6 Non-Apple Alternatives To Today’s iOS 5 Releases

iOS 5 dropped today, which is fantastic, I guess — if you own an iPhone. However, if you’re like me and, well, don’t but still want the same bells and whistles on your phone, might I suggest the following?

iOS 5.0 :: Windows Phone Mango

Sure, Siri and Cards are some cool new features but beyond that, iOS 5 doesn’t feel all that revolutionary.

Mango, on the other hand, has seemingly come from nowhere, rivalling iOS 5 in terms of both usability and feature set. With thoroughly integrated social media and native apps like Local Scout and Bing, Mango is an excellent choice for non-techie phone users who want to avoid the API clusterf**k that is Android. Price varies.

iCloud :: Amazon Cloud

iCloud is very cool: it lets you share your media among all of your devices seamlessly and automatically through the power of cloud storage. Funny, that sounds suspiciously like this Amazon Cloud Drive I’ve been using for months now. Amazon’s first 5GB are free — just like iCloud — except music stored on Amazon’s cloud doesn’t count against your cap, which means that my 70GB of music cost me nothing for universal access.

Find My Friends :: FourSquare Radar

If you’ve gone ahead and updated to iOS 5 but discovered that you very much dislike Find My Friends and its moccasin map weirdness, Foursquare has just rolled out a new version of their popular friend-locating app, dubbed Foursquare Radar. In addition to telling you if you’re within spitting distance of your significant other or anyone one else you’re connected to, it also reminds notifies you of nearby places on your To-Do List, even when the app is closed. Free.

Photo Stream :: Flickr

Photo Stream. It’s like Flickr but with an auto-upload feature. Huzzah? Free.

Card :: SimplytoImpress.com

A wise man once said, “If you send me a ‘Card’, you will be deleted from contacts, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.” But he never said anything about Simply to Impress cards! Just upload your photos, set a layout, pay, and two days later the cards are delivered to your door. Price varies.

Siri :: Google Voice Search

I’ll admit I’m actually most interested in seeing Siri in action to see if she performs as well as Google’s Voice Search service. It allows you to input commands for calling contacts, texting, searching the web, looking up directions, taking notes and a bevy of other functions. Free.[imgclear]

Top art: Petr Malyshev/Shutterstock


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