5 new features of Apple iOS 5

Last week Apple released the latest version of their mobile operating system: iOS 5. I’ve had some time to explore the new features and I’m definitely enjoying the upgrade. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

1. Notification Center
A lot of apps provide alerts such as sports updates or game requests, but they get annoying real quick. In iOS 5, those alerts can be greatly customized. You can keep them the same as before with the alert box that pops up in the middle which requires a touch to remove it. However, my favorite part of the new notification center is the banner option. This pops up a message at the top of the screen that displays the alert, but then goes away after a few seconds. It doesn’t require you to do anything and works in all your apps. So if you’re playing a game, you don’t have to pause it to clear the alert.

Another great feature of the notification center is you can actually see a list of all your recent notifications by swiping your finger down from the top. It even has a weather widget that shows the current temperature and a 5-day forecast.

2. Custom text ringtones
This sounds insignificant, but this is a big feature I’ve been missing since getting an iPhone. I get weather alerts sent to my phone and it’s nice to be able to assign them a special tone so I know what kind of message it is without looking at the display. You can pay for ringtones, but I prefer to find free ones online or create my own.

3. iTunes Wi-Fi sync
Being able to sync wirelessly with iTunes is a wonderful thing. It might not be as fast as using a USB connection, but it’s a lot more convenient.

4. Camera hardware button
One thing I’ve always found clunky on the iPhone is taking pictures. I don’t like having to touch the screen while trying to hold the phone still enough to get a good shot. With iOS 5, that no longer is a problem. Apple has mapped the volume up button to emulate a shutter button. You can even use your headphones with in-line volume control as a shutter release cable.

5. iMessage
If you send a lot of text messages to people who have an iPhone, you will enjoy using the new iMessage feature. It detects when the other person is using an iOS device and uses data instead of your text message pool. It’s also a lot faster and you can see when the other person is typing. (think of it more as an instant messaging client) I also enjoy the blue color of the iMessages vs the SMS green color.

There are a ton (Apple says over 200) of other new features in iOS 5, but these were the ones I thought were the most useful. The upgrade is free and works on the following devices:

• iPhone: 3GS, 4, 4S
• iPad: 1, 2
• iPod Touch: 3rd gen, 4th gen

What features do you find most useful in iOS 5? Please post your thoughts in the comments section.