iOS 5, the latest version of the world's most advanced mobile operating system, includes over 200 new user features, and an updated SDK with over 1,500 new APIs and powerful new development tools. Start developing today to take advantage of iCloud Storage, Newsstand Kit, Core Image, GLKit, Twitter and new Game Center APIs.
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iCloud Storage
iCloud Storage APIs enable your apps to store user documents and key value data and wirelessly push any changes to all your user's computers and devices at the same time — automatically. See how iCloud can help you create compelling new functionality in your apps.
Notification Center
Notification Center provides an innovative way to easily display and manage your app notifications without interrupting your users. Notification Center in iOS 5 builds on the existing notification system, so your existing local and push notifications just work. Provisioning of push notifications is now built right into Xcode making it even easier to implement.
Newsstand
Publish the latest issues of your magazines and newspapers directly to Newsstand, the new folder on the Home Screen. Newsstand Kit provides everything you need to update new issues in the background, so you can always present the most recent cover art. Apps built for Newsstand use In-App Purchase subscriptions, making it easy for users to manage their auto-renewable subscriptions. And it's now possible to provision your app for In-App Purchase within Xcode.
Automatic Reference Counting
Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) for Objective-C makes memory management the job of the compiler. By enabling ARC with the new Apple LLVM compiler, you will never need to type retain or release again, dramatically simplifying the development process, while reducing crashes and memory leaks. The compiler has a complete understanding of your objects, and releases each object the instant it is no longer used, so apps run as fast as ever, with predictable, smooth performance.
Twitter Integration
Tweet directly from your apps using the new Tweet sheet. It provides all of the features available to built-in apps, including URL shortening, attaching current location, character count and hosting photos on Twitter. And if your app is a Twitter client, it's easy to tie into the single sign-on service using the Twitter APIs. It's even possible to migrate existing accounts to iOS.
Storyboards
Layout the workflow of your app using the new Storyboards feature built into the design tools of Xcode. Created for apps that use navigation and tab bars to transition between views, Storyboards eases the development by managing the view controllers for you. You can specify the transitions and segues that are used when switching between views without having to code them by hand.
AirPlay
Introduced in iOS 4.2, AirPlay streams video, audio and photos to Apple TV. With iOS 5, it's now possible to wirelessly mirror everything on your iPad 2 to an HDTV via Apple TV. Your apps are mirrored automatically. With additional APIs your app can display different content on each of the HDTV and the iPad 2 screens. In iOS 5, apps built with AV Foundation can now stream video and audio content through AirPlay, and AirPlay now supports encrypted streams delivered via HTTP Live Streaming.
Core Image
Create amazing effects in your camera and image editing apps with Core Image. Core Image is a hardware-accelerated framework that provides an easy way to enhance photos and videos. Core Image provides several built-in filters, such as color effects, distortions and transitions. It also includes advanced features such as auto enhance, red-eye reduction and facial recognition.
Game Center
Game Center is taking multi-player gaming on iOS one step further with the addition of turned-base game support. With turn-based games, players can play when they want and Game Center will manage each turn for them. Game Center will automatically send the next player a push notification via Notification Center and manage multiple game sessions. Other developer additions to Game Center include, adding players to existing multi-player games, displaying achievement notification banners, and support for distinct icons for each leaderboard.
OpenGL ES
It's now even easier to develop great looking games that take advantage of the latest iOS hardware. GLKit is a new high-level framework that combines the best practices of advanced rendering and texture techniques with the latest OpenGL ES 2.0 features. It's optimized to take advantage of hardware accelerated math operations, so you get the best performance without all the work. iOS 5 SDK also includes new Apple-developed OpenGL ES extensions designed specifically for advanced game developers. And the new OpenGL ES debugger in Xcode allows you to track down issues specific to OpenGL ES in your code.
iMessage
iMessage is a new messaging service that works between all iOS 5 users over Wi-Fi and 3G. iMessages are automatically pushed to all iOS 5 devices, making it easy to maintain one conversation across iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. In iOS 5 SDK, the Message sheet now supports the iMessage service, so you can start individual or group text conversations from within your app.
New Instruments
In addition to ARC, iOS 5 SDK includes several new instruments including time profiler with CPU strategy which gives you a new way to view time profiler data, as well as system trace, network activity and network connections instruments.
PC Free
iOS 5 includes a host of features that give users the power, freedom, and flexibility to use their iOS devices without a Mac or PC. Expand the functionality of your apps and remove the need for users to access a PC. Take advantage of iCloud Storage to store documents and user data, so they are updated automatically and users can access them from all of their devices.
Location simulation
Now you can test your location-based features in your app without leaving your desk. You can now select from preset locations and routes within the iOS Simulator and pick a custom latitude and longitude with accuracy while you're running your simulated app.