It looks like Apple’s days of
blowing people away with new features and functions has cooled now that
solid platforms like Ice Cream Sandwich and Windows Phone exist.
Apple
officially announced iOS 6 yesterday and while it is a welcome update
for iOS that I look forward to installing on my iPad 3, most everything
Apple revealed can already be done today on Ice Cream Sandwich Android
devices.
Apple does a good job of taking existing technology and features and making it more user friendly (they did it with iOS 5 last year), but ICS took Android a long ways and the experience on the HTC One X is fantastic.
Apple stated there are over 200 new features in iOS 6 and we will
have to wait until the fall to see everything. Developers will be
loading up beta versions soon so we will see some more discussions on
features over the next few weeks and months.
They did reveal several major features and functions at WWDC, so
let’s take a look and compare them to what we see with existing Android
ICS. You can check out the table below that summarizes the differences,
followed by more lengthy discussion and my opinions. Don’t forget that
Google revealed ICS last year and is likely to show off Jelly Bean this
month at Google I/O.
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Maps: Apple has always included a Maps application, based on Google Maps. As we discussed in May,
Apple has decided to finally put some effort into navigation (powered
by TomTom) and will be rolling out their own mapping solution in iOS 6.
In typical Apple fashion, the application has lots of attractive
visuals with good functionality. It is their first attempt so there is
still work to be done, but the new Maps does provide for turn-by-turn
navigation, traffic monitoring (crowd-sourced like Waze), location-based
integration in apps, and some great lock screen capability.
There doesn’t appear to be any offline navigation support, which is something that Google just recently announced for Android devices.
It also appears iOS owners will lose bicycle, pedestrian, and transit
functions seen in Google Maps on iOS 5. Google Maps Navigation is a
tried and tested service and application that will be tough to beat.
Siri: Siri looks to finally be getting some
functionality that it should have had at launch, including the ability
to launch apps, real-time sports, movie, and restaurant information and
integration, and support from auto manufacturers for true eyes-free
usage.
As a sports fan, I liked the demos at WWDC. Then again, I follow the
sports I enjoy most with dedicated apps anyway so it isn’t as critical
as it was made out to be. These functions are great to see in Siri, but I
wonder how many people will use it past the week or two novelty period.
I only used Siri on my iPhone 4S for reminders after the novelty wore
off and rarely see people talking to their phone so am still not yet
sold on the practicality of Siri.
Passbook: Passbook looks like it takes the best from
multiple 3rd party apps like TripIt, Starbucks, Flixster, and more to
provide one location for storing airline info, store reward cards and
more. It is not a payment system application, but seems like it could
move that way in the future.
Mail enhancements: I almost fell on the floor
laughing when I saw how excited people were about multiple email
signatures coming to iOS. You can now have a different signature for
each email account on your iOS device, WOW 
You can also now finally add attachments from within the email client
rather than having to go to the Photos app and then create an email.
However, attachment support is still extremely limited due to Apple’s
closed approach to the file system. You can attach just photos and only
one at a time.
iOS 6 will also include a VIP mailbox so you can filter people’s
email that you really want to see. One thing I love about HTC Sense is
this same ability to have groups that let you quickly filter your email
with the touch of a tab. Again, nothing new or groundbreaking
for Android, but nice to see Apple catching up.
Facebook: iOS 5 brought some basic Twitter
integration to the platform and now we see Apple including some Facebook
support. Windows Phone launched with Facebook support and Android is
the king of sharing capability with the most extensive support for
sharing across a large number of services.
Notification center: Like other devices have for
years, iOS 6 will now enable you to quickly reply with a text message
when a call comes in and you don’t want to answer it. There will also be
a Do Not Disturb feature that seems very handy.
If you do a quick search in the Play Store you can find several of
these same type of apps available now for Android devices. I never gave
much thought to it, but I might just try a couple of these out and find
one for my HTC One X.
FaceTime over 3G: Since the launch of FaceTime on
iOS, people have been asking for the ability to use it over a connection
other than WiFi. Other developers provided this capability through
their apps, Skype, Tango, and others. Apple will be making carriers
happy in iOS 6 if people use it a lot with restricted wireless carrier
data caps. Again, it’s another feature that was expected and good to
finally see, but I prefer using Skype since it is able to be used with
more people across all platforms.
Video stabilization: You will find that iOS 6 helps you reduce shaky videos, something seen on other platforms for some time.
Some other interesting new features include:
- Guided Access enhancements that will help those with challenges use iOS devices.
- Game Center improvements. (I never use this so maybe the improvements will have me finally trying it out on my iPad.)
- Full screen landscape support in Safari. (will help with iPad browsing for sure.)
- Safari browser syncing. (It’s teason why I use Chrome on my computers and HTC One X.)
- Photo stream sharing.
iOS 6 is a welcome update for iOS fans. iOS 5 Apple borrowed quite a
bit from multiple platforms and improved the user interface elements. It
looks like they did the same again, but ICS already has some solid user
interface elements for these features and the differentiation isn’t as
great as it used to be.
I find it hilarious that Apple compares the percentage of iPhone
owners using the latest OS with Android when there is just a single
device released from Apple each year and many released with Android. If
there was just one Android phone, then of course everyone would be on
ICS. It’s a dumb comparison made to slam Android.
With Google likely to reveal Jelly Bean later this month at Google
I/O I can understand why analysts predict iOS to continue with a fairly
flat rate of adoption. Microsoft may also hit it out of the park with
Windows Phone 8 and hopefully we see some of what they have coming soon
at their June developer conference. I personally find the HTC One X to
be a better piece of hardware than the iPhone 4S and with the
customizations and useful glanceable widgets I intend to update my new
iPad to iOS 6, but skip picking up a new iPhone when they are announced.
It depends on how compelling the new iPhone hardware is, but iOS 6
isn’t compelling enough itself to sway me from Android or Windows Phone.
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