Apple's iOS 10: Where's the wow for mobile journalists?

Here we go again: another major update to the operating system that makes iPhones and iPads do the clever things they do.

After last year’s iOS 9 it’ll come as no surprise that Apple has unveiled “iOS 10” this time around. In contrast, there’s always an element of mystery around the name of the latest version of Android, the operating system that powers the vast majority of smartphones globally. After Kit-Kat, Lollipop and Marshmallow, weeks of food-based speculation (Nutella, Nectarine, Nandos?) ended with confirmation in June that the latest Android operating system is “Nougat”.

But the most recent information shows that only 15 per cent of Android devices are yet using Marshallow which came out last year. Almost a third are still on 2013’s KitKat. Compare that with iOS 9 which came out only a month earlier than Marshmallow but is already on 86% of devices.

This means that journalists and others who use an iOS device are much more likely to be using iOS 10 in the near future than Android users are to be using Nougat.

Apple gave a preview of iOS 10 to developers in June and since then it’s gone through a number of pre-release betas. Features have been added, removed and tweaked. Although the last beta is pretty much finished, don’t be surprised if new bugs and problems emerge once it goes fully public. If the past is anything to go by, further problems can be expected once millions of users get their hands on the software, despite the best efforts of Apple’s engineers and the beta testers.

I’ve been looking at iOS 10 on an iPhone 5s in recent weeks, trying to work out which changes will make a difference to those who use an iPhone for their mobile journalism.

Others will be better able to assess the impact that iOS 10 might make in terms of the delivery of journalism to devices. (For example, improved notifications mean the lock-screen can now carry more detailed information from news stories than before such as a short video or a photo and text.)

And others can write about the general changes in iOS 10 (for example, finally you can delete pre-installed Apple apps you never use like “Reminders” and “Find Friends”; and iMessages get a big makeover).

Here, I want to explore what iOS 10 means for the “mojo” (mobile journalism) world - although I hope the following will still be of interest to non-journalists.

But first, a few caveats:whenever a new beta of iOS comes out, it can only be assessed on a currently available iPhone or iPad. (I wasn’t even doing it on a 6s or 6, but an older 5s.) Apple staff have the benefit of seeing what it can do when running on the as-yet-unreleased iPhones. For all I know, there may be untold gems hidden in iOS 10 which can only be fully appreciated on brand new iPhones. 

Also, iOS 10 might only really come into its own once developers release apps updated to take advantage of the new possibilities. And of course, as the time of writing, those apps haven’t been released.

There’s no firm line between functions that are useful to a mobile journalist and those which are not. So I’ve limited this review to the key aspects that are relevant for a journalist using an iphone or ipad for work.

OK, let’s dive in. 

Where previously, the most notable iOS changes have been to video filming and editing, this time many of the changes are to photos.

Of possible interest to photo journalists in particular is that iOS 10 will support “raw” shooting. No this doesn't mean "taking photos with no clothes on" but is about the format those photos are subsequently accessible in. Currently an iPhone produces a compressed .jpg file – which is fine for most purposes such as for social media. But professional photographers often prefer images with more information which can then be tweaked with greater accuracy. A raw photo is a file with no compression or pre-processing. The down side is that the images are huge: a .jpg photo may be around 2mb in size, while the equivalent raw file can be up to 20 times larger. There's no specific setting to turn this feature on in iOS 10 on the device I was testing; it's thought that it'll be available for newer phones than the 5s.

One design change which may annoy those who rely on muscle memory to get tasks done quickly is that some buttons have been swapped around. When taking photos, the icon to swap between the front and back camera is now where the icon for adding a filter used to be - and vice versa. Similarly, how you get to the device’s camera when it’s locked is slightly different: before, you swiped up on the icon of a camera in the bottom right corner of the screen. Now you simply swipe the whole lock screen to the left. A small change, but important to remember when opening the camera quickly to get the vital shot at short notice.

The most interesting development – although it’s not doing anything ground-breaking – is that photos and videos can be automatically turned into a short video montage, complete with music. Called “Memories”, it's a feature long available on Android and from third party iOS apps like Quik (used for example by BBC News here). 

Memories comes with ten themes, each with music pre-selected but changeable such as “extreme”, “uplifting” or “chill” to suit the mood of the piece (there’s no indication if the music is copyright-free or not). Or you can add your own music or remove it entirely. Changing the music re-edits the movie to work better with the new pace and tone.

Each theme has a associated font for the text that can be added. Static photos are given a subtle “Ken Burns” effect (where the image moves gently across the screen). The video duration can also be customised to short, medium or long or even to an exact number of seconds, which could be useful for social platforms like Instagram. 

Memories is easy to use but lacks a few features that would be useful for mobile journalists. It falls down for me with the lack of text options. Text is vital for the social media world where videos often play silently. Text can be added, but only at the start of the video. And, as is the way of Apple, there are no options to choose a colour or where the text goes. Some may love it; I’ve yet to be won over.

One new photo function which could be useful for the less organised journalist is how artificial intelligence “looks” at each image and assigns it a number of labels and categories which can then be searched for. So if you remember taking a photo of someone sitting at desk using a laptop but can’t quite remember when you took it, search for “desk” and “laptop” and you’ll be presented with images that might contain what you’re after. I say “might” because I’ve found it a bit hit-and-miss, despite Apple claiming that 4,432 distinct items can be recognised. Even so, this could help journalists to search their photos for particular subjects.

One jarring note for a British English speaker like me: the categorisation (or perhaps “categorization”) is very American English: a “railway station” is a “railroad station” etc.

Outside of Memories, iOS 10 gives you more scope to annotate an image before sharing it on social media. Here’s how that works:

Take your photo and tap on the “three dots and lines” in the top right, next to “All Photos”:

And then tap on the circle with the three dots in it, bottom left: 

Then tap “Markup”:

Still with me? Good.

You are finally ready to annotate your photo. There are options to add text - either hand-written or via a keyboard, although the latter only offers three different fonts. You can choose from a small range of colours for the text or lines, and also add a “magnifying glass” effect to highlight a particular part of a photo. The end result can look something like this:

All very nice, but it’s actually quite limited. One option which would be very useful for a journalist (which can be found in a similar app like Skitch) is the ability to pixelate text or other parts of an image to hide details.

In a second post, I’ll be looking at changes to video in iOS 10, and to a number of other areas.

Related links:

Marc Settle blog: What does iOS10 have to offer journalists?