iOS 5 now available, TiPb walks you through it [the competition]

By Jerry Hildenbrand  | Oct 12 2011 | 1:18 pm  | 79 Comments

iOS 5

We're an equal opportunity group of people here.  We know that a good many of you are curious exactly what the new iOS 5 update brings to the table -- and we're OK with that.  I was curious myself.  Luckily, Rene Ritchie has answered every question you or I could ever imagine -- and some we couldn't -- in his epic iOS 5 walkthrough. 

If you're curious, stumbled here on accident (stay a while -- you'll like what Android has to offer), or even thinking of picking up an Apple device, you need to have a read.  It's everything you wanted to know about iClouds, Siri, and Google Latitude Find my Friends.  Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. 

Read Rene's awesome iOS 5 walkthrough

Jerry Hildenbrand

Jerry Hildenbrand Cowboy

"Fascinated by things that go beep."

3043(articles)

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There are 79 comments

Kane337 says:

What does this iOS 5 tutorial have to do with "Android" Central?

redhawk79 says:

Just a look at the competition. All the "New" features are certainly groundbreaking in the mobile OS world...

benthe1 says:

First you(Android Central) post about three articles about the new iPhone when it was first announced out now this? Come on! I know you just want to be non-fanboish but this is Android Central! The place where I come for Android news, not iPhone news. Aghhh....

Jeremy626 says:

it's good to know what's going on in the mobile industry...
good job Jerry... this is all good.

GigiAUT says:

Why so Sirious? He was just giving us a heads up on the "new" features in iOS which are mostly stolen from Android.

Insp_Gadget says:

Don't forget that Android Central and TiPB are both part of the Smartphone Experts network of mobile technology sites. So you will see some cross-pollenization.

But regardless of the relationship, you should care because despite the fact that just about everything that Apple put into iOS5 was already implemented in some way on Android, it remains that Apple has higher visibility to the masses than any individual Android phone provider. As such, whatever Apple implements has a better chance of becoming mainstream AND will re-focus the attention of Android app developers (and Google) to improve the Android platform.

It is only the fool that keeps blinders on while in a race. If you don't keep your eyes open, you'll be passed by. It's easy to get complacent when your "world view" is limited to your platform of choice. I may not like Apple's policies or products, but I won't dismiss their effectiveness in the market.

Nor should anyone that reads this site.

cwilson617 says:

Well said. Bravo.

Axe says:

+1

Jay005 says:

+ 1

HAAS599 says:

Yeah, cause no other blog posted about this.Thanks AC, never would have known without you. If you follow AC, you probably follow other blogs too. IIts annoying for my RSS reader to get cluttered with the same story especially from sites that shouldn't be posting about it. If someone only follows AC for all their tech news then I feel sorry for them and they are probably a huge fanboy and rally don't want to read about this.

IAmAPhoenix says:

If a tech site didn't post something just because another site has already posted the same info then they wouldn't have anything to post about. If you don't like it, don't read the article. Other people do care.

HAAS599 says:

And there is a site for those people. Its called Tipb.com

Sorry I complained, maybe all us slaves should just shut up!

ozziedog says:

I was reading the article because my kids want the new iPhone or at least the update and half way through reading the article, it crashed my computer. I didnt even view the iOS 5 tutorial. What kind of trash is this??? My two cents.

Cheefa says:

Cool story bro...

HAAS599 says:

Why do readers of this site care?

1LoudLS says:

you apparently cared enough to click on it and leave a reply...

...any body who truly didn't care would have just skipped over it and wouldn't have cared.

HAAS599 says:

You didn't answer my question.

Insp_Gadget says:

You should read my comment above. That should answer your question.

HAAS599 says:

Where was the windows 7.5 post? Its a slippery slope. How about AC just sticks to what its good at and what people come here to see. Android news that is.

BrianTufo says:

Last I checked Windows mobile is far from competition. They are not even close to the domination that Android and Apple.

HAAS599 says:

Every OS and phone has something good and bad to learn from.

