What we have to see in iOS 5

By on Mar 24, 2011 at 1:06 PM
mobile March 24, 2011

Apple’s iOS platform is now on its fourth iteration and from the second it was announced, iOS has been arguably the most cohesive and advanced mobile operating system in the world. That’s not to say iOS is perfect, as competing operating systems like Android have greatly accelerated their advancements in near light-speed fashion. With Apple’s next version of iOS due to hit in the coming months, here’s what we have to see in iOS 5.

For starters, notifications. This is a must, and Apple is well aware of that fact. How the company will end up integrating a revamped notifications UI into its almost clinically polished OS is up for grabs, though we could see Apple taking a page out of webOS’ book with unobtrusive yet meaningful notifications that peek out / push down into view, for instance. Apple did, after all, hire Palm’s webOS architect recently.

Apple really hasn’t let users customize their notifications settings at all thus far, and it might be time the company has a change of heart. It would definitely be a big surprise and an even bigger departure from Apple’s current philosophy, but a “profiles” type app that manages notification settings and options for all apps would be ideal. It might be similar to how RIM does it — set your custom notification tone, vibrate settings and more, all in the same app for anything you want to customize. Apple’s current setup is especially frustrating with hundreds of millions of iOS devices out there playing the same exact “ding” email alert tone. We get the branding aspect of it, but it’s time to let users customize their SMS, email, and notification sounds and settings.

Apple also has to open up access to its filesystem to be taken seriously as a viable modern-day smarphone OS. We understand that the filesystem is hidden so users don’t have to see it or manage what’s in it, and there are valid security concerns with giving apps the ability to write to any location, but a default or set list of locations all third-party apps could write and read to would be ideal. And the fact that Safari can’t upload a file from the iPhone itself is kind of insulting.

Additionally, we get the fact that iTunes is the preferred method of loading media to the device, but back to that filesystem… there is no reason why files like MP3 tracks or AVI video files downloaded from the device itself can’t be stored into some default location for later playback.

Apple is rumored to be switching to the cloud for a lot of its services, and we hope the company extends this concept to wireless device syncing. We should be able to enter our Apple IDs and have devices load our most recent backup over the air along with all our apps and settings.

An improved lock screen would be a welcome addition as well, with more information being able to be shown while the device is locked. This would save users the time it takes to unlock their phones just to see if they have a new email message waiting for them, and so on.

We’d also like to see a user-editable dictionary (we know it exists for some languages on the phone, but we’d like this to be universal and it needs to be reworked, too), the ability to use FaceTime over 3G, real gesture support and a few other improvements here and there.

Let’s be honest — none of these things are integral to the success of Apple’s next iPhone or any other iOS-powered devices. People will keep buying them either way because as a whole, they’re still amazing devices. But Apple is a company that got where it is by building incredible experiences and, often times, by leading instead of following. Apple’s iOS platform is now falling behind in several key places, including some areas of the overall user experience. For a company that puts so much time and resources into UX, I can’t help but wonder how much further Apple will let things slip before it reassumes a clear lead.

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  • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

    I honestly think Steve Jobs is a little too obsessed with the believe his experience is the right one, that he’ll cling onto an outdated experience for a while. Apple’s spent a lot of time bashing the new components of other OS’s systems to necessarily break down and add them to iOS.

    Also, I’m sure at least a few of those newer ideas have mildly vague patents on them companies can use to sue Apple, as part of revenge for Apple suing them for it’s mildly vague patents.

  • Jmk

    WORD WRAP!!!

    For the love of all that is holy, Safari (or any other browser for that matter) can do word wrap. Android does it, WinMo does it, even my old basic/feature phone from 2007 does it! A fullscreen option would be nice as well, seeing as though the screen is 3.5 inches.

    Oh, and specific placement of icons would be nice as well. I would like to have all my apps on the edges, not filled left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

    C’mon now, Apple. I just got an iPhone after being on Android, then Blackberry before that. Let’s see a little innovation.

  • Binarysmurf

    I’d also like to see some kind of on-phone management of photos. Creation and deletion of albums, along with the ability to move images between these albums would be a great step forward, given the quality of the iPhone 4 camera.

    That, and a decent notification system would make me very happy.

    Steve

  • talk

    How do I get that awesome wallpaper screen that’s at the top of this article?

