We lost one of the foremost innovators of our time to cancer last month. Steve Jobs was responsible for bringing us such iconic devices as the iPod, iPhone and the iPad. One of his legacies is the latest operating system designed to power these devices. This operating system, called iOS 5, is raising the bar for mobile computing. Your iPhone, iPad and iPod will all stay synchronized with no user interaction.
Sure, if you have a Google account you can sync your calendars and contacts across multiple devices. It’s been fraught with issues such as duplicate entries and missed syncs (at least on my devices). But it’s a good system and will certainly get better and offer more features. Still, I think Apple is once again setting the gold standard for mobile computing.
The most impressive feature of iOS 5 is its support for Apple’s iCloud service. Cloud computing is the latest buzzword in technology. There already are several services that allow users to share files across multiple devices (Dropbox and SugarSync to name two). However, prior to iOS 5 and iCloud, all these sharing solutions required some level of configuration or interaction to make them work. Apple’s iOS 5 does away with most — if not all — user setup.
As Jobs said in one of his last public appearances, “it just works.”
If you take a picture with your iPhone, it’s immediately sent to all your other devices such as your iPod, your iPad and your MacBook. Buy a song or a book and it appears on all your connected devices. The same with documents, presentations and more. The only caveat is that these devices need to be connected to the Internet in order to sync, but Internet connections are almost ubiquitous.
This operating system is designed for mobile devices, and it’s obvious. Imagine having your iPhone remind you to pick up milk when you drive by the store. How about your phone reminding you to call home when you leave work? Location-based alerts are now available.
You will be able to configure what alerts you receive and how you receive them. Most alerts on mobile devices pop up on top of whatever you’re doing and must either be dealt with immediately or dismissed. Now you will be presented with a discreet alert that can be opened at your convenience.
Messaging gets a makeover as well. Say goodbye to text messaging charges between you and other iOS 5 users. With a WiFi or 3G connection you can securely share text, photos and video with others. The connection is encrypted. The conversation is even carried on across all your iOS 5 devices — iPhone, iPod and iPad.
Another of my favorite features is Newsstand. Until now, if you’ve subscribed to magazines or journals, getting the latest issue has required you to log into one or more apps and wait for issues to download. Now Newsstand keeps all your subscriptions in one place on your home screen and updates them in the background. You can subscribe to new publications easily with a familiar Apple interface.
Finally, Apple’s Safari mobile browser is even better. It offers tabbed browsing, which allows you to quickly navigate between pages in multiple windows. Open links and videos by simply tapping them. You cap tap an article to bring up only the text and leave the ads and other clutter behind.
Mobile computing is now much easier for the average user. Once consumers start catching on to this, I’m betting that Apple is going to see a substantial increase in profits in Q4 of this year and beyond. And for 2012? Look for the iPad 3 and iPhone 5. The legacy of Steve Jobs lives on.
Sven Mogelgaard is president and CEO of Byte Slaves Inc. Contact him at 425-482-9529 or 877-972-7767 or go to www.byteslaves.com. To get more information on this topic or join in the discussion, please visit his blog (svensbiztalk.blogspot.com) or follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/byteslavescomputing).
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