iOS 6.0 is the slick operating system at work
behind the scenes in all Apple iDevices. Here’s what to expect.
This autumn saw the launch of the
sixth-generation iOS platform, which headlined on the iPhone 5, but is suitable
for most iDevices made in the past three years. Apple says 200 new, mostly
minor features have been folded in. Some are immediately obvious - Passbook is
added to the Home screen, along with a retouched icon to signify the new Maps
app.
When the non-location-aware Siri first
appeared last year, it was of limited use to UK users. iOS 6.0 adds this
functionality, allowing you to use Siri to find local businesses, restaurants
and the like.
Apple
iOS 6.0
It can be all too fallible, though. We
asked Siri to find the nearest post office; it responded with several map pins,
completely overlooking the main branch close to our office. It’s unclear
whether the mistake is Siri’s.or flaky mapping data.
Photo Stream was introduced with iCloud for
accessing your photos on any iOS device. With iOS 6.0, you can now share new
photo streams with others.
Passbooks isn’t yet especially relevant in
the UK. Launching the app gives you an idea of what may come: boarding passes
for airlines, tickets for films and events, credit cards for specific shops and
discount coupons.
Social media fans may welcome the extra
integration with Facebook, allowing you to post updates from the Notification
Center and Siri.
As seen in Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Apple
now lets you deflect inopportune calls; rather than ignore the call, a push-up
menu lets you reject it with a preset text message.
With so much personal information stored on
smartphones these days, more fine-grained control over who gets to see what was
overdue. You can now restrict how your data is siphoned by other companies.
We’d rather have a simple off option to keep all data personal but, until then,
you can elect to, for example, not share your contacts with Google Earth;
likewise, your photos, calendars and reminders can be walled off from apps.
Buried in the Settings menu is an option to
‘Limit Ad Tracking’ - that’s limit, not stop. We still need a ‘Keep all my
affairs private’ option, but it’s a positive step.
Safari has received a few updates,
including iCIoud tabs. This lets you jump to pages you currently have open on
other iOS devices or Mountain Lion Macs.
In the Mail app you can now paste photo or
video inline without leaving the app. And you can refresh your inbox by pulling
down the screen.
Panorama mode has been added to the Camera
app, which stitches together a series of portrait shots into one widescreen
photo.
Maps app
Apple has created its own Maps system in
place of Google Maps, using mapping data from third parties such as TomTom.
It’s built on vector-based graphics and text, and scales wonderfully. It’s an
elegant solution to the problem of having your device continually re-download
bitmapped images at different resolutions each time you zoom in. With smaller
downloads required, larger areas can be retrieved, and the data seems to be
retained longer on the device.
Apple
has created its own Maps system in place of Google Maps, using mapping data
from third parties such as TomTom.
It’s not all good news, though. Popular
features such as Street View aren’t available. More worrying is the misplacing
of landscape features, towns and cities, and the absence of crucial details
such as railway stations. Satellite imagery is also of a comparatively poor
quality.
The Flyover feature is an attractive way to
see buildings in 3D, but available only in select larger cities, and not on
older devices such as the iPhone 4.
Maps is still a work in progress, but that
doesn’t help users who have already upgraded. And apps such as Find My Friends
are reliant on Apple’s sparse beta. You can still view Google, Bing or Nokia’s
mapping data in Safari, of course.
Performance
Some previous iOS updates have resulted in
older hardware struggling. We tested performance before and after on the iPhone
4 and 4S. The results were encouraging. In the SunSpider JavaScript test, for
example, an iPhone 4 moved from 3,519ms to 3,003ms, suggesting a 17 percent
improvement in rendering speed. The 4S recorded 1,891 ms, up from 2,421 ms - a
28 percent improvement.
Geekbench 2 showed no significant change in
the raw processor and memory speed: our iPhone 4 still averaged 326 points, and
the iPhone 4S 632 points.
GLBenchmark showed very similar graphics
performance. The iPhone 4 played the Egypt HD sequence at 4.1fps in iOS 5.1,
and 4fps in iOS 6.0; the 4S managed 18 and 19fps respectively.
Lots of added handy features make iOS 6.0 a
good upgrade with the caveat of the underperforming Maps. In every other
respect, iOS 6.0 is a compelling free upgrade for iPhone and iPad users.
