Posts Tagged ‘iOS 5’

Apple’s new iOS 5 operating system for its iPhone and iPad tablet was the apple of Twitter users’ eyes, accounting for 31 percent of Tweeted news links, while the most-watched news and politics video on YouTube was a local news program’s clip of Sarah Palin’s version of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, and the most shared news link by bloggers was a Los Angeles Times story about three federal judges in Atlanta suggesting that they might be ready to declare all or part of the health care law unconstitutional, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s New Media Index for the week of June 6-10.

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Facebook and Twitter have become two of the most common identity authentication services. Many web services now let you login to their system using your Facebook or Twitter login authentication. What are essentially side-effect add-ons to these social networking services have succeeded where dedicated identify efforts like Microsoft’s Passport and Open ID failed.

Some of have said Twitter’s integration into Apple’s upcoming iOS 5 makes it the default identity server. However, so far, that does not seem to be the case. A Twitter account does not, for example, will not be your authentication for iTunes or the online Apple Store.

However, it is clear that Twitter will be the default social sharing service for the iPhone and iPad with direct tweeting available from within Apple’s Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube and Maps apps. Twitter also works directly with the Contacts app to provide the Twitter address for an “@ reply.”

Apple iOS 5 Features: Twitter Integration

One of small surprising announcements during Apple’s WWDC keynote yesterday was iMessage for the iPad and iPod touch.

iOS 5 Features: iMessage

iMessage for iOS 5 will let iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users send unlimited text messages via WiFi or 3G to anyone else using a iOS 5 enabled device. These messages can be text, photos, video, locations or contacs information. Like the upcoming Windows Phone “Mango”, iOS 5′s iMessage includes group messages. You can also check sent messages using red receipts. It will also provide presence information by letting you know when someone is typing to you.

Google Voice has the advantage of providing unlimited text (sending and receiving) from any source. However, it is currently limited to Android smartphones and the iPhone. The Google Voice app does not even show up in Android Market when viewed from an Android table.

Despite iMessage’s limitation of only communicating with other iOS 5 devices, it will probably be extremely heavily used since it opens up text and multimedia messaging to milions of iPod touch and iPad users may not be aware of what Google Voice can do. Moreover, Google Voice’s messaging is limited to plain text.

The mobile carriers are left almost entirely out of the loop except as a data contuit for 3G and, sometimes, WiFi. Text messaging is possibly the most expensive data service at a cost per character level. So, this is huge potential revenue growth opportunity loss for them. Do not be surprised if you see attempts by mobile carriers to, for example, block this service from 3G use.

iOS 5 Reading List in Safari Mobile

Yesterday, however, Apple announced a new feature in Safari mobile for the iPhone and iPad that seems to work a lot like Instapaper. This new feature is named “Reading List.”

iOS 5: Features that go further (iOS 5 product information)

So, what does Marco Arment think about this? Fortunately, we don’t have to speculate since he wrote a blog post addressing this potential problem.

What Safari’s Reading List means for Instapaper

He notse that fewer than 1% of iOS device owners have bought Instapaper despite the fact that the app is consistently int he top 10 of the App Store News category. He believes that this means that many millions of iPhone and iPad users are not aware of what something like Instapaper or Reading List can offer them. He may be right based on the track record of alternative browsers. Paid browser apps like Atomic Web Browser and Skyfire have done well despite the fact that Apple’s own Safari mobile browser is part of the delivered package. Other currently available apps that overlap in function with new iOS 5 features will also have to differentiate themselves by the time fall and iOS 5 rolls around.