WWDC: How Right/Wrong was i?
iOS 6
- Maps
The obvious one, looks stunning. When the 3D mode was being manipulated on the iPad, i was blown away.
- Facebook Integration
Looks great. I can definitely see use for this on Safari and Photos.
Unified Bar on Safari, as to how it looks on Mountain Lion
One feature that i hoped to see, but its still the same. Except ‘Google’ is now ‘Search’..
- Baidu Search
As with Mountain Lion, the assault into China is being built upon in iOS 6. Better language support and yes, Baidu search.
Widgets
It wasn’t meant to be. But then i think, this is in a way, built into Siri. So why have this in the Notification Center? Although a shortcut for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth would have been nice.
- Siri
API
No API, but Siri is improved. Looking for Football results, i can definitely see this being used in the UK. Except for me.
- Siri Maps outside USA
This hope of mine turned out to be true. Tests have proved that asking for the nearest restaurant, hotel, bar, comes up with UK places. I wonder if the new ‘Maps’ had a hand in this being enabled?
Weather Icon changes to location of the phone at last. If you’re in Lincoln, it shows Rain. If in Spain, a Sun.
A minor change i was hoping to see.
Communication between apps. No filesystem, but just better app communication.
Nothing. Slightly disappointing.
- Maybe, a refreshed UI throughout.
Not completely, but there are some re-arrangements and a dynamic status bar colour change which took a while for me to get used to.
From what I’ve seen previously, the features are mostly common sense, i.e, what is the next update that people actually want? When Mountain Lion was announced, iOS 6 features are probably being shown on the 10.8 section on the Apple site. The ‘Do Not Disturb’ notification option perhaps, and more powerful Mail options?
Do Not Disturb was to be true, and looks to be really useful. The amount of times i’ve been woken up by a text message, even when it’s set to silent.. A useful feature to be carried over.
Mail has VIP and, pull to refresh, a feature i’ve been wanting since i first used Tweetie.
Mountain Lion
- Siri Dictation
This turned out to be true, which works across all applications.
- Release Date & Price
July for £13.99 . Cheaper than how Lion was, although this is more of a tune up release as to how Snow Leopard was.
Apple TV
- Regarding the new Apple TV OS, there was a new UI only in March, it would be completely nonsensical to me. So i think, perhaps the UI will remain, but an additional option will appear in an update for ‘Apps’.
This is one that i knew i should have trusted my instincts on, and instead i was half convinced by the news sites and a couple of friends. Although airplay is there, and is successfully being copied by Wii U and Xbox Smart Glass, everything will be unveiled on this soon.
One More Thing…
The Retina Macbook Pro.
I’ve yet to see one as i’m now back in Lincoln and there isn’t an official Apple Store which would have one in as there would be in London, but i’ll be keeping an eye in the local electronic shops.
It looks stunning. It’s the next level of the Macbook Air, carrying on from what was started 3 years ago. Once i actually have a go on one, a post will be written of it.
All in all, with iOS, at first i was admittedly a bit disappointed, with a ‘is that it?’ attitude.
But i realised, when iOS 5 was released, I was unsure of how it could be improved upon drastically when everything could be used with ease.
iOS 6 is a tune up, a ‘Mountain Lion’ of iOS if you wish. The little things such as the status bar blending into the app being displayed is welcome, while Maps looks to be incredible, especially with the 3D and turn by turn features.
