First, iOS 5 supports file deltas—meaning you only need to download patches for app and iOS updates, not download the full, larger version of such files. And autocorrection in iOS 5 seems notably smarter based on what we’ve heard about the current developer preview.

Inline dictionary definitions are helpful—and mean third-party developers can stop sweating their own. The optional split keyboard is great when you’re holding the iPad in hand, though I wish that I could save one setting for portrait (split) and another for landscape (normal).

Most of Apple’s new and updated apps in iOS 5 are also solid doubles and triples. isn’t fancy, but it looks clean and sports iCloud magical syncing. Initial reports from developers using the iOS 5 beta suggest that iMessage works very well, and near-transparently, with subtle visual cues on the iPhone to distinguish between regular texting and iMessage correspondence. Safari tabs (on the iPad) will be swell, and Safari Reader’s probably going to end up more useful on the iPhone than it is on the Mac.

I’m less sold on Newsstand—it seems like more of a glorified iOS folder with some special powers (like the ability to display the cover from the current issues of your subscribed periodicals). But because of that, I wouldn’t be able to tuck it into my reading folder or hide it at all. That would make me angry.