iOS 5 revealed in a photograph?

We are mere hours away from Apple's great unveiling of iOS 5 at this year's WWDC but it looks like there's still time for rumors to surface - in this case, a photograph. An image of what appears to be the iOS 5 homescreen has made an appearance on the internet and with it comes two noticeable differences.

Clearly visible is what looks like a notifications bar showing two new tweets, and a new icon for the iOS camera app. Could this be what iOS 5 holds in store for us? We all know that a notifications bar is one of the most requested features of iOS and there have been plenty of rumors about it finally arriving on iOS 5, including Peter Hajas (developer behind Mobile Notifier for jailbroken iPhones) interning at Apple.

A new camera icon could also signal a new or improved camera app, though it could have also been just another app called “Camera” on the iPhone since the other apps don't seem to have updated icons - it's impossible to tell for now but stay tuned - we'll find out in a few hours.
source: Ubergizmo

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Is this how iOS 5 notifications will look and work?

We're only a couple hours away from finding out, but a photo has been making the rounds depicting what some are claiming to be part of the enhanced notifications UI in iOS 5. As you can see the in the photo, Twitter mentions are displayed on a second bar below the status bar, much like how Apple displays tethering or background voice calling. The question is, if the photo is indeed real, does tapping on the status bar then bring you to a page with all of your unread notifications? Is there an Android style drop-down panel? TechCrunch, which originally published the photo, says at the very least it has been told the photo is the “right idea,” even if it is not authentic. We'll know in under two hours and we'll be covering WWDC 2011 live.
source: Boy Genius Report

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Apple announces OS X Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud

Apple held its 2011 WWDC today and debuted quite a few new products, including: OS X Lion, an update to the operating system aboard their iMac desktops and Macbook notebooks: iOS 5, the mobile operating system aboard their iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices; and the long-await iCloud online storage and sync system, which Steve Jobs himself introduced. Loads of new stuff! Below are just the highlights and I'm sure there will be more detailed info and discussion all over the web in the coming weeks. Special thanks to Engadget for the fantastic live event feed coverage!

Mac OS X Lion

Loads of new features, only a portion of which are listed below. Download an update for $29.99. Available in July.

Multi-touch gestures – for Macbooks with touchpads
Full-screen apps
Mission Control for desktop app management
Built-in
– In-app App Store purchases
– Push Notification
– Delta Updates (only what is updated, not the entire system)
Launchpad
Resume
Auto Save
Versions
AirDrop
updated Mail


iOS 5x200+ new features, including the following. To ship this fall. Supports devices starting with iPhone 3GS, iPad and 3rd/4th gen iPod touch.

Notification Center – way improved notification management
Newsstand – electronic subscription manager
Twitter – integrated right into the OS and into many apps
Safari
– new ‘Safari Reader' button for streamlined page viewing in the browser
– Reading List – simply way to read pages later
– Tabbed Browsing
Reminders – a built-in app that syncs across devices
Camera updates
– new camera button on the lock screen
– use the ‘volume up' button to take pictures
– in-app pinch zoom
– one-tap exposure optimization
– in-app editing – crop, rotate, red-eye, etc
Mail
– rich-text formatting
– indent control
– address drag
– flagging
– search entire message
– S/MIME for security
– built-in dictionary
– splittable keyboard
PC Free
– setup and activate your device right on the device
– software updates Over The Air (delta updates – only what's changed)
– Sync iTunes library over WiFi (more on this below under iCloud)
Calendar – set up and delete right from iOS
Game Center
– Achievement points
– Friend discovery
– Friends of friends
– Game discovery
iMessage
– works between all iOS devices
– send texts, photos, video, contacts, group messages
– get delivery receipts, read receipts, and real-time typing notification
– works over WiFi or 3G


iCloud

MobileMe is gone, with its functionality incorporated into the new FREE iCloud with 9 apps. Will ship concurrent with iOS 5 this fall.

Stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices
Integrated with your apps, so everything happens automatically
MobileMe re-written from group up to work in iCloud
No ads
MobileMe is gone; Contacts, Calendar, Mail will be free to use via iCloud
updated AppStore
back up devices to the cloud – WiFi only, including purchased music, books, photos and videos, device settings, and App data
Documents in the Cloud
– store documents in the cloud and share across all your devices
– works on all iOS devices, as well as Mac and PCs
Photo Stream – photos taken on any device are pushed to the cloud, then sent automatically to the other devices via WiFi
iTunes -
– no charge to multiple downloads to different devices
– new ‘Purchased' tab shows everything you have in the cloud
– download a song on one device, it downloads to all without having to sync
– runs on iOS 4.3 beta
5GB of storage for Mail, Documents and Backup plus “other storage too” but Photo Stream and iTunes don't count again it
For music you've ripped from CDs, three options:
– sync devices over WiFi or cable
– re-buy the songs, but from iTunes
– use iTunes Music Match – $24.99 per year for as many songs as you want
– software will scan your tunes and match it up with those songs in the store – takes minutes to scan, not weeks to upload
– any songs that don't match will be uploaded for you and anything that's matched is upgraded to 256Kbps AAC, without DRM


No mention of iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 or whatever it will be called, but even still, perhaps one of the biggest WWDC unveiling events yet. Anyone besides me stoked for this?
source: The Gadgeteer

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Apple announces iCloud, iTunes Match at WWDC 2011

Apple's Steve Jobs unveiled their iCloud service today at the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The service - supported by Apple's new datacenter in North Carolina - will be integrated into iOS 5 and feature cloud storage and automatic syncing across Apple devices.

