Yesterday i finally upgraded my iPhone 3GS to iOS 5 and below are the changes / updates / upgrades is what i saw. I thought it would be good option for anyone to go through the features below before upgrading 🙂

The products that are compatible with this upgrade are:

• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad 2
• iPad
• iPod touch (4th generation)
• iPod touch (3rd generation)

This update will give more than 200 new  features. Most of them are listed below:

[highlight]Notifications[/highlight]

• Notification center gives you the flexibility to see all the notifications in one place. All you have to do is swipe from top of any screen to bottom.
• New notifications will appear briefly at the top of the screen.
• You can view notifications from lock screen as well.
• Also sliding the notification app icon to the right on the lock screen will take you directly to the app.

[highlight]iMessage[/highlight]

• After this upgrade you can send and receive unlimited text, photo and video messages with other iOS 5 users.
• Message tracking with delivery receipts and read receipts
• Group messages
• Secure encryption
• iMessage will work with both cellular network and Wi-Fi

[highlight]Newsstand[/highlight]

• Newsstand automatically organizes magazine and newspaper subscriptions on Home Screen
• Newsstand displays the cover of the latest issue
• Newsstand downloads new issues in background.

[highlight]Reminders[/highlight]

• iOS 5 has reminders for managing to do lists
• Reminders syncs with iCloud, iCal and Outlook
• Only for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S reminders has location based reminders when you arrive or leave a location

[highlight]Twitter Built in Support[/highlight]

• Once you sign in from settings, you can tweet directly from Camera, Photos, Maps, Safari and YouTube
• You can add location to your tweets.
• You can also view twitter profile pictures and username in contacts.

[highlight]Camera Improvements[/highlight]

• Volume up button can be used for taking the picture.
• There is an option of gridlines to line up shots
• Pinch to zoom in the preview screen
• You can swipe to camera roll from preview screen.
• You can double click on the home button when device is asleep to bring up a camera shortcut on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
• Tap and hold to lock focus and exposure, iPad 2 and iPod touch (4th generation) only support exposure lock

[highlight]Photo Improvements[/highlight]

• You can crop and rotate photo.
• Red eye removal.
• One tap enhance.
• You can organize photo into albums

[highlight]Mail Improvements[/highlight]

• You can format text using bold, italic and underline fonts
• Now you have indentation control.
• You can just drag to rearrange names in address fields.
• You can flag messages.
• You can mass mark messages as flagged, read or unread.
• You can customize mail alert sounds
• S/MIME support

[highlight]CalendarImprovements[/highlight]

• Year view for iPad and new week view for iPhone and iPod touch.
• You can tap to create an event.
• You can view and add event attachments.

[highlight]Game Center Improvements[/highlight]

• You can now use personal photos for you game center accounts
• You can compare your overall achievements score with your friends
• Find new Game Center friends with friend recommendations and friends of friends.
• You can discover new games with custom game recommendations.

[highlight]AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2 and iPhone 4GS[/highlight]

[highlight]Multitasking gestures for iPad[/highlight]

• You use four or five fingers to pinch to home screen.
• You can swipe to reveal the multitasking bar
• You can swipe left or right to switch between applications

[highlight]Device setup, activation and configuration with Setup Assistant[/highlight]

[highlight]Software updates available over the  air without tethering[/highlight]

[highlight]iCloud Support[/highlight]

• iTunes in the Cloud
• Photo Stream
• Documents in the Cloud
• Apps and Books automatic download and purchase history
• Backup
• Contacts, Calendar and Mail
• Find My iPhone

[highlight]Redesigned Music App for iPad[/highlight]

[highlight]Hourly Weather Forecast[/highlight]

[highlight]Real-Time Stock Quotes[/highlight]

[highlight]Wireless sync to iTunes[/highlight]

[highlight]Keyboard improvements[/highlight]

• Split keyboard for iPad
• Keyboard now has improved auto-correction accuracy
• Keyboard is improved for Chinese and Japanese input
• New Emoji keyboard introduced
• Personal directory for auto-correction
• You can now optionally create keyboard shortcuts for frequently used words.

[highlight]Accessibility improvements[/highlight]

• Option to light LED flash on incoming calls and alerts  for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
• Custom vibration Patterns for incoming calls on iPhone
• New interface for using iOS with mobility-impairment input devices
• Option to spask a selection of text
• Custom element labeling for VoiceOver.

[highlight]Exchange ActiveSync improvenments[/highlight]

• You can now Wirelessly sync tasks.
• iOS now has improved offline support
• You can also save new contact from a GAL Service.

[highlight]More than 1,500 new developer APIs[/highlight]

[highlight]And of course bug fixes[/highlight]

[highlight]For more information visit[/highlight]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222