Wondering what’s changed in the latest developer preview of iOS 5? Although there’s always countless tweaks to be found in every beta of a major new iOS release, here are twelve of the bigger changes that have caught our eye so far.
Wireless Syncing With iTunes
Starting in iOS 5 Beta 2, you can now turn on WiFi Sync in iTunes 10.5 beta. Just connect your device, go to the “Summary” tab and tick “Sync over Wi-Fi Connection.” Now, anytime you juice up your iOS device, iTunes will wirelessly sync over WiFi… even if you don’t have your device plugged into your Mac. [via iPdb]
New iOS Boot Up Animation
Instead of the standard monochrome Apple icon, this is the animation you now get when you boot up an iOS 5 device.
[via 9to5Mac]
New Lock-Screen Alert Styles
Gone are the ugly blue and white app alerts on your lock screen. Now they get a larger typeface, as well as an icon for the app associated with the alert. The lock screen “Slide” gesture becomes contextual for the few seconds after the alerts pop up on your display, allowing you to “Slide to Reply” or “Slide To View.”
Over The Air (OTA) Updates
As part of their cord cutting mission with iOS 5, Apple has installed the plumbing for Over The Air updates in iOS 5 Beta 2, which should allow you to update your iOS device’s firmware over 3G or WiFi without plugging it into iTunes. [via Apple Insider]
iMessage Will Not Work Between Beta 1 and Beta 2
This is a small detail, but is worth mentioning: iMessages are not cross-compatible across betas, meaning you can’t send an iMessage from an iOS 5 Beta 1 device to an iOS 5 Beta 2 device, and vice versa.
