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Do you foresee a big UI update with iOS 5?

Kadin

Kadin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 16, 2009
597
2
I haven't been following iOS 5 at all, if there's even anything out there to begin with. In your opinion, do you see Apple stepping it up a good notch and really making a big step forward? Or a more typical bump?

If anyone has any reliable info, I'd love to hear about it.
 
Nothing official has been said about iOS 5 at all.

However, there are rumors that Apple will be having an event for it near the beginning of April.
 
I doubt it'll change much. I just hope they redo notifications.
 
I like it fine as is now on my iPhone. But with the iPad, so much more real estate to use... It could be so much more...
 
I haven't read any rumours about iOS 5 and I'm not surprised at that. It's much easier to keep software a secret than hardware. There is a good chance we'll hear something official soon as iOS 4 was introduced in (I think) April last year.

My speculation is that there aren't going to be any radical changes to the look of iOS. Apple don't seem to often change stuff just to make things look new, in the way that Microsoft does and Android did to an extent with Honeycomb. Notifications are an obvious area they might be looking at given that it is a common complaint. Things are don't expect to see are direct filesystem access, desktop style multitasking or a major change to the home screen layout. I think that all of these are choices made by Apple that they think benefit mainstream users and it's would take a huge amount of negative feedback from mainstream users for them to change their minds.
 
I think most of us would be surprised if Apple doesn't move to address notifications with iOS 5. Apple knows this is the one area in which they are far behind the competition, and I'm sure they are working on a way to do it better than others, as usual.
 
But. Does it not have to be a MAJOR change?

If it's just another small list of improvements as normal, the why not call it 4.4, 4.5 4.7, 4.7, 4.8, or 4.9 ?

We got folders which was a quite major thing in 4.2 and a few small things in 4.3

You don't jump from a version 4.3 to 5.0 unless it's a major change do you?
 
I imagine it will be the most significant update ever. Just have a feeling...
 
I really wouldn't expect a major UI change. Apple aren't aiming this at the 'bored now' geek market, they're after the (much much larger) average user and radical changes would run the risk of blowing away everything Apple has worked to establish in the last few years.

I think you're far more likely to see more minor, evolutionary changes where they're most needed. We've already had hints with the first 4.3 beta that four and five finger gestures may be coming to aid in multi-tasking, there are mutterings about an improved notification system being a possibility, that sort of thing.
 
smiddlehurst said:
I really wouldn't expect a major UI change. Apple aren't aiming this at the 'bored now' geek market, they're after the (much much larger) average user and radical changes would run the risk of blowing away everything Apple has worked to establish in the last few years.

I think you're far more likely to see more minor, evolutionary changes where they're most needed. We've already had hints with the first 4.3 beta that four and five finger gestures may be coming to aid in multi-tasking, there are mutterings about an improved notification system being a possibility, that sort of thing.
Click to expand...

If you are expecting small tweaks, why jump from 4.3 to 5.0

You don't normally jump whole digits unless you change something quite a lot.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; nb-no) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Although I wish the layout of iPad iOS to be different from iPhone OS. It's Not going to be I think. They can do so much more with screen space though.

Anyways I have two high hopes thats not that huge.

Tabbed browsing. Like android has in honeycomb. It's really really good. so I can see all my open tabs.

Better notifications.

Maybe a different lockscreen for the iPad to use the screenspace.
 
I believe that the primary change will stem from an overhaul of MobileMe. I think much of what we now get with MobileMe will be free, in particular the contacts and calendar syncing, along with the email account (universal login FTW). Then there will be paid upgrades for things like additional storage, etc.

But what is the storage for and how will it work? Documents, photos, and music obviously come to mind.

I do think that MobileMe will be tightly baked into iOS such that it will become the defacto file system. Imagine a super charged iDisk app that is accessible to and from all apps, or something like that...

That's what I'm hoping for anyway as the various workflow workarounds now are 'okay' but not great, especially in my use case (see my signature...)
 
Zorn said:
I think most of us would be surprised if Apple doesn't move to address notifications with iOS 5. Apple knows this is the one area in which they are far behind the competition, and I'm sure they are working on a way to do it better than others, as usual.
Click to expand...

I expect improved notifications and some type of auto-updating thingy to compete with widgets/live tiles but with the usual apple spin to them.

I also wouldn't be surprised if they did even more with cloud-based services.
 
My guess would also be a new notification system and a tighter cloud integration. I'd guess Apple probably sees tightly integrated cloud combined with caching as the way of a new abstract file system. Plust he finger gesture is definitely an intriguing idea and it'll be interesting to see how Apple integrates it its final version with iOS5.

Also don't forget that we will see some improvements under the hood that nobody notices. iOS benefits nicely from a multicore processor because it got Grand Central Dispatch implemented with iOS4 yet nobody really talked about it back then.
 
I expect some large GUI changes as others have pointed out the notification system is the prime suspect if you ask me. People have been ragging on Apple's notification system for years now and Apple typically has addressed the loudest concerns each year. But they know with all the Apps now using them people want it improved and the pop-up system isn't cutting it anymore.

Next to that I expect the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5 to get some special graphics candy because of the new GPU (Though I think whatever they do add will be found to work fine on older devices) add that to the new multi-tasking gestures I think we will see some of multi-tasking switch up.

What I am hoping they also do is a clear the app switcher tray button, iPad extra icons per row, and weather added to the lock screen (Even better let me customize it like the jailbreak scene does with lock info)
 
I have a feeling iOS 5 will mainly be under the hood enhancements.
Now that they are working with muticore CPUs and gpus, they will be able to modify the os to more efficiently use all of the power available to them.
I think we will see a much faster experience...and hopefully some updates to the notification system.
 
Do you all expect anything that only the iPhone 4+ and iPad 2+ will be able to utilize?
 
I really hope they revamp the whole OS. I'm sick of icons and folders. I'm sick of the notifications too. The apps save iOS IMO. I don't think they'll change the homescreen layout, but I think they'll change the notifications.
 
i would love to see the use of the gyroscope in the homescreen, so when you twist the device the homescreen twists 3D style, which i can see being possible on the ipad 2, iphone 5 and ipod touch 5 with the new GPU and CPU.
 
I don't think there's any evidence to suggest they're gonna jump to version 5. though I hope they do just for the added feature set.

My prediction (as for many others as well) is way updated notifications. That's the only thing I think can really be counted on (and even then, who knows)

As far as a UI overhaul to everyone that's "bored" of the homescreen, it's just not gonna happen. They constantly tout that it's similar to the iphone/itouch and that that's why so many people can pick it up and start using it so quickly. They want the apps to be the center point cause that's where the cash cow is.

Plus look at the lion previews. If they're moving their desktop OS towards the iOS style I can't imagine them just up and changing the iOS ui.
 
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