iOS 5 Features Take Centerstage at Apple iPhone Event

Tim Cook is onstage now, talking about the new features of iOS 5!  Much of this we knew and were expecting, but there’s a lot of information to digest so let’s run through the highlights.   iOS 5 now has a release date of October 12th, not far off the October 10th date that was predicted.

• More than 200 features
• New Notification Center
• Notifications on the Lockscreen
• Swipe across notifications to go directly to the app that sent them
• iMessage is a new service between iOS users
• iMessage supports iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
• iMessage can send text, photo and video
• iMessage works over 3G and Wifi
• iMessage is encrypted
• iOS 5 Reminder service is a new feature
• Create reminders and Geotag them so that they pop up when you’re in the vicinity
• Twitter integration is very deep
• Sign into Twitter when activate your iOS device and never sign in again
• You can tweet websites from Safari
• You can tweet Youtube videos
• You can tweet locations from Maps
• Newsstand offers subscriptions to magazines and newspapers
• New issues can be downloaded in the background

Newstand: Image Courtesy Ars Techica Live Blog

• New Camera App!
• Lockscreen shortcuts to the camera
• Volume-up button can now take photos
• Use grid lines to line up shots
• Place your finger on a location to autofocus on it
• Edit photos in your camera app