Aside from the new Lightning connector,
then, the iPhone 5 represents a solid progression. The bigger screen is a major
plus, and we love the new lightweight chassis. We don’t, however, hold such
affection for the software it ships with: iOS 6.
The
new Lightning connector offers a double-sided connection, meaning there’s no
wrong way to plug in your cable
As is customary, Apple introduced its new
OS the day before the iPhone 5 was made available to the general public,
trumpeting hundreds of new features and enhancements. Most of these are small
changes, hardly worthy of mention – under-the-hood tweaks aimed at making the
experience smoother. But iOS 6 also contains a few significant changes, and not
all of them are welcome.
A mapping calamity
First on the blacklist is the replacement
of Google Maps with Apple Maps. On paper, this would seem to be a positive
move. The maps, based on a combination of TomTom’s data and Yelp’s listings and
ratings content, and developed in-house by Apple, introduce free turn-by-turn
navigation with live traffic avoidance and “photo-realistic” 3D views of major
towns and cities.
The turn-by-turn feature alone, we had
thought, would be worth the upgrade, especially with the traffic avoidance
feature. Yet as soon as iPhone users across the globe started using it, the
complaints began to flood in. Most of these focused on mapping errors, with
many landmarks and even major cities reported to be sited in entirely the wrong
position. Others complained about the loss of Street View and patchy business
listings.
We have to concur with the majority – a
quick search reveals Maps has deftly erased the Melbourne Cricket Ground from
existence, applied tens of thousands of years of erosion to the Three Sisters
in the Blue Mountains and turned Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffen into a
physics-defying mountain of water. Maps’ satellite imagery is less detailed and
patchier in its coverage than Google’s.
This isn’t quite the disaster all the
reports have made it out to be, however. You can “reinstall” Google Maps
(albeit slightly limited) by adding a link to the mobile site on your
homescreen, and Google may decide to release a proper, full-blown app soon
(although it doesn’t appear to be in a great hurry to do so).
The
new panorama feature offers a quick way of capturing broad cityscapes
Its navigation abilities aren’t bad either.
As with Google Maps its facilities are basic, with no local map storage, no
speed camera or speed limit indications. We’re a little disappointed to find no
indication of ETA in the driving view. But we found the 3D view easy to read,
and the voice instructions via Siri delivered clearly and in as timely a
fashion as any GPS device we’ve used. We also liked the way Maps shows three
alternative routes in the planning stage, with traffic plotted on top so you
can quickly pick the quickest route before you start.
A couple of black marks, though: when you
arrive at your destination, the screen goes back into timeout mode and turns
itself off. And once again, it’s let down by search. Apple Maps failed to find
four of the locations along our six-stop test route by name, a performance that
would have placed it below most other navigation options in a straight GPS
test. The only reliable means of tracking down locations seems to be with postcodes.
Other upgrades
We’ve focused on Maps so far, but there are
other improvements. There’s better social networking integration for one, with
Facebook included at long last. You can now post status updates directly from
the pull-down Notifications menu, for instance; view Facebook events and
birthdays directly in the calendar; see Facebook contacts in the contacts app;
and post pictures from the photo gallery.
There are enhancements to iCloud photo
sharing, which allow the creation of custom photo streams that can then be
shared with other iPhone or iPad owners, and even non-Apple devotees via a
shared public web link.
You
can now post status updates directly from the pull-down Notifications menu
Finally, there’s the new Passbook app,
which is essentially a location- and time-aware repository for storing
e-tickets, offer vouchers and the like. This could turn out to be brilliant,
but since only a handful of companies in Australia currently have
Passbook-compatible apps, it’s too early to say how useful this will eventually
turn out to be.
Other stand-out new features include the
ability to make FaceTime calls over 3G and – possible our favourite feature of
the lot – iCloud Tabs, which synchronises open tabs in Safari across all your
iDevices.
Verdict
In many respects this latest iPhone is the
most desirable yet, with its gorgeous 4in display, a lighter, slimmer chassis,
decent battery life and improved iCloud and social networking integration. And
let’s not forget that Apple’s App Store still just about holds the edge over
Google’s Play store in the general quality of games and software, although the
gap is narrowing.
Yet, with prices higher than its rivals, we
feel the iPhone doesn’t quite do enough. Although the hardware is lovely,
there’s nothing that takes your breath away, and with the problems over Apple
Maps and the Lightning connector undoubtedly damaging its reputation with
existing users and potential adopters alike, we can’t see it clawing back
ground lost to rivals.
None of this makes the iPhone 5 a bad
smartphone, of course. It’s a glorious piece of modern technology that, two
years ago, would have caused our jaws to hit the floor at the mere sight of it.
Yet, with a smaller screen and a bigger price tag than the Samsung Galaxy S III
or HTC One X the iPhone fails to return to the top of our A-List.
