BANGALORE, INDIA: The much awaited release of iOS's latest version happened last month. This is the most significant release of the OS till date, with over 200 mouth watering features that are relevant for both consumers and mobile professionals alike.

In fact, system administrators will find continued support for features that have made iOS a hit in the enterprise –the best mobile exchange support out there, multiple VPN connectivity options, Mobile Device Management (MDM) API that lets you use third-party applications to manage all mobile devices, etc. Those who love to message on the move will also fall in love with its iMessage service and the notifications center. In this article we take a look at some of the features that make their first appearance in iOS5.

Truly Post PC

iPad was hailed as the first post-PC device and with iOS5, Apple delivers on the promise. System administrators don't need to spend sleepless nights worrying about the next batch of 500 iPads with their "connect to iTunes" screens anymore.

All iOS5 devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) can be setup & activated without connecting to a computer. On first power-on, the user is greeted by a helpful wizard that helps them setup their iOS device as a new device or restore it from an iCloud or iTunes backup (which would of course require a PC).

Syncing the device to a computer still requires iTunes, but you now have the option of syncing over Wi-Fi. iOS5 also enables Over The Air (OTA) updates which means you no longer need to connect your device to a computer to upgrade to the latest iOS version.

Apple ships OTA updates as delta updates i.e. it includes only the files that have changed since the last release, which typically results in much smaller downloads.

iCloud

iCloud is Apple's cloud that can be used to automatically backup your device –address book, photos, videos, application data, etc. It comes with 5GB of storage free and users can buy extra storage at a reasonable charge. It opens a lot of possibilities for users including daily scheduled backups of your device to the cloud, so you no longer need to worry about losing your data when you are on the road with just your iOS device. Apple states that all information stored on iCloud is encrypted but details of the same could not be determined at the time of going to print. Usual disclaimer about storing sensitive information on third-party servers applies.

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