The iOS 6 Review: Maps Thoroughly Investigated and More
by Brian Klug & Saumitra Bhagwat on September 19, 2012 2:21 PM ESTNew iCloud Features
Since iCloud made its debut last year alongside iOS 5 and OS X Lion, it has matured as a truly integrated service and has been at the center of Apple’s cloud strategy. With iCloud deeply integrated with iOS and OS X, it evident that Apple is using the service to keep users happy and stuck within Apple's own ecosystem. Good iCloud integration gives users a reason to buy tablets, notebooks and phones all from Apple, instead of picking and choosing from different vendors.
iCloud itself cannot be regarded as a new feature in iOS anymore as it its already been deeply embedded into the OS since iOS 5. There are however some new features that rely on the iCloud backend, such as iCloud tabs, offline reading list and Shared Photo Streams. Other features such as Facebook integration also leverage iCloud to keep contact lists and calendar events in sync. In conjunction with the iOS 6 release, Apple has also added new apps to iCloud.com, namely, Notes and Reminders. Other apps such a Mail, Calendar and Contacts have also been refreshed to blur the line between their iOS and OS X counterparts.
iCloud tabs lets you view your open tabs on your iOS 6 devices and Macs running Mountain Lion. The feature works as advertised, and the update speed across devices is quite impressive. This is a huge boon to the tablet usage model as it allows you to quickly switch between being productive on a notebook and relaxing content consumption on your tablet. Gone are the days when you need to email yourself links to your iPad to continue browsing what you had open on your Mac. This is also a big feature for keeping users using Safari on the Mac instead of migrating to alternate browsers like Chrome.
Safari on iOS also adds support for offline reading list, so you can cache pages for offline viewing later. These also get synced across devices almost in real time and at an impressive speed. If you’ve ever had to live through the nightmare that was MobileMe, you will truly appreciate the speed and reliability offered by apps and features that use iCloud.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
105 Comments
View All Comments
tipoo - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Pretty sure the 4S is faster than the 4 :)Ryan Smith - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
I'm assuming you must be referring to the SunSpider results? In that case lower is better, so everything looks correct here.tipoo - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
I think they were changed, when I looked last the 4 had lower Sunspider and higher Browsermark scores, and it also had N/A beside the other two, now the 4S has the N/A and better scores.Henk Poley - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Related, I consistently get a Sunspider 0.9.1 score of about 3000 +/- 1% on my iPhone 4 GSM. Typo? 33.. instead of 30.. ?dsumanik - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
blah blahThe new maps suck...they are a significant step down, in dataset AND functionality.
Users in the US might ALMOST get the same experience but everywhere else on the planet got screwed.
There are spelling errors, missing roads, improperly labeled cities and for the most part, significantly less detailed maps.
I live in a very remote community, in northern canada...there is a GOOGLE STREET VIEW picture of my house and street.
There is no way Apple will ever come up here to offer the same level of detail...im simply in too small of a market.
There isnt even color photos of my town.
LOL!
Jobs would never have let this slide until it was competitive... right now it simply is inferior in every single way.
mrgulabull - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
The "trouble building" you mention actually looks like that. It's the Walt Disney Concert Hall. If anything I'd say the 3d model is remarkably good.Here's an aerial shot from Google Maps
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=walt+disney+concert...
ratte - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
It's the building above that (the Dorothy Chandler pavillion) that looks badBrian Klug - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
OH wow, ok, well that's interesting... Fixing now.-Brian
nathanddrews - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
If you had seen the "Get Smart" movie, you would know. :Prd_nest - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Seriously, whatever I have seen so far, Apple maps are absolute failure in India. It's actually pathetic in terms of actual data. Forget about features, they simply don't have data. It's so bad that I can't even think why they should launch iOS 6 here? Comparison with google maps?? just forget it.. and all those fancy 3D flyover, well probably by 2025 if we are lucky..