{"id":20243,"date":"2011-10-04T23:50:29","date_gmt":"2011-10-04T21:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=20243"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:56:07","slug":"lets-talk-ios-5-and-not-be-impressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/lets-talk-ios-5-and-not-be-impressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Talk iOS 5 and not be impressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Talk iPhone<\/strong>\u201d keynote is over and CEO Tim Cook (with friends) talked about the new roll-out of products and features.<\/p>\n

But with all the hype around the next new iPhone – which is actually the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5 – did anything really amazing come out of it for users?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Our Mobile Lead Expert James Thornton<\/a> already talked about how to get many of the features of iOS 5<\/a> through different apps, but since iOS 5 presents a unified package<\/strong>, there are something things worth noting.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Biggest iOS 5 Features<\/strong><\/h3>\n

iOS 5 is announced for an October 12, 2011 release<\/strong> for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd\/4th Generation, and iPad 1st\/2nd Generation.<\/p>\n

Notifications<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basically taking a cue from Android, Notification will allow iOS users to be kept up to date on their apps, mail, and contacts. It\u2019s nothing really outstanding and it feel like Apple is playing catch-up.<\/p>\n

Providing a central hub<\/strong> for all notifications is nice though. Since I\u2019m an Android user, I can say from personal experience it\u2019s a great feature.<\/p>\n

But like James said, Push 4.0<\/a> is already a great option that does essentially the same thing.<\/p>\n

iMessage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seeking yet again to unify all Apple products, this iOS messaging system<\/strong> is an ingrained application. The one standout portion is that it pushes to all devices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re carrying an iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (with the latter two connected via WiFi) though, is each device going to notify you each and every time you receive a message? This could get annoying pretty quickly for some users.<\/p>\n

Reminders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having a location aware to-do list<\/strong> is interesting. I actually like the idea. What I\u2019m really curious about is what kind of battery usage this app will have. Consistent geo-location can be a big drain on a phone.<\/p>\n

But yet again, James noted another app that already exists for this purpose \u2013 TaskAware Universal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Could Apple be looking inside their own App Store<\/a> to pull ideas?<\/p>\n

Twitter<\/strong><\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been a secret that Twitter would have strong integration.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s already a Twitter app.<\/p>\n

There are also tons of third party Twitter apps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#Fail<\/p>\n

Newsstand<\/strong><\/p>\n

iBooks in the form of magazines<\/strong> means printed glossy pages in digital form. The question is how much do subscriptions cost and is it worth it? A noted feature however is Newstand\u2019s ability to download new issues in the background<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Camera<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new iPhone 4S has an 8 MP camera with all these fancy tech specs and the ability to edit photos, crop, rotate, and remove red-eye, but don\u2019t most people just use Instagram<\/a>?<\/p>\n

And again, there are existing apps for the \u201cnew\u201d photo editing<\/a> capabilities Apple just introduced.<\/p>\n

Game Center<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple is looking at its competitors, like Microsoft\u2019s Achievements and PlayStation\u2019s Trophies. The Game Center update will add achievement points<\/strong>, the ability to add photos<\/strong>, and recommendations by friends<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Game Center looks to be Apple\u2019s attempt at making their gaming experience more social.<\/p>\n

Safari<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

New improvements to Safari will include a new reader function<\/strong>, all device sync<\/strong>, and full-tabbed browsing for iPad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Most other apps like Opera Mini<\/a> and Dolphin Browser<\/a> already support tabbed browsing though, so this is merely Apply playing catch-up it seems. Dolphin Browser also supports gesture browsing.<\/p>\n

The reader function is an improvement that should have been implemented earlier. Formatting websites for viewing on the different devices is a roll-out that also should have happened already.<\/p>\n

Mail<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mail updates add rich formatting<\/strong>, indentation<\/strong>, moving addresses<\/strong> and flagging<\/strong>. In sum, it looks like Mail got the least amount of updates.<\/p>\n

Cards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cards is an app included in iOS 5, but is more of an add-on than an improvement to the OS. Cards allows users to create greeting cards digitally<\/strong>, including adding photos, and have them physically printed and mailed<\/strong> through the United States Postal Service.<\/p>\n

It costs $2.99 to print\/ship a card in the United States and $4.99 to do the same globally. It\u2019s an interesting feature, but a curious addition.<\/p>\n

PC Free Feature<\/strong><\/p>\n

The PC Free Feature is one of the best re-announcements allowing wireless activation and iOS updates. Taking away the need to be tethered to a computer for the first activation will save users a lot of time.<\/p>\n

iCloud<\/strong><\/h3>\n

iCloud has also been discussed by Softonic editors<\/a> as well. Having content accessible wirelessly is a great option, although it might seem strange that Apple is moving people away from iTunes<\/a> in relation to everything other than large collections of music and apps.<\/p>\n

iCloud will support storage of photos<\/strong>, documents<\/strong>, and a daily backup<\/strong> of content for iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion users. Apple also revealed that Find My iPhone<\/strong> would be supported through iCloud.<\/p>\n

The new announcement for iCloud was Find My Friends<\/strong>. A real-time geo-location service<\/strong>, users can set their devices as traceable for their friends. Family and friends can track the location of each other to facilitate finding one other. The service includes temporary sharing options<\/strong> and privacy controls<\/strong> (including parental controls).<\/p>\n

Also announced was iTunes Match<\/strong>, a service that will import music from other online music retailers. It will scan the library of the user, add iTunes content and upload the information for any content that isn\u2019t in iTunes. It sounds like Apple is using its user base to expand their information library on artists.<\/p>\n

iCloud was announced to launch at the end of October for the Unites States.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Strangely, Apple\u2019s announcement of iOS 5 feels like a small update to the OS to support the launch of iCloud. The new features mirror a lot of previously existing third party apps and bundle them into the new OS.<\/p>\n

Even with the reported \u201cover 200 new features<\/strong>,\u201d Apple decided to push these “notable” updates in the keynote. Thankfully iOS 5 still supports some older devices. The actual usability might be stunted as it was with the release of iOS 4, which wasn\u2019t supported on older devices without some features turned off.<\/p>\n

It’s obvious that Apple will see a massive amount of downloads for iOS 5 when it releases. Since the iPhone 4S will be launching with the new software, Apple will be able to claim a huge adopted user base. But unfortunately the unified bundle of applications are attempting to fill a space that already exists with third party apps.<\/p>\n

Apple might use statistics to claim a lot of broad statements, but there’s nothing in iOS 5 that doesn’t already exist and in possibly better form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Talk iPhone\u201d keynote is over and CEO Tim Cook (with friends) talked about the new roll-out of products and features. But with all the hype around the next new iPhone – which is actually the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5 – did anything really amazing come out of it for users? … Continue reading “Let\u2019s Talk iOS 5 and not be impressed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2030,"featured_media":20248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-20243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t