Foursquare Radar leverages Apple iOS 5 with new discovery features

With its new iPhone 4S scheduled to go on sale in two days, Apple on Wednesday released the iOS 5, the latest version of its mobile operating system for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. In addition, the company released Mac OS X 10.7.2, an update that includes Safari 5.1.1 and support for iCloud, which also opened for business on Wednesday.

iOS 5 is particularly important for Apple because it addresses areas where iOS devices have lagged behind Android devices, such as wireless syncing and updates, and because it enables the use of Apple's iCloud service, a key strategic initiative and major investment for the company.Foursquare on Wednesday introduced Radar, a new feature built into its iPhone app that will allow the New York company to introduce capabilities it had previously only dreamed of.

Most notably, Radar will push Foursquare from not only being a check-in centric app but also toward being an app that also alerts users of places, people or things they might want to visit near wherever they are at that moment.The long waited firmware update for the iPad has finally dropped and it includes almost 200 new features! You can find a total detailed list HERE.

The update gives us a ton of new features including built in Twitter Support for people who love to share. Also front and center is Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, Reminders and iCloud support.iOS 5 was released to the public yesterday and the good news is that there is a lot to like in this new version of iOS. For me most of the features address some of my long time criticisms of iOS. Although they are long over due, I welcome them just the same. Here are 5 of my favorite features right off the top: