
Apple iOS6 Preview - rkrishnakumar
http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/
======
astral303
Maps with turn-by-turn navigation (long overdue) and transit APIs sound very
promising. Having portable maps is one of the key strengths of a smartphone
and this kind of lower-level integration now kicks it up a notch. He mentioned
"biking and hiking" for the transit apps: that's exciting!

Also, turn-by-turn navigation has this "overview" mode--tap it and you exit
the forced-point-of-view navigation and get to pan around the map in 2D mode.
This is critical for being able to inspect the area for improvised routes. In
the past, this has not been easy to do on all my old-school GPS navigation
devices, including a Tom Tom hardware unit of a year ago. Cannot compare to
Google Navigation or Tom Tom on the iPhone, so it would be great if anyone
familiar with those can chime in.

Fully vector maps (no more f'king double tap to get that shit at pixel-perfect
view) and much more legible traffic marking (such that it doesn't kill the
name of the street) are two minor changes that will have a major impact for me
personally.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Sort of FYI, Google's original effort at providing their own database for map
information was that Navtec would not license them the right to use map data
for turn-by-turn navigation. It was really quite amazing to see all of the
constraints that were put on map data (it was so much easier for Trimble, the
original company, to exploit their map database than to try to compete in the
gadget space).

I don't doubt that Apple has been working on their own database to use for
turn by turn and it wasn't until now that they had it ready to go. Stuff you
need that isn't "normally" in a GIS database are driving restrictions, road
quality metrics, etc. There are also 'quirks' exceptions for this data like
"In theory you can get from A->B->C in Portland on this route but you really
want to go A->D->C." some of the "roads" in SE Portland would challenge dune
buggies :-)

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dockd
Good quality of results is difficult to get even on paved roads without "boots
on the ground". Consider driving down a street with stop signs at every
intersection (NW Northrup St) or one with speed bumps every block (SE 41st
Ave).

~~~
ChuckMcM
Yes, when people asked me why Google was spending millions on driving around
taking a picture of every street I explained they were actually taking
pictures of the _signs_ on every street :-) That you can see your front door
is just a bonus on top of the intelligence that is gained by being able to
image process miles and miles of streets for data about how they are used (or
not).

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RowanH
Did I just read this right "iOS 6 brings even better web browsing to your
iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch." .... "And when you’re posting a photo or video
to eBay, Craigslist, or another site, you can take photos and video — or
choose from your Camera Roll — without leaving Safari." mobile web just took a
huge step forward if so.....

~~~
MatthewPhillips
This has been in HTML for almost 2 years now. Rather than being a step forward
foe the mobile web, it shows how behind the mobile web is, as the two most
dominant players in mobile only update their browsers once a year.

I'm guessing iOS6 doesn't add support for IndexedDB either. So we're stuck
using the deprecated WebSQL until mid 2013 or later.

~~~
acdha
> it shows how behind the mobile web is, as the two most dominant players in
> mobile only update their browsers once a year.

As opposed to the desktop world where IE 8 is still your best-case minimum
browser?

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0x006A
As opposed to the desktop where you can install any browser you want.

~~~
acdha
… which changes little because actual web developers have to support the
worst-case browser for all of the millions of people who don't install a
modern browser. For most of us who aren't running something like a Mac or
browser nerd website, that means the latest version of IE available to Windows
XP users.

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antr
I'm very curious about the Passbook app. This seems to be the beginning of
Apple's payments platform, and not just that; coupons, location based alerts,
and - why not - P2P payments.

~~~
revscat
Yeah, this stuck out to me as well, more than pretty much anything else they
announced this morning. This has the potential to be quite a large piece of
their ecosystem. If they do it like they have done with iCloud -- starting out
with a few applications, then expand its functionality later -- then it could
be quite interesting.

~~~
MBCook
That's exactly what I was thinking. Android has a lot of features. Turn by
turn directions? Android has had it for years. Notifications? Android first.
Video calls over cellular? Android apps did that.

But Passport, that's a fantastic feature. Adding in the geofencing (so my
airline ticket shows up when I get to the airport) is _genius_.

But more than anything else, you know that everyone is going to integrate into
this. Every brand already has their own app (some with this sort of
functionality). That's going to be a HUGE block of users.

Android apps can't easily fill that space, because they'll all have different
standards. The fact that there is only one standard on iOS now is very
convenient. Google could add one, but that would take dev time, not to mention
how long it would take to get 5.0 on a reasonable number of devices.

It wasn't a headline, but it could easily be one of those features that
everyone ends up loving and using all the time.

~~~
WrkInProgress
Some of the ideas behind passport are available in other apps or on other
platforms. Windows Phone 7.5 has something very similar for boarding
passes/departure information via live tiles.

The downsides to the Windows Phone approach is that it's for specific apps and
specific airlines.

What do you mean by "Android apps can't easily fill that space, because
they'll all have different standards." ?

Passport looks very similar to part of the features already available in
things like Google Wallet and Square's Card Case.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this doesn't have the potential to be
great for Apple, iPhone users, retailers, and iOS app developers ....

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spot
looks like a lot of catchup with android. from maps to sharing to video chat
to reply with text message to offline browsing, android has all of this.

competition is a wonderful thing. this is the right way to do it (not with a
lawsuit)

~~~
wahnfrieden
Easy reply messages / reminders accessible when you have an incoming call?
Passbook? (this one is huge)

~~~
fluidcruft
> Easy reply messages / reminders accessible when you have an incoming call?

Reply via text has been a popular feature in custom Android ROMs for a while.
Setting a reminder is new to me, though.

~~~
fpgeek
Ironically, those "copyists" Samsung and HTC had "reject call with text" in
their Gingerbread editions of TouchWiz and Sense (I'm not sure about earlier
skins since I haven't used them), even before Google added it to ICS. I'm sure
both are kicking themselves that they didn't try to patent it (though I
suppose patents move slowly, so maybe they have).

~~~
dirtyaura
It's likely not patentable, similar feature has been in old Nokia phones years
ago.

Many current mobile usage ideas, like e.g. location based reminders, Nokia had
in design board or development internally already in early 2000s. Many ideas
are common sense. At the end of the day, ideas don't matter that much, it's
the execution that matters.

~~~
fpgeek
Oh, I totally agree on patentability, but... not patentable and not getting
past the USPTO are two very, very different things.

If HTC and/or Samsung were to get their own versions of the "slide-to-unlock"
nonsense past the the USPTO, that would substantially affect at least the US
theater of the mobile patent wars.

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timdorr
Interesting that the new Maps makes no mention of public transit support. Is
that gone completely now? It looks like your app can register as a "router" to
support different types of navigation routing, but it would suck if that is no
longer built in.

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technoslut
Since it was Google's data, Apple will probably build it back in at some other
point since it's what they've done previously.

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glhaynes
Hopefully Google will produce (and be allowed) a Google Maps app for iOS.

~~~
glogla
And we will see whether Apple will allow such app in their store. I would
imagine they will not, because they would rather have people using their own
maps, but perhaps they will be benevolent this time.

~~~
mitchellhislop
Apple seems to have moved away from disallowing apps for "duplicate core
functionality" - we have GVoice, Sparrow, Camera+ now. I don't see how they
could not allow it.

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Casc
Passport could be pretty big... point of sale advertising, in store purchases,
promotion, etc... A lot of potential revenue here.

I had an idea similar a while back and then found... <http://keyringapp.com/>

Apple is in a much better position to launch something like this, as it needs
quite a few relationships difficult for a new start up to establish and scale.

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leeb
Impressed by all the new accessibility features! Guided Access seems like it
will be hugely useful for both parents and professionals working with children
with autism - in addition to the example from the keynote of administering
tests on the iPad.

~~~
jasonlotito
A big yes! As a father of an autistic child, the first thing I actually
cheered for was being able to lock out the home button! Such a simple thing
will make a big difference. I haven't even spent much time looking at the
other features under Guided Access yet.

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rflrob
One of my greatest points of irritation with the old Maps app is that there
are no scale bars. People working on Google Maps have told me it's Apple's
problem, and Apple employees (though granted not people directly involved with
iOS) have told me it's Google's problem. Maybe now that it's all under one
roof, someone can figure out how to put them in...