Mike_is_Mike says:

Does iOS5 work on my Thunderbolt? Is it an OTA upgrade or is it in the Android Market? Does it only work on rooted phones? .....I can't seem to find it anywhere, could you post a link?

aleis says:

Like any hip hop mixtape would say THERE IS NO COMPETITION! :)

kopnisdt says:

I am a nerd so I care, thanks for sharing

IceDree says:

Thanks for sharing guys

bbalak says:

Slow news day at Android Central?

elessarelfstar#AC says:

Don't listen to the haters. Thanks for sharing.

cwells says:

I to do care, as i also have an iPad2 along with 2 iMacs... Thanks for sharing !

iPadTastic says:

I appreciate the article. If you don't like it, don't read it! How simple is that? I just got rid of my iPhone yesterday. Finally got back on Android with a new Bionic. Loving it but also curious as to what all of the other operating systems are doing. I frequent Tipb, precentral and wpcentral often even though androidcentral is def. my favorite. ;)

AndroidJunkie says:

If readers are interested in apple or windows mobile, they'll seek that information elsewhere. Not on android central.

They don't care whether anyone here appreciates these types of articles, they're just using ACs base to help expose their other sites. If they didn't have sister sites, they certainly wouldn't post this stuff.

iPadTastic says:

Once again, the solution is simple. If you don't want to read an article, don't read the article. When you pick up the newspaper, do you read EVERYTHING in it? Probably not. Only the articles that have headlines that interest you most. Right?

Lee_R3D says:

Waaaaaaaaaaaaa. And if someone asked you what made Android's Gingerbread or ICS better (or worse) than iOS 5, what do you base your information on? Being close-minded and being ignorant are not far from each other.

npaladin-2000 says:

Oh i see why it's on Android Central. Apple ported Android to the iPhone and called it iOS5, right? :)

El Jefe says:

Exactly!

Also, just wait until iOS 6 comes out next year & Apple invents this great feature called "iWidgets"!!

victor3451 says:

I'm sorry you're so naïve, but, duuuuh, Widgets were available on the Mac ages before Android was invented, I mean, ripped off you know who.

Darkseider says:

Well since you went that route.. umm.. WRONG. Seeing that Linux environments like KDE, Gnome, Windowmaker and Enlightenment have had widgets WELL before Mac OS had them I guess that means Apple ripped off Linux. Which in turn by your ridiculous implications means that Android, being based on Linux, was ripped off by Mac OS X. So before you yammer away uselessly at least try to compare Apples to Androids instead of Apples to Oranges. Will ya?

Nephilim_80 says:

Well both of you seem to not get his point much, Android was the first Mobile OS to feature widgets. The fact that all home computers have widgets available has no bearing on anything at all. If you are gonna counter-point at least have a valid arguement.

With the way iOS5 blatantly ripped off the android OS it's just a matter of time before they add widgets and call it "innovative". Srsly, if they can call their version of tasks (reminders) innovative as well as pull down notifications and camera button in lockscreen, they will most likely also claim releasing widgets was their idea as well.

Before Steve Jobs even passed he handed over CEO, this is what happened, they realized android had surpassed them drastically with innovation so they immediately looked for a way to rip it off and call it "new" and "remarkable". It's one thing to create a similar or advanced version of something and call it innovative but seriously people, iOS5 completely copy/pasted half of AndroidOS onto their devices and is now claiming it is new and creative.

Very sad.

gdbjr says:

I am so sick of these Apple copied Android commits. Please tell me one thing that Android created all on their own that wasn't borrowed from someone else?

If you can't think of any that is probably because there isn't any. There are very few truly new ideas out there. Everyone takes what someone does and tries to do it better. So please stop thinking that Google has done everything they have done on their own, because you would just be so wrong in thinking that.

Nephilim_80 says:

LMFAO! My thoughts exactly, I actually could not resist bashing it on facebook after watching the video walkthrough, everything they call innovative in iOS5 is basically ripped off from Android OS, not one single thing they added to iOS5 is new, all of it has been a part of android, most of it since Android OS launched.

P.S. This is why AndroidCentral posted this, for those of you in the dark still.

victor3451 says:

Except that android copied iOS in the first place, and iOS 5, as long as I am aware of, still has more apps, is more stable, is faster (iPhone 4S vs GS2 already on YT) and easier to use.

Darkseider says:

Wow. Kool-aid much? When ICS is released in a couple of weeks the SGS2 and for that matter most dual core Android handsets will pretty much mop the floor up with the iPhone 4S in everything but graphic prowess. The A5 with that PowerVR SGX543MP2 is a pretty damned impressive GPU. Gingerbread while improving on the performance of handsets falls shorts of the optimizations found in Honeycomb and ICS on dual core devices. This can be easily seen when they showed the Galaxy Tab 8.9 running neck and neck with the iPhone 4S in nearly everything except GPU performance.