Unlike the soon-to-be-defunct MobileMe service, Apple's iCloud is fully integrated by default, free of charge. It will not be advertising supported. Device settings and individual app data can also be synced automatically in the cloud and accessed on any new devices with an AppleID.

The heavily anticipated iTunes cloud integration appears poised to surpass offerings from Google and Amazon. The first step was to make songs purchased on iTunes accessible and re-downloadable on any iOS device. But by making multi-million dollar cash payments to music labels, Apple is now also able to offer a matching service that allows for quick transfer of users' iTunes libraries to the cloud. Called iTunes Match, the app scans iTunes libraries for songs found on the iTunes store, then links users' AppleIDs to 256kbps AAC files on Apple's servers. Songs that are not sold by iTunes can be uploaded directly by users. The songs can then be streamed from any iOS device or computer with iTunes. The service will cost $24.99/year and does not carry any restrictions on number of songs stored.

Cloud improvements on existing apps include Photostream, a new addition to the Photos app that lets you instantly (provided you're on a Wi-Fi connection) sync all photos taken on iOS devices with all other iOS devices, as well as Macs & PCs. The Wi-Fi only feature stores photos in the cloud for 30 days, the most recent 1000 photos on all devices, and all photos on your Mac or PC. iOS documents created and/or edited in Pages and Keynote will automatically sync with other iOS devices and Macs. Safari Reader has migrated to iOS, and has an Instapaper-like feature that lets you save articles for offline reading (on a single page without ads).

The iCloud service has a 5GB storage cap for documents; Photostream data and music don't count against the cap.

One of the more interesting new features is the new iMessage app. Taking aim at the popular BlackBerry Messenger app, it adds delivery and read receipts as well typing indicators to their messaging app; it also syncs conversations across iOS devices.

Unsurprisingly, most of Apple's new iCloud features are married to their devices; there was no word on whether or not cloud documents could be accessed independently of Apple devices (the way Google Apps and documents can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection). Apple's goal with these "free" software advances is still to get you to buy a device.
source: Unwired View

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Apple iOS stats: 200 million devices sold (25 million iPads), 14 billion apps downloaded, and more

While announcing the brand new iOS 5, Apple has also unveiled some general iOS stats.

First of all, we've found out that more than 200 million iOS devices have been sold until now.

According to Apple, 25 million of those are iPads - so the company sold 10 million iPads since March this year, when the number of units sold was reported to be 15 million.

Apple didn't say how many iPhones it sold to date. However, we know that there were 100 million units sold in March. We also know that the company shipped more than 60 million iPod Touches as of the same month. Certainly, there have been several more million iPod Touches sold since then - let's say 5 million at most. This would mean iPhone sales hit 110 million (probably more, though) by now. So, about 10 million iPhones were sold since March.

The conclusion: customers bought 10 million iPads and (at least) 10 million iPhones in the last three months. That is something.

Also interesting: it took Apple three years to sell the first 100 million iOS devices (since June 2007, when the OS was called iPhone OS), and only one year now to ship another 100 million (from June 2010 to June 2011). 100 iOS million devices in one year – that's comparable to the total number of Android devices shipped since Google's OS was first launched (September 2008).
source: Unwired View

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Apple unveils iOS 5, brings notifications but little else

This year's WWDC keynote saw no new hardware announcements and instead it was iOS that took center stage. Apple unveiled the next major release, iOS 5, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which packs over 200 new features or say they say.

The greatest new feature of iOS 5 is the notification area, which comes to replace the annoying pop-ups. Taking a leaf of Google's Android book, the company has added a dedicated screen that you open by pulling from the top of the screen downwards. It contains all your notifications and if you click one of them it takes you to the app responsible for it.

Next came Twitter integration, which covers Contacts, Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube and Maps. You can now Tweet from all those apps and your contacts are automatically synced with their Twitter accounts. It's a rather strange move from Apple adding Twitter integration, when fans have been asking for Facebook for what seems like ages. makes us wonder if perhaps there's some grudge going on between the two companies.

The Safari browser was arguably the app to get the most significant update, but alas, those were mostly for its iPad version. The Apple slate got tabbed browsing, bringing it on par with the competition. The Reading list plug-in for both the iPad and the little iOS devices allows you to save pages for reading later. Those get synced between devices too.

Moving on, the iOS5 brings the Newsstand app - it gathers all magazine and newspaper subscriptions in one place, making it easier for you to access them.

Finally, Apple decided to break the computer-chains imposed on their iOS devices. You will no longer need to connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod to a computer before your first use or for each firmware update. Starting with iOS 5 updates will be pushed over the air and they will come in smaller sizes thanks to the implemented Delta encoding. While it sounds good, it sure sound like it's going to make the job of jailbreakers all the harder.

iOS 5 will be pushed to end users this Fall, which seems like a pretty long wait considering that it isn't the major step forward that everyone was expecting it to be. At least that gives us a rough estimation as of when we should expect the next iPhone - be it iPhone 5 or 4S. Obviously a late September release is the best we can hope for.

The iDevices eligible for an upgrade are the iPhone 3GS and 4, the iPad and iPad 2 and latest two generation of iPod touch - 3rd and 4th.

The good news is that Apple announcements didn't end with the iOS 5. The company introduced its iCloud online synching service, which might as well be more beneficial to iOS users than the firmware update. Check out what that's all about here.

In case you feel like getting a dose of video demos, you can check out the iOS 5 new features coverage in our blog.
source: GSM Arena

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