Everything about iOS 6

iOS 6

Compatibility : iPhone 3GS, 4 & 4S, iPod Touch 4Gen, iPad 2 & the New iPad

As expected, Apple is to launch the latest edition of iOS in August’12. Let’s take a closer look at the latest offering and see if you should go for it or give this one a miss.

Apple promises a whole bunch of new and upgraded apps and continues with the ‘seamless experience across devices’ focus that it started with iCloud. Lets take a closer look at what’s in the pack.

 

Maps

Maps

 

Apple makes a bold move by ditching the well established Google maps partnership. Hit GPS Navigating on the app store search and about a hundred and fifty apps ranging from $0.99 to $ 36 show up. Clearly navigation is a market that Apple has decided to focus more on. With Tom Tom, the well established GPS player, as a new partner Apple clearly intends to take the maps experience to the next level. Some cool stuff that you will be able to do with ‘maps’ is genuine ‘in-car’ GPS navigation and a ‘Fly by’ superman like view of some of your favorite cities around the world.

SIRI

SIRI

 

Our friend Siri continues to prosper, now integrating with more devices such as the new iPad and even voice navigation systems of smart cars. He also promises to speak more languages such as French, Korean and Cantonese. However voice commands are no mean task to achieve. When Microsoft launched the Xbox peripheral Kinect , the voice commands were restricted to certain English-speaking territories. MS has been on a crusade for the last 12 months collecting voice samples through the Voice Studio application on the Xbox dashboard. Overall Siri has been a source of jokes rather than a serious companion app on the iPhone. I feel Apple is trying to do too much too soon with Siri without perfecting the basic experience. Overall I think Siri will continue to underperform, so a thumbs down.

Facebook

Facebook

It’s interesting to see Apple’s continued openness to Facebook. You will not need to open the Facebook app or web browser for most of your activities. Upload pictures directly from the camera, ‘like’ a song or app from iTunes and see it magically get updated on your wall. It will definitely be easier to interact with Facebook on your mobile, but not that it was too difficult today. Most technology relationships are symbiotic but in this case its seems that Mr. Zuckerberg has gotten the better deal.

Shared Photostream

Shared Photostream

While Facebook will be happy to get a bigger bite of the ‘Apple pie’ through integration with iPhotos, camera and calendar, it should sit up and take notice of what’s happening in the new Photo Stream. You can now directly share photos with a selected audience from your photo stream. Apple users, off course access it directly from their devices, however even your friends without Apple devices can access a web link to see your pics. If only Apple adds a ‘like’ & ‘comment’ functionality, Facebook would get really worried. This is the classic experience that Apple is famous for, a big thumbs up.

Passbook

Passbook

This new app seems to be a friend of Siri’s. Get all your loyalty cards, concert, movie and flight tickets organized in one place. The appropriate reminders automatically get displayed on your lock screen so you never miss a flight or waste time looking for those seats in the theatre. A little bird also tells us that this will be Apple’s foray into the payments space. With NFC rumored to be introduced in the iPhone 5, this might be a direct challenger to MasterCard pay pass and visa pay wave. Sounds like a great innovation but we would wait and see how well Apple packages this one.

Facetime

Facetime

Ok hold your breath for this one. You can now make facetime calls over cellular networks. Ok now let go, cause this one does come with sufficient caveats. For starters the networks are likely to be restricted. And secondly no matter how good Apple makes the software it will always be dependent on internet speeds or your network coverage. Having said that this is a step in the right direction. Nokia can no longer use the tagline ‘bringing people closer’

Phone, Mail and Safari

Cosmetic upgrades to your basic service, most of which should have been around anyways, It seems Apple is only plugging the gaps with these ones.

New features for China

There is a clear acknowledgement of the burgeoning Chinese market for Apple.  Integration with the local counterparts of Google, YouTube and twitter showcase this importance. There is also continued support for the Chinese character dictionary with additional characters and English to Chinese translations. Queuing up overnight to get that latest Apple device makes it even more worthwhile for the Chinese fans of Apple.

Guided Access

Guided Access

I have examined the next feature very carefully. It’s likely to have the least commercial impact for Apple, but scores a direct hit on the ‘loveability’ meter for the company.  Apple recognizes the needs of special children such as those with Autism and helps teachers use the iOS device to keep their attention focused. It also improves the voice over app for the visually impaired and makes more of the world available to them through maps, assistive touch and zoom. Kudos to Apple for this one.

VERDICT

Overall iOS 6 is a clearly a ‘major’ upgrade. It delivers more than enough for you to plug-in your iPhone, hit the upgrade button and spend those few minutes watching the Apple logo disappear and re-appear with abundant joys on the other side.