14 DAY TRIAL // iOS 5 is coming this fall with a host of new features that should help cement its status as the world’s most advanced mobile OS.
Apple says about 200 new functions have been implemented in iOS 5, currently available only to select developers who have been offered a beta and an accompanying SDK (software development kit).
Of those 200, about a dozen are well worth having a closer look at, and this is what we’ll be doing with the iOS 5 Features series.
Today, we’re looking at iMessage.
Apple is said to have given a huge blow to mobile operators whose business depends on people paying for SMS.
Whether or not that’s entirely accurate, iMessage is still a welcomed feature.
Built right into the Messages app, it lets you send text, photos, videos, locations, and contacts.
You can keep updated with group messaging and track your messages with delivery receipts and optional read receipts, even see when someone’s typing.
You can send unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G, not only from the iPhone, but from the iPad, and iPod touch to anyone who owns one such device.
The iPad and iPod touch will now be regarded as full fledged communications devices, as they’re already used for video chatting and instant messaging.
iMessage, however, also offers the ability to start a conversation on one iOS device and pick it up where you left off on another.
Some of you may remember that soon after Apple introduced FaceTime with iOS, the video chatting app also arrived on the Mac.
If history is any indication, iMessage will be making its way into the Mac App Store as a free download by the end of the year, allowing everyone to delve into an SMS frenzy that should steal quite a few customers from Twitter.
But for now, we can only speculate as iOS 5 is being prepared for its final shipping this fall.