iOS devices refer to any of Apple’s hardware that runs the iOS mobile operating system which include iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 10. Here is the complete list of iOS 10 compatible devices.
Apple’s iOS software wizard Scott Forstall saved iMessage as the last of the ten big iOS 5 features in Monday’s WWDC keynote talk. We’ve shown iMessage in action in our eleven-minute overview of iOS 5 features and the iOS 5 features page teases with some interesting capabilities promising to override costly text messages whenever possible:
With iMessage, we’ve created a new messaging service for all iOS 5 users. You can send unlimited text messages via WiFi 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. Leep 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.
That pitch leaves a lot of questions unanswered. For example, do iMessages count against my text messaging plan? Where do I sing up for iMessage? What if the person on the other end cannot receive iMessages? What about sending iMessages to non-Apple devices? Here’s what we have found out so far…
Well, what do you know, it looks like Apple’s ambitious messaging service unveiled Monday as part of the iOS 5 software is seen as a threat to Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging protocol for BlackBerry devices. According toTechRadar, investors punished the BlackBerry maker’s stock Tuesday as they digested Apple’s iMessage:
iMessage announced by Apple on Monday will challenge RIM’s highly popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant chat service which has given the Canadian company an edge over its rivals. The Apple announcement made investors more jittery, plunging RIM stock on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and Wall Street Tuesday. It slipped more than three percent in Toronto to close at $36.92, and 2.8 percent on Nasdaq to close at $37.82.
Why are investors worried about iMessage affecting RIM’s chat service?
We decided to put together a roughly eleven minute walkthrough video of iOS 5 for iPad’s most notable features. Our video covers Messages with the iMessage service, Notification Center, the brand new Music application, updated Safari, tweaked Mail, Twitter integration, updated Calendar, Settings, Reminders, the new keyboard, and more. This is, of course, all in addition to some great commentary.
On to iOS 5 itself, in the beta 1 stage, it is quite stable – compared to iOS betas that have come before it. The dual-core iPad 2 and A4-packed iPhone 4 feel even faster with this new operating system, and will likely be even snappier™ once this thing achieves Golden Master status. As you will see, our biggest gripe so far with the iPad version of iOS 5 are the widgets. Or the lack thereof. The iPhone version (way smaller display) houses two widgets: stocks and weather within the Notification Center. Apple could at least do this for the iPad.. or maybe they have something better up their sleeves to show off at their annual fall event.
Another thing is that is that there should be some sort of “read” system for users with iMessages and multiple devices. It’s quite annoying to have to clear iMessages on both your iPhone and iPad. It’s beta 1, so we’ll likely see several tweaks and new features over the course of Apple’s beta seeds into fall. Be sure to watch the full video above, check out our iPhone iOS 5 walkthrough, and ask questions about iOS 5 in the comments.- We’ll get to as many as we can.
One interesting feature of iOS 5 that we’ve been tracking since yesterday is that users have been reporting the above ‘unsecured call’ warning. While it isn’t in any of the documentation we’ve seen, it appears that Apple is warning users of the possibility that their phone calls can be eavesdropped on.
It likely warning of the possibility of a GSM IMSI Catcher basestation which can intercept unecrypted calls. Wikipedia notes that unecrypted call detection isn’t new:
there are a few mobile phones that show a small symbol on the display, e.g. an exclamation point, if encryption is not used. Another point is the calling number. Since the network access is handled with the SIM/USIM of the IMSI-catcher, the receiver cannot see the number of the calling party. Of course, this also implicates that the tapped calls are not listed in the itemized bill.
Before we even start, obviously this is something that isn’t covered by warranty and may destroy your phone. Once you go to iOS 5, you cant go back. APPLE WILL LIKELY FIX THIS IN AN UPCOMING iOS 5 UPDATE AND YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO USE YOUR DEVICE (until iOS 5 final is released or a developer adds your phone to his or her device list).
Gizmodoposts a video on how to activate an iPhone on iOS without having your device ID provisioned by a developer/Apple. The exploit uses a combination of Voiceover and the pull down notifications to activate the phone. The user that found this exploit says the device continues to work after restarts (so you won’t need to activate it every time you restart). The steps are below:
1. Download the iOS 5 IPSW file from the web (it’s easy and readily available. Just Google it and torrent it down). 2. Update your iPhone using iTunes. To do this, connect your iPhone to your computer, click on the Check for Update button with theOption (Mac) or Shift (PC) key pressed. Select the iOS 5 IPSW file from the place you downloaded it to. 3. Wait until it upgrades. A new activation screen will appear.
