Five iOS 5 Features Apple Copied From Android

The latest edition of iOS, which was unveiled by Steve Jobs at the Apple WWDC, will have around 200 new features and will start being seen in devices like iPhone 3GS and 4, iPad and iPad 2, and iPod touch 3 and 4, from this fall.

Here are five features in Apple's upcoming iOS 5.0 that were found in Android.

Notification Center

Criticizing the current notification systems available on smartphones, Apple introduced a new notification system in iOS 5 that will aggregate all notifications. The new Notification Center can be accessed by swiping down from the status bar at the top of the screen. The notifications will be displayed on the lock screen together with stock and weather alerts. Now, when a notification appears in a lock screen, tapping the notification will automatically open the related app.

Android has had that since version 1.0 which recently improved it in Android 3. But the original part is integration of notifications into the lock screen, while some 3rd party apps provide that for Android but it’s not built-in.

PC Free

iOS 5 is “PC free”, which means iOS updates are now possible over the air. There is no need to hook up mobile Apple devices with PC to access iTunes. As long as Wi-Fi is available, iTunes sync is now automatic and possible even while an iOS device is being charged. Android is already offering such updates, but Android devices are notorious for getting update rollouts very slowly.

Newsstand

The new News Stand app that comes with iOS 5 will complement the existing iBooks. Though similar to iBooks, News Stand will be dedicated to magazines and newspapers. Automatic downloads are possible. The newspapers and magazines can also be read offline.

While Android relies on programs that are not part of the core operating system to view content, in order to allow 3rd parties to compete against each other.

Twitter Integration

iOS 5 includes built-in Twitter integration, so one can sign in once and then tweet directly from all Twitter-enabled apps, including Photos, Camera, Safari, YouTube and Maps with a single tap. New APIs give third party developers the ability to take advantage of the single sign-on capability for their own iOS 5 apps.

Android doesn't have Twitter-specific integration, but it does have a developer feature called Intents. The OS will go out and find all the apps that can do Sharing and give the user a list of them to pick from. From popular services like Twitter to a hot new startup, everybody is able to do this on Android.

New split keyboard

Now Apple allows for a customized split keyboard on iPhone that makes typing in portrait mode a lot easier. It is possible to drag the keyboard up, split the keyboard (to make it more ergonomic). The size of the keyboard can also be reduced to facilitate thumb-typing. Android users have been able to customize their keyboard configuration thanks to some great developers.