Apple iOS 5 Review
by Vivek Gowri, Andrew Cunningham, Saumitra Bhagwat & Brian Klug on October 18, 2011 3:05 AM ESTReminders
Reminders is more or less a portable to-do list. Once you create a reminder, you can edit it, making it remind you on a selected date (after which you can also set up recurring reminders), assigning it a priority, switching the reminder list it appears on, or making notes to associate with it.
You can have multiple lists of Reminders set up, just as you can use multiple calendars or email accounts. By default, you have one list that lives on the device locally (syncing Reminders to iCloud will replace the local one with your iCloud copy), and Exchange tasks can also appear as a Reminders list. In list view, the app will allow you to swipe between your lists of active and completed tasks. You can also use a calendar view for time-sensitive or recurring reminders.
For those of you connecting to Exchange servers, your Reminders will sync with your Tasks lists in Outlook. You should note that, whether you have one Exchange list and one iCloud list, or two iCloud lists, or any other multiple-list configuration, a given Reminder can only live on one list at once.
On certain devices (namely, the iPhone 4 and 4S), you can also set location-based reminders that will trigger an alert when you’ve arrived at a certain geographical location. The accuracy of this feature is contingent on the accuracy of Apple's background location service, which uses cellular based location calls that are limited to the iPhone 3GS or higher. It isn't entirely clear which level of background location method is being used for Reminders, however the "significant-change location service" state outlined under "Tracking the User's Location" is the most likely. This doesn’t work on other WiFi-only devices for an obvious reason - this level of background location service uses individual cell sites to determine rough location. It's curious that the 3GS doesn't get Reminders, but no doubt Apple is reserving this feature for the higher end devices as a selling point.
For those of you connecting to Exchange servers, your Reminders will sync with your Tasks lists in Outlook. You should note that, whether you have one Exchange list and one iCloud list, or two iCloud lists, or any other multiple-list configuration, a given Reminder can only live on one list at once.
On certain devices (namely, the iPhone 4 and 4S), you can also set location-based reminders that will trigger an alert when you’ve arrived at a certain geographical location. The accuracy of this feature is contingent on the accuracy of Apple's background location service, which uses cellular based location calls that are limited to the iPhone 3GS or higher. It isn't entirely clear which level of background location method is being used for Reminders, however the "significant-change location service" state outlined under "Tracking the User's Location" is the most likely. This doesn’t work on other WiFi-only devices for an obvious reason - this level of background location service uses individual cell sites to determine rough location. It's curious that the 3GS doesn't get Reminders, but no doubt Apple is reserving this feature for the higher end devices as a selling point.
We experienced varying levels of accuracy, and again this depends on the density of cell sites in your particular areas. Obviously urban areas are going to have much more granularity, and rural areas might require some significant changes in location to trigger. Apple's guidelines stipulate around 500 meters as being average, which is about right. Some other developers have done their own statistical studies and come up with a good breakdown of how far one must travel for the location-trigger to happen based on this background location level. If you use Google Latitude on iOS, this is (best we can tell) the same background location service used there.
Twitter Integration
You may not really notice this if you don't use Twitter, but for heavy users of the service it's nice to see it integrated more fully into the OS - the ability to share photos and links via Twitter is a first-class menu option, right alongside printing and emailing.
You'll need to have the Twitter app installed to enable this functionality, and you'll also have to save your Twitter authentication credentials in Settings - iOS prompts you to do both if you haven’t. Once you’ve done this, you can select individual apps that can send Tweets using your account (Safari and Photos are here by default, but expect more as developers adopt the APIs).
Custom Vibrations & LED Notification
There are some new accessibility features in iOS 5. You can now create custom vibration patterns as an alert (even on a per-user basis), as well as rely on the LED flash for notifications. The flash isn't quite as nice as a subtle LED notification indicator for normal use but if you need a highly visual alert system, it gets the job done.
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myxiplx - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Just a note, my 3GS is far more responsive since installing IOS 5 than it's been for years. It's not just application launch times, popups, and notifications are a lot snappier, there's a definite reduction in the lag that's been creeping up over the last year.lurker22 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Wow, I have found it lags a bit more than ios4kmmatney - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
I'm still running iOS 4.0 (can't upgrade easily due to jailbreak for tethering) and its not all that bad once you disable Spotlight search. I'm hoping they have an untethered Jailbreak for iOS 5 soon, though.lurker22 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Anand,Surprised you missed this large flaw. iPads will not receive iMessages sent to your cellular number, just iMessages sent to the email addresses setup in the iMessage account.
This is a huge flaw. What has already happened to me is people using their iPads have missed messages for many hours since they were addressed to the cell number and this then isn't devlivered to the iPads.
Why would apple miss this huge functionality gap? It means now I have to remember to send iMessages to email addresses to be sure the person will see it in a timely fashion.
Aikouka - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
That explains why I never saw any of the "iMessages" that a friend sent me the other day. I was wondering why they didn't show up when I poked around the Messaging app on my iPad. I assumed all you had to do was sign into the same iMessage account to share everything.Brian Klug - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
That's all you have to do for things to work, however there's a catch that I mention - both devices have to be configured to have the same iMessage "Caller ID." This is why the default Caller ID is set to the iMessage "Apple ID" email account, and also the other catch is that your sender has to then be talking with that contact.-Brian
windywoo - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
If Apple is just now implementing features that have been around on other phones why do their products always get such high scores in reviews? Why is it acceptable for Apple to trail in features while Android handsets will be marked down if there happens to be a flicker in the animations? Don't tell me it's because Apple does it so much better because that's subjective at best, and to my mind dishonest.All the features implemented here fix major usability flaws in iOS that really contradict the general view that Apple's products are the easiest to use, but for some reason Apple has got a pass from reviewers like some favoured, hobbit haired child.
I would like to see fewer double standards. We are talking about a capitalist, profit driven corporation, I think they can stand to be handled a little less gently.
lurker22 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Here's whyhttp://dinnerwithandroid.tumblr.com/post/115710967...
windywoo - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
That article is a prime example of what I'm talking about. Subjectives passed off as objectives. Until recently the android browser was ahead in any benchmarks yet he claims it's slow. And in any case, Android gives a choice of browser if there are any rendering errors. Safari is not without its own flaws, and when it does go wrong you're stuck, because Apple doesn't allow other browsers.He finds Widgets useless, but doesn't appreciate that other people might not and Android allows them the freedom to spend battery juice on trinkets like live wallpaper if they so choose. Why is it that Apple users always consider it an advantage to have Apple make decisions for them and will pay over the odds to be nannied?
The market argument is almost entirely irrelevant. Let's leave aside the fact that he can't have looked very closely if he thinks there is no software on the Android market, the same argument used to be addressed at Macs. Apple fans would claim then that the quantity didn't matter so long as the major functions were there. Apps are a con anyway. If consumers weren't so gullible, many of them could be written as web apps, making platform irrelevant. But consumers are dumb. They like being fed nuggets of code like junk food.
He lists the good things at the end so why does he consider them less important than what he sees as faults? The answer is of course, fawning subservience to the mighty Apple.
Phynaz - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Who told you Apple doesn't allow other browsers. I've tried at least three alternatives, and my current browser is Atomic.