iOS 5 could remain in everyone's memory as a version of the iOS operating system in which Apple implemented many functions "stolen" from others. Over time, Apple looked into the "garden" of the jailbreak community and "borrowed" from there various popular functions that it implemented natively in iOS. The situation is identical in the case of iOS 5, but now Apple has implement not just a few but many functions that normally would have required a jailbreak and spending several tens of dollars on tweaks from Cydia. Here are 13 functions of iOS that Apple has "borrowed" from others.
1. Notifications Center which is strikingly similar to Peter Hajas' MobileNotifier, who now works at Apple, but also to the Android OS notification system.
2. Wi-Fi Sync – a function that was previously available through an application in Cydia that had the same name and that was rejected by Apple just a year before.
3. Lockscree notifications are quite similar to LockInfo or Smartscreen, 2 tweaks available in Cydia for a very long time. The similarities between MobileNotifier and Apple's system should not be overlooked either.
4. Multitasking - although available in a "precarious" form, multitasking was available for iOS long before Apple implemented it.
5. The possibility to set a wallpaper - another function that in iOS was implemented through WinterBoard or BossPaper, but which Apple only brought in iOS 4.
6. Video Out - only in iOS 4.3 Apple gave users the possibility to do video mirroring for the screen of our terminals, but applications like DisplayOut existed in Cydia long before.
7. The possibility to take pictures with the volume buttons - Snappy was the first of a series of tweaks that brought this functionality, Apple understood how important it is and now we have it in iOS 5.
8. Personal HotSpot – the MyWi application became almost useless after the launch of Personal HotSpot because Apple allows us starting with iOS 4.3 to turn our iPhone into a Wi-Fi HotSpot. MyWi still remains active thanks to the fact that it allows turning the iPad into a HotSpot, something that Apple does not allow.
9. Folders - they appeared in iOS 3.x, but Apple thought it would be good to implement them in iOS 4, but with certain limitations that can also be overcome by jailbreaking.
10. Support for Bluetooth keyboards – a tweak in iOS 3 enables this feature and the tweaks available now allow pairing an iDevice with a whole suite of products via Bluetooth.
11. FaceTime via 3G – last year there were many tweaks that enabled the possibility to use FaceTime via 3G and now there are rumors that Apple will natively allow this.
12. Copy/Paste - function implemented by Apple for a long time, but it was initially developed by the jailbreak community.
13. Applications - before the App Store there was Installer and other similar applications that allowed running 3rd party applications.
The good part is that Apple took these things and improved them to a certain extent, the bad part is that they did not offer anything in return to those who invented them. The list can go on, of course, but I think we all understood that many functions in iOS are not Apple's own creation.
