(Notification Center)The weather is super warm right now!
So, I just upgraded my iOS 4.35 to iOS 5 today! So far so good! However, I thought there would be an individual app called iMessage. I was wrong. On the iPhone, the app is under the typical Message app, while on the iPad and iPod Touch running the iOS 5, there is an individual new app called iMessage. So, basically, if I send a message to my brother who also has an iPhone running the iOS 5, the text message will be for free -as long as both phones are connected to an active WiFi. If I sent a text message to my brother with his phone not connected to the WiFi, it would be charged as normal whose cost would depend on how much my phone carrier charged. Is this app going to kill famously used WhatsApp? I don't think so. iMessage will not kill WhatsApp because both have advantages to offer.
WhatsApp offers smartphone users an ability to send free text messages to other smartphone users who also have WhatsApp installed on their phones, regardless of the brand of the phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, Samsung, etc) and the operating system (iOS, RIM, Android, Symbian, etc).
iMessage may offer a very similar free text messaging service (WhatsApp) to iOS device users only, but it is more convenient. First, there are no two different apps for iPhone users running the iOS 5, so they can keep the message thread in the same place as the normal text messages. Second, you don't have to have an iPhone to be able to send text messages to your friends who use an iPhone, an iPod Touch and/or an iPad. Down side of it is that iMessage only works on WiFi connection, not 3G (yet). In addition, to tell the difference between normal text messages and iMessage messages is by seeing the color of the chat balloon. If it's green, that means the message that you just sent was a normal charged text message. If the balloon is blue, that means you just sent an iMessage message. You don't have to send a message just to want to see the color of the chat balloon, actually. You just need to see the color of the Send button. Green means it's going to be a normal text message. Blue means the iMessage feature is active. On iMessage, you can also know whether the message has been sent or not, and if the person on the other line is typing a reply to you. Again, it's very similar to WhatsApp.
Another thing that I like about the new iOS is the notification center that you can pull down from the top of the screen. It is very, very similar to the one on Android OS as far as how to make it appear on the screen goes. I like it because I can read a bit of a message that I just received when I'm in the middle of reading an article or playing a game, or chatting with a friend on Skype -without getting distracted so much.
The quick access to the camera button is also super convenient! Just by pressing the home button twice on the lock screen mode, the camera button will appear at the bottom right of the screen. The photos or videos that are taken will be kept in a different folder called Photo Stream which you can access without the need of unlocking the phone. The use of the volume-up button as an alternative to the shutter button even makes it much more convenient. And, then you can pinch to zoom in and out while the camera is on; you can crop a photo and edit it a bit; you can even now create a new album to help categorize some photos in the camera roll folder. It's just convenient!
I haven't tried iCloud, though. I will upgrade my iPad's iOS tonight and I will be able to try this awesome-sounding feature.
Will I miss the 'Close/View' pop-out text message notification which is typically iPhone? Maybe I will... not. Because you have an option to bring that sort of conventional iPhone-y text message notification back if you don't like the new banner type notification that appears on the top of the screen, through the Settings.
Cheers!
Now I need to get back to work! Oh my gawd! LOL
Edit/Correction: (October 18)
- iMessage service works both on WiFi and 3G connections.
- Photos and videos saved in Photo Stream are those able to be shared with other iDevices on the same account using iCloud.
0 comments:
Post a Comment