iPhone 5: four key improvements in iOS 6.1 update

The iPhone 5 is the best and most popular smartphone of all time, but there are a few key issues which should see improvement when the iOS 6.1 software update arrives. Here’s a look at four areas in which the iPhone 5 experience can get even better:

1) Maps app: it’s a huge leap forward over the obsolete Google Maps-based scrapheap it replaced. The interface is more intuitive and usable, the maps are cleaner, and the one finger half-pinching in 3D mode is the biggest breakthrough in touchscreen interfaces since the beginning. But it’s still very much a 1.0 app. Apple must add more context and smooth out a few rough edges. It’s not that end users are complaining, so much as it’s that rabid anti-Apple fanatics are using the minor imperfections to launch yet another disinformation campaign aimed at talking people out of buying yet another Apple product. Apple must silence these clowns for the greater good…

2) Passbook: It’s the first digital wallet which makes any sense at all, and the first one which will see widespread adoption. But it’s not as intuitive as it could be, and it makes you wonder if Passbook simply wasn’t ready to go at the time the rest of iOS 6 and the iPhone were.

3) Facebook integration: It’s a good start. Now make it better…

4) Panoramic photos: Apple figured out how to what all the third party panoramic photo app developers combined couldn’t do in years of trying: allow users to take a panoramic shot with a single, sweeping motion instead of pointing and shooting individual photos repeatedly. But the feature doesn’t let you know you’re moving too fast until it’s a bit too late, and when it tells you you’re too low, the interface suggests that you move it even lower. Fix up a few rough edges here, and panoramic photos might be the second best new iPhone 5 software feature behind the new Maps app. No word yet from Apple on when iOS 6.1 will arrive or what all it will include.