7. Core Image

When I look at the new features offered in iOS 5, some of the more impressive additions come from the Core Image framework. Core Image has existed in Mac OS X for a few years now, so the technology is nothing new. The remarkable thing, however, is how effectively Apple moved such a powerful image-processing framework to a mobile platform. Using Core Image, developers now have access to state-of-the-art post processing photo filters and image analysis algorithms like auto-image enhancement and face detection. And if that wasn’t enough, because Core Image is so efficient, developers can apply these effects and filters in near real time to camera and video streams.