The iOS 6 Review: Maps Thoroughly Investigated and More
by Brian Klug & Saumitra Bhagwat on September 19, 2012 2:21 PM ESTPhone
With iOS 6, Apple has finally added some much needed call management features to the Phone app and a simple UI to get the job done. So now when you get a call (and can’t answer), there’s a new swipe-up menu that lets you reply to the caller with a message, or set a reminder to call back. The UI is similar to the lock screen camera option introduced in iOS 5.1.
Apple includes a few pre-defined messages like “I’ll call you later.” and “I’m on my way.”, but you can reply with a custom message as well, if time permits. The text for the pre-defined messages can be edited to your liking under Phone settings.
The reminder feature allows you to set a time or location based reminder, which is quite handy. I’m notoriously bad at calling people back, and I have to admit I’ve used these reminders quite a bit already.
Finally, the dialer UI has been toned down to softer hues of white and blue; a stark departure from the darker, bubbly UI that everyone’s been accustomed to. I believe the main dialer view was changed to this grid format to accommodate the iPhone 5, where it resizes up and takes up the whole vertical area in portrait mode. That said, it makes no sense to change this so radically and then leave the in-call dialer the old style, which retains the original iPhone UI look.
Why are these two dialers from iOS 6 now vastly different styles? (Left: in-call, Right: mail dialer)
That’s about it for the Phone app in iOS 6. The new call management options have been a long time coming, but have been integrated rather well in the OS.
Do Not Disturb
Continuing the focus on call management, Do Not Disturb is another well thought out feature in iOS 6 that is incredibly useful if you’re planning on skirting calls. This is accomplished in a couple of different ways. You can designate scheduled “Quiet Hours”, during which all calls, texts and notifications will reach your phone, but stay hidden until the quiet hours end. During quiet hours, your phone will not ring, vibrate or light up unless you receive a call from an allowed group of people, such as your Favorites. All missed events during quiet hours are stacked, and you can review them once quiet hours end.
There’s also an option to enable repeated calls, which does not suppress a second call received within three minutes of the first one. Do Not Disturb can be toggled from the main Settings page, but you’ll need to go into Notifications to set the quiet hours and play with the other options.
The DND features are a welcome addition to iOS. It's good to see improvements to the phone part of this smartphone platform.
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darwiniandude - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Melbourne Australia also has excellent 3D mappingender8282 - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Try Monkey Burger they have much better burgers.mezz - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Stockholm and Copenhagen both get the 3D-treatment.secretmanofagent - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
You might want to grey out the additional four digits of the zip code (i.e. 85711-****) on the maps page. This can still be used to derive an address.secretmanofagent - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Same page, turn-by-turn: "Voice guidance volume, label size, and units are really the only options here — there seen any options for preferring highways or surface streets, avoiding tolls (though you are warned when given routes to select from) or other common standalone GPS options."I'm assuming it's "there doesn't seem to be any options" or the like?
AbhorApple - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Alright, this morning upgraded the iPad 3 to i OS 6. Tested out the much touted Apple Maps. Pig in a poke, that's what it is. I could have as well bought a Bartholomew's maps and carried with me. This wretched thing won't show half the places even within 100 miles of Bangalore. Hmm... should have learnt the lessons... Apple cares two hoots for customers and foolish Apple buyers in this geographysilverblue - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
It's not just India. Check this article out:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19659736
steven75 - Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - link
Direct your iOS web browser to maps.google.com until the Google Maps app makes it to iOS.Should be quite a decent workaround for those who live in areas that Apple Maps doesn't have good data on.
rash1d - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
"What iOS 6, Android 4.1 or Windows 8/RT/Phone 8 fail to do however is establish a single dominant winner in the market. This war is far from over, which is a great thing for pushing innovation."ayembee - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Transit routing gone, no good replacements yet, location-search pretty bad (I tried a number of tests searches and found literally NOTHING I looked for). Now, taken as a whole, iOS6 is a nice upgrade, and there are plenty of features I find myslef really liking -- however, Maps needed to bake for longer...Think about it. You use a map to
1) find something (data now terrible, fails)
2) to find a route to the thing you just found (can't route via the metro, so total fail here too)
In other words, the single two most important use-cases for using maps ina major metropolitan area (the areas where you'll find the highest density of iOS users) are now awful. Turn-by-turn directions are a nice addition IF you actually spend most opf your day driving somewhere. Which most city-dwellers in non-US countries don't, as public transport is usually pretty good...
Marks awarded for effort and ambition, and even looks.
BUT... needs a ton of follow-through.