“iPhone 4S owners are poised to become members of an elite class. Their new phones boast an improved camera, dual antennae and an unpaid personal intern named Siri — all relevant talking points in ‘Who’s got the real iPhone?’ one-upmanship battles,” Jon Phillips reports for Wired.
“Luckily, though, even 4S have-nots can enjoy the benefits of iOS 5, one of the new phone’s best features,” Phillips reports. “Released Wednesday, Apple’s new mobile OS is a no-brainer download (we gave it an enthusiastic 8 verdict). It’s also entirely free, and compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, the 3rd- and 4th-gen iPod touch media players, and iPad and iPad 2.”
Phillips reports, “Downloaded the new OS? Good. The blogosphere is teeming with iOS 5 feature guides, but aside from exposing Easter eggs hidden in Siri voice recognition, many sites are glossing over some of the OS’s most hidden or novel new features. Here we explore some of the more notable or quirky additions to grace our iPhone and iPad interfaces.”
7 hidden new features:
• User-Defined Keyboard Shortcuts
• Create Custom Vibrations for Stealth Alerts
• Create LED Flashes for Visual Alerts
• Instant Definitions
• Cover Your Digital Tracks
• Check App Usage, Dispatch Offenders
• Alternate Routes in Maps
Read more in the full article here.
Rock on! Let the easter egg hunt begin.
How are any of these features “hidden”? Seriously?
No shit. I read a travel magazine article entitled “Hidden Maui” the other day. Essentially everything in it could be found in a decent guidebook. The travel magazine industry — and OS bloggers — apparently could not survive without the word “hidden”.
They have a ‘hidden’ agenda….;-)
The Mail application on my iPhone is behaving like a prom queen – one minute sending out mail and the next sending mail to limbo. There’s a busy indicator on the menu bar which shows that Mail is processing the send request but it’s stuck there for ages – nothing moves. Inevitably I have to restart my iPhone or close the Mail app but of course when I do that the outgoing mail gets lost – it’s not in the sent folder or in drafts.
Come on Apple fix the quirky behavior already. It’s driving me nuts. I hope it’s not iOS 5 related – Internet congestion on Apple servers maybe – but I need consistency not some hormone jagged teenage queen.
Also a great feature for us without Siri, you can still have text read to you by enabling “speak selection” in accessibility. Will read messages, articles, etc whatever you highlight.
Google had better use that $10B in profits to quickly spruce up Android as it is looking more like a toid now!
Cool!! So is TextExpander now out of business?
That’s way Apple is Apple! So subtle tool improvements are really cool and very clever. Jobs and Co. create devices that they really WANT themselves to use and enjoy using. That’s the difference in the thinking and that’s why RIM, Nokia and the rest stay far back away.
I regret ever updating. After updating all apps stopped working. Had to wipe the phone and start over. It took 2 re-installs to get everything back. My mail boxes have never been slower. Its painfully slow now. It was great before but after updating I don’t even want to use it anymore. I should have never updated. Others may oogle over the iOS5 update but I regret it.
Talk to a Genius at an Apple Store (if it isn’t too far from you). There has to be an explanation, since everyone else seems quite happy with it.
Very strange. I updated an iPad 2, iPhone 4 and 3GS installation went smooth.. My only complaint is that I had to download three separate files and each took several (3-6) to download. i also have sone issues with managing two Apple ID’s, but I think it’s resolved now.
I updated two iPhones and an iPad2 without one hiccup, other than taking several tries at first. Now I am transferring a my last iPhone back-up to my new iPhone without a hitch.
I have a friend that updated two iPhones and lost all his info on both….with a PC. Coincidence?
Fregy1008, If you depend on certain programs just like with any new OS release wait till those programs are updated to support the new OS before updating to a new OS. It also doesn’t help to do fresh installs.
Alternate routes in maps? Seriously?
Here’s one more, hourly weather in Weather app.
Here is what I would like to see (I drive a LOT….)
A weather radar overlay on a traffic map.
Weather Underground’s WunderMap overlays weather info onto google’s maps. You can’t route with it, but you can easily see what you’re driving into.
Good idea, the weather map. I’d like maps to show a tiny little key explaining the distance.
Another tip: You can change Siri’s voice. Under General > Siri > You can choose either Australian, British, or American accents, as well as French and German. It’s fun to have a British Butler!
what I would like is to see what app get ted and how much. Would really help in figuring out what apps my son is into on our iPad.
LOVE the alternative routes in Maps. If I had that a month ago I would have saved the $25 entrance fee to Zion National Park while trying to get from Pt. A to Pt. B in Utah in the straightest line.
I jumped through links there and found one of the funniest things I have ever saw/read:
http://damnyouautocorrect.com/13203/the-search-is-on/
Auto correct is always a Blessing/Curse depending how you type.
I just love the Hide/unhide previous downloads in iTunes/iOS 5 now. Now all those demo/lite versions I can hide and never see again.
I’m coming across a lot of latent snappiness.
it’s a little thing.. but something that annoyed me. The fact the keyboard would stay up when you wanted to go back to find something in a txt msg. now you can swipe down and the keyboard will collapse while you scan up your txts. Now- they just need to be able to let you timestamp each msg.
My GF and I are already using the free messaging. wow! so much better than txt. I kind of suspect I’ll know when to cxl my toting plan because all of my msgs will be blue instead of green (:
oh yea- it might worth mentioning- you can double click the home button and shortcut right to the camera app. it’s still secure- and using the up volume button is unbelievably useful… bout time!
One thing apple never mentioned is that the new iPhone is wireless N. no more dual band antenna needed!
I believe the 4 was 802.11n also.
However, it was 2.4 GHz only, and as far as I can tell, so is the 4S.
(I have a dedicated 5GHz network for my new iMac , ATVs and iPad2. That network does NOT show to be available on my 4S)
My two cents worth …..
Be careful when using apps where you have to make sideward swiping gestures. When you are using an app, if you do a multi-finger swipe to the edge of the iPad screen, you are automatically taken back to the last app you were using before the current one.
I was playing Fruit Ninja, and as the swiping got more furious the further in I went, I suddenly found myself back in iTunes, where I had been before starting Ninja. And that happened a few times.
I wonder if there is some kind of lock that could temporarily prevent this swipe-to-the-previous-app feature.
Also, how do I access the feature that allows me to update my iDevice without USB tethering to iTunes?
As steve would say- you are swiping wrong. At least it should save your game state? I’m not sure- but apple has rules as far as what an app can and can’t do with regards to what a user expects a finger function to do. or even a physical button.
Update… your iTunes music and stuff? or the iOS?
As an aside- find my friends is awesome as well!
I may be mistaken, but I think you are supposed to be able to do all the things wirelessly that you needed to do by attaching your iDevice to your Mac and accessing iTunes. That would include updating your “stuff” and the iOS.
re: custom vibrations
I may have missed this in the text, but you have to go to General -> accessibility to first enable custom vibrations
I don’t remember this being in last update but I can use certain music tones I made for my ringtone on garage band for text messages tones also. They’re annoying though cuz they play to long for a text. I had a Twilight zone theme for a ringtone and now I can use it as a text tone also. 30 seconds is to long for a text tone though.
If you press the Home button twice on a locked screen, it is supposed to bring up the Camera app under iOS 5. But my iPad 2 brings up the . . . Music play bar! Strange indeed. Any help would be appreciated.
I use a passcode to unlock my device, if that’s a help.
Nice, I guess!