¶ iOS 5 | Review

The original iPhone revolutionized the way we think of mobile computing. Each subsequent version of iOS has been evolutionary, adding some major features each year, but leaving that core part of the original iOS largely untouched. iOS 5 is still evolutionary, but the difference is that there are few parts of iOS that were left untouched this time. To compare Apples to Apples, iOS 5 is to iOS as OS X Lion was to OS X this year. Yes, evolutionary, but make no mistake, this is a giant leap forward.

The Big Features

When Apple announced iOS 5, they focused on a handful of new features. These have been discussed ad nauseum all over the internet, but I do have a couple favorites I want to make sure you know about.

Notification Center

Something that has long been in need of attention on iOS has been notifications. The old way consisted of modal dialogues which disappeared forever when acted upon. And multiple notifications were not handled well. One of the worse parts of the modal system was notifications completely disrupting whatever you ever doing at the time. This was awful for just about everything, but especially nasty in games.

Apple addressed these problems in three ways. When using an app, notifications now drop in at the top of the screen briefly, and roll back away after a moment. You can tap that banner to act on the notification, but if you don’t, it just gets out of the way. However, unlike the old way, the notification isn’t gone forever once it is out of view.

Swiping down from the top of the screen brings in the notification center, which collects all active notification events. From here, you can clear notifications or tap on them to jump to that event.

Lastly, if notifications pop up while you aren’t using the device, they stack up on the lock screen. From the lock screen itself, you can swipe across a notification to unlock the device and jump straight to that event.

So far, I have been loving nearly everything about notification center. One improvement I’d like to see is the ability to set which calendars have their events show up in notification center. I have a couple subscribed calendars that I don’t need to see notifications for.

iMessage

This is probably the one core feature of iOS 5 that I have been looking forward to the most. A fair majority of my friends and family have been moving or are planning to move to iPhones. My wife & I each have the 200 messages/month plan for our iPhones — a plan that no longer exists. Combined, we pay $10 per month to cover our light use of text messaging. And since AT&T now offers unlimited messaging at $20/month ($30 for families) or pay-per-message, we really don’t want to change that plan.

Here is where Apple is helping us use fast and quick messaging more. The Messages app, where SMS and MMS have traditionally been handled, has become a little smarter. When selecting who you are sending the message to, Messages does a quick check with Apple to see if you are sending to an iOS 5 device. If you are, the interface subtly changes from a green Send button and Text Message placeholder text to a blue Send button and iMessage placeholder text.

If you have any experience with RIM’s Blackberry Messenger service, iMessage is basically a super up counterpart for Apple devices. iMessage is free, sends text, pictures, videos, map locations, contact information and more via Wi-Fi or 3G. It also shows whether the message has been delivered, read, and whether or not the other person is typing back. It’s awesome. And, it even works internationally. I’ve been using it a lot the past week to have quick chats with friends in the UK.

By the way, iMessage isn’t just for iPhones. It works for iPad and iPod touch, too. In those cases, you use your Apple ID address. And if you set up your Apple ID on your iPhone as well, you can start the conversation on one device then pick up again on another. iMessage keeps track of the conversation for you.

iMessage has already changed how frequently I keep in touch with friends.

Reminders

Reminders is a built-in to-do list with a kick — it can use location reminders. Location reminders have already been incredibly useful for me. Of course, so has a reminder list that stays up to date on whichever device I’m using.

Twitter

The built-in Twitter integration is great. I love that apps are already using the single-sign-on feature so I don’t have to go look up my password all the time in 1Password.

I’ve mostly been using it for sending pictures to Twitter without having to launch Twitterrific, but I have also shared a couple links from Safari. You can also share things from YouTube and Maps.

Camera & Photos

Besides iMessage, I’ve been very excited for the improvements to how the Camera app works. From the lock screen, a double-tap to the home button brings up quick access to the camera. Also, pressing the volume up button now works as a shutter release for pictures and starting/stopping video recording. As an added bonus, you can use the volume up button on the in-line remote on the earbuds in the same fashion.

The Photos app also has minor editing capabilities such as crop, rotate, remove red-eye and auto-enhance.

The Attention to Detail

All the big features are really great. But the real joy of iOS 5 for me has been the little things. The super subtle refinements to nearly every nook & cranny of iOS. I’m just going to list things off in no particular order.