BrianTufo says:

Wow put the kool-aid down for a second and calm down. First of all iOS 5 was thought out to be made to run on the dual-core device. Gingerbread was NOT designed to run optimal on a dual-core device. Put the last years model 4S up against the Prime when it comes out and see if Apple fanboy T3 does a heads up with those two and see what happens.

Fat Tires says:

Hey Jerry, don't mind these Grouchy Gus's. It's always good to see where Apple copied what Google has been doing for years.

cowboys2000 says:

This site as many sister or related sites. I used to have a Blackberry and learned more about Android from Crackberry.com which is a sister site. Love Apple or hate Apple, IOS is the OS that many try to emulate, copy, etc. Apple also takes ideas from other OS's. I am interested in Siri (the voice assist features), and I know something similar has been part of Android. I also remember back in 1999 that something similar was on Pac Bell Wireless (that changed to Cingular now ATT), so voice activation, assistant isn't really NEW, but perhaps it has gotten BETTER. That said, if you hate Apple that much, simply skip the article. I am n the market for a new laptop soon and the MBP is high on the list. A new phone in the next 2-4 months places the IPhone at least in the mix. Closed, Open, whatever. I just want a phone/devise that works, does not freeze, does not hog memory and all this with an "straight out the box experience. I should not have to root a phone to make it act right. A software update, should not make the phone worse. (I am referring to the GB update on my EVO).

uberspeed says:

I'm glad Apple is catching up on the iOS side with features (notifications, for example). Now we need Android to catch up on the polish side. Competition is good!

wraith404 says:

"Playing catch up" says it better ;) I'm confident ICS is going to raise the bar out of Apple's stratosphere.

Spiral_ouT#AC says:

TiPb and Android Central are both part of SPE Network. Naturally, they are going to share the top headlines of their sister sites. If you wish to live in the dark and be unaware of what the competition brings, than don't read it.

amoughnieh says:

He said at the end of the video "we looked into every corner of the iOS and asked ourselves how can we make this thing better", is this guy fooling people? coz everything I saw in this video is taken right away from android, they didn't need to look anywhere but android. I'm not a hater, they have done it beautifully, but they shouldn't claim this thing is their invention. look at 5:12 to see what I mean, the guy is like, wow, what a new thing :D

phozone says:

So what? What are you so protective about? Most innovation out there takes one thing or another aspect of what already exists. Too many fools who associate their own identity/self worth with what "brand" of device you use. They can copy each other (and do) all the way to hell for all I care and I will continue to use whatever device that works best for me. Now that is what choice is right?

Darkseider says:

"So what? What are you so protective about? Most innovation out there takes one thing or another aspect of what already exists"

Apparently Apple because they are suing over the most ridiculous patents ever granted. You see this goes both ways. This is why Android users despise Apple. Not because of the fanboys or the hardware/software but because of Apples relentless assault on a product that overtook them in 3 short years and continues to grow. Instead of innovating they litigate and from the example of iOS 5 duplicate the features already found in Android and market it as new and magical.

BrianTufo says:

Exactly! I left the iPhone because I got bored and after Apple's recent lawsuits I will NEVER buy their products again (speaking about mobile not computers). We don't hate iOS or it's functionality we hate the fact that Apple sues over a rectangle shape with curved edges and a phone icon while they steal the entire concept of swiping down from the status bar to see notifications (5 OS iterations after launch! wow!!!).

phozone says:

Unfortunately much of the blame can be pointed to our archaic patent laws that a lot of the suits can even see the light of day.

amoughnieh says:

I'm not protective about anything, i was actally happy they have done things ina good way coz that will only make google innovate more when they see real competetion. With iOS5 apple started to catch up with android, before it, iOS was so basic. Remember when gundutra was announcing froyo, he was talking about a new basic feature that should have been there from the begining, can't remember what was the feature, but i remember he was embarrassed, but he had to announce it. In iOS 5 video, everything was a rip off, yet the guy was talking like this has never been thought of before. This is what annoys me.

tronthedon says:

Put me down as a "hater" then because this post is just an obvious and annoying ad for tipb. I wouldn't mind it if it gave insight on what an Android fan thinks of the new features, but this just states the obvious and offers nothing I couldn't have done myself by visiting tipb (which I don't want to do and that's why I'm here right now).

