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Apple iOS 5 Review

 by Vivek Gowri, Andrew Cunningham, Saumitra Bhagwat & Brian Klug on October 18, 2011 3:05 AM EST
86 Comments | Add A Comment
86 Comments

Camera Application Improvements

The default iOS camera application also gets some love with new improvements and features. The changes are initially pretty subtle. Under options at the top is a new toggle for a grid overlay which helps you optionally compose photos using rule of thirds, and on the iPhone 4 the HDR toggle is here. Of course on the 3GS the only toggle is for grid. Next, pinch to zoom brings up the digital zoom toggle at the bottom. 

 

Another new (and more subtle) feature is AF/AE lock. Just like the normal tap to AF/AE, except hold down. The target square flashes twice, then on release you're shown AF/AE lock. 

Last but not least, the volume up button now triggers image capture. This feature was famously added by Camera+, which then resulted in the application being pulled from the App Store, and now the feature resurfaces in the official camera application. While capturing using the volume up button is useful, it also makes the iPhone 4 form factor a much less stable shooting platform thanks to the volume button's spring preload. Pay attention to good DSLR camera buttons - the spring preload isn't that much at all, and the shutter button "break" only takes a few newtons of force. This is very important because it doesn't result in the shooting platform moving right at capture trigger. Unfortunately in this regard the iPhone 4's beefy buttons make shooting blur-free images difficult, the result is that shooting with the volume button still feels like something of an afterthought. Interestingly enough, the iPhone 3GS' much less preloaded volume button makes for a much more stable shooting platform when using the button.

 

On the lock screen, double tapping the home button brings up the new camera button. This enables you to take photos pretty quickly, and even with the a passcode you can shoot photos. Apple has done a pretty good job making sure you can't escape from here either, we tried force quitting the camera application or gallery after entering the capture mode through the lock screen. Further, you can't view photos in the gallery from this secure camera application. Things seem pretty locked down (as they should be) so far. 

The last subtle feature is a camera button which appears in the bottom left if you enter the gallery from the camera app. This button brings you, as expected, right back into the camera application.

Photos

 
Along with the camera application, the Photo app has also been overhauled. This one is actually a pretty solid update, with basic editing capabilities now integrated, along with the ability to create and manage picture folders on the iDevice. The other major new feature in the Photo app is Photo Stream, which we already covered in the iCloud section. 

The editing capabilities aren’t robust by any means, but as far as elementary tasks go, they’re decent, and they're present on all iOS5 devices, including iPods and older iPhones. Cropping and rotation support are definitely on board, and though it’s much easier to use on a larger screen, both form factors of the rotate/crop part have some performance issues. Get too creative with your rotated crop and the frame rate will start dropping, with some very choppy interactions when you try to change the rotation angle or the crop boundaries. Other than that though, it’s decent. 90 degree orientation changes are handled by a dedicated rotate button. Cropped images can be constrained to a long list of standardized aspect ratios, as well as the original aspect ratio of the image. 

The auto-enhance option tinkers with colour saturation, white balance, contrast, and brightness to theoretically improve your pictures. Sometimes it works, sometimes it goes a bit overboard with the changes, and sometimes it doesn’t do very much (this is usually the case for any image that wasn’t captured on a smartphone). The red-eye removal option is pretty self explanatory, but I legitimately can’t remember the last time one of my pics ended up with red-eye, so I can’t vouch for its effectiveness. 
 
Just to stick with the camera and photos theme, let’s touch briefly on FaceTime. Basically, not much has changed, though video quality is supposedly improved, something I noted on a test call between devices on my network. However, subsequent calls to my friends (mix of iOS 5 and late adopters) gave me mixed results, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that either way, you’re going to be bandwidth limited on the video call front. The more interesting update is that you can FaceTime on the big screen using AirPlay mirroring, which we discussed earlier in the AirPlay section. 
Safari Changes and Benchmarks Calendar, Game Center, and Newsstand
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  • Brian Klug - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    That's true, however we've measured and talked about the size of iMessage messages - read/delivery reports are 53 bytes (which is literally almost entirely just overhead from JSON and APNS), and messages range upwards in size from there up to 853 bytes before being fragmented across a few different APNS.

    By that math, it's going to take 245,856 maximum length (853 byte) iMessages to eat up your 200 MB data plan.