• In Messages, you can swipe the keyboard down on the iPhone & iPod to see the conversation easier (iPad has a dedicated button for dismissing the keyboard any time).
• From Camera, you can swipe from the left to see the pictures you just took.
• Weather can now use geolocation to show condition where you’re at. You can also tap in the daily forecast list to expose an hourly forecast.
• In Settings > General > Keyboards you can now specify shortcuts. Think of this as a rudimentary version of TextExpander.
• Maps now offers alternate routes.
• On the iPad, you can resurrect closed tabs in Safari by holding down on the + button.

• You can split and reposition the keyboard on iPad by either holding on the dismiss keyboard button or placing your thumbs in the center of the keyboard and pulling it apart. You can merge it back together by holding on that dismiss button again.

  I have found the split keyboard to be perfect when typing anything in Portrait orientation.

• In Music, it’s always been annoying when a song title is too long to fully display. Tap & hold on that song for a moment and the full song information appears in a popover.
• In the weather widget of Notification Center, you can see a daily forecast by swiping the current weather to the side.
• When you select a word, there is now a define option in addition to cut, copy, & paste. Define only appears if iOS is able to actually define the word.
• Ever accidentally add someone to the To: field in Mail when you meant to add them to Cc: or Bcc:? Me too. You used to have to delete them then retype in the appropriate field. Now you can tap and drag recipients between the fields.
• You can now select multiple messages in Mail to make as read/unread, and new to the game is the ability to flag a message for follow-up.
• Ringtones can now be used for any notification tone. Heck, the ability to customize any alert tone is fantastic.
• Calendar on iPhone and iPod can now show week view when held in landscape. The iPad now has a year view with a heat map.
• If you put an address into the location field of a Calendar event, that location is now linked out to Maps. I have been wanting that for years.
• Tapping and holding briefly on a calendar event in day or week view allows you to adjust its length via grab handles, or you can move the event entirely by dragging it.
• As I mentioned earlier, you can now associate an Apple ID address as a recipient and caller ID on for FaceTime on iPhone. This used to be restricted to only the phone number for iPhones.
• The iPad now has multi-touch gestures. Use all fingers and thumb to “pinch” apps shut and go back to the home screen. Four finger swipe up and down shows and hides the multitasking switcher, and four fingers left or right switches between currently open apps, in order of most recently used.
• Tapping and holding on the hyphen now adds an en-dash in addition to the em-dash and bullet, for all you fellow typography nerds.
• In Clock, the timer function now has a pause button.
• The Reader ability in Safari is great, especially on smaller screens like the iPhone and iPod touch.

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I’m sure there is much more to iOS 5 than I have found on my own or read about. This really does feel like the most polished version of iOS yet and it is incredibly stable and fast. This is pretty incredible, considering how many changes have been made and how ambitious some of those were.

So, should you upgrade? If your device is capable of running it, then yes. I’ve even heard from 3GS owners, which iOS 4 bogged down quite a bit, that iOS 5 has given new life to their iPhone.

This is simply a fantastic update.

The S is for 'Selling Like Hotcakes'

Apple PR announced first-weekend sales of the iPhone 4S today:

Apple® today announced it has sold over four million of its new iPhone® 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, in the first five days of its release, and more than 20 million customers have signed up for iCloud®, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

Four million is a lot. For perspective, the XBox Kinect currently holds the Guiness record for selling 8 million devices in its first 60 days. My guess is the iPhone 4S will take that by the end of October.

Other choice bits:

• iOS 5 is already on 25 million devices. Yesterday I talked with several of my friends who had yet to update because they wanted to let the dust settle.
• iCloud is already at 20 million users. That's amazing. I've had relatively few issues with iCloud so far. Getting MobileMe to start the transition took some doing, but other than that it has been a smooth ride. Also notice how Apple doesn't say the word 'sync' anywhere in their description of iCloud. Smart.

AirPorts, Friends, & Movies

In addition to iOS 5, iCloud, OS X Lion, iWork, and iPhoto updates today, Apple has also released (at least) three other new apps in the App Store.

