So I've been playing with iOS 5 beta 1 on my iPhone 3GS for a couple of days now and my first impression is that it looks really good. Good enough to make me consider giving up my jailbreak and unlock to install iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 - don't worry, I won't.
One thing I've noticed about Apple's latest beta is that it is a little sluggish. I know an iPhone 3GS isn't the ideal device to test a new OS on, so I thought I'd put it to the test against the same device, but on the current iOS 4.3.3...
I remember a few years ago when the iPhone first came out, getting your Hotmail emails on the Email app was just a struggle. Then Microsoft figured it out and let its users easily set up Hotmail on the iPhone and other devices.
Adding an Hotmail account on the iPhone is going to be even easier with iOS 5 as it is now a default option, just like Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL are...
No more workarounds needed to enjoy Emoji icons on your iPhone with iOS 5. This feature is now completely integrated in Apple's latest OS and can be activated in just a few simple steps.
To activate Emoji in iOS 5, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Add New Keyboard > Emoji. Once turned on, you can easily switch between your primary keyboard and the Emoji keyboard by hitting the "globe" icon on your keyboard...
Yet another new feature that made it to iOS 5. When using the camera app, you can swipe to the right to bring your camera roll. From there, you can flick left and right to go to previous pictures or go back to your camera app.
At any time, you can tap anywhere on the screen to bring some of the picture controls and tap "done" to return to your camera app...
Yet another of the 200+ new features in iOS 5. This one is hardly noticeable and won't be life changing, but it's still interesting to see how Apple is continually improving every app.
This new feature can be spotted in Apple's stock weather application. When double tapping on the screen, it now brings a break down hour by hour of the weather and temperature in the selected city...
A new handy feature that made its way to iOS 5 is the ability to launch the camera directly from the lockscreen. Have you ever wanted to take a picture rapidly but missed the perfect shot because it took you too long to unlock your phone and launch the camera app? No more of that.
Now you can launch the camera app more quickly by simply hitting the home button twice while on the lockscreen. This will bring the camera icon. Hitting this icon will launch the camera app...
Up until now, you could assign a specific ringtone to a contact, which is quite a handy feature as it allows you to quickly figure out who's calling you without having to look at your phone. iOS 5 just introduced a similar feature that allows you to assign a vibration pattern to a specific contact.
You can choose from 5 standard vibration patterns, or even better, you can create your own vibration pattern...
Apple introduced a handy new feature in iOS 5 called "Shortcuts". If you are familiar with the Mac app called TextExpander (I highly recommend it), or even the awesome jailbreak app called Xpandr, then Shortcuts shouldn't seem too foreign to you.
Like the name suggests, Shortcuts allow you to create your own shortcuts. For example, if you're always typing "Talk to you later" in your emails or text messages, you can create a shortcut for "ttyl", and every time you type these 4 letters together, it will automatically insert the full "Talk to you later" phrase...