The re-creation of iOS, the software that runs Apple’s iPhones and iPads, might possibly be more important for what was taken away than for any of the things added.
Gone from iOS 6 are two formerly built-in Google (GOOG) apps that were integral to previous versions of the operating system: Google Maps and YouTube. (The latter, as a minimum, might be reinstalled from the App Store.) Google’s search capability continues to be there, but Apple’s improvements to Siri, its voice-based personal assistant , provide an alternate way of finding increasingly more information.
And a brand new Apple app called Passbook represents a toe within the water of mobile payments , something Google has aggressively been pursuing with its Google Wallet software.
In short, while iOS 6 introduces some neat tricks into the iUniverse, it feels less like a main enhancement and more like another front in Apple’s increasingly bitter war over Google’s Android operating system.
The new software comes pre-installed at the iPhone 5 and is obtainable as a free download for iPads, iPod touches and former iPhones. I tested it on a lot of devices, starting from a current-model iPad to a 3-generations-old iPhone 3GS, and located it smooth, stable and responsive.
Panoramic Photos
I also appreciated several of its new features, including bringing Siri to the iPad for the 1st time and allowing the iPhone 4S to take an analogous form of panoramic photographs because the iPhone 5.
But the change that’s grabbed the foremost public attention is the hot Apple navigation app that has supplanted Google Maps. As I wrote in my iPhone 5 review last week, while the hot app is beautiful and the spoken turn-by-turn directions are a welcome boost, the software is simply too easily confused. Moreover, it displays many fewer nearby attractions.
In light of the furor over the app’s flaws, it’s worth noting that Google Maps suffered from similar problems when it launched on Android phones in 2009. Most memorably, while i used to be standing outside New York’s Penn Station, it located me on Cheapside in London, even helpfully mentioning nearby Tube stations.
Still, it’s obvious by now that the brand new application is not so good as the only it replaced, and that i expect Apple to devote considerable resources to remedy it.
Smarter Siri
It’s a path the same as the only the corporate is already following with Siri, which was introduced last year at the iPhone 4S. The voice assistant has proven to be a polarizing feature, some users enjoying the ease of just speaking to their devices and others disliking it for its miscues.
In general, I’m within the first camp, and prefer Siri’s new tricks. She â€" it? â€" now provides sports scores (or even sometimes point spreads), could make dinner reservations via Open Table, passes fewer queries to Google web searches and has generally gotten better at understanding what i need.
For instance, after I asked the primary version of Siri for directions to San Francisco’s 9 Lombard Street, she interpreted the “to†as “two,†and sent me to 29 Lombard Street; the software now interprets the question accurately. And the query “Do i want a jacket?†now yields weather information, instead of an inventory of nearby Men’s Wearhouse (MW) stores.
The most intriguing new app in iOS 6 could be Passbook â€" not necessarily for what it does now but for what it is able to do someday.
Location Aware
Passbook is largely a single place for keeping tickets, boarding passes, loyalty and prepaid cards. But it surely has some wrinkles, like location and time awareness, that hint at more to come back.
I used Passbook to store a ticket to a San Francisco Giants 3-hitter by clicking on an e-mailed link. After I arrived at AT&T (T) Park, my iPhone recognized where i used to be and displayed a message at the lock screen prompting me to display the ticket. On the turnstile, the electronic ticket was scanned, and that i was in. Easy.
Beyond the colourful look and slick animation â€" you may have fun virtually shredding used tickets â€" there’s nothing very revolutionary about an e-mailed bar or QR code. However the idea of presenting you with relevant information and provides, according to your device’s awareness of where you’re and what you’re doing, is a critical step toward getting consumers to achieve for his or her phones as opposed to their wallets to pay for stuff.
Simple Pleasures
A selection of iOS 6′s 200 or so other changes amount to simple pleasures.
For instance, a handy new Don’t Disturb setting means that you can silence your device between specified hours, while allowing you to notice who have to be allowed through, and under what terms.
Receive a choice if you are in a gathering or otherwise engaged? A finger-flick sends an automated can’t-talk-now text. And in case your data plan allows it, now you can conduct a FaceTime video chat over the cellular network.
Along similar lines, Mail helps you to designate messages from VIPs to your life for special attention. That you would be able to post to Facebook (FB) in addition to Twitter from the Notification Center and from within many apps. And you may also now share access on your iCloud-stored photos, perhaps one less reason you’d use You-Know-Who-owned Picasa.
Indeed, given Apple’s war with Google, it is not that far- fetched to visualize an afternoon when even core search functions are handled by some Apple-designed replacement. But when the corporate desires to retain its reputation for placing the user experience prior to all else, it had better be certain that anything it introduces is best than whatever it’s replacing.
(Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Muse highlights include Jason Harper on cars and Greg Evans on television.
To contact the reporter in this story: Rich Jaroslovsky in San Francisco at rjaroslovsky@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor accountable for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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