Joe Belfiore posted another interesting pair of tweets late yesterday, reminding people that quite a few of the features that Apple is including in iOS 5 are already available or announced in Microsoft Products, either Windows Phone 7 or Windows 8. He tweeted one yesterday, mentioning just the camera button.
Today, he took it a bit further, and listed off several items that Apple has seemingly taken from Windows phone 7, or Windows 8. In Apple’s defense, the Windows 8 thumb keyboard was announced last week, but the rest… You can decide.
Slide on past the break to see how the similarities break down.
Source: WinRumors
Improved Notifications: iOS is adding notifications that cover the top few pixels of your screen, and are dismissed by swiping them off to the side. It's a staple of Windows Phone 7.
Thumb Keyboard: Last week, Microsoft showed off their thumb keyboard in Windows 8. Apple showed off their version yesterday. Apple's seems a bit slicker, in that you push a button to open the thumb keyboard in Windows 8, and sort of tear the keyboard in half in iOS.
Social Media, baked right in!: Apple has shown off their Twitter integration. Microsoft already has Facebook integration, and is adding Twitter integration in Mango. Microsoft probably has it right here, but many iOS faithful will be excited to no longer have to deal with memories of the dickbar.
Background downloads: Apple showed off a BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service, the Windows update download mechanism) style background download service for iOS, and will be using it to push out magazines and newspapers automatically. Microsoft has a similar service, and is releasing the API’s with Mango.
Messaging: Apple is introducing iMessage with iOS 5. It will use data (either Wifi or 3g) to push SMS style messages, similar to Blackberry IM. It will only work with iOS devices. Although Mango will not have a custom IM solution, it will leverage Lync, Facebook IM, and Live Messenger, which will offer similar options, but without the iOS restriction.
Automatic Photo Upload:iOS 5 will allow you to automatically upload pictures to the iCloud service. Windows Phone 7 will already allow you to upload to your SkyDrive, or Facebook. There is no word on uploading photos to a service from the iPhone camera app.
Wifi sync: iOS will now allow you to sync your device to your computer without a sync cable, something we Zune and Windows Phone users have been doing for years.
So, is this flattering being the best compliment or just a bunch of good ideas crossing platforms?
