With iOS 5 Beta 3, the iPhone finally gets custom text message alert sounds. The astounding thing is that even Nokia of decades past gave you the option to select from customized ringtones of your own, and that it took 4 years for Apple to implement this is testament that they are only interested in doing things their way.

Amazing considering you could set custom sounds for all your messages, WhatsApp and other various notification on Android.

While it’s glaring most of their new features implemented are actually taking some of the greater ideas off others and doing it the Apple way (with great usability, UI & all), their iCloud / iTunes Match service basically legalizes all the pirated music users hold and is set to revolutionize the music distribution not seen in a new way since Napster. Brace yourself Amazon, Google & Spotify.

• iCloud / OTA Updates / PC Free / Sync

The cloud is the way to go and basically it is taking on the likes of Dropbox, Google Docs, Spotify, Amazon, etc by storing your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, and more. Magically then wirelessly pushes them to all your devices automatically.

Er not really magically since over the air updates have been a staple for Android users who can also download via the web market and the tedious iTunes registration/setup has always been a bugbear. Activations no longer require a computer, and more promise of over the air updates, with daily backups, etc. Basically everything is now in the cloud.

• iTunes Match
  Apple boasts 18 million songs in their iTunes library, and for just USD24.99 a year, they are promising to legalize all our Napster songs by determining which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device.

  All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match, and the best part is music iTunes matches plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality. Pretty wonderful considering my entire collection of 3,000 songs are all blasting at a mere 128 Kbps.

• Notification Center
  Apple has certainly gone the way of the dinosaur with regards to notifications, and they’ve finally followed Android in implementing the unobtrusive drop down notifications. How they took donkey years to simply copy Android and swipe down from the top of the screen remains a mystery, though the Google lawyers will be busy scrutinizing any patents they have.
• iMessage
  Apple knows BlackBerry is on the wane, and riding on their own popularity, have turned BlackBerry’s idea into their own, riding on their supposedly 200 million strong iOS army. It remains to be seen if they are open enough to allow other OSes in, if they do they’ll eliminate SMS, WhatsApp, andwhat’s not.

  In an Android-esque move, any received messages can be read whilst in other apps. You’ll be able to write a reply, then jump straight back into any video you’re watching or game you’re playing.

• Safari
  Even Internet Explorer has tabbed browsing! Finally, Safari is trying to play catch up with Firefox, Opera, Chrome & co. Tabs will be always visible and switch instantly.
  Safari is also trying to catch up with Firefox & Chrome sync by allowing you to save content for future reading, across multiple platforms. Read Me Later, etc and co have already started cursing & swearing for not attempting to patent it first.
• Multitasking
  Multitasking was absent for a significant period of time, and even then Apple didn’t seem to get it right but now it’s available in full glory. Suspended apps are a goner and you can flick between apps seamlessly just like Android users have had for the past year or so.
• Camera
  Changes will allow you to take pictures directly from the lock screen, whether there is a password or not. Other options added include lock focus and exposure, pinch and zoom the live view,and enhancing photos with the iPhoto optimization techniques. A hard trigger (volume up) allows for quick snaps.
• Email
  Apple has recognized with the near demise of BlackBerry, they should spruce up their email app and spruce up they have. They have added the ability to search the entire contents of your mail (including the body, flag emails. The iPad will get a swipe-to-inbox function to make the best use of all that touchscreen. Both will benefit from a built-in dictionary, something that Macs have had for a while.

  Several new variant keyboards allow the iPhone to catch-up on some of the keyboard customisations Android fans have boasted of. A dual-thumb keyboard was demoed as well.

• Twitter Integration
  The blue bird is now going to be everywhere on your phone! Like how you can share photos from the gallery for Android, you can post to Twitter (but still no Facebook)
• Reminders
  Another glaring function that has been missing and long overdue, allowing for reminder of list of items, locations, etc.
• Newsstand
  Showcasing all the subscription magazines, Apple already had publishers up in arms over their cut of profits, this will further enhance their stance and definitely give them a bigger say in their cut.

You can also check out the full list of features on the Apple website.

