iOS 5 & iCloud available for free download 12 October – Apple

During Apple CEO Tim Cook’s first product launch, it was announced that the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system iOS5 and iCloud will be available for download from 12 October.

The announcement of the release dates was made by Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone software at the highly anticipated “Let’s Talk iPhone” event.

Both iOS 5 and iCloud were first unveiled at Apple’s WWDC conference by former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. At the time, however, no release date was set.

Apple’s video introducing iOS 5

Though most of the speculation had centred on whether any new iDevices, particularly an iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S, would be launched, a number of industry watchers stated that the most important news to come from the event would be the software.

Some of the hotly anticipated features of iOS 5 include, Notification Centre, iMessage, NewsStand and Reminders.

New features have also been packed into the mobile version of Safari, Apple’s web browser. A feature which Twitter itself, and its users have also been waiting for is the built-in Twitter integration for iOS 5.

iCloud, which Apple describes as “so much more than a hard drive in the sky,” will give users access to their all data, such as music, apps, and latest photos from whichever iDevice they may be using.

Various apps were also announced at the event. One of the most well received was Siri, iOS’ native new voice recognition app. According to Apple, Siri “lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more”.

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing at Apple, demonstrated the app by asking it questions such as do I need a raincoat?” to which it answered, “It looks like rain today”.

For Memeburn’s live blog of the “Let’s Talk iPhone,” event see here.