Activate iOS 5
1. Triple click the home button. This will activate the Voice Over. 2. Triple click the home button and Emergency Call will appear. 3. Click on Emergency Call and, while it’s switching, swipe with your three fingers down. 4. The Notification Center will appear! 5. Click on the Weather widget. The Weather app will load. 6. Click on the home button to exit to the iPhone’s springboard.
TUAWnotes that inside the USB device profiles of iOS 5 are profiles for two never before seen devices called “iPad3,1” and “iPad3,2.” Obviosuly Apple is going to be making more iPads in the future and devices often show up in these profiles many months before they are delivered. However, there was some speculation earlier this year that an enhanced iPad 2 or iPad 3 with a Retina display would be released in time for the holidays.
Most analysts currently estimate that the next version of the iPad will hit at the beginning of next year so.
Interestingly, TUAW notes that there are no new iPod touches listed. Touches usually are released in the Fall, but with no new iPhone hardware announced or released at WWDC, Apple’s traditional hardware release schedule has been put in question. Expand Expanding Close
Apple updated iBooks to 1.3 today for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Most notable is the read-aloud feature included in select children’s books from the iBookstore.
The read-aloud feature uses a real narrator to read the book to you, and in some books, it will even highlight the words as you read along.
Initially, it isn’t certain whether or not the narrator will be a (Nuance?) Text to speech voice or if the audio is included by the developers.
The new functionality isn’t just for children’s books. Enhanced books can now automatically play audio or video included with the book.
Apple is now going beyond the other eBookstores offering innovation and functionality that differentiates books into the realm of apps. Apple now offers Books directly in iTunes as part of the 10.3 update yesterday as well.
The 1.3 update also offers some bugfixes and enhancements from previous versions. More below: Expand Expanding Close
One of the new iOS features that has been met with great enthusiasm from journalists and developers attending yesterday’s WWDC keynote is AirPlay Mirroring. Apple’s iOS software head honcho Scott Forstall only briefly described it during the keynote talk:
AirPlay Mirroring, you can now mirror your entire iPad 2 right to your television, wirelessly, using Apple TV
Sounds pretty cool and here’s a video of AirPlay Mirroring in action. Check below for more information from Apple and a video showing lag time.
Here’s a good video of some of the small things that iPhone 3GS users will be missing. Overall, the speed seems to be pretty good and the experience is largely the same as the iPhone 4. Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday, Apple killed MobileMe and replaced it with the iCloud online services suite which will be available free with iOS 5 this Fall. Apple has published a nice Q&A explaining what the transition means to MobileMe subscribers and how the company plans to go about it. Additionally, a notice at www.me.com/upgrade says that “you’ll be able to upgrade your account to iCloud soon”. With that in mind, you may want to prep your migration ahead of the Apple-imposed June 30, 2012 cut-off time when the MobilMe service will no longer be available. Wondering how? Turns out there’s a leaked document for that!
iTunes Tone Store has been outed on this slide from yesterday’s keynote.
In addition to the big ones, iOS 5 includes dozens of nice-to-haves that have been given little air time during Apple’s WWDC keynote talk yesterday, excluding passing mention on a group slide. So, what do you see in the above snap? Yeah, it’s Apple’s iOS software chief Scott Forstall zipping through the iOS 5 segment of the keynote. See the iTunes Tone Store mention on the slide? Given Apple already sells 99-cent ringtones on iTunes and they let us create our own 30-second snippets from iTunes purchases, we can’t help but wonder – why do we need yet another store? Plus, a Paal, Belgium-based reader creates a YouTube video as a comment to this article, found at the bottom.
Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes reported this morning that OmniVision has won a contract with Apple that will see both Sony and OmniVision supply Apple with eight-megapixel CMOS image sensors, presumably for a fifth-generation iPhone.
OmniVision has grabbed a majority of total CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders placed by Apple for the fifth-generation iPhone, market sources have claimed. Meanwhile, power amplifier (PA) supplier Avago Technologies has landed orders for the WCDMA version of the device for its first time, according to the sources. About 90 percent of the CIS orders for Apple’s new iPhone will be supplied by OmniVision, while Sony takes up the remainder, the sources said. The upcoming device will feature a built-in 8-megapixel camera, the sources added. TSMC will use BSI (backside illumination) process technology at its Fab 14 to produce CISs used in the new version of iPhone, the sources revealed.
The iPhone Dev Team’s MuscleNerd has confirmed via his Twitter account that iOS 5 has been successfully jailbroken, adding the hack will work on the final iOS 5 version when it ships this Fall.It is a tethered jailbreak so you will have to connect your device to a computer each time it restarts (until they develop an untethered jailbreak). “Cydia works fine from quick testing (I installed SSH)”, he tweeted.