All I can say is these are great for consumers, Apple users aside because it basically ups the ante on all the Smartphone OSes to get their asses up and trying to better Apple in terms of functionality, UI and such.

Finally, iOS 5 will run on the iPhone, from 3GS up, both iPads and iPod Touch 3rd generation and up.

Google has created a simple tool that lets you choose from a number of sizes and styles, and then provides the appropriate JavaScript code that you can cut and paste into your site.

Google is hoping that +1’s integration in search results is incentive enough for website publishers to use it, offering the premise of more traffic when their visitors start “+1ing” content. Google highlights this in their blog: “The next time your connections are searching, they could see your +1’s directly in their search results.”

Watch this video to learn more about the +1 button:

1. Upload your video to YouTube
2. Use an online YouTube downloader to download the video. My personal preference is KeepVid, which also does other popular websites like Metacafe, etc. It also allows you to download in various resolutions.
3. Save the file in the resolution you require and there you have it, an easy conversion from WMV to FLV without any installation!

This infographic from business network Focus shows Skype’s company history — including its rollercoaster valuations to year-over-year revenues.

Here are the instructions to manually update your Google Nexus One to Froyo:

1. Download the new Android 2.3.4 firmware update.
2. Rename the file to update.zip. Note that if you’re using Windows, just rename it to “update” (no quotes, of course) because it’s already a zipped file.
3. Copy the update.zip file onto your SD card.
4. Turn your Nexus One off.
5. Hold down the “Volume Down” button as you power the phone back on.
6. A screen should appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.
7. When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.
8. From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”
9. When the screen displays “Install from sdcard complete” select “reboot system now” and wait for the phone to power back up.

• Phone, applications Launcher, and Browser now have dedicated shortcuts on the Home screen, making it easy to access them from any of the 5 home screen panels.
• LED Flash enabled for camcorders; allowing for videos to be shot at night or in low light settings
• Camera onscreen buttons provide easy access to a new UI for controling zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging, focus and exposure.
• Updated Google Search bar to include dropdown for All, Web, Apps or Contacts search. Plus choose which items are searchable, not just those previously mentioned yet specific apps; Messaging, Twitter, Music, etc.
• Portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared with up to 8 devices; Wi-Fi/USB tethering
• Improved performance with better kernel management, enhanced browsing performance & Dalvik performance boost
• Task and application manger; ability to upgrade all apps at once and add background updating
• Bluetooth Voice Dialing for hands-free calling while driving
• Different trackball colour notifications; blue for bluetooth, red for low battery, and the usual white for new messages & call notifications
• Voice input settings let you specify your regional accent (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Generic).
• Multi-language stock keyboard (but doesn’t support Chinese)
• New Car Home design
• plus a whole lot more …

However, the dazzling highlights for me were undoubtedly:

• Better Performance. It’s like an upgrading of RAM – so much more free space makes everything faster. Up to 271M of free as compared to up to 91M previously.
• Auto Brightness. Power widget for the home screen now lets you select auto-brightness. Previously, you had 3 lighting options and my Christmas wish was for an auto brightness option to come so I didn’t have to change it everytime I walked into bright sunlight or meander around in a dark room. Looked like Christmas came early and the auto brightness is probably the best addition to Froyo. Had reservations about what effect it would have on battery life but so far my worries have been unfounded.
• Vibrate. Watching a movie, in a meeting? Need to silent the phone urgently? Lowering the volume quickly could mean totally silencing the phone. Not anymore. Vibration can now be set to always, never, only in silent mode, and only when not in silent mode.
• Colourful Trackball. New SMS – white. Low battery – white. New notification – white. Imagine my surprise when my trackball suddenly flashed RED for dangerously low battery. Blue when my bluetooth was turned on. Why did they even wait with all these? It’s not a useless navigational tool anymore. Red, Stop, Green, Go, I wonder how many hues does the trackball have.
• Flash. For those flashy websites and the not so flashy games, you need Adobe Flash.
• Better call log display. This might just be a minor change, but I still feel a much needed one considering it just summarizes how you might have had 5 calls from the same person appearing once instead of five. Perhaps it’s just me.
• The Google Apps. Google definitely make their apps work best on their own operating system. Strangely, Gmail wasn’t exactly all that smooth previously but now you can browse & tag emails with much more ease. Oh and YouTube videos in HD!
• Voice input now recognizes swear words. No, I hardly even use voice input.

