iOS 6, 200 new features, with significant Siri advances

Some notes gathered form all the meta blogging happening at the Apple WWDC with regards to iOS6. There’s going to be a LOT of busy developers. Un “googled” Maps, Facebook and Twitter get closer in iOS 6, Passbook, Eyes Free, Siri gets useful, do not disturb, Safari gets some love and more….. man alive WWDC has been busy.

Siri gets some loving.

It might not be out of fabled “beta” status right now but that hasn’t stopped Apple adding more feature to our favourite hand held personal assistant

Siri Sports – Coming soon to the USA supporting basketball and baseball only to start with. Let’s you find stats, look up players, find scores etc just by asking siri direct questions.

If anyone was familiar with Siri before the big Apple buyout, you’ll be happy to hear that some of them removed functionality is going to be put back into place. Some of the bullet points are:

Open table bookings
The ability to launch apps
Rotten tomatoey reviews
Yelp reviews
Sports scores (Apple must’ve done a deal here with the MLB)

Apple and making a really big point here that Siri doesn’t just launch into a web search it tries to understand the sort of information you want and trusted information you want from a source that Apple knows can handle that information well and reformatted into something meaningful.

iOS 6 New “un Gooled” Maps

The new iOS 6 comes with a new Apple-based mapping system solution apparently built from the ground up. Looking at the maps icon on the iOS 6 beta, is it me or does the icon look identical to the Google maps icon?

Turn by turn navigation has finally been implemented finally. It’s like when Apple 1st released their phone without copy and paste it just felt like something was missing within the maps application.

Maps is location and traffic aware, offering you different routes based on traffic density, weather conditions or any roadworks situations. Traffic data from real-time anonymous sources (*cough* Tom Tom ) and turn by turn navigation.

Traffic rerouting involves a If dialogue box will pop up saying ” we can reroute you, would you like to be rerouted?”. It’s all crowd sourced data about the traffic as well and of course, all this data is and collected anonymously…

Eagled eyed readers of EULA agreements would of spotted Tom Tom mentioned in the iOS 6 beta.

The wwdc maps demo started put in Italy and maps are updated around the world There’s Yelp integration in Maps, with local search and 100 million business listings.

Works from your lock screen, integrated with Siri.
You can ask where to get gas, it will find some along your route.
Ask Siri: “Siri, are we there yet?” “Siri: Relax”
Maps are vector based, with zoom, rotate, and flyover

Facebook and Twitter tighter integration.

In both a mountain lion and iOS 6 you’ll be able to tweet anywhere at any time and is presumed that Facebook integration will allow you to do the same as well. You’ll be able to share a photo from the Apple camera roll right onto Facebook. You compose your location from maps, you can brag about your high score from the game centre. So obviously there’s been a little bit of kiss and make up between Apple and Facebook. You Can even have Siri to post your updates to Facebook and Twitter if you wish.

Also featured is the ability to rate applications from the App Store directly to Facebook. Which is a pretty smart move by Apple to help developers get their apps noticed.

When your contacts update their information such as their phone number or e-mail address it will automatically update your iPhone contacts.

How will it come with txt sp3k?

iOS 6 Passbook.

This is a very interesting application because it shows what Apple will Apple may be planning in the future. You can put your aeroplane boarding passes, movie tickets your retail coupons, your loyalty cards etc etc in your passbook and then a barcode or QR code that you check-in or use the coupon.

Anyone care for a gentleman’s wager that this will be a predominantly a USA only feature?. With my local supermarket I have a loyalty cards and you can almost guarantee a complete failure to scan the barcode QR code on the iPhone’s retina display.

Think of the convenience about be used to use your stored flight information at the checkout desk using your iPhone. No more fumbling around looking for pre-printed documents, you could walk up, scan barcode and away you go. like osé the major drawback with this is that the iPhone screen doesn’t work with barcode scanners so could we see the start of NFC support?

Respond to calls with a Message

Been in a situation where you can’t take a call but wouldn’t mind at least responding with a text message? When a phone call comes in, and instead of ignoring the call you can tap a button to reject the call and send out an automated text message. w controls for incoming calls allow you to decline/answer/or reply with Message or ask for a reminder later. You can even set location on time based reminders to say, for example remind me when I leave works to call…. all remind me at XX to call so on and so.

Launch Apps With Siri

This much sought after feature is finally going to make it. Not sure how this will work with some of the more interesting app names out there. At the moment Siri can barely take a voice message and display the results properly let alone go and launch something.

Siri : Eyes Free

A slight odd one this in the way Apple are now heading into automotive territory. Eyes Free includes a button on the steering world includes a button for the steering wheel so you can interact safely with siri. Got to be better than taking your hands off the wheel to reach for the headphones etc. No real announcement of will it be a separate add-on or have Apple partnered with a car manufacturer?

More Stuff To Lookup

Presentation is at the forefront it seems with clear and more thought out results. Intergration with Yelp means restaurant reviews are more crowd sourced than ever. Looking up movies, trailers and reviews is also baked in but the most exciting thing…..Siri can now launch apps.

Looks likes us folks in the UK are going to get a bit of a short shrift again on siri. Here’s hoping yelp will help us to find linguini or something like that.

Other iOS 6 Features.

Do No Disturb.

Another feature is “do not disturb”. During DND, push notifications are muted, the screen won’t light up. You can also screen phone calls, and set it up so repeated calls can get through in case of emergency.

FaceTime Over Phone Data

You can bet that phone carriers are rejoicing with this move. Imagine how much data people are going to rack up without being aware. Now you can use FaceTime wherever you have a decent data signal as well. You can now FaceTime with cellular on your iPad.You can also provide a phone number and Apple ID, so you can answer your FaceTime calls on your iPads or Mac, same for iMessages.

Safari Improvements

Now adding: Offline reading list — perfect for the Plane, except when taking off or landing.
Now upload photos quickly to sites like Shutterfly and use “Smart app banners” to integrate with websites.
Now support for links from Safari to App Store — sell your apps from your webpages.
Now upload photos quickly to sites like Shutterfly and use “Smart app banners” to integrate with websites.
Now support for links from Safari to App Store — sell your apps from your webpages.

PhotoStream.

Possibly say good bye to your photo privacy and hello to more celeb caught nude leaks with photo stream. iOS 6 introduces shared photo streams.

Nothing was mentioned on who and how people can access your photos. Photostream introduces push notifications that link to albums. Friends can comment on these. (so it’s apples take on Facebook photos in a way?)

VIP’s

For selected people and we guess applications, You can have a VIP inbox. If a message was to come from your loved one they automatically goes your VIP inbox. Think along the lines of Google’s priority inbox in Gmail. Messages are highlighted on your lock screen, stars appear in the app, and also supported is pull-to-refresh messages.