iOS 5: Notification Center, iMessage, Reminders, Wirelessly Activate And Sync Device And More [video]

Apple announced today iOS 5, which includes more than 200 new features for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Here’s a sneak peak at a few awesome featured they’ve added in the most advanced mobile operating system…

Notification Center

You get all kinds of notifications on your iOS device: new email, texts, friend requests, and more. With Notification Center, you can keep track of them all in one convenient location. Just swipe down from the top of any screen to enter Notification Center. Choose which notifications you want to see. Even see a stock ticker and the current weather. 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 the best way to stay on top of your life’s breaking news.

iMessage

With iMessage, we’ve created a new messaging service for all iOS 5 users. You can send unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to anyone with one of those devices. iMessage is built into the Messages app, so you can send text, photos, videos, locations, and contacts. Keep everyone in the loop with group messaging. Track your messages with delivery receipts and optional read receipts, see when someone’s typing, and enjoy secure encryption for text messages. Even start a conversation on one of your iOS devices and pick up where you left off on another.

Newsstand

Read all about it. All in one place. iOS 5 organizes your magazine and newspaper app subscriptions in Newsstand: a folder that lets you access your favorite publications quickly and easily. There’s also a new place on the App Store just for newspaper and magazine subscriptions. And you can get to it straight from Newsstand. New purchases go directly to your Newsstand folder. Then, as new issues become available, Newsstand automatically updates them in the background — complete with the latest covers. It’s kind of like having the paper delivered to your front door. Only better.

Reminder

Next time you think to yourself, “Don’t forget to…,” just pull out your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and jot it down. Reminders lets you organize your life in to-do lists — complete with due dates and locations. Say you need to remember to pick up milk during your next grocery trip. Since Reminders can be location based, you’ll get an alert as soon as you pull into the supermarket parking lot. Reminders also works with iCal, Outlook, and iCloud, so changes you make update automatically on all your devices and calendars.

Twitter

iOS 5 makes it even easier to tweet from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Sign in once in Settings, and suddenly you can tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps. Want to mention or @reply to a friend? Contacts applies your friends’ Twitter usernames and profile pictures. So you can start typing a name and iOS 5 does the rest. You can even add a location to any tweet, no matter which app you’re tweeting from.

Camera

Since your iPhone is always with you, it’s often the best way to capture those unexpected moments. That’s why you’ll love the new camera features in iOS 5. You can open the Camera app right from the Lock screen. Use grid lines, pinch-to-zoom gestures, and single-tap focus and exposure locks to compose a picture on the fly. Then press the volume-up button to snap your photo in the nick of time. If you have Photo Stream enabled in iCloud, your photos automatically download to all your other devices.

Photos

Turn your snapshots into frame-worthy photos in just a few taps. Crop, rotate, enhance, and remove red-eye without leaving the Photos app. Even organize your photos in albums — right on your device. With iCloud, you can push new photos to all your iOS devices. So if you’re taking photos on your iPhone, iCloud automatically sends copies to your iPad, where you can quickly touch them up before showing them off.

Safari

iOS 5 brings even more web-browsing features to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Safari Reader displays web articles sans ads or clutter so you can read without distractions. Reading List lets you save interesting articles to peruse later, while iCloud keeps your list updated across all your devices. On iPad, tabbed browsing helps you keep track of multiple web pages and switch between them with ease. And iOS 5 improves Safari performance on all your iOS devices.

PC Free

With iOS 5, you no longer need a computer to own an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Activate and set up your device wirelessly, right out of the box. Download free iOS software updates directly on your device. Do more with your apps — like editing your photos or adding new email folders — on your device, without the need for a Mac or PC. And back up and restore your device automatically using iCloud.

Mail

Your inbox is about to receive some great new features. Format text using bold, italic, or underlined fonts. Create indents in the text of your message. Drag to rearrange names in address fields. Flag important messages. Even add and delete mailbox folders on the fly. If you’re looking for a specific email, you can now search in the body of messages. And with iCloud, you get a free email account that stays up to date on all your devices.

