iOS 6.0 iOS 6: Everything You Need to Know

iOS 6 contains over 200 new features, the following being the most notable: Siri for iPad, more languages and locations supported by Siri, redesigned App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore, a overhauled Maps application with turn-by-turn navigation, Facebook integration, a brand new app call Passbook, and tons of new features for existing apps like Messages, new Safari features including iCloud tabs, and much, much more.

This major update to Apple’s mobile operating system will be available in the fall as a free update for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 4 (GSM & CDMA), iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 4th Generation, iPod touch 5th Generation, iPad 2, new iPad, Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3.

Maps

Apple has transitioned away from Google Maps and towards their own in-house mapping cartography in iOS 6 with a brand new Maps application. The new Maps are vector-based, allowing for smooth scrolling and panning and very detailed text and graphics. The new Maps application allows you to tilt and rotate your device to view an area.

Maps in iOS 6 features turn-by-turn navigation available on iPhone 4S or later, iPod touch 5th Generation and iPad 2 or later with real-time traffic updates providing accident reports and estimated time of arrival. Turn-by-turn navigation even works on the lock screen. You could ask Siri, “Are we there yet?” and she'll respond with the ETA.

There is also a new feature in Maps called “Flyover,” which lets you see cities and landmarks from the air with stunning 3D view, available on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later. Tapping on a pin will reveal any phone numbers, address, reviews, and photos for the selected location along with directions how to get there. Siri has also been optimized to work better with Maps, helping you to find your way and locate destinations. Moreover, a new local search feature allows for you to discover details about locations around you. Don't forget the new icon!

Siri

Siri has learned a lot in iOS 6, improving her language support in more countries.

Siri now follows sports as she learned baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and hockey, providing you game schedules, scores from the last game, or the current live game as well as player stats. Siri is also integrated with Facebook and Twitter, allowing you to update your Facebook status, post a comment on your Wall, or send a tweet using your voice.

You can now call Siri a film buff as she can show you movie trailers, reviews for the movie and awards it won and movie times. She knows her stuff as she can tell you when the film premiered, the director and your favorite stars.

You'll never eat the same thing twice with Siri. Ask her to help find restaurants by your favorite dish or cuisine, your price range, what's near you. Restaurant details are also provided such as photos, review. Now that you chose a restaurant book a reservation with Siri! Tell Siri to launch your apps and she'll listen. Best of all, Apple has brought Siri to the new iPad and iPod touch 5th generation with iOS 6.



Facebook & Twitter Integration

Apple has included system wide Facebook integration in iOS 6. After signing into your account once, Facebook integration on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad allows you to post to share links from Safari, share photos to the world’s largest social network directly from Camera or Photos, post your location from Maps, post high scores from Game Center, and more. Better yet, your Facebook events and birthdays are now integrated into Calendar, while your friends’ profile information can be found in Contacts. Additionally, there is now a 'Like' button in iTunes and the App Store so that you can like your favorite songs, albums, and apps directly from those platforms.

Twitter integration is another prominent feature of iOS 6. You sign in once in the settings, and you can then tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps or Notification Center much like Facebook integration.

You can also send Tweets or update your status directly from Notification Center with the new Share Widgets. Just pull down Notification Center and tap either social network.

Safari

Safari for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on iOS 6 now has iCloud Tabs, which Apple describes best as a feature that “keeps track of which pages you have open on your devices, so you can start browsing on one device and pick up right where you left off on whatever device is handy.” Apple also made improvements to offline reading for Safari, allowing the mobile browser to save full webpages in your Reading List instead of just links. You can also open up to 25 tabs on Safari for iPad.

Furthermore, you can now take and upload photos or select existing ones from Camera Roll without leaving Safari, which is great for posting items on eBay or classified websites such as Craigslist or Kijiji. And if you are feeling constrained by the user interface of Safari, simply turn your device to landscape mode and tap the full-screen icon to view webpages on the big screen. To view your history quickly, hold down the 'Back' button in Safari to reveal it.

Phone

It is now easier to respond to incoming calls. You can automatically send the caller to your voicemail, instantly reply with a text message, or set a callback reminder for later and even set a location-based reminder. When sending a text message, there are a number of preset phrases to choose from such as “I’ll call you later” or “I’m on my way,” but you can also send your own custom message.

