Apple released the next generation of it’s mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod, early this afternoon. The release of Apple’s iOS 5 was preceded by the launch of Apple’s iCloud online storage service.
iCloud was the last major product introduced by Steve Jobs before he died. The service is designed to, in effect, sync data and files across all of a users Apple devices. This works by the content being uploaded to Apple’s servers, where it is stored. From there, it is streamed to the user’s device when requested. A photo taken with one device will be accessible on all the other Apple devices the user owns.
The new iOS 5 operating system has over 200 new features, according to Apple. Integration with iCloud is one of those. Another new feature is the ability to receive software updates over WiFi – in the past, updating required connecting the Apple device to the user’s computer with a cable. Other features include improved camera software, unlimited texting to other iOS users with iMessage, a location based reminder program, and new inroads into the system to allow independent developers to use iOS 5’s improvements to build new apps. The Safari browser will have a new ‘reader’ feature, which is designed to remove certain items from the screen and allow more room for reading content, and a new ‘notification center’ is designed to pull messages and alerts from different programs and apps together into one place.
iOS 5 is being made available through iTunes. The new operating system is designed for use on the iPhone 4S, 4, and 3GS, 3rd and 4th generations of the iPod Touch, and both versions of the iPad.