Calendar

Get more perspective on your schedule with year view on iPad and week view on iPhone and iPod touch. Tap to create an event and drag to adjust the time and duration. Add, rename, and delete calendars directly from your device. And view event attachments without leaving the Calendar app. iCloud lets you share calendars with friends and family, and it keeps your events in sync on all your devices.

GameCenter

iOS is the world’s most popular gaming platform. With iOS 5, you can get your game face on with even more Game Center features. Post a profile picture. Meet your match with new friend recommendations based on the games you play and the players you already know. Discover new games without leaving Game Center. And size up an opponent on the spot with new overall achievement scores.

WiFi Sync

Wirelessly sync your iOS device to your Mac or PC over a shared Wi-Fi connection. Every time you connect your iOS device to a power source (say, overnight for charging), it automatically syncs and backs up any new content to iTunes. So you always have your movies, TV shows, home videos, and photo albums everywhere you want them.

Multitasking gestures for iPad

iOS 5 includes a few new moves and shortcuts to help you get around even quicker on your iPad: Using four or five fingers, swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar, pinch to return to the Home screen, and swipe left or right to switch between apps.

AirPlay mirroring for iPad 2

Wow your audience in the board room, classroom, or living room. AirPlay now supports video mirroring. Which means you can wirelessly — and securely — stream whatever’s on your iPad 2 to your HDTV via Apple TV. Everyone in the room sees exactly what’s on your iPad display up there on the big screen — even when you rotate iPad from portrait to landscape or zoom in and out on photos.

 

 

What's iOS 5 New Features (What's new on iOS 5):

iOS 5 is a major release. This is incredible for our developers and our customers, find blow what Apple says about new iOS 5 features:


Notifications:

We're looking at the current notifications, the annoying pop-ups that have been "massively popular." More than 100 billion have been pushed so far!

• We have built something that solves some of the current problems.

• The modal alerts are annoying when you're playing a game, or watching a video -- maybe you're really into the latest 30 Rock episode.

• Notification Center aggregates all the notifications. It's accessed by swiping down from the top.

• Swipe down and you get a big list -- yeah, it looks like Android.

• Stocks and weather appear up top.

• if you're playing a game, you get an animation up top that swivels down.

• It's unobtrusive and goes away after a moment, but of course you can get back to it whenever you like.
• It's on the lock screen as well, and you can if you slide across any of them you'll go straight to that app.

• We're seeing a few missed calls, a Facebook notification, and a text message.

• Swipe across the text message and you're right into conversation view.

• To clear a notification, just tap on the little X to the right and it disappears.

Newsstand

• Recently we added subscriptions, which makes it easier to get all the new issues without missing anything."

• We're going through a suite of publications that support this, like Nat Geo and Spin.

• And papers: New York Times, SF Chronicle, Daily Telegraph...

• When you purchase them they're automatically downloaded and placed on the Newsstand. It's integrated with the home screen, looks like, well, a newspaper stand.

Twitter

• We want to make it even easier for all our customers to use Twitter on all their iOS products."

• Single sign-on. Jump into Settings, add in your deets, and you're configured for Twitter. Those credentials are then saved and can be (optionally) shared with any app that requests them.

• Integrated with many apps, including Camera and Photos. Just tap the action button, hit "Tweet" and it's attached. "It's that simple."

• You can also send articles from Safari and locations from Maps.

• You can also use Twitter to automatically update contacts if they have Twitter handles. Again, taking a cue from Android.

Safari

• Safari is the best mobile web browser out there. It's also the most popular." Nearly 2 / 3 of all mobile web browsing is done through Safari.

• Safari Reader is a new button when you're reading a story on a website. It's up in the address bar.

• All the distractions are gone, all the junk, just text in a single, scrolling story. "It's really convenient."

• You can e-mail the contents of the story too, not just the link. Cautious applause from the webmasters in the room...

Reading List

• a simple way to read it later." Which is, you know, kind of like Read It Later.

• You can access those you've tagged for later on multiple devices.

• Tabbed browsing is added as well! .

