Apple wants to provide good experience to its users and to do that it tries to do as many things itself as it can without relying on third party developers. In this huge iOS 5 update, Apple has introduced many awesome features that are built right into the operating system so users don’t have to download different applications to fulfill their basic needs. Here we have listed a few of many apps that have been affected by iOS 5’s new features.
Boxcar With notifications center
No one liked iOS’s popup notifications, even the true patriots of the Apple universe hated it. So to solve this problem, a developer created an app you might be familiar with called ‘Boxcar’. This app available for free in the App Store gathers Twitter, Facebook, Email, Google Voice, and other notifications at one place so that users can easily access them all at once in one place.
Now Apple has introduced similar kind of notifications assembler called the Notification Center. Notification Center does the same things as Boxcar app i.e it gathers all of your notifications and puts them at one place for your ease. This feature marks the end of the current form of Boxcar app and other apps similar to Boxcar.
Whatsapp and others with iMessage
Whatsapp is another app you might be familiar with because it is ‘that’ popular. Available in the App Store for $0.99, Whatsapp is a cross-platform application that allows users to send text and multimedia messages over Wi-Fi or 3G network instead of sending an SMS or MMS. It allows users to send videos, images and voice notes to friends in their contacts. A low point for this app is that Whatsapp does not support iPad and iPod touch.
Apple introduced iMessage on all of its iOS devices, making Whatsapp irrelevant for those who mostly send text messages, images, videos, and other stuff to people using the iOS devices. iMessage is a completely free services and is built right into iOS 5. It uses Wi-Fi as well as 3G network to send your messages.
Now only advantage Whatsapp has on iMessage is that it is a cross-platform app, so is also available on Android, RIM, and Nokia phones. But no presence on iPod touch and iPad is a huge disadvantage this app has over iMessage (and something tells me that they are going to fix this problem in their next update, just wait and watch)
Instapaper with Reading List and Reader in safari
Available in the App Store for $4.99, Instapaper is a widely used app that allows users to save articles for later reading, it also provides users with ideal reading environment by enlarging the text of the article.
Now in iOS 5, Safari Browser brings two awesome features that allow users to do the things from within the browser for which they had to download a separate app. Reading List feature in Safari saves the article in the reading list so you can read the full article whenever you have spare time.
Just like Instapaper app, Reader feature in Safari allows you to read an article in an ideal reading environment by enlarging the text and removing all the distractions on a webpage.
Third party browsers with Safari enhancements
Mobile Safari has been the best web browser for iOS and no third-party browser could match it performance wise, but when it came to features Safari had a long way to go. Many third party browsers brought several features that safari lacked and found there space in iOS devices, Opera Mini and Skyfire are worth mentioning here.
But now with iOS 5, Safari brings many cool features like Reader, Reading List, Private browsing mode, and tabbed webpages (iPad only) that would make Safari the only browser iOS users would ever need.
Reminder and task completion apps with Reminders
iOS 5 brings a very nice Reminder app to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch that is good enough to replace any third party application you have been using on your device. It also backs up your data to iCloud so you won’t even have to worry about losing your reminders.
Dictionary apps (to some extent) with built-in Define feature
The built-in dictionary is very good when you are reading articles or text on your iOS device, but if you have to use it for searching the meaning of any word then its not as simple (here’s how to do that) as checking a word’s meaning in the app. If Apple ends up allowing users to enter their own words and check the meaning of the words by entering in the search field (spotlight search is a good option) then you won’t need any third party dictionary application, keeping in mind that iOS 5 is still in beta, anything can happen in the final version.
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