Apple CEO Steve Jobs will unveil iOS 5 as well as Apple’s new iCloud service and OS X Lion in a keynote speech kicking off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6.
While iOS sparked a revolution in smartphone and tablet operating systems, it’s garnered a fair amount of criticism over the years. iOS 4.x brought many new features to the platform, including multitasking, but it’s still lacking in some key areas. Maybe iOS 5.0 will fix some of these outstanding issues.
So what exactly are some of the issues that users are having with iOS 4? I certainly can’t speak for all iOS users, but I can list a few improvements that I’d like to see happen on my iPhone 4 come this June:
1. Better notifications system
A few months ago, Apple hired a former Palm executive to reform the notifications/multitasking system on iOS. While webOS has a tiny user base compared with iOS, it’s much better at notifying users when they get a text message, pop-ups or emails. When the iPhone’s screen is turned off, it obnoxiously lights up whenever there’s a notification. If you’re reading a Mobiputing article and you receive a message, it will display over your content and prevent you from scrolling.
The iPhone needs better notifications, and iOS 5 will be a major disappointment without a new system. The minimalist, pull-down bar model of the Android system is my preference, but with the hiring of former WebOS engineers, it looks like Apple will be moving in Palm’s direction.
2. Improved lock screen
The current iOS lock screen is good for one thing – unlocking your device – making it one of the least useful features in the operating system. Adding usability to the lock screen would be a major step forward.
3. Wireless syncing
On June 6, Steve Jobs and his team of executives will also be announcing iCloud, a new web-based service that we currently know little about. Perhaps the ability to wirelessly sync your files with your iOS device will come as part of the new service, which would add a new level of convenience to storing and moving information between your phone and PC.
4. More accurate auto-correction of text
iOS 4 was supposed to bring a more precise system of auto-correcting your misspelled words, but it’s still not that great. Android is leagues ahead of Apple with regards to this feature, considering it will remember your typing patterns and allow you to customize your corrections. The corrections in iOS 4 are also just bad at finding the right word. We can only hope that in iOS 5, Apple took this problem into serious consideration.
With any luck, all of these features will be part of iOS 5.0. But if you had to pick just one, which would it be? And what did we leave out? Let us know what you’d like to see in the next generation of iOS in the comments.