~~~
whalesalad
I wish the zoom slider existed too. Sometimes I cannot afford to use two hands
to pinch-squeeze and it would be nice to adjust zoom level with one finger.

~~~
astral303
you can double-tap with one finger or two fingers to do stepped zoom in or
zoom out

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sgt
Does the "iOS 6" image seem blurry to someone else or is it just me? That's
not very Apple-like.

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ynniv
Good catch! The image is 668x222, but the img tag is width="667" height="221".

    
    
       <img src="http://images.apple.com/ios/ios6/images/title.jpg" 
            width="667" height="221" ...>

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robomartin
I wish they had added some form of multi-user or user control to iOS. Today,
if you hand your iOS device to someone they can access things you might not
want them to. Same if you loose it or need a repair. I'd love to setup users
for kids and guests and segment app access in this fashion.

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alanfalcon
I've been trying to get serious about claiming specific periods of the day for
productivity, and have been trying to find a good way to allow my wife to
still contact me in case of emergencies while otherwise preventing other
distractions from coming through on my phone. The new Do Not Disturb features
are exactly what I've been looking for, and I really like some of the specific
touches like the ability to let people call twice to bypass the setting.

~~~
hrbrtglm
That's a nice feature, but still looks half-baked for me. It's now ios6 and
you still need to jailbreak your iphone to blacklist people harassing you with
phone calls or imessage. What I do need is a blacklist feature which send to
/dev/null people I don't want to talk to or receive imessage or sms from, and
the DND feature looks more like a whitelist only available to phone calls.
Maybe in ios 7 ? It seems like a basic feature and I wonder which Apple
Developper Program rule prevent to develop such an app available in the app
store.

~~~
DeepDuh
Can't you just blacklist on your provider?

~~~
hrbrtglm
No, I can't ! There's no way a provider could help you block unwanted
imessages sender or unwanted facetime caller anyway. What is your provider who
let you do that for free on behalf of apple products ?

~~~
DeepDuh
well ok, with imessage it doesn't work, but you also talked about phone calls.
I agree, blacklisting should be there.

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chrislomax
It's hard to get excited when there is no mention of how well it is supported
in the UK. I don't know how well Siri will do in the UK with the updates and
if we will get the map support for turn by turn.

We still can't search for businesses in the UK

~~~
neilparikh
It's the same in Canada. It's quite frustrating, especially when that's one of
the heavily marketed parts of Siri.

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gav
I was interested to see "The Transamerica Pyramid Building is a registered
service mark of Transamerica Corporation" at the bottom of the page.

I can't see how using a photograph of SF requires this disclaimer.

~~~
dsuriano
Better safe than sorry? I agree with you, but maybe Transamerica Corporation's
legal department would think it's too close to their ads and such (huge
stretch though).

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Derbasti
So... is this maps thing going to work in Europe?

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neilparikh
Anyone know when the iOS 6 SDK will be released to non-paying developers? I'm
not enrolled in the developer program, as I have no intention of publishing an
app to the app store at the moment, but I'd like to play around with the new
APIs.

~~~
ben1040
Free developer accounts get to download the SDK when the iOS software is
released to the public.

And since major iOS releases are tied to new iPhone releases, you're looking
at sometime this fall.

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oomkiller
Anyone able to download the beta yet, or is everyone getting "Access Denied"
like I am?

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chuinard
If you look at the Passbook preview
(<http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#passbook>), the example is 'John's card' with
Starbucks. Johnathan's card anyone?

~~~
jmelloy
Their examples almost always use an Apple ID with the name "Johnny Appleseed"

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methodin
I find it strange, but perhaps I'm just missing some crucial, that it appears
as if this update is really just app updates for ios? I do not own any ios
device but I normally expect some updates to the OS itself in some capacity.
Am I reading this list wrong?

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shellehs
China will be a very significant market for Apple. Here Google gains too much
competitors, the biggest competitors are partners of Apple now.

And also the market potential, there are still lot of demand of iOS devices,
Mac OS devices, more than North America.

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gbog
The same way the answer to a headline with a question mark is no, every time I
read "even more" in a new product description I understand "nothing new", and
there are a lot of "even more" on this one.

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hughw
No word on WebGL support in Safari -- anyone have any information?

