Scott Forstall SVP of iPhone Software started out by giving out a few numbers.
- 200 Million iOS Devices sold
- 25 Millions iPads in 14 Months
- 15 Billions Songs sold in iTunes
- 130 Million books downloaded from the iBooks Store
- 425,000 Apps on the App Store
- 90,000 Specific iPad Apps
- 14 Billion Downloads from the App Store
- 2.5 Billion Dollars paid to App Developers
- 225 Million Accounts
- More than 100 Billion Push Notifications Sent
- 64% of Mobile Web Browsing is done on iOS
Then he moves on to the future of iOS; iOS 5. Scott says there are more than 1500 API’s for Developers and more than 200 User Features. Like for Lion Scott will only go through 10 major features of iOS 5.
Notifications: Notification Center; Swipe down from the top to view the Notifications Center and all your notifications. Also at the top of Notification Center is is Stocks and Weather. I guess that’s Apple’s answer to mobile widgets. anyway so while you’re in an App a small animation will pop-up at the top of the phone to inform you of a notification, but you can ignore it and continue using your app, it will slowly fade away. Also on the lock screen there is an improved list to view all your new notifications. All you have to do is slide your finger on the notification and it takes you directly to the app the notification came from.
Newsstand: There is a place in the App Store dedicated to Magazines and Newspapers. So when you download something from that section it will download in an App on the homepage called the Newsstand. The UI for Newsstand looks almost exactly like the iBooks App. Also for Newsstand it has background downloads, that automatically download the latest issue of the mag or newspaper.
Twitter: you can sign into Twitter directly in the Settings App, once, and you” always be signed in. You won’t have type in your log in information every time you want to go to Twitter. Now you instantly tweet directly form the Camera, Photos, Safari, YouTube, Maps and more. You can also optionally add your location if you want people to know where you are. I don’t know why you would tell people that, but that’s up t the person’s choice. you can use Twitter to get a person’s picture and twitter username to add to your account.
Safari: In Safari itself there are many new features. First is reader, which takes the article you’re reading, takes everything on the web page off it, and makes it look like just one article that is fit for the iOS device. It even automatically will change the font to fit the display. Also when in reader you can email the whole article instead of just the link, unlike before. Next feature is Reading List which let’s you save an article for reading later, and it automatically syncs with all your other devices with Safari. Then comes Tabbed Browsing just like it is on Desktop Safari.
Reminders: Stores lists of things, can attach dates and locations to you reminders. One crazy awesome features is adding locations to reminders. So for example you have to message your friend once you get a restaurant. As Mr. Forstall said, it will set up a “Geo-Fence” around that area, so when you get inside that “geo-fence” it will give you a reminder to message your friend. I think that’s really cool, and by WWDC’s crowd’s reaction I think they liked it too. Also reminders will sync with iCal and Microsoft Outlook.
Camera: Now on the lock screen you can instantly access the photos app to take pictures. But since this feature is usable without typing your pass-code, you will not be able access previous photos. And instead of tapping the screen to take a picture you can push the volume up-button. Optionally you can add lines for better use of the rule-of-thirds. and you can pinch-to-zoom here also. And by keeping your finger over an are you can place an Auto Exposure/Auto Focus Lock. And now you can edit your photos directly on the iPhone! You can crop, rotate, and remove red-eye.And the amazing one-tap to enhance feature from iPhoto is now on the iPhone.
Mail: Now you can have Rich-Text Formatting, ability to change indents, drag addresses between the address fields, flag messages, and you can search the contents of your message. Also the Keyboard for the iPad can be split and moved for better thumb typing, and this is an all iOS feature.
PC Free: Now when you open up your new iOS device you don’t have to connect to iTunes, instead you’ll be prompted with a “Welcome” display and a quick set-up. Also Software Updates are over the air. Whooooo!!! Also there will be delta updates so it will only download the changes and not the whole OS.
Game-Center: You can add Profile Photos, you can directly compare achievement points, can view friends of friends, and can get friend and game recommendations. All in just Game Center. Also you can download games straight from Game Center. And there is support for turn-based games like Words with Friends.
iMessage: Now there will be a messaging service for all iOS devices. So now you can message on the iPad and iPod touch. Some cool features in iMessage include the ability to see if the recipient has received or read the message. You will also be indicated if the other person is typing. And your messages will be synced between all your iOS devices. Also it is usable over Wi-Fi and 3G.
Now you can sync wireless with iTunes over Wi-Fi. And there will be a developer seed today. For the rest of us who are not part of the Developer Program will get iOS 5 this fall. iOS 5 will be compatible with all iPads, the iPhone 3GS and 4, and the 3rd and 4th iPod Touch.
This a major new update for iOS and will surely attract more users as soon as it comes out.
-MacMusings
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