Geek Beat: iOS 5 Old-School
The iPhone 4S is currently making the web buzz and hum like an angry wasp eating sugar while Apple’s new operating system for its devices, iOS 5, is rapidly making its way into everyone’s hands but you don’t need to be rich to enjoy Apple. Time to road test iOS 5 on the 3GS!
While scores of trendy geeks are pinching pennies from Grandma for the brand new 4S with its Siri and its awesome camera, Apple is still selling an 8GB variant of its hugely successful 3GS. Experienced buyers can even pick up an unused in box 32GB 3GS from eBay at a 3rd of the price of its grandchild the 4S!
Obviously there are a lot of 3GS models still lurking in pockets, does iOS 5 breath in new life to the 3GS’s two year old guts?
With iOS 5 comes some great tools. A brand new notification centre now makes keeping up with your friends even easier with its drop down menu and great lock screen features. Read Facebook replies right off the lock screen without ever opening Facebook. iCal reminders gently warn you the kids holidays are finishing and even email makes an appearance! In fact just about anything in the phone can find its way to the notifications menu.
iMessage will be one of the most commonly used piece of kit. Automatically detecting if your friend has iOS 5 installed, you can now send text messages over data networks! Don’t worry about how many texts you get free with your provider because iOS 5 doesn’t care. Much like the popular Whatsapp Messenger, iMessage will be even more successful mostly because everyone will have it! No longer will you need to tell your friends to grab what ever your favourite instant messaging app is, Apple has made sure they are the only one you will ever need!
Easily my most favourite of the new tools, Photostream automatically takes photos you have taken from your phone and sends them to your other devices! Previously I would email myself a photo if I needed it on my Mac quickly. Now all I do is start up the latest version of iPhoto and my pics are already there! I’m actually using this quite a bit already! The catch with this one though is you need to update your Mac software. I inevitably spent almost $50 updating to OS X Lion and to iPhoto 9 just to use this one but well worth it!
Finally, wireless sync comes to iPhone! This morning my iPhone backed up while next to my bed! I assume tomorrow it will do the same! Once my iPhone would rarely get synced now it happens all the time! I can rest knowing that my iPhone is always packing the most up-to-date awesomeness!
The downside. Since the iPhone 4 was released, the 3GS has been falling away from the cutting edge. The camera is lacking in everything you need to take a decent picture and no HD on this phone. The screen is a bit disappointing when placed next to Apple’s latest offerings and sometimes the software lag is just down right annoying! The 3GS lacks the power to do some of the fancier iPhone apps. No iMovie or FaceTime here, and while the location based task manager looks awesome on the Apple promo videos, you won’t be getting any reminders from your phone simply because you drove into your driveway on the 3GS. It’s not enabled.
If you have always wanted to join in on the Apple fun but couldn’t afford it, iOS 5 has brought the essence of what makes iPhone great to the cheapest of the cheap options. While it’s not quite Siri, it comes with most of the Apple fun at a third of the price!
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