• AirPort Utility: This is a welcome app for me. You can completely set up and manage a wireless network consisting of Time Capsules, AirPort Extremes, or AirPort Expresses. I’ve been working with my church to build out a building-wide wireless network, and being able to use my iPhone or iPad to manage things around the building will be far easier than walking around with my MacBook Pro.

  This also further opens the door for someone to use just an iPad as their main computer, something I know a few friends are planning to do for their parents.

• Find My Friends: This lets you easily find friends and family who have shared their location with you, either permanently or temporarily. This could be great for impromptu meet ups, but it will be really nice for my wife & I. Let’s say I’m at a meeting, and my wife needs me to stop at the store. Sometimes, I get that text from her right as I’m pulling in the driveway. Now, she could check first to see whether I’m close to home or not.

• iTunes Movie Trailers: Not only does this provide a nice way for you to watch movie trailers, but you can pop them up on an Apple TV with AirPlay, and you can check show times at local theaters, and share those with friends via email or twitter. I’m a movie nut, so having a highly polished app for showtimes and trailers is very welcome.

Preparing for iOS 5 and iCloud

Tomorrow Apple will undertake what is likely the most ambitious software launch in the company’s history. Tomorrow will see the release of iOS 5, OS X Lion 10.7.2, updates to various supporting apps, and the biggest thing since iTunes — iCloud.

It would be prudent to make some preparations for all of this. First, let’s talk iPhones, iPads, & iPods.

iOS 5

iOS 5 is Apple’s latest software for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It has loads of new features that you’ll want. Best of all, it’s free.

The first thing you’ll need for putting iOS 5 on your device is iTunes 10.5, which was released earlier today. I would sync each of your devices before upgrading to iOS 5, as that will create a backup. And just for kicks, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to import your camera roll to your computer, as part of iCloud will include significant changes to how photos are handled within iOS. More on that in a bit.

Also, make sure you check for updates to your apps and install them. Apple is approving app updates like gangbusters right now because developers are adding iOS 5 compatibility. If you have an update for an app that lists fixes for iOS 5 and you don’t install them, don’t complain if the app breaks. Install the updates, okay?

Okay, after all that is done, get a good night’s sleep and plug your device in tomorrow afternoon, wait for it to show up in iTunes, then select the device in the sidebar, and click the big Check for Updates button. Then let iTunes update your device while you get a snack.

After you’re all updated, you can enjoy never having to physically plug your iPhone to your computer for syncing again, as long as you have Wi-Fi. From now on you can sync over your home Wi-Fi, backups happen wirelessly with iCloud, and future iOS updates will be pushed over the air to your device.

iCloud

Where iTunes was the digital hub for the past decade, iCloud is the hub for the next decade or so. iCloud will hold onto copies of your purchased music, TV shows, apps, & books, device backups, contacts, calendars, notes, reminders, documents, photos, and email.

You get a free @me.com email address, which is ad-free to boot. Apps that take advantage of iCloud will be able to sync their data between your devices, as well. iCloud also features location services such as being able to find and lock down a lost device, and even find family & friends that have given you permission to see their location. All in all, iCloud is Apple’s big new amazing technology that will make us feel like we live in the future.

After you update to iOS 5, you will be able to set up iCloud and all its nifty services from the Settings app.

OS X Lion 10.7.2

Ah yes, the Macintosh. The original digital hub. With the advent of iCloud, the Mac has been “demoted” to just another device, and OS X Lion 10.7.2 will bring all the advantages of iCloud with it — including that ability to find and lock down a lost Mac.

The Mac is known for its iLife suite, and part of that will see a little upgrade tomorrow, too. iPhoto 9.2 will include iCloud’s Photo Stream. Take a picture with your iPhone, it shows up in mere moments on your Mac.

A Note for MobileMe Users

If you are a MobileMe user, you’ve probably heard that iCloud is succeeding MobileMe. You’ll still get email, and syncing for calendars, contacts, & bookmarks. You still get Find my iPhone. But a few things aren’t making it. iDisk and Gallery are going away. They are sort of being replaced by Documents in the Cloud and Photo Stream, respectively. And if you’re a multi-Mac user who used MobileMe to keep dock items, Dashboard widgets, and keychains in sync — well, those are going away, too.

But honestly, things like iDisk, and the syncing for dock, Dashboard, & keychains — they never really worked well. So, when you migrate to iCloud, be prepared. On the bright side, iCloud is likely to work much more effectively, and hey, it’s free. Enjoy it.

