After the release of the iPhone 5, Apple got us all again with the release of iOS 6. It’s shiny, it’s new, it’s Apple.
And what it brings is, like I mentioned last week on my review of the new iPhone, a few notable changes, but mostly ones that the average Apple customer won’t notice. Not a bad thing, but not mind-blowing by means.
iOS 6 offers a noticeably missing YouTube and Google Maps apps. They’re gone, and in its place is a new Apple maps application that, from what I’ve been reading, is pretty horrible. Though I can’t offer much to this discussion simply because despite owning an iTouch since late 2008, I never used the Google Maps app once before. Word is, however, that Apple’s replacement of this has a lot to be desired. The only good thing about this is that Apple will listen to complaints with good ears, and have many improvements by the next OS update– most likely around Christmas I’m guessing.
iOS 6 also has some major improvements for Siri, which can never be a bad thing. Siri can read out loud directions, give you updates on sports games, and more. If I had an iPhone, I’d be very excited about these. As well as the updates that allow users to respond to phone calls not just by answering or declining them, but by offering the options to respond with a text message instead or to have a reminder set about the call.
As mentioned before, iOS 6 is good. Real good in fact.
But its wow factor really isn’t there, and it serves mostly as a tweaking to an already impressive system. So users will enjoy it for the next few months while they have it, but as soon as iOS 7 comes along, or the next big thing, they’ll probably forget what made it different from iOS 5 to begin with. Oh, Apple. How fitting.
