Today is the day, today, september 19, 2012, iOS 6 will be available for download!
iOS will be available for download via iTunes, but you will also be able to install iOS 6 wireless!
iOS 6 supports iPhones from the 3GS onwards, the fourth generation iPod touch and the second and third generation iPad.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the new features of iOS 6
iOS 6 brings us Passbook
Passbook is your virtual ticket-holder. It can hold all your e-tickets, for instance, for a footballgame, a concert, plane travel,… The great thing about this is that you always know where you put that beloved ticket for the long awaited Metallica concert. But even more exciting is, that these tickets can be updated. This means, for instance, you buy an e-ticket for a plane travel online, and it is kept in your passbook. A few hours before your flight, the gate is known, and is updated in your ticket, and passbook will put an alert on your iPhone. Flight delayed? Your e-ticket will be updated, and your iPhone will let you know.
Facetime in iOS 6 can now go over 3G networks
Great, simply great, you can now do videocalls over the 3G network. Which means this becomes alot more useable now.
The improved iOS 6 Phone app
iOS 6′s Phone app now offers smart reminders, which give you the possibility to reject a call with a message, for instance to say you’re busy, or in your car or whatever… iOs6′s Phone app now also offers reminders to call someone back when you leave your current location. Also a great new feature is the “Do Not Disturb” mode: new messages now arrive silently, and without the screen lighting up. But, you can tell your iPhone to NOT silence calls from a list of favourite callers, for instance, your partner, or your kids. Even better, you can tell your iPhone to automatically silent repeat calls from the same person! Now isn’t that a great feature?
Siri in iOS 6 is more mature
The range of questions that Siri can understand now is a lot wider, like sports, statistics and trivia, restaurants, and finding out which movie to go see at the cinema. Not just which movie is playing where, but also which movie is worth seeing, and which one you better skip. Local search will be available worldwide, and new languages are available too.
And not just that, Siri now has an Eyes Free feature, which will enable car manufacturers to but a Siri button on the steering wheel to enable Siri. Cars which will have this button within the next 12 months? Jaguars, Land Rovers, BMWs, Mercs, Toyotas, Chryslers, Hondas, Audis and GM cars. “Like”!
Facebook integration in iOS 6
And with that “Like”, we go to the next new item: according to Apple, iOS 6 has “the best Facebook integration ever in a mobile device”. According to what has been shown so far, it’s pretty much the same as iOS 5′s Twitter integration: post photos, locations, URLs etcetera on your timeline now. Apple has made the API public, so also non-Apple apps can share to Facebook, and you can see your Facebook friends’ App Store recommendations.
iOS 6 has guided access
Guided Access allows you to disable certain parts of the screen or hardware buttons so that children can’t accidentally hit the wrong buttons, or for instance to allow students or customers to use the iPad, but not be able to open other apps than the one they are allowed to use.
iOS 6 comes with a new and improved Safari app
A shortlist of the new and great and useful improvements: offline reading like Instapaper, iCloud tab syncing (in combination with Snow Lion’s Safari this will be great, although it is a feature that Google’s Chrome already offers), photo sharing integration, and, Smart App Banners (maybe not the greatest new feature though…).
iOS 6 dumps Goole Maps and now has its own brand new Maps app
The new Maps app seems to be pretty, will have traffic information, is also a sat-nav system with turn-by-turn navigation, has Siri control, has great Flyover 3D views of major cities, and has Yelp integration. Yelp is a social networking, user review and local search service that allows you to check out restaurants, bars, clubs and other local venues.
Selective photo sharing
Not sure what will be the use of this, but this feature allows you to choose which photos should be shared with which people, instead of just sharing everything with everyone on Facebook of Flickr.
iOS 6 no longer requires your password for free apps
A small feature, with not alot to say about it, but boy, will that come in handy!
iOS 6 has an improved Mail app now
Nice to have: Mail app now supports pull to refresh! Always nicer then finding the “refresh” icon on the bottom, and more intuitive, and in line with most of the iPhone apps. Mail now supports different signatures per email account, and you can now share photos and videos from within Mail. And one of the most important changes I believe: You can also create a list of VIPs, and all their messages will appear on your iPhone’s lock screen and in a dedicated, separate mailbox.
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