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Tomorrow is a big day. Things are about to get a lot more awesome.

¶ S

Turns out I wasn’t too far off on my late-night predictions yesterday.

The iPhone 4S sports an A5 processor, 8MP camera with vastly improved optics, and 1080p video recording with stabilization. It also features an AI assistant called Siri. It looks exactly like the iPhone 4, which is great because the the iPhone 4 is awesome. It has an improved antenna that can handle both CDMA & GSM frequencies, and is coming to Verizon, AT&T, & newcomer Sprint on October 14.

iOS 5, iCloud, & OS X Lion 10.7.2 will be dropping on October 12. And iCloud did get one more new feature: Friends & Family. This looks like it could be kind of neat for my wife to able to see how close I am to home before calling me to tell me to stop at the store.

And the iPod nano and iPod received very slight revisions. The nano no longer needs a dongle for Nike+ and has more clock faces to choose from since some people have taken to using them as watches. The touch now comes in white (seriously, I don’t think anything has changes as far as specs).

However, I was wrong about the iPod classic. It lives on for yet another year.

¶ Predictions

It's the eve before Apple's big reveal on the new iPhone. I always like to give a few predictions, of which I am usually terribly short-sighted or flat-out wrong. So I'm going to try to be a little more conservative this year, and just give my gut feelings on the some of the rumors.

• We will see a new iPhone, and it will be available very soon.
  • It will not have a ridiculous 4-inch screen.
  • Everything else is fair game. My gut says A5 processor, more RAM (but that won't be disclosed by Apple), and a better camera.
  • Sprint will be a new carrier in the US. And they'll be offering sweetheart plans because they're desperate to sell iPhones.
  • The new iPhone will support a previously unannounced feature of iOS 5 that other iPhones will not.
• We will get a release date for iOS 5, iCloud, and OS X 10.7.2. I would wager a couple days prior to the release of the new iPhone.
• iCloud will have one more really awesome thing to make it that much more of a big deal. I have no idea what that may be, but I have a hunch. Come on, this is Apple's baby for the next decade.
• We'll hear some news about refreshed iPods for the holidays. Nothing major. The classic will be dispatched to its Great Reward.

Twitterrific 4.3 Syncs Timelines

When it comes to third-party Twitter clients, each one usually needs to find a way to set itself apart. Tweetbot recently added its own push notification service, even offering the ability to set a daily quiet time for when you are asleep.

My favorite twitter app, Twitterrific, has long held its niche with being minimal and offering a unified timeline, showing tweets, mentions, and direct messages all in one continuous timeline. Today, though, the Iconfactory unveiled a new feature to set the blue bird apart from the rest: Tweet Marker.

Tweet Marker works like pure magic. You read some tweets on Twitterrific for Mac, and decide you need to leave your desk for a bit. Simply close Twitterrific, and it sets the top-most tweet in view as the last read tweet. Next, open Twitterrific on your iPhone or iPad, and your timeline auto-scrolls to that marked tweet, signified by a purple bookmark. Read some more tweets, and exit the iOS version of Twitterrific, and then go back to your Mac, and pick up at the latest marked tweet.

This doesn't just work between Mac & iPhone or Mac & iPad, but it works between iPhone & iPad as well.

Twitterrific 4.3 also brings other features to the table, such as initial support for decoding t.co links. Picture services such as TwitPic, yfrog, img.ly, and Twitter's Photo service that have been hidden behind t.co links will now open in the photo viewer.

Be sure to read the full changelog (Mac, iOS) and, if you don't already use Twitterrific, pick it up for the Mac or iOS.

¶ The AirPrint Monopoly

Last September, during Apple's annual music-focused event, they previewed iOS 4.2 as the pinnacle release to unify the iPhone/iPod touch with the iPad on a software level. Another feature that Apple touted was AirPrint, which would allow printing from an iOS device without needing to install printer drivers. The idea was that as long as a printer was on the same network as the iOS device, it would simply just be available.

The gotcha was that the printer had to have AirPrint technology baked into it. And Apple said that any manufacturer could do this, as they would be opening up the technology.