~~~
GuiA
Running the iOS6 developer preview here on iPhone 4S (will try on iPad at home
tonight)— WebGL still doesn't work in mobile safari.

~~~
hughw
Thanks! Bad news, though.

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vu0tran
A bit bummed that Siri in iOS 6 won't be supporting iPhone 4

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vu0tran
Not sure how I feel about the Facebook integration...

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vmyy99
Siri needs to learn R-R-Russian :).

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cageface
iOS was a revelation in 2007 but it seems to have stalled since then. The
static grid of information-free tiles and clunky task management are starting
to feel downright archaic even compared to Android and their decent into cheap
skeuomorphism continues unabated.

Apple is lucky Google is having so much trouble getting ICS out there.

~~~
jsz0
On the flip side both the iPhone and iPad have amazing customer satisfaction
numbers so we can probably conclude that most iOS users like things the way
they are. Why would Apple want to change it up too much? If live tiles or
better task management were important we'd all be using WP7 or WebOS.

~~~
cageface
Sure, it shows how far ahead of the game Apple was in 2007.

But they've left the door open for competitors, in my opinion. If Google had
the distribution issues plaguing ICS sorted out they would be in trouble, IMO,
particularly because the iOS UI conventions are more awkward on tablets and
that's currently Apple's stronghold.

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wavephorm

      iOS 6 is not compatible with: iPad 1
    

Damnit, did I just have an aneurism? Seriously, the iPad 1 isn't old (or
doesn't feel old to me), and it came out around the same time as the iPod
touch 4th generation, which is supported. I'm really getting sick of this
"throw-away hardware" culture that Apple is enforcing.

~~~
ryannielsen
_I'm really getting sick of this "throw-away hardware" culture that Apple is
enforcing._

Just because iPad 1 can't run iOS 6 doesn't mean it's suddenly "trash".

Also, the first iPad is woefully underpowered – thanks to the display, it's
quite memory and graphics constrained. It's entirely possible Apple wasn't
willing get new iOS features working well on that hardware, especially
considering iPad 1's install base is a rapidly decreasing percentage of the
overall iPad market.

~~~
wavephorm
I don't care about new iOS features, or any of their iCloud nonsense, I know
it won't support Siri (ipad1 lacked a microphone).

What I do care about is the web browser on my iPad not receiving any software
updates... ever. That's a serious problem. Without any software upgrades ever,
the iPad will become the future IE. In fact, this is worse because of Apple's
closed system they also won't allow 3rd parties to upgrade the software
either. That means no new web browsers, audio players, or any other new type
of software which might threaten their platform.

Apple wants to pretend that software can't be upgraded because you're using
old hardware, which not only is completely retarded, it defeats the purpose of
software.

~~~
ryannielsen
_Without any software upgrades ever, the iPad will become the future IE. In
fact, this is worse because of Apple's closed system they also won't allow 3rd
parties to upgrade the software either._

Huh? Citation needed. Apple didn't suddenly cut off App Store updates to iPad
1. Developers are free to support (or not support) iOS 5, just as they were
with other iOS updates.

Furthermore, are you remotely surprised by this? iPhones prior to iPhone 3GS
aren't supported by iOS 5.

Do you have the same issues with Android? _There's_ a platform that's destined
to be the "future IE". How many Android users are stuck on 2.2 or 2.3, with a
horribly crippled browser?

Finally, Apple does allow other browsers, audio players and other new types of
software. They don't threaten Apple's platform, the bolster it.

I'm not sure where you're digging up this FUD, but it's way off base.

~~~
harrylove
> How many Android users are stuck on 2.2 or 2.3, with a horribly crippled
> browser?

The answer is: most of them. ~90.2% are on Android 2.3 or below as of June 1,
2012[1].

[1] [http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-
ve...](http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-
versions.html)

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ashazar
Just a wasted 1 year... Not much of an improvement since iOS 5. Maps (with
turn-by-turn navigation) and offline reading seems nice, but nothing else.

~~~
pooriaazimi
But they've added a lot of new developer APIs, which is the loveliest part.
But as an avid iOS user, I call my beloved platform semi-broken until it gets
a decent inter-app communication channel (something better than documents in
the cloud). I'm disappointed that I have to wait for at least iOS 7 for
that...

~~~
ashazar
Yes, you are right about the new APIs. Since i'm not an iOS developer, i was
looking from the eye of an end-user.

"I'm disappointed that I have to wait for at least iOS 7 for that..." Couldn't
agree more.

