iOS 5!

A few weekends ago, I updated my iPod Touch to iOS 5. Well, technically, I restored to it, but that isn't important. What is important is how awesome iOS 5 is. I don't even know where to start. Well, let's start at the bad stuff. That way, it's out of the way and this'll end on some sort of good note. And there really aren't that many bad things about iOS 5, so this'll be quick. Most negative thing is the battery life. On my iPod, my battery depletes at about 2 times the speed it did on iOS 4.x.x. Very disappointing for me, but I'll have to live with it. This next con doesn't really have to do with iOS itself, but I still don't like it: there are no untethered jailbreaks for iOS 5. That means if I want to jailbreak my iPod on iOS 5 (which I did) I'll have to use a computer program to reboot it if it ever turns off. Being able to turn my iPod off all the time would fix my batter problem, too, but I don't always have a computer with that program on it to turn my iPod back on. Now, onto the good stuff (everything else)! The most widespread and possibly largest change is the the notification system. Now, instead of annoying and intrusive popups, a little bar appears at the top of the screen that shows some info, then disappears seconds later. Tapping on it will bring you to the app. But, if you missed it and don't want to go searching, simply drag down from the status bar to open the Notification Center. By default, it contains a weather "widget" and stock widget, along with Calender and Reminder (we'll get to that) previews and notifications. Jailbreakers have created a wonderful amount of other widgets, ranging from settings toggles to a little area for notes to Nyan Cat. On the lockscreen, notifications are displayed with a little icon of the app to the left. If you drag that little icon over, it'll launch the app. Very nice alternative to the popups of the iOS 3-4 notifications. Another stock app was added, called Reminders. It's a basic reminder/checklist sorta app. I use it a lot, for keeping track of jailbreak stuff I want to get done, chores, and homework sometimes. The Calender app has a new week view when you rotate your device to landscape. It's just meant for getting a quick overview. Something I find very nice and awesome is wifi syncing. As long as your device has 20% battery, is connected to the same wifi hotspot as your computer, and wifi syncing is enabled on your computer, you can sync your device without having to keep it plugged into iTunes all the time. Another thing that I think I'll use more in the future is iMessage. On iPhones, it integrates into the standard texting Messages app. On iPods, it adds the Messages app. iMessage is like BBM for iOS devices: you can IM anyone with an iPod, iPhone, or iPad. As of now, I only have a few friends I use to chat with on it, but I could see it getting more useful. I know there's plenty more features in iOS 5 that I didn't cover, but this blog was long overdue and chances are, those other features weren't really important enough to me. So, there's iOS 5 from my iPod's point of view.