On June 6, Apple made several announcements at the WWDC. A new version of iOS, the operating system used by iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, was introduced. I know this has nothing much to do with fashion, but I really want to share my excitement about some of the improvements in iOS5 (mainly the new notification system). And I bet many of you have one of those iOS devices, so this is not totally irrelevant : ) Here I will review a few of the key new features out of the 200 Apple claimed to have added.
1. Notification – with the current version of iOS, whenever you get a text message, email, Facebook message or any kind of notification, a dialog box pops up and interrupts you from whatever you're doing. If you receive multiple notifications while your phone is locked, you have to dismiss each of them separately, yet you can only see one notification per app. The new Notification Center is much more user-friendly. When a notification comes in, a small box will slide down from top of the screen before disappearing a few moments later. This happens without interfering whatever it is that you are doing! (If you have used an Android phone, you would have seen this before but I am just glad my iPhone is finally getting this feature.) And to see all the notifications organized by app and time, you simply swipe down from top of the screen. From there, you can go directly to the corresponding app by swiping on the individual notifications. How convenient!
2. Lock Screen – you can now see all the notifications in your lock screen organized by app. Similar to the new Notification Center, you can jump into the apps with a simple swipe.
3. iMessage – the new iMessage will allow you to send messages, photos, videos to another iOS device. I currently use Whatsapp to do what iMessage will do. And I think it is more convenient than iMessage because it's a multi-platform app meaning I can send to anyone using Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, etc. However, given that iMessage is free and I do know some iPhone users who don’t have Whatsapp, it will be useful every once a while.
4. Photo – the camera app is now accessible in the lock screen, and you can use the volume button to snap photos. Also, auto-enhance, red-eye reduction, cropping functions have been added to the app. These are some nice additions but I think the camera app still have ways to go. How can Apple not allow users to adjust white balance and exposure?
5. Twitter Integration – allows you to tweet directly from maps, photos, safari and Youtube. This is great but it will be even better if Facebook is integrated as I am a big-time Facebook-er.
iOS5 is nowhere near perfect but it does provide users with many more useful functionality and make the iOS devices much more user-friendly. Keep an eye out for the update this fall!
