Apple’s iOS 5, the top 5 features and why you should be excited about them.

Last week saw the release of Apple’s OS X Lion for its desktop and notebook computer ranges. However with the heavily rumored September release of the iPhone 5 approaching, it’s time to take a look at Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 5 (expected some time in the Autumn), and five of the new features you should be excited about.

5. Camera

Apple’s integrated Camera app has always thrived on simplicity and saw several upgrades with the iPhone 4 and iOS 4. However, for iOS 5, Apple have re-tweaked the application again to include a few more features, such as being able to take a photo guided by grid-lines and the ability to lock the auto-focus and auto-exposure for your shots. A very exciting new feature is called “photo stream” which, through the new iCloud service, will download any photo you take on your portable device to any other devices linked to your iCloud account. However it is the new features of launching the app from the lock screen and using the volume-up button as a shutter button that will allow you to use your iPhone as a camera with greater ease.

4. Safari Web Browser

Apple have made some key and long sought after updates to the mobile version of its Safari web browser. Firstly, tabbed browsing has finally arrived to the mobile platform to create a much more fluid experience. Previously, users had to deal with flicking through different windows and could not see all of their open web pages at once. With tabbed browsing, all opened web pages can be accessed and displayed from a single browser window. This is no doubt a feature more aimed towards iPad users, but will no doubt work well on the iPhone in its landscape-viewing mode. Another exciting feature of the new mobile Safari is called “Reader”. Reader allows users to view articles on web sites after removing all surrounding advertisements and general clutter to maximize screen space to focus on only the article itself. Safari now also allows users to create a “reading list” of articles they want to read, which are then marked as read and un-read as the user accesses them.

3. Notifications Center

For many people, one of the joys of owning a smartphone is the ability to be constantly connected through Facebook, Twitter, email and text, as well as manage their lives through a variety of productivity applications. Wouldn’t it be good if all these applications notices could be delivered to you in one place? Well that’s what Apple thought and have done with their new feature “Notifications Center”. Notification Center allows any compatible apps (usually ones that use push notification) as well as your emails, text and voicemail messages to all be accessed under one menu. No longer will users have their mobile gaming interrupted by text messages or push notifications in the middle of the screen, notifications center will instead present a small bar at the top of your screen to notify you if you have a new text, including details of who it is from. Another interesting feature is the ability to be able to see all of this information from the lock screen, including your voice mails which can then be accessed with a single swipe. For the privacy conscious there is no doubt that notifications center will be heavily customizable, allowing you to define which apps, and exactly what info, will be displayed on your lock screen, as was the case with push notifications in previous iOS’.

2. Wi-Fi Sync

Arguably the most overlooked new feature of iOS 5 is Wi-Fi Sync. Wi-Fi Sync allows users to wirelessly sync their mobile iOS device to their Mac or PC using a shared Wi-Fi connection. Apple are really moving forward to try and remove the need for cables and, for busy always-on-the-go smartphone users, this should be a brilliant new feature. Wi-Fi sync also includes the brilliant feature of automatically and wirelessly syncing and backing up any new content, be it music, videos or photos to iTunes when your device is placed on charge. It will be interesting to see how much Apple evolves this feature in the future. It would be good to see the option to perform complete back-ups to the iCloud service when placing your iOS device on charge, which will no doubt really appeal to business users.

1. iMessage

No longer will iPhone users miss out on the free messaging delight that is BlackBerry Messaging. Although long overdue, Apple is finally introducing iMessage, its own IOS to IOS free messaging service. iMessage works off both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and allows iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users to freely message between devices. The application works exactly as text messaging does currently on the iPhone, and boasts the ability to be able to send text, photos and videos through the service, avoiding the costly MMS charges from your network. Although this does not offer anything more then BlackBerry’s service, this is something that a large number of iPhone users have longed for, and adds another feature to bring Apple in line with its competitors in the smartphone market. The simplicity, the fact it creates further connectivity between iOS users and the fact that it will save many users money, is the reason iMessage is the most exciting new feature of iOS 5.

Apple iPhone 4 Black Smartphone 32GB (AT&T)