Apple iOS 6 review

Although it has a brand new version number, it’s fair to see that Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 6, is an evolution of the platform, rather than a completely different way of doing things. It’s similar in many ways to the recent OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion update for Macs, in that iOS 6 is designed to make more of iCloud and the integration of other Apple devices.

From a user interface perspective, very little has changed and the home screen with its static icons still looks the same. It’s a little disappointing and we’d have liked Apple to either add widgets or update its icons so that they display live information, such as the current weather. Still, the interface is at least still beautifully smooth and easy to use.

While the OS looks the same from the outside, there have been some changes underneath and to the apps that are bundled with it.

MAPS

One of the biggest changes to the OS is that Google Maps has been dropped for Apple’s very own Maps app. Interface-wise it looks the same, but the underlying mapping data is provided by TomTom with Apple providing the search.

A lot has been written about how bad the new Maps is and, sadly, it is all true. Where as Google Maps effortlessly finds anything whether you type in a name, street address or postcode, Apple’s Maps struggles to find many things.

Part of the problem is that you have to be absolutely accurate, as Apple Maps doesn’t tolerate spelling mistakes in the same way that Google Maps does. Unfortunately, the problems go a lot deeper than this, though, with many places simply missing from the maps: there’s no Tottenham Court Road station for example.

Maps has lots of places missing and takes you to strange locations, such as Toronto for the Houses of Parliament

Maps also make some strange decisions. So, start typing in ‘Houses of Parliament’ and it pops up the auto-complete option of ‘Houses Parliament’. Select this and you’re taken to Toronto, rather than the Houses of Parliament in London. Long-since-shut businesses often pop up on the map, while still-open ones don’t even appear. There are far too many examples of how wrong Maps gets it, but you’re often reduced to typing in postcodes to get an accurate location.

Apple is encouraging people to report problems, while it updates the back-end. The advantage is that as the data you get is pulled from the internet, Maps is updated constantly without you having to download new a new app. Even so, Apple has a big job on its hands to approach the quality of Google Maps.

Turn-by-turn directions are actually pretty good

It’s not all bad news, though. Turn-by-turn navigation is actually very good. We like the way that you get a choice of three routes, with traffic plotted on the map, so you can pick the best one. Directions are clearly spoken by the Siri voice and we really like the way that the next turn indicator counts-down the Yards to the junction, so you know exactly where to turn.

For the locations that have it, 3D cities is neat way of exploring

We’re quite fond of 3D Cities, too, which lets you virtually fly-by a detailed model of a city, even rotating around buildings. Coverage is currently very limited (only central London in the UK is covered), but expect improvements over the coming months.

As it stands, though, the new Maps is actually a big step backwards from the old system and the underlying data and search just isn’t good enough.

PHONE

Apple has updated the Phone App to include a clearer dial-pad, but it’s what happens when you receive a new call that’s better. Now, you can swipe up on an incoming call (provided the number’s not blocked), similar to opening the camera app from the lock screen, to bring up two new options: Reply with Message and Remind Me Later.

Reply with Message sends an SMS back to the caller. There’s a choice of three pre-set customisable messages you can send back, or you can write a brand new message there and then. Other phones have had this option before, but it’s nice to see Apple add it.

iOS 6 gives you more options about what to do with a call that you can’t currently take

Remind Me Later gives you a reminder of the call and gives you four options. First, is In 1 hour, which just uses a simple timer. The other three options are location based and include When I leave (it goes off when you leave your current location), and When I get home and When I get to work. The latter two options require you to set your home and work addresses in your own Contact. Both updates are neat little additions that make the iPhone a more useful device for telephony.

DO NOT DISTURB

Although the Silence button on the side of the phone is useful for cutting out audio notifications, your phone will still vibrate for incoming calls and other notifications. With the new Do Not Disturb feature, you can cut out all notifications. Primarily, it’s useful at night if you want to keep your phone on, but it’s useful in meetings.

Do Not Disturb is a well-thought out way to suppress all but the most important notifications

Options include setting a schedule, allowing calls from your Favourites and, for emergencies, allowing a second call from the same person made within three minutes of the original call. This has been very-well thought out.

SHARED PHOTO STREAMS

Photo Streams in iCloud let you synchronise your images across all of your own devices, but that was the limit. With iOS 6 you can share Photo Streams with other people. If they’re on an iOS 6 device, your Photo Streams will appear on their phone, but you can also create public websites, so that anyone can see your photos.

You can now share your iCloud Photo Streams with other iOS 6 users

If you’ve got an Apple TV, you can access all of your shared Photo Streams from there, too. Being able to share photos in this way is really useful and certainly saves the hassle of emailing lots of images around.

