iOS 5 - was it worth the wait?

Well the simple answer is yes, though don’t confuse this with, say, the Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrade. If you head on down to iTunes for the free upgrade to your phone or iPad, on the surface there’s not much new – the phone, for example, looks pretty much as it did before.

But it’s the detail that counts. I should say that already I’ve seen some confusion about the reminder service so before I go any further: you need to enable the CLOUD and don’t confuse tasks with reminders. That done, one of the new features added in iOS 5 is the reminder service, and I think this is going to help me in my daily life GREATLY. Oh, sure I could always leave calendar entries on the phone but with only limited use until now.

For those of you with a rubbish memory like mine, this scenario should sound familiar – you’re just driving off from the office and you remember, or are reminded, that you have to do something next time you get into the office – fat load of use that is as you’re driving the opposite way. Well, now iOS 5 can help. The new reminder app is “location aware”, which means not only can you set a reminder for a time or day, but also a location – and amazingly, whether you are LEAVING or RETURNING TO that location. The possibilities are endless… “don’t forget your toothbrush” just as you’re walking down the road without it – what a godsend. I think this is going to be my number-one new feature. Of course, it works best if your device actually knows where you are so don’t expect it to work on a WI-FI-only iPad.

There are new multi-finger options keeping all your alerts in one place – useful but hardly amazing.… twitter integration and a load of extras that are no big deal individually – but as there are 200 of them, overall it’s worth the upgrade – after all, it’s free. The only downside is that I’ve already noticed some apps that are going to need upgrades so expect to spend some time waiting for downloads, especially on slow connections. Downloading the iOS upgrade last night took four hours due to – well everyone else doing the same thing.

And where does the iPhone 4S fit into this – well of course having the same operating system it’s going to have all of the features the rest of us will see in upgrades – but with more. Siri, the personal assistant, sounds like it’s going to be very exciting IF it really DOES integrate voice control with the new location-aware reminders (we’ve heard it all before how voice control was going to change the world… and it didn’t).

If you believe the hype, all that’s about to change. I can see it now, I’m driving away from the office and my wife says “don’t forget you have to….” Just as I’m heading off with NO chance of remembering. One button press and Siri takes my verbal note to remind me when we get back to the office. REALLY?? We’ll have to see, non-Apple demos are a bit thin on the ground right now, but for the busy businessperson this could be the difference between Apple and the competition!