iOS 5 possible features

It’s around this time each year that Apple previews the next version of iOS, so I was trying to look back on past events and speculate on which features would they unveil for the fifth version of iOS. This is not a wish list, but merely a list of the features that are more likely to appear on the next update (ok, they’re also features I would want to see it).

Before I list the new things that may come with this next version of iOS, I would like to go back to past events and see some of the things Apple introduced in past updates. What I noticed from looking at the feature list of each version is that Apple usually adds a bunch of medium or small updates and two or three big things (usually called “tentpole” features by Apple), and of those it’s usually one that represents that new version of the OS, so here are the most notable changes on every past update:

iOS 2.0: For this first mayor update, Apple adds the App Store and the ability for third-party developers to create and sell apps. This is something that people wanted on the iPhone pretty much since day one.

iOS 3.0: The big feature this time was copy and paste, which again is something that a lot of people complain about on the iPhone since the beginning, but this only shows that Apple likes to take its time to properly implement new features.

iOS 4.0: This version included multitasking, but not for all apps, choosing only a number of services that could work on the background, like music streaming, location services and VOIP.

So, that bring us to iOS 5.0 which should be previewed on the coming weeks, there’s been a lot of rumors and wish lists around the web but this are three features that I think are most likely to appear on the next version of iOS:

Better notification system: I think everyone can agree that this is one of the areas where iOS could see an improvement, currently notifications are intrusive and not very reliable, and even Android and webOS have a much more tough out system for this. One of the reasons I think this is coming soon is that Apple recently hired the webOS notification architect, so I think they’re definitely working on this.

Wi-Fi Sync: A common complaint about iPad users is that they need to physically connect it to their computer in order to transfer music and other files. There’s even a jailbreak app that does exactly that. When asked about this issue last year at the D8 conference, Jobs responded that this was something that need to do better, and that they’re working on it.

File Sharing/Air Drop: This one seems less likely, but it’s something I wanted for a while and I think is one of the big issues with iOS right now, specially on the iPad, which is transfering files with your Mac or PC. The way that it works right now is that if an app has file sharing enabled you can transfer files back and forth, but only that app can access those files, and you have to use iTunes (although some apps implement they’re own way to do this, but must of the time this methods are not ideal). Some apps have the ability to open files with other apps, but this creates a copy of the file and it makes editing a file with different apps a very daunting task. The way that I think this should work is by giving the user a special folder that any app can access (maybe through a new app, iFinder, iFiles or whatever they want to call it), now I’m not saying that the user should have access to the system files, what I’m suggesting is that you get access to specific folder that it’s only used to store the user’s personals files, and every app could access this folder, making sharing files between apps much more easier. There also should be a way to easily transfer files from and to your Mac. USB without iTunes could be an option, but I think there should also be a wireless one, maybe through the new AirDrop feature on Lion, this way it would be easy to drag an drop a file on your Mac and it would instantly appear on your iDevice. Even if Apple doesn’t implement “full” file sharing I think it’s very likely they implement AirDrop in any form.

So this are is my list, what do you think Apple will include on iOS5? Just remember, don’t make this a whishlist, but a realistic discussion of possible features.