  • Bishopknight1972

    Allow customization an notifications. That’s would he the best. Allow you to change fonts and maybe themes for apps like SMS. That’d be cool.

  • Anonymous

    Wow. I don’t use any iOS device but I kind of assumed that by version 4.3 these things had been addressed. I was expecting to see some more advanced features than being able to change the email notification sound on this list. You can’t upload files from the browser? Seriously? Wow.

  • Anonymous

    If you think apple is going to give access to the filesystem, EVER, you are out of your mind.

  • Jake

    what’s the lockscreen in this picture?

  • OMG!

    how about having different options to unlock the phone? i am so sick of having only a left to right horizontal slide!

  • http://twitter.com/radogado Radoslav Sharapanov

    multitasking UI perhaps

  • http://profiles.google.com/rantonelli Ryan Antonelli

    I would really like to see a modification to the way the iPhone handles Exchange email. Blackberry (aside from the one central server that funnels all RIM emails through) does it best, and I’d love to see Apple devise a similar system. Many of the other points you bring to the table are definitely something that would be nice to see Apple bring to the masses, instead of just those people who JB.

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like someone is getting sick of Apple’s lame shortcut launcher that poses for an OS. I have an android phone and an ipad2 and I HATE ios. It’s a pos and the worst thing in the world is constantly scrolling through screens and double clicking 15 times to find the same info that I can find on one screen on my phone in seconds.

    Sure for someone like “boy genius”, it may be hard to give up their iphone after years of biased blogging, but what happens when IOS5′s main calling card is “NEW shinier icons” and nothing more? Apple doesn’t exactly move at a light speed and asking for IOS to become more like android or palm is asking a lot for the slow moving company.

  • Nospam

    for those asking..the lockscreen is called Typophone 4 available on cydia

  • http://www.facebook.com/parkerstimmel Parker Stimmel

    I want the skin used in the picture for the original post. :O

    • Anonymous

       If your jailbroken, the theme is called Typophone 4. Google it. 

  • http://www.TimFord.co.uk Timothy Charles Ford

    I wish the spam filter on my Mail app on mac was on my iPhone. I find myself having to read e-mails on my phone that I would never read had I been stat at a computer.

    • Anonymous

       The spam filter works great with Gmail through the Mail app on iphone

  • Anonymous

    good article BG,,, solid points,, especialy the notifications, i wouldn’t mind widgets, but i think that might come in the next ios, thought i can wonder about that all important battery life thing, as i know on androids widgets eat battery life,,, how will apple deal with this,,, im thinking next gen battery tech,, i see batterys getting bigger and components getting smaller as in the ipad, and ipad2,, 

  • Anonymous

    it’ll be funny when all of the iPhone 5 users who previously said “I don’t need some tacky widgets” say how great and useful they are once they start using them lol. The same way they say a 4″ screen is too big, but when the iPhone 5 has one watch how “PERFECT” the screen size is lol. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

  • http://www.poweredonmedia.com/ Shaun Collins

    Can we revisit this article now? I would like to see how you think the announcement compares to what you had outlined as necessary feature updates. All in all, I would say Apple did a bang up job with this update, though I can’t help but feel they legitimized most of my Jailbreak mainstays. 

  • Tatung70

    How about a re-work of Calendar, email, etc? Compared to 3 year old Blackberries or Windows Moble phones, Calendaring and mail on an iPhone is archaic.

  • Anonymous

    A very simple question and hope it can be answered regarding IOS5. I am a devoted and Former Blackberry Person, I migrated to Android, but had a IPhone 4 for a short period of time. Why? The Blackberry allowed me to assign Notification Tones and ringtones to almost everything and Anything. It was important to me, that I could do that so that I could immediatley address crucial messaging to me audibly, whether it was Email, text or Instant (BBM). The IP-4 was totally restrictive, couldnt even come close, and Android offered a better solution, even though the IP-4 was a beautiful device.

    The “Rumor” I heard is with the IP-5 and IOS 5, all notification tones and Ringtones will be completely assignable on almost everything. I am trying to confirm that, and hope that someone help with that Information. When you call Apple to ask, they refer you to the Blurb they have on their site about IOS5, (Whats in IOS5), but truthfully there is nothing there that descusses the above query I have.

    Hope to hear something back concrete about this.

    Thank you in advance!

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