Okay, with a show of hands, how many of you have virtually stopped using your regular point and shoot cameras now that you have an iPhone? Sure, there are a few limitations (that did improve significantly with iOS and the iPhone 4S) but all in all the pictures are pretty decent and the convenience can’t be beat… especially if you are like me and never have your phone more than arm’s reach away.

This said, accessing the camera when your iPhone screen is locked can be a very frustrating (and time consuming) process, requiring a double-tap on the home button that I can never seem to get quite right the first time somehow. It may sound silly to complain about a few extra seconds of fussing around to access this feature, but when you only have a moment to capture your photograph, every second counts.

It seems that Apple may be taking notice of our complaints and the iOS 5.1 update may be addressing this concern. According to Brazil’s Blog do iPhone, the update will see the lock screen with a persistent camera button that would only require an upward swipe to activate the camera much like the horizontal ‘swipe to unlock’ functionality we are already used to.

This change makes things a little more like the Android interface which most people think it superior. Apple did beat Google to the punch when it comes to having added the camera access to the phone lock screen, but in a clumsy fashion that isn’t in line with Apple’s usual obsessive need for elegance (especially in their user interfaces).

This is the first we have heard about this (possible) addition to the iOS 5.1 update, but this would normally be seen as something very minor. Fortunately for iPhone users, this will be one of those little changes that makes a huge difference.

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