If you’re looking for a complte run-down of iOS 5, this is not it. Below is simply a rough list of my favourite new additions - I’m planning to write some more about iOS 5 (in particular iCloud) later in the week.
Of all the new things in iOS 5 Notification Centre is the most noticeable change from all four preceding release. Gone are the forceful, interrupting notifications of before and in their place are ticker-style notifications (officially known as Banners) that appear atop the screen. Users can still turn on the modal alerts on a per-app basis, but the ticker style is default for third-party apps and most Apple apps. The iPhone’s Phone app will still show modal alerts by default, but it’s a setting you can change.
On the lockscreen, there’s new app-specific items which you can swipe to go straight to the relevant app. If you’ve ever been infuriated with the fundamental flaws in the notification system on iOS 4, this new setup is something of a godsend. Then there’s Notification Centre itself. Activated by a swipe-down from the top of the screen, it’s a much much improved way of viewing notifications instead of having to rely of the “you’d better hope you paid attention to those push notifications” method of the past.
For all the previous lack of customised notifications, iOS 5 completely reverses course. The ‘Notifications’ settings mean that you can turn on:
Not only that, but you can do this for the Apple apps and Stocks and Weather are now part of the swipe-down notification centre. Want to turn off the badge for the Mail app, but still show the 5 most recent notifications in notification centre? Done. Want to turn off Weather and Stocks? Boom - done. Notification centre allows you to clear the notifications so if, out of those emails, you don’t need to see them just clear the Mail notifications and only new message notifications will appear. The notification settings now are so all encompassing that you may well find it a little overwhelming. However, I’d encourage you to check them all out - there’s enough to almost completely customise the settings.
This isn’t a user-facing feature per se - but I consider it a hugely important addition for developers. Ever since the iOS SDK arrived back in 2008, developers have been building their own custom controls. In many cases the changes were purely aesthetic: different colours and what-not for the stock controls Unfortunately, many of the custom controls - frankly - sucked. They lacked the complete range of interaction states - so for example a custom switch could be tapped On / Off, but not tapped and dragged (or vice-versa). UIAppearance in iOS 5 makes it far, far, easier to build controls that look different from the stock UIKit controls but don’t break the interaction states you get “for free”.
There’s no shortage of messaging options at the moment - Facebook’s recently-launched Messenger, WhatsApp and regular SMS. Then there’s the likes of BlackBerry Messenger too - which, like Apple’s new iMessage service, is tied to a specific platform.
Very simply, iMessage uses Apple’s Push Notification service to send messages between any iOS 5 user. On iPhones, by default you’ll be using your phone number (though, you can also sign-in with an Apple ID should you wish). iPad and iPod touch users simply sign in with their Apple ID and can then send messages to any iMessage-enabled Apple ID or phone number. When you’re on an iPhone, all messages start as SMS (with a green “Send” button). If the device determines the recipient of an SMS to be iMessage-enabled it’ll change to a blue “Send” button - at which point any messages, photos, map points or vCards will be sent over data.
In use, iMessage is slick and fast, working particularly nicely when signed in to multiple devices using the same Apple ID. Read a message on one device, and the read-state of the message is noted on the other device(s). If you’re an iPhone user, the only gripe you’ll run into is that messages sent to your phone number (unlike those sent to an Apple ID) will only appear on your phone. They’re not synced to your iPad, and there’s no way to say “This iPad can send/receive messages as your phone number”
Yes, iMessage works solely between iOS devices (and there’s no sign of it on the Mac - at least, not yet). But it blends seamlessly into the Messages app, meaning that so long as you’re messaging other iOS users and on a data connection you can easily keep in touch with folks without being stung by SMS charges (and more than likely get away with a smaller SMS bundle should your contract include them).
Apple’s decision to bake Twitter right into iOS certainly drew some ire from developers at WWDC. However, in many ways Twitter in iOS is entirely complementary to the ways in which technologically-minded folks use Twitter. See, the Twitter integration has three main features:
Nearly all iOS games (and many apps) include “Tweet this!” integration. Whilst it’s not been particularly difficult to include Twitter integration into apps in the past - things like ShareKit allow that with relative ease - the fact remains that each time you’ve got to sign in to Twitter with your username and password. The hassle-to-satisfaction ratio is pretty low.
Twitter in iOS 5 makes this infinitely easier. You sign in to Twitter via Settings, and in any app that uses the new Twitter APIs prompts you in a similar vein to location services: “Photos would like access to Twitter accounts”. There’s also a useful ‘update your Contacts’ option based on your address book - however I wasn’t able to get this working for any of my contacts.
For all the benefits of the sign-in integration, if the app in question is wanting to access direct messages you’ll still need to authenticate on the Twitter website to allow that privilege. That said: there’s no reason why third-party Twitter clients wouldn’t use the new accounts setup. Existing Twitter accounts in other apps can be added (with the user’s permission) to the system should they wish. The APIs mean that, in an ideal world, there’s one canonical store for all your Twitter accounts. The likes of Tweetbot too have added support for both the import from and addition to the account lists.
At a lower level, the Twitter setup is not just for Twitter accounts. iOS5 simply states that there’s system-wide sign-on Accounts - of which there is currently one type. It’s not a stretch to imagine Facebook or other blessed services making appearances as other account types in the future.
This was definitely a contentious addition, judging from the cautious ‘ooooohs’ at WWDC. Whilst Reminders doesn’t necessarily render heavy GTD apps, collaborative or in-depth task management apps useless, it does bring to the table a handy (and incredibly smart) reminders list for the average person. The geofences are a brilliant addition - a truly meaningful enhancement to what is otherwise a relatively barebones to-do list app.
