in the past disallowed third-party apps from providing just such a feature.

Mail has also been tweaked and amongst other things allows addresses to be dragged from CC to BCC fields as well as supporting rich text formatting and better searching.

The previously barebones Game Centre has been updated to be more in line with the features of Xbox Live and now users can see photos, compare achievement points, see friends of friends, get friend- and even game-recommendations.

New apps

iOS 5 brings a number of new apps as well, most notably iMessage, which is a messaging app similar to RIM's BlackBerry Messenger.

iMessage allows users to send text messages, photos and videos to all iOS 5 devices from iPad to iPhone over WiFi and 3G.

Unlike third-party apps like WhatsApp which works across mobile operating systems, however, iMessage only works between iOS devices.

A To-Do list app has also been added in the form of Reminders which allow the user to make simple task lists.

A nifty feature of Reminders is that you can create To-do items that will pop-up when a user is near a certain area - nothing which isn't already available in advanced third party To-do apps, but now it's integrated in there for free.

iCloud

Jobs himself came back onstage to introduce the iCloud, a major revamp of Apple's previous MobileMe. Apple has dumped the expensive pricing structure of MobileMe and will be making iCloud available to all iOS 5 users for free.

At its most basic, iCloud offers automatic backup and sync of contacts, calendar and e-mail across all the user's iOS devices.

To get contacts, calendar items and email automatically synced to a new device, the user only needs to put in an Apple username and password.

Users can even share multiple calendars with different people and have it automatically synched and pushed to multiple devices.

However, Apple's plans for iCloud are more ambitious - each user gets 5GB of storage and the ability to backup and sync more than just contacts, calendars and e-mail.
The iBooks and App Store have also been added to iCloud, allowing the user to sync bookmarks between iBook apps across devices.

The App Store's update now allows you to see all your available purchases on any iOS device even if you don't currently have it installed on the device.

In fact, users can already see the App Store iCloud update in current iOS 4.3.3 devices when you go into the App Store and tap on Updates and then Purchased.

One last major update is the Backup service on iCloud - each iOS device can be set to automatically backup data to iCloud daily over WiFi.

iCloud backs up the user's Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings, purchased music, apps, app data and books so that they can be easily synched and pushed to different devices, including the Mac or PC.

Additionally, iWork for iOS documents (Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps) will also be automatically be backed up into the iCloud.

Although 5GB may not seem like much for this, the service does not actually back up purchased music on iTunes, books on iBooks or apps from the App Store since Apple already hosts these.

Instead, iCloud just takes note of what books, music and apps you've purchased and allows you to download them again on different devices for no charge. Of course, since users in Malaysia still can't officially purchase music via iTunes nor buy books in iBooks, this particular feature will likely not be available here.

Additionally, the Photos app now comes with Photo Stream, an iCloud service that allows you to store photos and syncs them across multiple devices including the PC and Mac.

Source: Tech Central