First Look At iOS 5 For iPhone [Video]

Developers have gotten their first taste of iOS 5 by way of Apple’s first public beta of the next generation OS. Here are some early assessments, according to our anonymous developer sources. Apple delayed the launch of its next iPhone and now we know the reason.The next-generation iOS is a revolutionary product. And like a fine wine, it needs lots of time (and love) to develop. Installation The iOS update takes approximately one hour to complete. Hopefully, Apple will shorten that time before iOS 5 is released to the masses this fall. Once the OS installation is complete, you recognize right way that you’ve entered a different world. The iPhone, and not iTunes, is the one that asks you questions. You will be asked how you wish to sync your existing data: via iTunes, iCloud, or as a new installation. Selecting iTunes is the best way, with the understanding that I hadn’t actually established an iCloud account. You will also be asked to login using an existing Apple ID or you may establish a free iCloud account. Both steps, syncing and establishing an account, appear confusing. Thankfully, this is only the first beta and I am sure Apple will streamline this process in a later OS release. Once the two-minute setup is complete, the fun begins. Syncing on iOS 5 is done as you are using your iPhone. In other words, you don’t have to wait for the syncing to finish in order to use the iDevice. As Steve Jobs would say, it just works. Now let us review some of the iOS 5 features. Notification Center People will enjoy this ‘big ticket’ item in iOS 5. The Notification Center puts all your alerts in one place. These include: new emails, texts and friend requests. In addition, the Center grabs the latest weather conditions and even includes a stock ticker. Both are tied directly to Apple’s own Weather and Stocks apps, respectively. New notifications appear briefly at the top of your screen, without interrupting what you’re doing. And the Lock screen displays notifications so you can act on them with just a swipe. Notification Center is a little bit non-functional in iOS 5 beta. However, the concept looks useful. Reminders Those hundreds of reminder apps in the App Store just got major competition by way of Apple. Reminders are the place to add to-do lists, such as shopping lists and the like. Thanks to iCloud these reminders are instantly pushed out to your other iDevices as well. When fully implemented, the service will work with iCal and Outlook too. iMessage Although messaging is standard on the iPhone already, the rebranded iMessage is still an impressive application. With it, users can now text iPad and iPod touch users as well. Again, while some of the features of iMessage look promising, it is not yet a finished product. Twitter Integration Tweeting is now baked into iOS 5. Once you sign up in Settings, you may tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps. Each tweet looks fantastic. This is especially true when photos are attached. Each is beautifully arranged with the photo attached via a virtual paper clip. Camera The iPhone’s Camera functionality got a nice update with iOS 5. First, you can now take a picture right from the lock screen simply by pushing a button. Second, Camera now includes editing options such as the use of grid lines, and pinch-to-zoom gestures. For more information on what is coming in iOS 5, please check out this video from Apple:

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