Safari’s seen a tremendous speed bump in iOS 5 (on top of the already noticeable boost in iOS 4.3 last year). There’s a tonne of improvements - with the rendering engine now supporting CSS position:fixed styles (huzzah!) and being much more akin to Safari on the Mac.
On the iPad, my number-one gripe - the lacklustre sluggish switching between ‘tabs’ - has been addressed with true tabs. Not only is browsing of sites themselves snappier, managing mutltiple pages being open has become far far easier.
Reader - a feature I’ve written about before - also makes an appearance. As with the Mac, it presents content in a dedicated clutter-free view - and brings together multi-page content. It’s a welcome addition, and likely to prove popular.
Accessibility has been something that Apple has invested a huge amount of time into in the past few years - at this year’s NSConference, Dave Addey’s talk on accessibility blew my mind. This iteration sees iOS able to create custom vibration patterns for specific contacts. If you’re wanting to give it a go, go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility to turn it on. Then, create vibrations in the Contacts (or Phone) apps.
Loads of iOS apps support TextExpander, and clearly Apple thinks it’s a useful feature as this time around there’s a whole new Text Shortcuts feature. In the Keyboard settings, there’s just one shortcut: “omw” to “On my way!” but you can add more to the list. The feature isn’t going to hurt TextExpander (at least, not in its current form as there’s no syncing of the shortcuts) but certainly handy for frequently-mistyped, frequently-used or labourious phrases.
Truth be told, I utterly loathe nearly all iPad magazines. The glorified PDFs, peddled as immersive reading experiences, embody everything that native apps can do to hurt content. There’s nothing fluid or selectable - nothing easily shareable - and instead of being designed as software products with care taken in the interaction design, they’re simply static images with a few well-hidden buttons.
Newsstand brings a single folder (as well as background-delivery) to house all the Digital Magazines out there. In order to support Newsstand, magazines need to be updated - but once you’ve updated and subscribed to a magazine, your iOS device will allow the magazine to receive one update for day when connected to power and on WiFi. It’s a welcome feature for the OS - lord knows the magazines aren’t exactly lightweight so getting content there ahead of time is a very good thing - but feels distinctly odd on the iPhone. There’s very few magazines that support the smaller screen, and the current ‘let’s serve this text up as an image’ approach means that content isn’t being designed for, or brought to, the iPhone.
I’ve found myself on a few occasions wanting to hide Newsstand on the iPhone (in fact I found myself manically trying to place it in my Archive folder just to hide the damn thing). Of course, it’s a folder - albeit one with special options - so it can’t be hidden in another folder and can’t be removed.
Apple was quick to make note of the fact that iOS is “the world’s most popular gaming platform”, and Game Centre - new last year in iOS 4 - adds some essential features. Users can now add their own avatars (though, like Ping profile photos they’re subject to Apple approval), and there’s now a lot of social options. Friend suggestions, game suggestions, public profiles and more are all new - and there’s turn-based game support too. It’s a pretty big update to Game Center that noticeably expands what is clearly a popular feature.
If the fleshing-out of the iOS settings wasn’t clue enough that Apple’s built a release that can stand on its own two feet, the PC-free setup certainly is. With the combined launch of iTunes in the Cloud and PC-free devices, Apple truly have conquered the first hurdle any new device holder comes up against: the need to boot up the computer, undoubtedly update iTunes and start using either a new or existing Apple ID.
iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, and all the over-the-air services and of course iCloud (which I’ll be writing about later this week) now mean that you truly can setup a device on its own. Sure, you can sync it to iTunes later, but think about it this way: Christmas morning, scores of people will be unwrapping their shiny new Apple device - be it an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad - and right there, still in their seats, they’ll be able to get up and running. It’s taken a long time coming, but it’s great to finally cut the cables and go it alone with an iOS device.
As with every iOS release there’s a tonne of minor changes in iOS 5 too. On the UI side, the previously rounded-rectangular On / Off switches are much more circular (something I’m having trouble adjusting too). Mail’s brand-new Swipe-to-Inbox is a brilliant addition: if you’re in Portait mode simply swiping from left-to-right shows the inbox over the current message. You’re also able to swipe again to navigate up the mailbox hierarchy, making it really easy to navigate between inboxes.
Location service options are now much more comprehensive too. As well as getting information about each individual app, you can now turn off location services for Compass Calibration, Location-Based iAds, and the setting of the device’s timezone. You can also decide whether these events trigger the “Location Status Item” to show - and I’m actually surprised that Apple doesn’t disclose Location Service usage for iAds in the status bar by default.
There’s dozens of smaller visual changes elsewhere too: message bubbles in iMessage have a different shine on them (and the message text itself has a more emphatic white drop-shadow); the default loading “spinner” has gained a little width and slightly wider style; Alarm notifications have a custom lock-screen style; FaceTime now comes with a “Sign in using Apple ID” option. I go on. There’s tonnes of smaller changes as you’d expect.
With each major release of iOS there’s been substantial new features and improvements - but iOS 5 is different. There’s lots of new features, sure, but the scope of iOS 5 even before you consider iCloud is bigger than all the preceding versions. Dozens of small omissions have been filled in, especially on the iPad which truly takes flight as a standalone post-PC device, and the “five” moniker belies the level of depth and maturity in the OS. All-in-all, iOS 5 isn’t so much the fifth iteration of iOS, but the second major milestone. I’ve been using iOS 5 full-time for a week - and loved every moment of it. You will too.
Posted on Wednesday October 12th, 2011
© Nik Fletcher 2007-2011 ~ Contact