Reminders

• That one got an "oooh," from the crowd. Lots of folks apparently ignoring their honey-do lists to be here today.

• You can store lists of things, assign a reminder to any dates, and you can even assign a location.

• I can set a location to remind me to call my wife when I leave the convention today. It'll set up a geofence."

• Big applause for that, lots of people who need to call home when they leave here.

• It'll sync across devices, and with Cal.

Camera updates.

• Looking at Flickr popularity, with the iPhone 4 the most popular phone on a camera, and soon the most popular ever.

• There's now a Camera button on the lock screen.

• Tap on the camera icon and you're right in the Camera app, ready to take a photo.

• If you have a passcode set, you can take a new photo without entering it. But, your existing photos are protected.

• And you can use the volume up button to take pictures now. Huge applause on that one.

• You can pinch-to-zoom right in the app, and if you hold a tap on a part of the photo it'll set the exposure settings to optimize that portion of the image.

• And they can now be edited directly on the device. You can crop, rotate, reduce red-eye, and you can do a one click enhance -- if you're feeling lucky.

Mail

• Rich-text formatting, indentation control, draggable addresses (from To: to Cc: or Bcc:), flagging so you can mark them as unread, and now you can search the entire contents of messages. 

• And S/MIME is being added as well, for the security mavens.

• There's also a built-in dictionary that's a service across the OS. "All apps from the App Store can use it."

• Tap a word, tap "Define" in the popup, and you're in a dictionary. Scott didn't know what a lychee fruit is, apparently. Doesn't know what he's missing out on.

• Showing a new keyboard: grab it with your thumbs and go up and it splits.

• It makes things a little more thumb-friendly on the iPad if you weren't blessed with freakishly-long fingers.

PC Free

• Huge applause for that one. Nobody likes cables up in this house.

• We know we're selling to a lot of places where the households just don't have computers.

• Now, when you take the phone out of the box, you just see "Welcome" instead of a prompt to tether it. "You can now setup and activate your device right on the device and you are ready to go. It's that easy."

• And those updates are delta updates, so again you're just getting what's changed -- which should put less of a hurting on your newly capped data plan.

• You can now create & delete calendars right from iOS. We already saw the improved photo editing, and in Mail you can create and delete mailboxes from iOS. Basically, it's a much more independent operating system. "If you want to cut the cord, you can."

Game Center.

• iOS is the most popular gaming platform on the planet. There are more than 100,000 game and entertainment titles in the App Store."

• "In just 9 months we have 50 million Game Center users. To put that into perspective Xbox Live has been around for about eight years and they have around 30 million users."

• We're getting more social here, seeing the scores of your friends' friends, also getting friend recommendations and game recommendations.

 

• You can purchase and download games directly from Game Center.

• And, you can now play turn-based games right in the OS. Settlers and Carcasonne fans in the house just started smiling.

Messages

• I believe we have the best messaging client on the iPhone. It works tremendously well to send text messages and photos and our customers love it -- our iPhone users. But what about our iPad users, and our iPod touch users?"

• New messaging service between all iOS users, regardless of device.

 

• Supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Lets you send text messages, photos, videos, contacts, and even do group messaging.

• Can also get delivery receipts, read receipts, and real-time typing notification.

• Since it's cross-device you can start a convo on your iPhone and pick it up on your iPad, or the reverse if you're into that.

• Message sent from the iPad to the iPhone and, wouldn't you know it, a notification pops up

• Tapping on the notification brings you right to the new messaging interface. While responding, the iPad user gets a notification that the iPhone user is typing away.

• This works over WiFi or 3G, in case you were wondering.

• We're actually building this on the push notification we built, so we know how to scale this."

• That's 10 of the 200+ new features that are coming, including AirPlay mirroring, letting you mirror your entire iPad right to the TV -- wirelessly

• You can also sync your iTunes library over WiFi too, as you might expect given the cut cable idea before.

• And new multi-tasking gestures too to "flick" between apps, as well as a suite of new dev tools that are receiving some mumbles of appreciation from the crowd.