This is going to be a VERY quit little missive. Basically, it’s about knowledge retention. The more I write about something, the better chance I have remembering some detail months or years hence. Today, I’m recording, for posterity (sounds pretty snooty, I know), the Objective-C command for opening a URL.
I won’t pretend to know all the details of this, and why it requires so many messages to be passed. In this case I’m admitting I was a cut-and-paste code monkey, standing on the shoulders of others. So, enough babbling, here is the meat of it. This ASSUMES you have a way to call this, such as a class method, or something. To clarity, this is writting into your implementation (.m) file.
The above does NOT maintain context within your app. This tosses the user out into Safari to view the page. Had I added a URL View page to the application, it would have appeared there. Perhaps in version 2.1, but for now, for today, this works. I’ve tested it, verified it, and trust it.
Here is a breakdown, from Apple, highlighting the over 200 and new features in iOS 5!!
Notifications
Swipe from the top of any screen to view notifications in one place with Notification Centerthis is one of my favorite features. When you receive messages, voicemail or calls while ‘away’ from your phone the alerts are stacked on a screen that can be accessed by simply swiping down the screen. Much less intrusive, and very, very useful
New notifications appear briefly at the top of the screenbig improvement over the modal dialogs that popped up on previous versions that disrupted anything you where doing at the time
View notifications from lock screenswipe down from the lock screen and jump right to a notice, message, call, etc.
Slide the notification app icon to the right on the lock screen to go directly to the app
iMessage
Send and receive unlimited text, photo, and video messages with other iOS 5 usersthis is a great feature. For instance I’m able to communicate with my daughter’s iPhone from my iPad, no need to grab my phone if I want to send her some info I found on my iPad – great productivity boost. Plus, it does not required the cellular SMS transport technology!
Track messages with delivery and read receiptsknow when the recipient read the message – very nice
Group messaging and secure encryption
Works over cellular network and Wi-Fi*very nice!! avoid SMS charges when roaming, especially overseas. While in Spain I communicated with my boss with SMS quite often, but when I got home 1/2 of big fat cell bill were SMS charges!!! This should reduce if not eliminate that.
Newsstand
Automatically organizes magazine and newspaper subscriptions on Home Screen
Displays the cover of the latest issue
Background downloads of new issues
Reminders for managing to do lists
Syncs with iCloud, iCal and Outlookkeep calendars on multiple devices in sync. I’ve had some issues with this where any calendar entry already synced across devices, now created a separate entry from each device, messy. Might be something I didn’t do right.. but I’m not totally tech ignorant, so I think others will find that glitch annoying
Location-based reminders when you leave or arrive at a location for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
Built-in support for Twitter
Sign-in once in Settings and tweet directly from Camera, Photos, Maps, Safari and YouTube
Add location to any tweet
View twitter profile pictures and usernames in Contacts
Camera improvements for devices with cameras
Double click the home button when device is asleep to bring up a camera shortcut on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
Volume Up button to take a pictureever hold the phone in landscape mode and fumbled to press the front button, well I have, and enabling a side button is a real awesome feature, sort of like a ‘real’ camera
Optional grid lines to line up shotsThis really helps me, I often tild my cameras for some reason, nothing like a little help
Pinch to zoom in the preview screen
Swipe to camera roll from preview screen
Tap and hold to lock focus and exposure, iPad 2 and iPod touch (4th generation) only support exposure lock
Photo improvements for devices with cameras
Crop and rotate
Red eye removal
One tap enhance
Organize photos into albums
Mail improvements
Format text using bold, italic, or underlined fonts
Indentation control
Drag to rearrange names in address fields
Flag messages
Mass mark messages as flagged, read or unreadwhat once was just an option to bulk delete, now offers these other bulk actions, a nice improvement
Customize mail alert soundsOK, this is the first I’ve not done myself, but I love the custom sounds for SMS, so I’m going to be trying this today!
S/MIME
Calendar improvements
Year view on iPad and new Week view for iPhone and iPod touch
Tap to create an event
View and add event attachments
Game Center improvements
Use personal photos for your Game Center account
Compare your overall achievement scores with your friends
Find new Game Center friends with friend recommendations and friends of friends
Discover new games with custom game recommendations
AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S
Multitasking Gestures for iPad
Use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen
Swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar
Swipe left or right to switch between apps
On-device setup, activation and configuration with Setup Assistant
Software updates available over the air without tethering
this is great, no longer need to plug into the computer, get your apps and music ‘magically’ over the air via iCloud.. awesomeness
iCloud support
iTunes in the Cloudawesome, using it a lot
Photo Stream
Documents in the Cloud
Apps and Books automatic download and purchase historymega awesomeness, new apps I bought appeared everywhere I wanted it, no need to do much of anything at all!
Backup
Contacts, Calendar, and MailSyncing all devices behind the scenes, off-line and without hands-on action. As noted, the only thing I’ve had issues with were some duplicate calendar entries
Find My iPhone
Redesigned Music app for iPad
Hourly weather forecast
Real-time stock quotes
Wireless sync to iTunes
Keyboard improvements
Split keyboard for iPadI dig this (see my other post) thumbs much happier now
Improved autocorrection accuracy
Improved Chinese and Japanese input
New Emoji keyboard
Personal dictionary for autocorrection
Optionally create keyboard short cuts for frequently used words
Accessibility improvements
Option to light LED flash on incoming calls and alerts for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
Custom vibration patterns for incoming calls on iPhone
New interface for using iOS with mobility-impairment input devices
I received the shipping confirmation and tracking code yesterday. I’m quite excited about tracking my little phone package back and forth across the US:
The FedEx site seems to lag several hours behind the tracking updates. As of midnight, the status was still showing;
At 03:00 this morning, it’s showing that it arrived at BFI yesterday evening: iPhone Package Tracking
I was hoping for a something a little more NRT (Near Real Time).
