Apple iOS 5 review

One of the best features of iOS 5 that isn’t limited to the iPhone 4S is Notification Centre. It’s very similar to Android notifications and discreetly tells you about new text messages, appointments and more via a pop-up at the top of the screen, no matter what app you’re runnning. You can tap on the notification to open the relevant app, but you can also drag down from the top of the screen in any app to see recent notifications. The home screen has also been updated to show notifications, and you can swipe any of these to jump straight to the app they come from.

Another addition is iMessage. This copies BlackBerry’s popular Messenger in allowing secure text messages to be sent to any iOS device, not just iPhones, but iPads and iPod Touches too. You can use iMessage to send photos, videos, locations and contacts, and the iPhone will automatically use iMessage if the recipient is also using the service – messages appear in blue rather than green for standard SMS messages. If you want to use iMessage on an iPad or iPod Touch, you’ll need to know the email address that other users have associated with iMessage before you can communicate with them – or already have it included in the contact’s profile, since contacts can be synchronised via iCloud. If you type in a new email address in iMessage, it will check if the user is registered before enabling the Send button.

Reminders is a new app for creating to-do lists. You can set deadlines if you want to be reminded about an appointment, for example. On devices with GPS receivers, including the iPhone 4 and 4S, you also get a location option, so you can be reminded of a task when you leave or arrive at a specified place. It’s far better than the old method of creating an appointment in the Calendar app and setting an alert to serve as a reminder.