ICLOUD TABS

Introduced with OS X Mountain Lion, iCloud Tabs makes its debut on the iPhone. It lets you see what tabs you’ve got open on your other devices, so you can carry on reading where you left off. If you use Safari across all of your devices it’s really useful, although it’s worth pointing out that Google Chrome already has this feature and is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.

You can see all of the open Safari tabs on other iOS 6 or OS X Mountain Lion computers

The Reading List in Safari is very useful, as it saves entire pages for offline reading, so you can collect everything you’re interested in, in the morning for reading at your leisure.

TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

Facebook and Twitter are more closely integrated into the OS. Once you entered your account details, you can swipe down on the Notification Center and Tap to Tweet or Tap to Post to Facebook. Both are useful shortcuts to have, although they only let you add a location, not a picture from your camera. If you want to Tweet or Facebook a picture, you’ll have to go to the Camera App. Both Facebook and Twitter appear in the Share button on applications. For example, you can quickly share a website using Safari.

It’s neat being able to Tweet or send a Facebook Status from the Notification Center

SIRI

Siri has been updated, too. Now it works with Facebook and Twitter, so you can speak a status update and have it sent automatically. You can launch apps using Siri, too, which saves trying to find ones that are hidden in a folder on a home screen somewhere.

Siri gives you sports updates, but it can be Americanised, picking the wrong team if you’re not careful

Other new features include integrated sports, such as finding out when your team is next playing. It’s a bit Americanised, though, so searching for Spurs, brings up the San Antonio Spurs, rather than the real team, Tottenham Hotspur.

Being able to find out what’s on a the local cinema can be really handy

As Siri is location aware, it can also show you what’s on at the local cinema and available restaurants in the local area. Generally Siri is pretty good and picks up most of the things you’re saying, but it can be frustratingly annoying to use. ‘Launch Sonos’ refused to launch the Sonos app, but kept telling us that that there’s no app called Stephen. Even with these idiosyncrasies, Siri can often be the quickest way of doing something.

PASSBOOK

Passbook is a brand-new app that could be really exciting. The idea is that it acts as a kind of electronic wallet, housing your Boarding Cards, Tickets, Store Cards and Coupons. It’s location and time aware, too; for example, when you arrive at an airport, Passbook will automatically bring up your boarding pass.

Passbook could be brilliant, but UK support is currently limited

It’s a great idea and the demonstrations we’ve seen make it look really good. The only issue now in the UK is that not many companies currently support it: Only iHotel, United Airlines, Lufthansa and American Airlines are listed in the App Store.

Provided Apple can get more companies on board – and we’re sure it can – Passbook could be one of the most useful apps you own and an end to hutting around for rarely-used cards or bits of printed paper.

PANORAMA

New is a panorama mode. All you have to do is hold the phone steady and pan up to 270-degrees to create one massive image. It’s very easy to use – just keep the arrow on the horizontal line – but you’ll need to keep your hand steady to avoid any artefacts or odd blobs in the final image.

Panorama mode is very easy to use, but just keep your wrist steady when you’re using it

When you use it properly, the final results can be stunning. It’s a great addition and perfect for those moments where you want to capture something spectacular, but don’t have your camera with you.

Panorama lets you capture shots that otherwise wouldn’t be possible

OTHER UPDATES

There are other updates, too, including a VIP inbox in Mail for all of your most-important correspondence. You can also now make Facetime calls over 3G, rather than Wi-Fi only. There are, in all, more than 200 changes to iOS 6, but these are mostly quite minor.

AVAILABILITY

As with previous upgrades, a big advantage of iOS 6 is that it’s available to most of Apple’s mobile users and was since its day of launch. To clarify, it’s available as a free over-the-air update to the iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, fourth-generation iPod touch, iPad 2 and the new iPad. It ships as standard on the new iPhone 5. Compared to Android with its slow updates and fragmented range of versions, Apple still has the lead when it comes to updates.

The version of your phone impacts on what you get, so the iPhone 3GS doesn’t get 3D Cities, Siri or turn-by-turn navigation, for example. You can see exactly what options are available on your handset on the Apple iOS 6 page

CONCLUSION

Normally we’d say that any iOS update is worth installing immediately, but it’s not so easy with iOS 6. On one hand, the iCloud integration is better and there are some neat new features, but on the other the new Maps is currently terrible. It’s also disappointing that the home screen still can’t display any live information. As it stands, iOS 6 is still very good, but if you’re running iOS 5 you may want to stick with it and Google Maps for the time being.