Apple iOS 5 and iCloud drop on 12 October

Apple's iOS 5 and iCloud products will be released on 12 October, the Cupertino company announced today.

The OS, announced earlier this year during Apple's Wordwide Developer Conference, comes with a host of additions.

Of over 200 new features, the Notification Centre, where users will find all of their notifications in one place, greater integration with Twitter including a single sign-on, and iMessage (Apple's version of BlackBerry Messenger) were the most significant.

Freshly crowned CEO Tim Cook took to the stage to make his first big announcement in charge of Apple, but it was left up to Scott Forstall to make the iOS 5 announcement.

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"We've already seeded more than 100k developers and they love it," Forstall said during Apple's special event in Cupertino.

"We can't wait to get it into everyone's hands."

Little new about the iCloud was revealed, except from the release date and a number of related applications.

Apple announced a number of new apps for iOS users that hook up to the iCloud, including Find my Friends, which essentially does what it says on the tin. It also allows users to stop location sharing functionality when they want.

"Now when I'm at Disneyland, I can easily see where my family is. Or I can see if my son made it to school today," said Apple's Eddy Cue.

Read on for our Need to Know cheat sheet on Apple iOS 5.

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.