Apple hit more than a few home runs at this weeks WWDC keynote and the announcements surrounding iOS 5 were the best as far as most of us at Cult of Mac are concerned. However, one of the home runs that went straight out of the ball park was an announcement about the changes made to the Camera app in iOS 5. That app has changed in two very important ways involving the Home and Volume Up buttons.
The Home button has always been used to wake up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch so that you can view alerts, check the time, day, and date or to use the slider to unlock your device. Additionally, if you press and hold the Home button it launches Voice Control as it has done in the past. Now under iOS 5 the Home button does something a bit more exciting.
Home Button
Camera Access From the Lock Screen
If you pick up your iPhone 4 running iOS 5 and need to take a quick shot with the camera and the screen is locked simply press the Home button twice. You’ll get the usual media playback controls, the slider to unlock your iPhone, and a camera icon.
Tap the camera icon and the Camera app launches. You are then ready to take still photos or make a video.
Photos or videos created this way are the only ones accessible to whomever is taking them. The Photos app will not show other photos or videos in your camera roll or library. If you need to access those you’ll have to enter your pin to unlock your phone.
Volume Up Button
Volume Up Turns Into A Shutter Button
The Camera app will now allow you to use either the on-screen shutter button or the upper most volume button to control the shutter. If you press that volume button the app will snap a photo and if you are set up to make a video instead you can use it to start and stop recording.
Conclusion
These are two really nice new features coming in iOS 5 and I think Apple did a great job by including these in the next release of iOS. However, I’m hoping that they’ll go ahead and allow app developers to implement the volume button control in their own photography apps sooner rather than later.
