iPhone OS upgrade offers smart innovations

Like it or not, the impact of the iPhone is disproportionate to the number of people who actually have one. It's thought that barely 5% of phone owners globally have an iPhone in one of its various guises, yet for journalists it's becoming the device of choice.

BBC Newsgathering recently revealed it is developing an app to record and deliver content to its newsrooms. A number of other journalists are singing its praises too.

Late last week, Apple made public the biggest update for years to the operating system which runs iPhones and iPads. iOS 5 is said to contain more than 200 innovations, and I've picked out just three which could help the growing band of journalists who rely on their devices.

Taking a picture at just the right moment is an art for many a photo-journalist, let alone someone using a phone. Under the previous iOS, they had to wake up the phone, put in the password (assuming they had one), find the camera app among the dozens they'd downloaded, wait for the app to load - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they'd be too late. Now, under iOS 5, the camera can be activated by double-tapping the lock screen, which reduces markedly the delay between seeing the moment and capturing it.

Once the photo's been taken, iOS 5 has added a few tricks to edit the image, such as cropping and removing red-eye.

Admittedly, many of these innovations were possible through either free or paid-for apps - but their inclusion within the iPhone's operating system will likely ensure that it remains the most popular camera for the photo-sharing site Flickr (For those who've upgraded to the new iPhone 4S, that model also gives a better camera as well as image stabilisation.)

For journalists who need to use the same phrase again and again, a new feature could make life easier. No matter the length of the phrase, it can be added as a keyboard shortcut so, for example, 'BBC College of Journalism, White City, London W12' can be 'cojoadd' - just type that and the whole phrase will be added.

Twitter has also become a mainstay of journalists, be it for keeping across breaking news or sharing their content. iOS 5 has integrated Twitter into the devices so that, instead of having to copy the address of a web page and then paste it into Twitter before tweeting, a tweet can be sent directly from the web page itself - or from a photo for that matter.

Those are three changes which could benefit journalists; for a complete look at all the changes.

Marc Settle specialises in smartphone and social media training for the BBC College of Journalism.