iOS 5 To Be Released For iPhone, iPad And iPod Touch On October 12th

Written by John Thompson on October 4, 2011 · Filed under Software, Tech 

It seems like we’ve waited ages for iOS 5 to eventually reach the ‘golden master’ stage, when in fact it’s only been 4 months since it was originally announced back at WWDC in June.

Fortunately for any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch users out there, iOS 5 has reached that milestone today, and it now has a firm release date of October 12th. Need a refresher on the features that you can look forward to in the new OS? We’ve got you covered!

Notification Center

iOS was in dire need of a revamp in the notifications area. It was one area where iOS 4 really lagged behind competitors such as Android, and Apple hasn’t disappointed with the introduction of iOS 5.

The new notification center can be accessed by dragging your finger down from the top of the screen, similar to how you would access your notifications in Android. You can customise which notifications you receive, and which apps’ notifications will stay in the center for viewing when you drag down from the top of the screen.

iMessage

BB what? iOS 5 comes with a new messaging application that will allow not only iPhone users, but also iPod Touch and iPad users to talk to each other for free. It’s essentially a private IM service that allows you to send text messages and pictures to other users, and you can use it with just a wi-fi network, no carrier required.

Reminders

To-do managers aren’t anything new, but a few of them can cost a fair amount of money. The best app I’ve used is Things for iPhone, but at £5.99 some people would prefer a free alternative.

Reminders is just that. It’s free, bundled with iOS 5, and will allow you to set a time and date for an event. If you want to get really clever, you can even set a to-do, and be reminded when you arrive at a certain destination. Clever, eh?

Twitter integration

Every man and his dog has a Twitter account today, so integrating such a popular service into your operating system is always going to be a popular move. Now, you can enter your login details for Twitter in the System Preferences of your iOS 5 device, making it much easier to quickly share information from apps such as Safari in a couple of taps.

The interface looks simple, popping up in the middle of the screen when you choose to share something to Twitter, and allowing you to add other information that you would get from within the application, such as your location.

Photo editing and organisation

Not everyone wants to wait to edit the photos that they’ve taken on their phone until they have access to their computer, so Apple has added more photo editing options right on your phone. You can now enhance, crop, rotate and remove red-eye straight from your phone.

In addition to this, you can now organise photos differently on your phone as well. Like in iPhoto, you can organise by place or face as well as view your shots in the standard gallery.

iOS 5 will be available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, original iPad, iPad 2 and iPod Touch for free from October 12th.