Like many of you out there, I felt a wave of excitement upon installing the spanking new iOS 5 update onto my battle-worn iPad2.

My favorite feature, of course, is the new way for handling notifications — man, the old way of popping up messages over whatever it was that you were doing, even when you’re watching videos and the like, was annoying! Especially whenever the editors decide to get particularly chatty over at the GroupMe app. All those popups after popups after popups… So, Yay to Androidification!

My least favorite, however, is a very trivial addition to the system.

Once iOS5 was installed, it tossed in a few new apps into the mix. There’s Reminders, which gives you a checklist for your to-do’s; there’s iMessage, which lets you do messaging with other iOS users, and there’s the Newsstand, which is Apple’s new portal to their ebooks store.

I had no need for Reminders because I already have my to-do system down pat, so off it went into the Archive folder which I set up for storing apps I have no need for.

Ditto with iMessage. I am already up to my nose in messaging apps, and I saw no need for an iOS-only message tool. So off it went too into the Archive.

And then there’s Newsstand. I had no intentions of buying anything from the Apple pool of publications, so off I dragged the app icon into the Archive…

…and no. It wouldn’t drag. I tried and tried, and Newsstand just refused to budge. I tried deleting it, but no, it had no telltale X mark.

So here’s the deal. I’m quite obsessive about keeping my home page neat and orderly, with no app out of place. Everything’s in its proper folder, and anything I don’t use gets deleted or archived away.

What’s annoying for me is that Apple seems hell-bent on keeping Newsstand right there, right in front of you.

And it’s an empty shelf.

So I think I know what Apple is up to. You have no way of getting rid of that Newsstand shelf. And while you haven’t bought anything from their news store just yet, it will stay empty, right there, in front of you,taunting you at your face. An empty shelf, looking all lonely and pathetic.

I think Apple is shaming me into buying something from their Newsstand store.

Must… control… obsessive-compulsive urges… and pretend… that damn Newsstand app… doesn’t exist…

Hey, if anybody knows how to get rid of it, I’m all ears!

Art

Art is a long-time editor for a number of technology publications. He is a Palanca-winning writer whose day job is to try to be as serious as possible while being a management consultant and lecturer. His favorite noodles: chapchae.

email: art@technoodling.netwebsite: http://www.technoodling.net