Smartphone Experts be damned. Give me some real news/editorials, not shameful traffic referrals!

turbofan says:

No, you're not a hater. The haters are the ones that say "Who cares?" I disagree with them. You, however, have a good point -- if they're gonna post it, seems like they oughta post something along with it, rather than just a link. I mean, it's already one of the "featured" articles, so if you're going to post an article it oughta have more to it.

harold42483 says:

Who cares this is Androidcentral. Where we talk about the greatest mobile operating system EVER created. And that will EVER WILL be created!!!

billionaire.dreams says:

pretty boring update if i must say so myself mostly pretty basic stuff

Funky Cricket says:

Thank you for the article. I like that big news from the sister sites is linked. Saves me from having to open 5 sites to get my mobile news.

Also, I find it funny that most of their big updates were in Android and WebOS from day one and alot of it from windows mobile 5.5, 6 and palm OS..

Oh, user's DON"T want to have everything tied to itunes! They don't want notifications to STOP their phone cold till they acknowledge it. SURPRISE!

anyway, thanks again.

likwidsoul says:

They added a lot of functionality to ios that it was missing. Nothing game changing. The only thing that looks remotely interesting is siri. But I tell you I am glad he doesn't write for android central cause he is to long winded for my tastes. But he got so excited over all the little things like being able to change notification sounds lol.

Insp_Gadget says:

I don't mind in-depth coverage, but you're right... He got excited over things that were pretty passé to Android users because we've had those capabilities for a long time already. It was like watching a dog with a new chew toy. That tail is just wagging like crazy.

BrianTufo says:

lol that's because iPhone users have been forced to live in the dark ages with features until the mighty Apple let them have features. This is why iPhone users get so excited over little things like copy & paste and MMS.

npo says:

Awesome!!! 50GB of cloud storage for only $100/year!!!

Apparently they don't expect iPeople to realize that they/I can buy a 2TB hard drive for $100 and access my files from home, work and my smartphone, effectively making my desktop my own personal 'cloud' for 1/20th the cost. Actually less, since that's assuming I replace hard drive every year.

Ka-ching.

eguts says:

Apple just keeps draining peoples wallets. it's just rediculous. its only premium because you have to pay! Can you recommend a drive and a website on how to set up a home hard drive so i can acess it online?

Cheefa says:

The info is available mate, you have to know where too look, but google is a good place to start. Ftp, audiogalaxy, Skifta, so many possibilities, be creative! but this is exactly why Apple continues to sell too the masses. Not everybody will want to go out and compare solutions when apple offers a working solution. Still find it incredible how many people they seem to convince that theirs is the right solution, EVERYTIME.

keithz says:

The average person isn't going to setup their own personal cloud.

Apple aims for the average person. And if Android wants to get popular, Google better start thinking more about the average user instead of guys like us.

davidminor03 says:

The best thing about forums is that regardless the topic they are full of haters making completely undeveloped thoughts public.

As my grandfather once said "its better to remain silent and be thought to be a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Now while I currently use android and always stand behind the brand and I am currently using - android is not the only OS. They post this because for few that act their shoe size I am sure they post this content because the neat tags below all the stories ultimately track the readership as well as link click through. So if they keep doing something its not because they are incompetent - its because there are alot of people talking with their mouse clicks about what interests them.

To AC thanks - I hate apple but I like to be educated when I have to debate with people about topics and not having to go out of my way to read content is convient and good business for you.

CeluGeek says:

I don't mind these looks at the competition. I don't browse TiPB.com on a regular basis, so when there's something really worth checking out, I don't mind seeing the link on the site I do follow.

keithz says:

I'm liking some of the things that are in iOS5.

1) Reminders. Android plain sucks on this. Yes, there are 3rd party solutions. But there's scarcely a proper native solution (through Google Calendar) and it doesn't have geofenced reminders. 3rd party solutions are still not as good as iOS5 Reminders.

2) iCloud. There are things iCloud does better. Yes, Google has synching for addresses. But for a lot of other stuff the experience is sub-par. Google Music isn't available anywhere but the US and the UK and it still doesn't seem as elegant as iTunes in the Cloud. Photostream is on par with auto-upload from Google+...but what if you don't have Google+. Sometimes I wish Google would simply buy Dropbox and then offer up something that combines cloud synching with cloud storage. iCloud is a bit better, but not a huge leap over Google's offerings.