    -Brian

  • steven75 - Monday, October 31, 2011 - link

    iMessage defaults back to SMS if it hasn't been sent after X seconds. In theory, this means you shouldn't have to worry about congestion because Apple thought of this for you.

  • FoTacTix - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    I was hoping for a battery life comparison in the review. Maybe I missed it? My battery life seemed to be much worse with imessage turned on on my Verizon iPhone 4.

  • Dug - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    Great review!

    The most important update for me was mirroring to the Apple TV, and I think Apple would sell millions of Apple TV's if they promoted this.

    I enjoyed airplay before, but now that it works with every app is incredible.

    I enjoy being able to put everything through my stereo and TV. Things like Pandora, MOG, videos, games, etc. is so nice and very easy. Garage Band is actually fun now that I don't have to plug into my stereo. No other product can come close to this. I have several Apple TV's now throughout the house and can control everything from my iPad.

    It makes me wish that they made a 16x9 iPad. (But with my TV's I'm able to do a little stretch so it's not so bad)

  • jsd6 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    You can easily delete items from Reading List - swipe to delete on iphone/ipad, click the "X" icon on desktop Safari.

    You can do Wifi sync without being plugged in - it just isn't automatic. The wording on the iDevice is definitely confusing. As soon as your device is within wifi range of your Mac, the device will show up in iTunes as if it were connected via a cable. You can click Sync on iTunes, or initiate it from the phone. I've actually found to be too slow for my tastes so I stick with the cable. At least now the phone is still usable while the syncing is happening. That's a big step in the right direction!

  • Galatian - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    The one thing that really made me angry about the iOS update was the removal of the multitouch gestures for iPad 1 owners. I mean it worked in iOS 4 through an Xcode developer account, so Apple can't even say that the hardware is not powerful enough, like they do with Siri.

    What is even worse is the fact that they changed their website AFTER the update has been releases and people started complaining on their support forum. Now the American site states it is an iPad 2 feature only. Strangely enough the UK, Canadian, German, ... still quote the general iPad.

    Also the change log for iOS 5 update never mentions this to be an iPad 2 only feature.

    Apple has been known to artificially outdate their products, but they have down so quietly. This time they actually announced something and are now quietly changing stuff so it fits their business model...dumb move if you ask me.

  • steven75 - Monday, October 31, 2011 - link

    I agree there was not a good reason to do that. I wouldn't want to be without multitouch gestures on an iPad. I never use the home button except to turn it on.

  • lurker22 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    So there is no fix?

    I have to remember to send messages to people using their email address in order for it to be sure and deliver to all their iOS device? Which means I have to know what phones all my friends use which is nuts.

    Why doesn't iMessage just route imessages sent to a cell number to all the values associated with the apple ID?

  • name99 - Friday, October 21, 2011 - link

    Truth is, there are a HUGE number of rough edges associated with iCloud and all the related services. A different set of examples would be the duplicates of events in calendars, or the duplicates of contacts in Address Book; and there is no consistent mental model for how data is supposed to behave "in the cloud and on devices". Mail behaves one way, calendars and contacts another, iTunes music a third --- and I don't think any human understands how Notes are supposed to behave.

    My HOPE is that this is all teething troubles --- Apple was faced with a deadline --- they needed to get iPhone 4S out by a certain date --- and iCloud was rushed before various bits were quite ready. If this is so, hopefully we'll see the worst discrepancies resolved in iOS5.1 and OSX 10.7.3 in three months or so.
    And if not --- well, that is NOT a good sign. Apple's whole value proposition is, of course, "it just works". And while Android seem unlikely to compete on that front soon, it is possible (not inevitable, but possible) that MS might actually get it right in Win 8, right enough at least to become the new press darling, the company whose cloud offerings make sense, unlike Apple whose every product behaves poorly and inconsistently across the cloud.

  • unixfg - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    I don't really understand your claim here:

    "So regardless of how and where you’ve gotten your music from, if its there on the iTunes Store, it automatically gets legalized and added to your account..."

    Do you mean to imply there is no distinction on Apple's servers as to the source of your Music? I know the AAC files you buy have a tag linking it to your account, and can't imagine they wouldn't keep track of the source.

    That aside, I don't see how it would "legalize" anything. I'm a huge fan of your articles, and hate that this is the first time I've felt the need to register and comment, but...

    <citation needed>
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