We've just passed that time of year where Apple holds it's infamous WWDC. Amongst the announcements was iOS 5, the next version of our beloved operating system for both iPad and iPhone. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it so i've stuck it on my phone and now im here to give you my initial thoughts.
6 Features I give a damn about:
1. Notification Center
Praise:
Notifications build up
Lock screen notifications
This little gem is one of the biggest thing's you're really going to love about iOS 5. I honestly don't think i could go back to an iPhone that doesn't use it now. The way notifications just roll in and out at the top of your screen and are available on the homescreen or with the swipe of a finger in any app is just fantastic. Yes, it's completely ripped from Android, but who gives a damn. We use what works, right? What's also great is that each notification has a "Swipe to view/reply" feature, just like the slide to unlock. I'd also like to say a few words about the Weather widget, a little later on.
Moans:
Sometimes when trying to slide a notification to access it (On the lockscreen), the whole list likes to slide up and down and doesn't understand that you're trying to access the notification which is slightly annoying. There is also a slight conflict of input when swiping down from the top of the screen in some apps, for example when pulling the notification centre down whilst on the SMS screen, it scrolls to the top. Once you've unlocked the phone, the homescreen clears of notifications and i can't help but think that sometime's i'd like them to stay on there, maybe it should be optional, or perhaps i'm just thinking about it too hard. There is also currently a bug whereas if you have SMS preview disabled, sometimes it ignores this and previews the SMS on the lock screen.
2. iCloud
Praise:
Disabled due to bug
Thank god the day has come where we can back up wirelessly to iCloud and even restore from it. On my first install i enabled iCloud and it backed up all my apps and settings overnight for me which was wonderful. I would often see the little sync icon working away and making incremental changes. On my second install (See Twitter section for explanation) I didn't even touch my macbook, i simply told my iPhone to restore from iCloud which it did (With a few hiccoughs).
Moans:
After my second install iCloud refused to work at all, it now doesn't back up at all and i've had to revert to iTunes backups, ofcourse this is just a beta release and bugs like this happen, so its understandable. Apart from the bugs, i don't really have much to complain about here!
Praise:
Glitch due to crashing
Tweet that webpage!
I love the fact that Twitter is getting deep integration. The way you can easily tweet a link to a website or upload the photo you just took directly from the photos app is fantastic. It just feels so natural and i have a bit of a soft spot for the UI it has.
Moans:
Again its just a few bugs that gave me a bit of a tough time. On my first install of iOS 5 after adding my twitter account, trying to access the settings would instantly crash settings.app. I also had a complete lack of twitter notifications. After a re-install of iOS5 though, these things worked just fine.
4. Camera
Praise:
Accessible with double tap of home button
The access from the lock screen to the camera by double tapping the home button will be an absolute life saver. Somehow the camera seems to load much faster from this shortcut as well, perhaps its due to not having to process the launching animation or something, who knows, but its brilliant! There's also a few new photo editing features but i haven't really used those yet. The ability to use the volume button to take a photo is brilliant but...
Moans:
It's all well and good letting us use the volume button but only the PLUS volume button takes the photo, the minus remains inactive. I wonder how many times i'm going to press the wrong one franticly and miss a photo opportunity? Sort it out Apple.
Praise:
Hourly breakdown with a tap
We all spent enough time complaining that the weather.app icon didn't automatically update automatically and they havent fixed that BUT the notification centre now has a weather widget that automatically detects your weather from your location which is nice. Weather.app itself now has a nice new feature whereby tapping the current day, you can get an hourly breakdown of the days predicted weather.
Moans:
The breakdown is only available for the current day, so if you want to know what the weather is like on Friday at 7am, tough luck. It's also kind of frustrating that we can't have the weather widget visible on the homescreen so i have to unlock and swipe down to get to the weather.
6. iMessages
Praise:
Just spelling the word DINOSAUR to Josh. Problem?
Its fast, it lets us send MMS for free and even more perfect for me, it means i can text people internationally with no massive phone bills! It really is fantastic and the way it falls back to SMS if there seems to be a problem is just perfect so you don't have to worry about it. It is a little odd been able to see people typing a message though!
Moans:
Occasionally iMessages seems to randomly disappear and switch back to SMS but this is probably due to Apple playing about with servers and things and the fall back to SMS feature is fantastic except it would be nicer to have an option to disable it JUST for international texting. I don't want my iMessage failing and sending a costly text to the USA!
In Conclusion:
iOS 5 is full of nifty little things, and these are only 6 of my favourites, theres so so much more. It's still pretty buggy (What do you expect with a developer beta!) but once it's all polished off it will be fantastic and it will change the way you use your iPhone. To be honest, i expected there to be a lot more annoying bugs like the way iOS 4 beta stopped me using my camera in 3rd party apps for example. But really, bring on iOS 5 Beta 2 and i think we'll be 75% of our way to release provided a million new bugs don't crop up!
Ciao.