Coming this Fall, iOS 5 will bring along a boatload of exciting new stuff designed for the same devices as its predecessor. Specifically, Jobs has confirmed during yesterday’s keynote talk that iOS 5 will run on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2 and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch. If history is anything to go by, some of the new features won’t work on older devices due to constrained resources.
Unfortunately, the iOS 5 features page reveals nothing about possible limitations on legacy hardware. Bloggers, however, are beginning to discover what has been implemented in iOS 5 for iPhone 3GS and what features have been stripped away. Take it from a guy in the below clip, “In my opinion, iOS 5 beta works flawlessly on iPhone 3GS”, he concludes. Let’s begin with what works first.
We’re discovering some very interesting and little advertised new features following yesterday’s unveiling of Apple’s iOS 5 software. For instance, did you know there’s a new setting allowing you to tell your iPhone to blink its LED flash on incoming calls and alerts? We’ve also learned about brand new AssistiveTouch section in Settings where you can control your multi-touch experience and even draw custom gestures. Plus, the four-finger pinch gesture that mimics the functionality of the home button? It’s back!
It originally appeared in the first beta of iOS 4.3, but was disabled in subsequent releases unless you were a registered developer who enabled your device for development in Xcode. Needless to say, the home screen pinch has become a jailbreaker’s favorite tweak and it’s been especially popular with iPad owners because performing multi-fingered gestures felt more natural on the tablet’s larger canvas compared to the iPhone’s smallish screen. Even though Steve Jobs made no mention of them during the keynote talk, Apple has detailed new iPad multitasking gestures on its site:
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.
Specifically, Apple featured the home screen pinch twice in their iOS 5 promotional video, seen below (mark 0:28 and 5:43). Now, what about those custom gestures?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLJIef-e-7g?rel=0&w=670&h=411] Expand Expanding Close
Apple has just updated its free Find My iPhone app for iOS devices. From the release notes accompanying the 5.2MB version 1.2 update.
• when you are unable to locate a device because it is is offline, you will receive an email if the device comes online and is located • ability to remove an offline device from the list using the app
A Stevenote is in progress at San Francisco’s Moscone West where Apple’s boss and his top lieutenants are on stage, making headlines with a plethora of iOS 5, Lion and iCloud announcements. The keynote has kicked off Apple’s annual developer conference which runs through June 10.
“I get to unveil iCloud”, Jobs said as he announced Apple’s latest online services suite that will replace MobileMe as a go-to solution for all your cloud needs. He argued that the cloud – not your computer – has now become the hub for your digital life. Keeping all your devices in sync makes us crazy, Jobs observed, adding “We’ve got a great solution to this problem… We’re going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device.”
The cloud sync works automatically between iOS devices, PCs and Macs, per Apple’s “It just works” mantra. Any changes in, say, the Calendar or Contacts apps get automatically pushed via the cloud to all of your iOS devices. This is true for any supported app, which includes the recently updated Pages and Keynote apps. Plus, the new Cloud Storage APIs let third-parties write apps that tie with this cloud storage.For instance, you can create a document in Pages for iPhone and it will automagically become available via the cloud on your iPad – they call that Documents in Cloud. Jobs said,
Documents in the Cloud really completes our iOS document storage story. A lot of us have been working for 10 years to get rid of the file system so the user doesn’t have to learn about it.
You can finally take your iOS device out of the box, turn it on and begin using it immediately, Apple said at the WWDC keynote. That’s because you can perform all set ups directly on an iOS device instead of having to hook it up to iTunes via a USB cable. Just swipe your finger over the “Welcome” label and you can perform all first-run set ups and activate it directly. Plus, software updates are also delivered over-the-air (we’ll have to see how that stacks up against our limited data contracts).
With the news (that we’ve known) that iPhone 4 is the most popular camera on Flickr, Apple’s Scott Forstall unveiled new camera features of iOS 5. It is much faster and you can access it directly from the lock screen! Another steal from some third-party apps: You can use the volume up button to take photos, turn on optional grid lines to align your shots and pinch to zoom instead of using the zoom slider. You can also hold your finger to lock the auto-focus and aut0-exposure settings for higher-quality snaps.
The rumors were true, iOS 5 will sport a tight Twitter integration. You sign in to your Twitter account in the Settings app and all apps that use Twitter can automatically use the sign-in you provided. You can tweet articles from Safari, videos from the YouTube app, location from maps and more. The Contacts app also works with Twitter, allowing you to grab photos for contacts. Twitter integration will no doubt be one of the more popular iOS 5 features, no doubt..
Scott Forstall is up here on stage at San Francisco’s Moscone West and he just unveiled a new iOS store within a store. It’s called News Stand and appears as a new App Store listing that collects digital magazines and newspapers. Looks kinda neat.