3) Find my friends. Yeah, it's the same functionality as latitude. But I bet it'll be more popular than Latitude. It's a bit more functional and user-friendly than Latitude. Google has an opportunity here, since Latitude could be improved and be a real cross-platform solution.

4) Siri. Android fans will knock it. But I'm willing to bet that Apple has pulled this off far better than Voice Actions on our phones. And it will catch on in time. Contextual recognition is a huge deal. With this Apple is actualy opening up voice commands as a UI on par with multi-touch. Google Voice Actions is no where near as fluid in execution as Siri. And if you lose connectivity, you lose the ability to give voice commands on Android...not to mention how long it takes to process commands or dictation sometimes. Google needs to move at least some of the functions to the phone to speed things up and offer offline capability. And Google needs to add additional functionality. "Remind me", "Play xyz music". That last one bizarrely doesn't work with just Android's native music player.

6) iMessage. This struck me as useless until I realized its potential. It's a unified inbox for messaging. No more bothering with services like Whatsapp. One app you send messages through, for both cloud messaging services and SMS. Imagine if whatsapp was merged into the SMS/MMS app on Android. This really is something Google should consider.

Masheen says:

Omg iOS stole Android notifications. Where's the lawsuit on that one?!

bdmridgback says:

I agree, leave this stuff over in TiPB. If I feel a need to read up on some crappy apple info, i'll just wonder on over to that side and read away.
Until that day comes, keep us up on all the Android related info only please. You guys do great without this crappy making you look like Looks-Aid drinkers.

likwidsoul says:

For all the article haters out there if you don't like it then don't read it and surely don't waste your time posting about it. Innovation at apple means competition with android and that only furthers innovation in android. Read the article maybe there is something you like that they did. Then you can push google to do something similar.

Clak says:

Lol at "iMessage" being new, google talk anyone?

crxssi says:

How funny. I spent 5 minutes and watched the whole video. Aside from the proprietary iTunes jail stuff, there was only one new feature I saw that my HTC and Xoom Android devices didn't already have by default- a cool split keyboard. And I already had an app for that.

Their notification stuff is like a total ripoff from Sense. Lock screen with messages and quick app launch- ditto. Etc. OMG- Apple is sooooooooooooo innovative!!!!! NOT!

Qoheleth says:

I appreciate pointing to a good review of the updated software on the competition. It never hurts to stay well-informed. Lots of folks ask me about the differences.
I noticed, as I read the review that a large number of improvements to iOS were indeed things that Android has also included. I don't say that as a Nya-Nya-Nya sort of thing, but more as an observation on the change in the state of things. When the iPhone first appeared, it had a lot of innovative features that others emulated. Now the role appears to be reversed, with Apple playing catch up on most features. (I say most, because there still are a few in there that are at least near the head of the curve.)
One of my thoughts concerning the death of Steve Jobs was that, more than most companies and CEOs, Apple was driven by what Steve wanted to do. I thought that, without Steve at the helm, I expect Apple will be a fair bit less disruptive (sadly) and it already seems to be happening even though iOS 5 still bears a lot of his handprint.

XavierMatt says:

I think I might get the new iPhone, I have an HTC Sensation. If only Android were more polished. Then again if I had stock I would be happier. Still love the phone. . . .with a launcher.

15israellai says:

I can't help loving the groundbreaking and innovative new features of iOS5, like widgets, notification center...you-know-what. Great job this time, Apple.

TekNiKal says:

Apple does the best job at making videos highlighting the features of their products. You have to admit, Apple has a very polished product. I am excited most that Apple has introduced some features that I have had for a couple of years. Now those people who couldn't figure out how to use them on Android will now have a simpler experience on iOS. Funny thing is, the user actions look the same. Next time someone tells me its easier to use an Apple product, I'm calling them a lazy learner.

8balls1970 says:

Many thanks go to Android Central/Tipb for this post. I'm a very proud owner of a Dinc2 & Ipod touch 4g. Downloaded IOS 5 this morning before heading to work, it installed successfully the second time around. IOS 5 is alright.

8balls1970 says:

I can't wait for the ICS experience on my Dinc2.