Review: iOS 5, Available Today for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

iOS 5 is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod Touch third and fourth generation.

Follow us

Notification Centre

Notifications have been pushed to iOS devices for a few years now, but they provided little information, forcing the user to quit what they're doing and go to the relevant app requesting attention. Now, though, all notifications are displayed in a panel that can be accessed by swiping down from the status bar, whether you're at the home screen, or in an app already.

This swipe-down panel is very similar to that found on Android phones, but it carries the usual Apple garnish of a slightly textured background and a share price ticker scrolling from right to left.

The notification centre can be customised to show a ticker of your share prices, the local weather and, of course, notifications from the phone, mail, messages, Facebook, Twitter and any other apps that demand your attention. Previews of messages and e-mails are shown, and the notification can be acted upon by tapping it.

Earlier, notifications always appeared in the same way an SMS-style box in the centre of the screen that had to be dismissed before being able to do anything else. With iOS 5, notifications can be set to appear as a small message at the top of the screen, which doesn't interrupt what you're doing. Games don't pause, for example, and the box disappears after a few seconds.

The lock screen has also been tinkered with, showing a clearer list of any calls, messages, and e-mails that have been received while the phone has been locked. Swiping over a text or email takes you right to the relevant app.

iMessage

In a move that will no doubt annoy BlackyBerry users, who have suffered days of network problems, Apple has brought a free messaging system to iOS, mimicking the popular BlackBerry Messenger.