After my post yesterday about never going back to iOS4, I honestly didn’t care if I could or couldn’t. I wanted my hands on iOS5 beta ASAP!
And so the journey began.
I asked friends, I asked co-workers and found a few who were willing to add me to their developer accounts, even some of you here in the ChurchMag community ask if I still needed a spot. Thank you!
Well I have been playing with the newest beta for over 10 hours now and I must say I am very impressed.
Impressed with the stability for one. For a beta, this is more solid than any of the other beta versions for iOS4 and iOS3.
Below I am going to go through some of the already known features and give you all a few tips on how to get to things in iOS5, along with some hidden features!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I am.
Some of the screens below are not mine, added only to save me time from taking all of them!
Notifications
They are awesome! The notification system that Apple has brought to the table is not the best out there (webOS may have that one), but it’s second best for sure. The configuration screen, seen above, is what makes these things rock!
You get to pick which apps you want notifications for and how you want them to notify you! I have setup all of mine to be a banner.
So you have a couple of different ways to view them. You have the swipe down method while in your phone. If in an app, you will see the little banner drop down from the top of the phone, or while your phone is locked you may see something like this.
Easy Access Camera
While I thought I would love this function, I hate how you get to it. I will let you know how later in the Tips section. The easy access camera, is a pretty solid function that a lot of us will love. Especially all of you lucky ones out there with an iPhone 4! My 3GS’s camera is lacking to say the least.
The way this works is it actually does not open your phone so only the photos you take from the lockscreen are the ones you have access to. You will need to slide to unlock to grab all of your camera roll.
iMessage
This may be one of the best functions/ideas Apple has brought to us in iOS5 period! iMessage is a great tool for those of us who don’t have text message plans, because the man is always bringing us down!
With iMessage, the program searches for the person you are wanting to message and checks to see if they are also on iOS5. If they are, it turns into a blue icon and is all free via Wifi and 3G. Loving it! If they are not, you send a text message or there is a setting so you don’t have to send a message at all.
In my world of saving money and not having a text plan, this rocks! Now I cam message my buddies who have iPhones on iOS5 (most of them already) without being charged. Think of it as a built in Google Chat of sorts.
The below screenshot shows the “Send As SMS” option that I speak of above.
iCloud
Pretty sure you all know what this is, so I won’t spend a ton of time on this one. iCloud is Apple’s latest entry into the world of “the cloud”. A darn fine start I must say.
Below, are all of the options one has for iCloud and what gets sync’d to your machines. Loving that I can hack away at my iPhone, now , and iCloud has my pictures backed up to the cloud without worrying about them all being erased.
Enough of things you already know. Now I want to point out a few tips for you all that you may or may not know about.
Tips for iOS5 Beta:
- In iOS 5 Beta, you can turn your Calendar App sideways for view of the Week. Simple enough for you?
- In iOS 5 Beta, You can customize text sounds from specific people. Not necessary at all for me, but for you texters out there, this is pretty cool.
- In iOS 5 Beta, Google Maps will provide multiple routes under the directions area, sort of like Mapquest. Pretty cool little addition.
- In iOS 5 Beta, to get to the Camera from the lockscreen, you just double click the home button. Sort of a pain if you ask me, but worth it once you get used to it.
That is it for now.
Enough to wet your appetite?
I hope so, I know it did for me.
This is all testing from a slower iPhone 3GS. If anyone out there has an iPhone 4 that they want me to test things on, let me know!
If I missed anything that you need more information on, or a feature I didn’t cover, let me know in the comments below. I will see what I can find out for you and update you in the comments!
Matthew Snider says
As of now I do have a iPhone 4 being shipped to me. Thanks Chi Chi!!!
Dustin W. Stout says
I need to get on a developer account! Agh, I can’t wait to try it out!
Matthew Snider says
There are services and folks out there for 5 bucks and your good to go.
Holler if you need the name of someone for 5 bucks. An online acquaintance of mine is selling spots for 5 dollars a pop.
Megan says
I’ll buy it for $5! Any help?
Matthew Snider says
Search google for the services, they are out there
Erick Rodriguez says
Could I get a spot?
Matthew Snider says
Search Google for the services, they are out there!