The big news last week was the announcement of the third generation iPad, but Apple also updated the operating system for the iPhone and iPad. This is not a major update, but it does add some nice new features and fix a few bugs.
As always, you can update your iPhone or iPad by connecting it to your computer and using iTunes to download and apply the upate. However, if you already had iOS 5 on your device, you can easily update to iOS 5.1 without even connecting to your computer. Just go to Settings -> General -> Software Update. The update only took me around 20 minutes or so, but just to be safe you should plug in your iPhone or iPad so that it does not run out of power throughout the update.
Once you update, here are the major changes that you will see:
Lockscreen Camera. With iOS 5.0, you could double-tap the home button when your iPhone screen was locked to see an icon that you could tap to snap a quick picture. Apple has now made the process even faster. In iOS 5.1, there is always a camera icon at the bottom of your lock screen, Just place your finger on the camera and swipe up to start taking pictures. This is a nice improvement that really speeds up the process of taking a picture and will result in fewer missed opportunities.
Photo Stream. If you use the iCloud Photo Stream feature, you now have the ability to delete pictures from the stream. So if you take three pictures and only one them is any good, delete the bad ones and you won’t have to worry about them showing up on your other iCloud devices.
Face Detection. In yet another camera-related improvement, detected faces will now be highlighted in the camera app so you can see that the iPhone is trying to keep faces in focus.
4G Speed … sorta. If you use AT&T and if you live in a city that has HSPA+, the iPhone 4S can get even faster 3G service than earlier iPhones, which means you can see up to 5.8 Mbps upload and 14.4 Mbps download speeds. When using iOS 5.1 on an iPhone 4S, the iPhone now calls this “4G” at the top left instead of “3G”. This is just a change in the label; the iPhone 4S is not any faster. But AT&T insists that it is fair to call this increased speed 4G, and now Apple agrees as well. Lex Friedman of Macworld wrote a good explanation of this change.
Better Audio for Video. Apple says that iOS 5.1 has louder and clearer audio for TV shows and movies. I haven’t noticed this yet, but I suppose that sounds good.
Genius Match. If you pay for iTunes Match, you now get Genius matches and playlists.
Location Services Icons. Instead of just having one location services icon at the top of the screen to alert you that your iPhone is keeping track of your current location, there are now three different icons depending upon the status. For example, if the only reason that your iPhone is watching your location is that you instructed the Reminders app to let you know when you arrive at or leave a location (Apple calls this geofencing), you now see an outlined icon.
Security Updates. As with any iOS update, Apple improved the security of the operating system in this update. If you want the details, read this page on the Apple’s website.
Free Manual. To give us all the nitty gritty details on iOS 5.1, Apple produced a manual for iOS 5.1 as a free iBook. To download it on your iPhone or iPad, click here: 
A change I noticed, and it’s not for the better, is that the Safari shortcut icons I had created to some of the settings no longer work. For example, I had an icon titled “Bluetooth” that, when tapped, used Safari to take me directly to the Bluetooth Settings submenu so as to turn Bluetooth on or off easily. Others did the same for Network and Wi-Fi. I used the Network one all the time to turn cellular data on or off when I would leave home or the office. Apparently iOS 5.1 deletes this functionality, as when I tried using those icons after the update they all failed.
Apple’s insistence on not allowing some kind of easy toggle for cellular data and Bluetooth is about the only major annoyance I find with my iPhone. My old mobile phone (a Motorola Z6cx “slider” phone) had a Bluetooth shortcut where hitting the bottom of the round thing on the front of the phone toggled Bluetooth on and off. It was extremely convenient, especially since my car has a built-in handsfree system that operates via voice-control and routes calls through the stereo system. Just turn on the car, hit the bottom of the round thing, and it connected automatically. With the iPhone, the “BlueOn” app I downloaded still allows me to turn on the Bluetooth with two taps (tap the BlueOn icon, which I’ve pinned at the bottom of the home screen, then tap “OK”), but there’s no longer a corresponding easy way to turn it off. I don’t know why Apple believes they know better than users do about how we should be able to operate these sorts of connections.
[Jeff responds: I had heard a rumor that these Safari shortcuts were not long for this world, so that’s why I never even tried them on my iPhone in the first place. Whether it is through a Safari shortcut or some other way, I agree that it would be nice to have access to these sorts of settings without having to navigate through so many menus.]
Lockscreen Camera feature – Surprised no one is commenting on the fact that this is not optional or configurable, but is permanently. I lock my phone so no one can use it or access or use it without my knowledge and permission. That while locked emergency calls can be made is an exception I see as reasonable and for the greater social good. Using my camera is not. If someone gets a hold of my phone and uses the camera how do I explain the wild photo to my wife? And do not use the argument I should never leave my phone unattended as why else would you use the lock feature?
I don’t see the lock screen camera icon with my iPad updated to 5.1, but it is visible on my 5.1 phone.
[Jeff responds: This is only a feature of 5.1 on the iPhone. The only button on the iPad lock screen is to trigger a slide show.]