It was the Apple's WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) yesterday. There were no new consumer hardware introduced as some have expected, but there were 3 main things. No iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 that was rumored to be announced. The 3 things were the OSX Lion, iOS5 and iCloud. I'm not going to talk about OSX Lion as I do not own a Mac (but I am surprised at the $29 upgrade price!). I'm going to talk mainly about the new iOS 5 and some of its main new features that they have added.
First up, Notifications. Well, I have to say with the previous implementation of the blue bubble pop-up, it is definitely quite intrusive. Especially when you are so immerse in a game or reading an article, the notification pop-up can certainly throw you off whatever you were doing. So their solution? Well.... it was easy, employ jailbreak app MobileNotifier's developer and have him integrate his solution into iOS 5. Simple ain't it? What money cannot buy? Jailbreakers have been using these features for way way longer than this, nothing new.
And if you're like me, been using the jailbreak app Lockinfo, you will know that you have had the notification center for a long long time. Ever since the days of iOS 3.x. Apple only took it and integrated all of Lockinfo and its plugins' functionalities. Again, nothing new.
Next up, iMessage. This is Apple's new warship to counter Blackberry's BBM service. Although I would say this could help them win more BB users to migrate over to iPhone, I certainly think that this is a big rip-off from the likes of Whatsapp and Pingchat. IMHO, integrating it with the existing messaging app does not make it any better. Only advantage I can see using iMessage is for stability. Whatsapp and Pingchat being from smaller developers may not have that kind of financial muscle to maintain good stability. But iMessage is not multi platform as Whatsapp and Pingchat. It is a iOS-to-iOS only service (much like BBM of course) and though this would win them user from BB, it will not replace Whatsapp or Pingchat. This is because these two apps are multi platform (BB, iOS and Android). So, nothing new here with iMessage, and in fact a little lacking. But who can blame them, they can't be developing for BB and Android phones just so they can communicate with iPhone users right?
Third is Newsstand app. This is basically a folder icon that replaces the usual folder icons with your News and magazine subscriptions. I have to admit, this is more intuitive than having your subscriptions all over the iPhone screen. I do not personally buy news or subscriptions, but I can imagine this is useful for people who do and having your subscriptions update by itself is certainly intuitive.
Reminders features. Now this should have been implemented long long before the ages of time. Ok, I exaggerated, but shouldn't this be already implemented to a smart phone? Being called a SMART phone, its certainly unforgivable to only have it now, after 5 iterations of the firmware. Besides, there are tons of AppStore apps and even jailbreak apps that can help you do this way before iOS 4.x. The location based reminder is quite useful though, and I perceive that it would notify you of something you want to do once you are near the place to do it. Nothing new here, just inclusion of a missing feature that should have been there.
Twitter integration. Merely a integration into the iOS that allows your apps to tweet your activities. Most apps have them already built in nowadays, but having native support may have its advantages. But where is the ability to read tweets? I may have mistaken, but from Apple's website, I do not see anywhere where you can read tweets. Maybe you will still need to open a twitter app to read them. Not exciting at all.... to me at least. And where is the Facebook integration?? The number of Facebook users certainly do not lack behind Twitter users.
Next up, upgraded Camera app. Need I say more? The new features are again, nothing new that you can't find in other AppStore camera apps. Apple just integrated some of the popular features available in other camera apps (like Camera+). Of course, praise goes to them for improving their camera app so that users don't need to spend extra cash to purchase much needed features. But I'm sure the developers of the other apps will have a say in this as it would most definitely reduce their attractiveness. Features like using the volume button as your snap button has also been available in some AppStore apps which were remove because of it and you can still find them in jailbreak apps. AE/AF locks are also included. Nothing new that you can't already do.
The Photos app is much the same as the Camera app, in that it included features of photo editing apps from AppStore. The ability to put in albums will definitely be welcomed but again, its not something you can't already do. The iCloudintegration of course would definitely be its only biggest plus point, as you can share them across your Apple devices or iTunes (Windows too!) easily.
Enhanced Safari. Many would argue that Safari on the iPhone is very much inferior in terms of features and functionality compare to other AppStore browsers, but you cannot argue that Safari has the speed due to it being native to iOS. The new Safari will add tabbed browsing as well as Instapaper like features that will be much welcomed. I for one still use Safari due mainly to its speed, but I didn't like that it didn't have tabbed browsing. Nothing new again, just an incorporation features available in other apps.
The much touted PC Free and Wifi Sync feature could be the best change in my books. For one, you no longer need a PC to activate your iPhone when its newly restored. And over-the-air (OTA) upgrades makes sure that you no longer need to download the whole iOS firmware for incremental firmware upgrades. A feature which should have been implemented long ago. However, this spells a new game for the jailbreak community altogether. Whether or not these OTAs will break your jailbreak (the irony.... ). Nevertheless, syncing your data wirelessly will be a welcome feature to anyone. Jailbreakers beware...
The Mail and Calendar apps also have some new features that are commendable and increases the usability of the respective apps. iPad users will rejoice in the revamped as you will be able to view more and do more using the said apps.
The iCloud service basically was the biggest addition during the WWDC as it incorporates all the iDevices and iTunes into its cloud base service and many of the new features found in iOS would benefit much from the iCloud service. And Steve Jobs announcement that the service will be FREE for all would be, I think, the best news of the day to everyone.
Bottomline, besides the PC Free and iCloud integration features, there isn't much added into the iOS that you cannot already do with available apps nowadays. Its more of an integration upgrade rather than new features for those of us that have "customized" our iOSes to our liking (jailbreakers should know better...). Nevertheless, its a good upgrade for those who don't jailbreak their iOS devices and good for Apple I guess. I'm not too excited, but it doesn't mean others aren't too :)
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