Over 200 new features expected in the final release this fall.
Aside from announcing a Retina Display MacBook Pro and revealing that OS X Mountain Lion is coming to the Mac App Store next month, Apple also talked a lot about its mobile operating system at its World Wide Developer Conference earlier today. In fact, a lot of the keynote revolved around iOS 6. So, just what do we know about the next version of iOS? Quite a bit now, actually.
Apple is promising over 200 new features with iOS 6. The company didn't go through all 200 today at WWDC but it did break down a fistful of the more notable ones for us. This includes official confirmation that Apple is giving Google Maps the boot and going with its own proprietary software. This in turn means iOS users are getting Apple-designed cartography, turn-by-turn navigation and a new 'Flyover view' that offers 'photo-realistic interactive 3D views.' There's also real-time traffic information with an alternate routes feature, and local search for finding reviews and deals.
iOS users also have Passbook to look forward to. This will allow you to use your iPhone or iPod touch to use coupons and tickets. The app will automatically display your passes on your device's lock screen based on a certain time or location. This means Passbook can bring up your loyalty card for your local coffee place when you arrive or notify you about gate changes at the airport.
Our favorite PA Siri is adding support for several new languages as well as the ability to find sports scores and make restaurant reservations. Additionally, she's getting social with the ability to update your Facebook or Twitter if you ask her to.
Similar to OS X Mountain Lion, Apple is giving iOS 6 Facebook integration, which lets you post from Notification Center as well as Siri and other Facebook-enabled apps, such as Photos, Safari and Maps. You'll also see details on your friends kept up to date across all devices and see recommendations (or 'Likes') from them in the App Store and iTunes.
Moving on from Facebook but staying with the 'sharing is caring' theme, iOS is also getting Shared Photo Streams. By selecting a group of photos and then people you want to share them with, iCloud will make sure the stream is shared with the selected contacts via their iOS device, their Mac via Aperature and iPhoto, or Apple TV.
iOS 6 will be available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this fall, which, according to rumors, is when Apple will be launching the iPhone 5. Wouldn't that make for a nice, tidy little bundle of a launch?
Wait until they claim they invented maps, guidance, photo sharing and all the other "magical" stuff. If you think they've been patent-trolling so far, you ain't seen nothin' yet...
Give me useful features.
apple has a long way to go but if you ask me their hardware is the best....especially the new macbookpro laptops that were just announced
how about price for performance? i'd say apple probably ranks lowest
Put some hard numbers behind your words. Post a phone benchmark comparing the hardware - I'd like to see
not true....my 3 year old macbookpro still runs circles around most new windows based laptops...i have bootcamp installed and love it....win7 runs flawlessly
Can you make phone calls? Coz you know, iPhone is supposed to be a phone. A phone is a device to make phone calls, which basically means you can talk to other people who are far away. That is the purpose of a phone.
Why would you buy an iPhone if all you wanted to do was make calls? There are significantly better devices out there if you only need to call people.
Find me a cheaper laptop than the Macbook Air with equal specs (including size, weight and battery life) and equal performance for less.
Good luck with that.
iOS will receive minor version updates (eg 6.2). The iPhone hardware wont (there wont be an iPhone 5.1).
Yeah, if only Apple had come up with Samsungs S-Voice first.... oh wait... and the 3D maps on Samsung, wow they are awesome..
Lets ignore the Samsung phones which still don't even have ICS support.
Yeah because by releasing a software update, they are claiming it's magical and that they 'invented' it....
Photo sharing isn't one of the new features, either, nor are 'maps', or 'guidance'. It's an improved version of all 3, for example the maps is a better version of Google maps, the Photo sharing enhancement just makes it easier to share stuff, maps itself can be powered by Siri and has 3D views.
Samsung's old flagship phone (S2) and their newest one (S3) both have ICS. The other phones are budget phones so ICS can't be expected.
Price performance Apple do tend to be poor. Macbook air is good because there is no choice with that thickness right now. But you also have to buy Windows on top if you want to game and use the GPU in them. When it comes to the IMacs it's easy to build/buy a computer that outperforms them for less.
And how long AFTER ICS came out did Samsung SG2 get support? 5 months? And only supporting 2 of their models? Awful. The iPhone 3GS is free on contract yet it still gets updates - and it's from 2009, with 2 newer models also supported - and they all get upgrades instantly.
In terms of Apple and price I gave the example of Macbook Air because it proves you can't generalise about Macs being expensive. While all companies may have particular products which are overpriced, it doesn't mean they all are. The Macbook Air is their main product I would say now in terms of PC's and it is the highest quality and cheapest in its genre, in my opinion - for its spec.
I actually agree with you that iMacs are overpriced, but it's a specific product, not the whole company which is overpriced :-)