IOS 6 No Google Maps but what Else is new

After what was a rather painful start to installing IOS 6 SDK Beta I have managed to have a quick look at some of the major changes.

The first thing I check on the home screen is the “Weather” Luckily its still 23 degrees! In reality its about 10 degrees and pouring with rain but the weather on the phone still says 23 and sunny, I guess that immediately means no Live widgets.

The second thing that catches my eye is the maps icon, its changed… Oh boy, has it changed so lets get to it.

IOS MAPS

This is probably the biggest overhaul of IOS and definately a good step for Apple if it wants to “disconnect” from Google. They do however, have a fair way to go, it is very clean and neat, but it is also very basic and missing some useful info that google maps has on screen, like the direction of yor next turn. It also appears that they have been busy creating their own list of useful places and have integrated SIRI into navigation. Now I do not want to appear as kocking this, but if you have ever used SIRI, I am not sure you are going to be confident, driving at 70mph on the motor way whilst taking directions from the SIRI voice… I would find myself waiting for an instruction like, Sorry Michael, SIRI only knows of places in the US, good luck though. One smal bit of encouragement though is it appears TomTom have supplied the data and as a past TomTom user they were fantastic.

Additional features of the map and navigation include Live Traffic, Route Choice and of course as in the past you can use your contacts to get points on the map.

FACEBOOK Integration

Yes you read completely right, you can now share directly to Facebok, not only that but if you want to upload photos, you can select several at once and even choose what Album you ant to put these photos in. If you start by going in to Settings you will find there is now an option to enter your Facebook Username and password right below Twitter, I advise doing this before trying to share.

Signing in to Facebook will sync your friends with the Contact app, Facebook events with your Calendar,  allow you to post status updates, photos and other content to Facebook. You can also disable these features and limit the privacy of other apps but thats all in the privacy section.

Another neat feature is that if you pull down the notifications bar at the top, you can “Tap to Tweet” or “Tap to Post” to Facebook, quick easy and efficient.

 

 The Photo Gallery

This has had a minor change, The bottom of the screen now houses the Albums, Photo Stream and Places options. Sharing photos has become a thousand times easier, you can multiple select the photos you want, click the sharing arrow and send them to Mail, Twitter, Facebook, Print or just copy them. As mentioned earlier, google maps is now gone and Places now use the new IOS maps.

Do Not Disturb

This feature gives you the ability to screen calls. You can either allow calls from Everyone?, No One, Favourites or a contact group. There is also the ability to schedule when you want this service to be active, I think this will come in very handy on those evenings you need some peace and quiet. But if you are an expectant Father waiting for that call from your Wife/Partner/Other and still need to be in meetings, this feature will prove very useful. Apple have taken this one step further and given you the option to NOT ignore calls from the same person, if they call twice within 3 minutes.

Call Screen

Unfortunately Apple have not come to the party on this screen at all, if it were up to me the whole department in change of this screen should be sacked. Why is it that in 2012 and IOS version 6 they have still not activated intelligent dialling? On almost every other phone including Nokia’s from ancient Rome have the ability to dial a name using the charachters on the keypad. Why is it that when I try dial my Mom using the number keys wich have alphabetical letters on them already it does not call up my Mother, More worryingly it tries to dial the Devil, I am not sure I like apple thinking my mother is Satan.

PRIVACY – The hot topic

Before I go into any of these Privacy settings please note that you are on a device that needs to conect and share data in order to get it to do things you want it to do, changing these settings can have an impact on these tasks. If you believe there is such a thing as privacy online then you may be please to know you can now activate/deactivate what app can access what info, well sort of but at least it is a step in the right direction and it is definately easier to see what app is trying to access what information. I particularly dont like apps looking at my contacts, but at least here I can see its just Skype.

App Store, Passbook and Wallpaper

The App Store has been updated to look, dare I say more Androidy…. (blast me below) Im not even going to comment anymore on this but I kind of like it. There are several more wallpapers to choose from and a new feature called Passbook where you are supposed to be able to store a whole bunch of electronic tickets etx, Im not flying for a few months so I will not be able to test this out, It also does not work yet but if it did Im sure it will be handy.