The next version of Apple's mobile system promises to bring hundreds of new features. Two hundred of them to be exact. But yesterday the company only showed 10 of the most important. So I went after the beta of the new system and with the help of a friend (thanks, anonymous!), I left my fourth generation iPod touch even more magical and a little buggy when installing the 5 beta IOS on it. Here are my first impressions of what the system offers.
The first thing I noticed is the change in the organization of the icons. The initial screen was different and now two new applications, NewsStand (application for subscription of periodicals) and Reminders (application-do list), forced the creation of a second screen. Furthermore, no significant change in aesthetics.
As a whole, IOS 5 appears to be a trend already expected to Apple's mobile devices. They saw what their competitors did right and copied some aspects, giving his own twist on some of them. The new system is full of options for connectivity and synchronization, but this brought a problem: the battery life has dropped. Still, it's the IOS 5 beta, so there is room for improvement, and Apple knows this well.
Setup is simple with no PC
The philosophy of cutting the cables is well applied. Once installed IOS 5 on my iPod, it was as if he had just come out of the box. I even thought it would be a complicated process, but the setup was pretty fast. I just had to pick a language, country, connect a WiFi network and choose to create an Apple ID or not.
It could also restore the previous backup of the iPod from iTunes or iCloud, but preferred to start from scratch.
Twitter: more integrated than ever
The system also comes with a strong integration with Twitter applications included in Safari, YouTube, Maps and Photos. When you send a tweet from any of these programs, it is marked as "from IOS" on the web, which makes clear its origin. Photos published by them already use the system image hosting Twitter itself.
IMessage dictionary and an improved
Once restricted to the iPhone, the Messages application on the iPod and also come in through the IOS iPad 5. This chat system is very similar to the BBM, which allows the exchange of messages between BlackBerry users. It uses the protocol IMessage to allow sending of images, texts and contacts between users of the IOS. Just have an Apple ID associated with it and start using.
Along with it, Apple has also installed a new feature in the dictionary, replacing some acronyms for an entire sentence automatically. This should be very handy in times of rapid typing. And it seems that the fixes are not an involuntary major problem for Apple: they keep happening.
Notifications in the right way. Or wrong, if the user wants.
With the call center Notifications Apple mimicked the right way to deliver multiple warnings of Android, with a sliding panel located on the top bar. And there's nothing wrong with that. This warning system now also appears on the screen and lock allows quick access to the application that created the notification.
Apple also thought of possible discontent with the system. If the user does not get used, it may well switch to the old system of alerts that jumps in front and stop what is happening. But who would do that?
Direct backup to the cloud
Embedded in the IOS has support for several features of iCloud. It's here that are stored music, photos, calendar events and data applications on a general user, you simply tell it to create an Apple ID and activate the service. The storage limit is up to 5 GB of data, but its setup screen now shows that you can buy more storage if it runs out. Just do not know yet what it will cost and when Apple plans to release the purchase.
An interesting option is to exchange the backup iTunes backup on iCloud.
The rest
Also included in the new 200 system are changes in the application of e-mail, which now lets you mark messages as unread, and the camera, which can now be accessed directly from the screen lock. And no matter where the camera application is open, you can also take pictures with the volume knob, which is a nice touch.
The photo application also gained a function that allows you to edit images, but this seems to be restricted to the iPhone. Or not implemented yet in this beta system.
The flaws that need correcting
It's a beta system, so is still in testing phase. So we can not take the two following details in mind when buying an iPhone, iPod or iPad. Still, it is noteworthy that the management system has a battery life that is far from ideal and synchronization via WiFi did not work on my computer with iTunes and Windows 5.10 beta. Apparently this last detail is solved if I buy a Mac.