Android 2.2 theoretically supports installing apps to the SD card which undoubtedly would even free up more space, but developers need to first enable this in their apps. My previous concern was eventually the apps would take up all the in-built memory, but it seems this will eventually be worked around as developers slowly enable this.

Google obviously needs to cater to more users from elsewhere to enable multi-language stock keyboards for languages like Mandarin, and what’s up with no accent support for Singaporeans? I reckon Singaporeans are distinguishable anywhere you go in the World. You can fake a British or Australian accent, but not a Singaporean one.

All in all, Google simply amazes with every Android update; it seems to only unlock more and more capabilities each time – from multi-touch ability, to automatic lighting, and multi-coloured trackballs and such in a faster Froyo, simply makes me salivate at what Android 2.3 would unleash on the Nexus One.

mSpot allows people to upload their music- be it purchased, ripped or downloaded (via various means) and access it from any Windows or Mac computer, or a Google Android device. It currently only supports Android mobile devices.

Rather than trying to recognize the music files on your computer and replicate it in the cloud, mSpot practically uploads your music collection from iTunes, Windows Media Player, and/or any folders you specify, effectively saving any ratings and metadata (album artwork) you may have set up in iTunes by scanning its XML database. The upload process takes at least several hours depending on processing power and connection speed, but once it’s there, you’re good to go. It took me approximately 5-6 hours to sync my data onto mSpot.

mSpot plans to offer “north of 2 GB” of free music storage or more for a monthly fee. All files are converted into 48-Kbps aacplus files (a standard format for mobile music streaming services), meaning that you can store over four days of music in a free 2-GB locker account.

Having tried out the service, I would say it simply rocks – it totally eliminates the need to try and sync your music from your PC’s library onto your phone or anywhere else! Of course, the current downside is that the limit is 2GB for free users, which essentially cannot contain my library of nearly 3,000 songs and 11 GB of data, though I would be interested to see how much they plan to charge for a larger account. The conversion though has meant that about 50% of my songs have been sync onto mSpot.

mSpot is currently in private beta mode, but users can sign up on the company’s website (www.mspot.com) to try the web and/or Android version using the password “phandroid“.

mSpot’s freemium music locker service for Android smartphones and computers will be available to the public at some point in June, with apps for RIM, Windows and possibly iPhone to come thereafter.

About mSpot
mSpot is a digital entertainment company that offers instant streaming of movies, music and other entertainment to more than six million consumers across North America. mSpot helps consumers easily access music, custom ringtones, live radio and videos from major music labels, movie studios and top brands. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, mSpot is on the Web at www.mspot.com.

To download the app to your phone, you will need to open the Download Flash Player 10.1 beta on your Android 2.2 device. Flash 10.1 cannot be installed in any other way right now.

After installation, you can visit websites like Reckless Ericka & play popular Popcap games such as Bejeweled Blitz!

Here are the instructions to manually update your Google Nexus One to Froyo:

1. Download the new Android 2.2 firmware update.
2. Rename the file to update.zip. Note that if you’re using Windows, just rename it to “update” (no quotes, of course) because it’s already a zipped file.
3. Copy the update.zip file onto your SD card.
4. Turn your Nexus One off.
5. Hold down the “Volume Down” button as you power the phone back on.
6. A screen should appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.
7. When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.
8. From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”
9. When the screen displays “Install from sdcard complete” select “reboot system now” and wait for the phone to power back up.

You now have Froyo (Android 2.2) on your Nexus One, making it much faster, automatic upgrading of apps, ability to define Google Search options, default phone & web shortcuts on every screen (instead of just the apps shortcut) and a whole lot more!

The best update for Froyo would probably be the auto lighting option – can’t wait to see how it would work in bright daylight! My Advanced Task Killer is also showing up to 271MB of free memory as compared to around 81M previously.