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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snoozemode - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
With the increasingly more powerful hardware that runs Ipad and Iphone it only seems like a question of when, we will se Ipads and Iphones running OSX with something like a device-dependent skin and some under-hood tuning to fit the device. IOS feels aged in many ways and a merge in to something new seems natural.solipsism - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
iOS is OS X. The took Mac OS X, brought down to it's core elements and built up iOS from that. At one point Apple advertised it as OS X Leopard and OS X Phone; I think at MacWorld 2008.You won't see the Aqua GUi, printer drivers, etc. on iOS because it doesn't make any sense. There is no advantage to have a user plug a mouse into their iPhone so they can navigate with a pointer. The UI was designed for touch. Why even consider scrapping that?
dcollins - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
You obviously don't use the Mail App with Exchange. It still needs some work. My users have huge numbers of heavily nested folders (100s of folders, up to 5 levels deep) that they use to organize emails. When synced with Exchange, App pulls the entire list of folders and displays them fully expanded; you cannot hide/minimize nested folders! You cannot rearrange folders and moving emails between them is clunky at best.With more and more business users relying on iPhones for work, I would like to see a slew of improvements made to Mail's Exchange support.
robinthakur - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
I agree upto a point. Our advice to users is not to nest folders and store the emails to SharePoint, as well as minimise folders. This seems to trip up alot of devices though to be fair, which seem to have problems with Folders in Exchange. Being able to set Out of Office through the mail.app would be a go send also.dsumanik - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
or apple could just add collapsable folders.lol
yet another apple ifail
Stas - Sunday, September 23, 2012 - link
Give them a break. They have to invent them first.randomlinh - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
"For now the sacrifice seems worth it as the payoff is something that works very well, but I worry about what happens down the road if you're forced to buy a device not because it's the best device for you, but because buying an alternative would hurt the experience on another, unrelated device"This is exactly what I fear. And I think we're closer to it than one might think
tekzor - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
already happened with app storesGotThumbs - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Agreed.Apples walled garden offers zero choices for consumers when it comes to shopping for content elsewhere. The simple truth is that Apple controls each IProduct users access, and is expanding those controls continually, should be very concerning for its followers.
While I use two Android devices (Phone & Tablet), Google does not restrict/control my ability/freedom to shop for content outside their market place. Part of what makes an open market great is not limiting consumers options and allows price competitiveness. Consumers win.
Apple's currently in trouble (along with four publishing companies) for imposing price controls/fixing. Do you really care about Apples 30% share or are you more interested in getting the same product at the lowest price? At the end of the day....everyone wants their money to go as far as it can for them.
When you have options and time...you shop for the lowest price. Apple has eliminated ts collective users options/choices and wants to inflict its will on others...ie restricting Amazon's price structure and the economies of scale in selling the same books at a reduced price to consumers.
It simply amazes me how so many of the general public continue to willingly give up their freedom of choice. Do they really just want to be controlled and told what to do and how to hold their phone?
Microsoft NEVER EVER prevented a user from installing and using a different web-browser in Windows...yet they have been sued for millions all over the world....
. Apple builds a walled garden and forces its followers to shop ONLY at its market and even fixes prices so its sure to get its 30% cut on purchases....
...YET the DOJ continues to sit on their thumbs and does nothing.
What is wrong with this country?
OK I'm done with my rant.
btw. I wonder if the driver had followed Google Maps instead of Apples route....would he have avoided the traffic and arrived sooner? Just a thought.
Best wishes,
bplewis24 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
I'm glad somebody else is as baffled as I am about consumers' willingness to do the same. Eventually they will either wake up or get what they deserve.