Those of you that have checked out my new website see that I’m all about displaying the latest data I can acquire.
Then there is the question of why I am awake at 03:00 PDT to even LOOK at this data. Insomnia is a regular part of my life.. something I’ve battled for years.. and some of it might be childish anticipation of playing with an awesome new toy, phone.
Even when it arrives some time Friday (today), I will have to go through several steps to get it activated. How many.. a lot.. (me thinks). This is direct from my ‘Welcome to the Borg’ e-mail sent from AT&T:
Congratulations! With AT&T, you get the nations’ fastest mobile broadband network* and the best coverage worldwide – more phones that work in more countries**.
To Activate your Device and utilize the entire suite of features included with your service, you MUST follow these steps IN ORDER;
1. Charge your iPhone.
2. Check all voicemail messages on your existing device. Once your new iPhone has been activated, all voicemail messages and greetings on the former device will be lost. (Existing AT&T Customers Only).
3. Turn it ON and follow the on-screen instructions. Your iPhone may prompt you to connect to iTunes via a Mac or PC. Install it for FREE!
4. Synch iPhone with your contacts, calendars and bookmarks on your computer and with music, video and other content from your iTunes library.
5. Activate your device online at some-website or by calling 1-555-555-1212 from another phone.
6. Turn ON your iPhone and make a test call. If your test call is not successful, wait one hour to allow the activation process to complete then try to make another call.
Once in hand, it’s going to be at least an hour of charging before I can even start to migrate the many gigabytes of information, contacts, photos, songs, videos and notes from the old white 3GS to my new white 4S.
I’m glad they released the white phone right out of the gate this time. I think they lost some initial iPhone 4 sales while people who like white phones (such as myself) waited out the initial order surge. Could this explain the massive initial orders that completely blew away the iPhone 4 release records? Probably not, but it was a factor for me. It removed the decision to wait for the white phone or order the new black one and live with it.
So.. here I sit, at 04:12, typing up a half-coherent ranty blog, wondering if I’ll get back to sleep or I’ll simply fire up the VPN and perform some of my day job.
What’s not to like about a shiny new OS update for the Apple Mobile platforms? It’s new, so, it has to be better? RIGHT?
Well, yes, it IS BETTER! And it fixes some long nagging short complaints I’d had, mostly simple little things. The most interesting ones I have tried so far, are discussed here.
Check out my ‘iOS New Features Rundown Post for more details!
Now you can assign custom Text Notification Tones
YES! Finally! I can set a custom tune (like a silent one.. for those really annoying people) for both phone and text communications for any Contact in your Contacts List. And not only that, they implemented it so you don’t need to use the same tone for both. This is something I really REALLY like! Setting separate Ringtone and SMS Tones - new in iOS5
iPad Split Keyboard. Thumb-typing made easy!
Every wish that your thumbs were a little longer to reach the keys in the center of the iPad keyboard? Well, maybe you wouldn’t want them longer, how weird would your hand look, right? Well, at least they could have done something….. and…. they did. Introducing the split keyboard on the iPad. Split keyboard makes thumb-typing easier on the iPad!
Above, I am testing out this cool new feature while updating my Brewer’s Log. Too bad most of you won’t be able to taste this amazing Pumpkin IPA when it get’s kegged in less than a week!
iCloud delivery of your purchased Apps, from the cloud!
I’ve already found this to be one VERY useful feature. What I’m showing here is the App Store on my phone, and you can see one of the Apps has the little cloud icon next to it. That means I’ve purchased this application, but it’s not installed on this device. Now, instead of having to be wired into a computer to get easy access to my already purchased Apps, it’s available, over the cellular network, or WiFi, from a cloud storage area just for your apps. So, what’s the big deal? Well, if you want to add the app to this device, it’s as simple as pushing the ‘iCloud’ button and viola.. it’s downloading to your device! iCloud and App Store working together
Another really nice feature, that is not illustrated in this photo, is that you can configure your account to automatically download any purchased app to ALL your devices (automatically, not need to sync) from this iCloud account. I’ve use this feature already as well and I love it. Again, no need to plug into the computer, or track down the app in the App store. It’s all done for you (of course you can turn this feature off it you like), easy as Apple pie!
News Stand – get your electronic magazines on your mobile device!
Do you have a hard-copy magazine that you subscribe to? Maybe they have a mobile version too. If that is the case, you can (again automatically) receive the latest edition, downloaded to your News Stand (here comes that iCloud thing again…) as soon as it’s published. This is a feature I’ll be making use of for certain (sorry, I’d not yet tracked down my magazines when I took this photo… I’ll be sure to update it when I do). New App - the Apple Newstand - get it hot off the presses!
Handling of SMS and E-mail alerts on various screens
For you current iPhone users, you know how annoying it is to get an SMS (or if you have e-mail alerts on, and e-mail) while on the phone or using another app. It pops up a modal dialog box and completely interferes with whatever it is that you are doing.
NO MORE! The alert boxes are no longer modal, and if you receive an voice mail and an SMS at nearly the same time, the alerts are neatly stacked together, and after a few seconds, these automatically disappear from the screen. They are smaller, less obnoxious and they GO AWAY on their own! Finally!
