iOS 5.1

iOS 5.1
This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:
• Japanese language support for Siri (availability may be limited during initial rollout)

• Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream

• Camera shortcut now always visible on Lock Screen for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)

• Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces

• Redesigned Camera app for iPad

• Genius Mixes and Genius playlists for iTunes Match subscribers

• Audio for TV shows and movies on iPad optimized to sound louder and clearer

• Podcast controls for playback speed and a 30 second rewind for iPad

• Updated AT&T network indicator

• Addresses bugs affecting battery life

• Fixes an issue that occasionally caused audio to drop for outgoing calls

 

So Apple released a new iOS update… yesterday? the day before? Well, some time ago...

I only discovered it this morning when i connected my phone to my comp and some iTunes message popped up. So naturally, i downloaded the new iOS.

The new changes doesn’t concern me though much for the most part, except for the camera shortcut change. Previously, we had to double tap on the home button before the camera button would appear and you can press it to trigger the… camera. However, now that the camera button will forever be on the lock screen, it kinda made me wonder if you'd accidentally activate the camera...

I soon discovered the answer when my parents came home however...

Apparently my dad already updated his phone to the new iOS… WOW…! That's fast! At 1st i was wondering how he updated it, when his comp was still in my room. Than i realized… obviously he updated it directly on his phone… *rolls eyes*. Apple's move to remove independence on computers is certainly a smart one…. The last time my dad connected his iDevices to his mac via a USB cable was… too long ago for me to remember… it did managed to sync a few time wirelessly though, when i happen to be using his computer and he happened to be charging his gadgets. Total coincidence, but the devices synced nonetheless. This whole iCould and wireless syncing thing really makes backing up SOOOO much more convenient...

Ah yes, back to the camera thing… of course, those smart guys at Apple obviously thought of the problem and made an ever so slight change to the camera button trigger. Now you slide up to reveal the camera, and you can slide back down to lock back the screen. An elegant solution indeed!

So there, instead of the camera icon being sitted in a button, you have to slide to trigger it...

Ah photo stream. They finally allowed us to DELETE photos from photo stream. There was an iPhoto update released on the 7th (together with all the other apple apps updates) that added the deleting photos from photo stream feature to it… and now we'll be able to delete photos from photo stream on iOS 5.1 as well.

Hmm what else is there… camera face detection… now the faces will be highlighted… hmm… a small feature added IMO… in any case the iPhone 3G camera still sucks as bad… the lack of hardware can't quite be compensated by such software improvements :S My phone camera is only what… 3 mega pixels? eww...

Ah… siri now supports Japanese. No surprise that Japanese support will be added… i was quite surprised that it wasn’t there in the 1st place… Japan is a rather huge market with loads of tech savvy peeps… and most of them arent that good at English… and even people like my dad has problem making siri understand him so… -.-''' siri can't understand the Singaporean accent and it can't understand the Japanese accented English any better… Ah but still… that doesn’t affect me cos 1) my phone doesn’t have siri, and 2) i wanted to try saying something to siri in japanese but… i still find the idea of speaking to a phone rather stupid… especially if i were to speak in japanese - a language which i barely know :S so yeah… i can listen and understand a decent bit of japanese… but saying is a totally different story… :X

Ah yes… the iPad camera app new design… once again, i hardly use the iPad so I'm not too sure what the old app is like. I remember its like the iPhone camera app though… with the photo taking button on the bottom. Cos now the new app has the photo taking button on screen on the middle right side instead of the bottom… which makes sense since the iPad is such a massive creature and you'll most likely be using two hands to hold the thing. Ah yes, i think i remember my dad complaining before about having to stretch his fingers all the way to the center bottom when taking a picture… now they solved that with the new camera app.

Hmm… i guess that's pretty much it about the new iOS…

I wonder what they'll release in the next new iOS revamp. No doubt they'll eventually release iOS 6… what else new things can they come up with, i wonder?

We'll see… ;)