Apple also said that there would be a workaround where your Mac would make any AirPrint-less printer on your network available to your iOS device, as long as the Mac was currently running on the same network as your iOS device. I thought that was great, as my printer works fine, and if I am home, my Mac is usually on.

Well, a funny thing happened. All through the betas of iOS 4.2 and OS X 10.6.5, this AirPrint bridge for older printers worked — right up until the GM versions. Suddenly, when iOS 4.2 and OS X 10.6.5 made their public debut, the AirPrint bridge mode was gone, even from the website.

And the only printers available with AirPrint were a new breed of HP printers. I found that to be mostly understandable, for one manufacturer to have the first few AirPrinters. Others would follow soon, right?

Wrong.

Nine months after AirPrint's public debut, HP is the only manufacturer offering the technology. Why? Did Apple and HP make an exclusivity agreement? Did every other printer manufacturer find AirPrint to be too costly or cumbersome to implement? I don't know.

I don't know why this bothers me so much, as I rarely ever print anything. Maybe it is the realization of seeing a trend of broken promises from Apple for minor technology features. For instance:

• Time Machine via AirPort. When OS X Leopard entered developer preview at WWDC a number of years back, Apple touted that users would be able to attach an external hard drive to the back of an AirPort Extreme in order to use it as a wireless backup hub for the whole family using Time Machine. When Leopard was released, the feature was gone. A few months later, at Macworld Expo, Apple unveiled the Time Capsule, which was an AirPort with an integrated hard drive for Time Machine backups.
• FaceTime. Don't get me wrong, I love FaceTime. It's used weekly in home. But I remember Apple saying a year ago that they were opening it up as a public spec, so any manufacturer could integrate the FaceTime service. I really don't care that FaceTime is still only available to Apple hardware, as the people I want to use it with are able to, but it is another promise that has yet to be fulfilled.

None of these are earth-shattering. Nothing like RIM or HP shipping tablets with half-baked, buggy software and then promising to deliver updates in weeks or months. For all I can guess, maybe Apple decided features like Time Machine over AirPort or AirPrint didn't work well unless they remained largely closed system. And maybe they decided to keep FaceTime in-house as a competitive advantage. I sure haven't seen any other phones or devices that have implemented video calling as robust as FaceTime, not even those that use Skype.

I think, maybe, the thing that bothers me about these examples is that it is uncharacteristic for Apple to promise something, and then not deliver.

Capture — An App That Does One Thing Well

I can't tell you how often I miss shooting a video of my boy doing something great because I have to do the following:

1. Unlock my iPhone.
2. Find the Camera app.
3. Wait for the Camera app to load.
4. Toggle the switch from still photo to video.
5. Tap record.

The above process can take anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds, which, by the time I am ready to record, I have missed the moment.

Apple is hoping to alleviate some of this by adding a camera button to the lock screen in iOS 5, but that still seems like it will be best suited for quick access to taking still photos (which is also welcome).

Enter Capture, a great little app that does one thing, and does it very well. Tap Capture's icon on the home screen, and it instantly begins recording video as it launches. Simply press the home button to stop recording, and the video is saved to your camera roll.

Capture is 99 cents well spent if you are also frustrated with the slow performance of the built-in camera app.

Marco Arment pretty much speaks for me on that front:

By the way, it's embarrassing that Camera is so slow to launch and be ready to capture videos or photos that apps like this are necessary.

I guess that is a good reason to have a third-party developer community.

Make sure to pick up Capture for 99 cents over at the App Store.

Putting the Scope of iOS 5 into Focus

My dear friend Nik Fletcher made some astute comments in reference to David Barnard's assessment of the mobile platform landscape:

For the v5.0 moniker applied to iOS 5, I can’t help but feel Apple sees this as the first major iteration of iOS — at risk of knocking all the leaps the iOS SDK took from launch to iOS 4 it certainly seems everything prior to this was just 1.x.

I can't convey how much I agree with Nik's sentiments. I've been using iOS since it was called iPhone OS 1.1, and that was on a first-generation iPod touch. And after pondering Nik's comment, it really does feel like Apple has been doing minor alterations, improvements, and polishing all this time. From what I have seen of iOS 5 via Apple's demoes and videos, and some hands-on with development devices, it really does feel like Apple took a look at everything in iOS to see what needed to be addressed.

iOS 5 makes previous versions seem like Apple was just warming up.