Apple also introduced a new “Do Not Disturb” mode in Settings — which can be toggled on/off or preset for a specific time each day. This feature automatically mutes any sounds or alerts and you can make exceptions and allow contacts to make alerts and sounds. There is also a feature where if the same individual calls you more than once in a three minute period it will come through.

Passbook

Boarding passes, gift cards, theater tickets, and all that can be a lot to carry around with you when roaming through the city. Apple thought so too, so they added a new app to the iPhone in iOS 6 called Passbook. Instead of having to carry around your wallet with all of the aforementioned items, why not store them all in one place, which is, in this case, on your phone? It’s perfect unification, placing all your important passes and gift cards in one digital place where they can still be scanned like physical ones. You always have your iPhone or iPod Touch with you, so why not use it?

There’s more to the picture here though and most people haven't seen it yet. Passbook isn't just a unified holder for all your gift cards and such, it’s the beginning of a digital payment system on iOS. You may remember Square, the system that lets you pay a business that’s using it by simply pulling out your iPhone and using the cards you already have in their app. This is great for those few local businesses that use the system, but what about other places? Starbucks used their own app for payments, as did other corporations. It seems like a waste to confuse all those users with so many different apps, so why can't we just unify them into one app?

Apple is trying to do just that with Passbook and so far, it looks to be promising. Just think of the possibilities and what Apple could add to Passbook in the future. They have so many users that businesses and corporations will have to start using such a system due to popular demand. It could be a very good thing and I sure hope to see it work out well. Airplane boarding passes for flights; updates boarding pass information in real time if changes are made, Passes are also location and time-based. They appear on the lock screen when necessary letting you know what's on your agenda. There's also a nice little paper shredder animation if you delete a pass.

Mail

Mail also received a facelift in iOS 6 with a new VIP inbox across your devices and an easier way to attach photos or videos to your emails. Also, you can now swipe down on your screen to automatically refresh your email mailboxes. It is nice to see improvements being made to the native Mail application. VIP inbox is designed to put the more important emails ahead of others, so you don't miss the email from your boss giving them very important privileges. Synced all across your devices with iCloud. Mail also allows for per-account signatures which ones one account could say "Sent from my iPhone" and another can have the signature "Sent from my iPad."



Photo Share

You can now share photos quickly from Photos, select multiple photos, and tap 'Share' to share your photos with your friends. Photos will be instantly delivered to their Photos application on a iOS 6 device or a Mac running Mountain Lion or an Apple TV. Apple also introduced web sharing, for people who don't have a required device. Your friends and family can 'Like' photos and make comments bringing smiles all around. The best part is: your shared photo streams does not count against your iCloud storage.

Privacy

iOS 6 has introduced a whole new “Privacy” section under the Settings app, where users can control which apps have access to location services, your contacts, calendars, reminders and photos. It’s a update Apple promised for its users to fix to the whole “address book-gate” issue. This solution, allows or disallows apps digging into your private information. Just head into the Privacy section in Settings to enable. Warnings will be shown if apps request access to your information.

Redesigned Stores

To celebrate achieving 400 million iTunes accounts, the mobile stores have now been redesigned and overhauled. These stores include the App Store, the iBookstore, and the iTunes Store. Each of them has received a new polished users interface (UI). The 'Feature' tab has received a large Cover Flow styled banner at the top and swipe-able banners on the iPhone. Below that are to revamped "New" and "What's Hot" categories allowing you to scroll from left to right to get a slideshow of applications. There are just categories upon categories of applications and that it wouldn't surprise me if you got lost (and not in a bad way).

Thankfully, there's also a new "Preview" feature that tracks everything you view in a simple list, of which then you can purchase directly from if you choose to. Your "Preview" list is also synced across your devices with iCloud.

You and your friends can now "Like" apps under the revamped reviews area and directly share links to the application from the App Store. Apps already installed can be opened with the "Open" button in the App Store and freshly-installed apps, songs and books have a "new" blue banner across the top right corner of the icon. When updates are available (and they will be) updating apps will no longer require entering your Apple ID credentials. You can install apps without leaving the App Store or install apps from within apps showing their progress as they download within the application.

When viewing an application there's a developer page at the bottom which shows you all the apps from the developer and a new 'Update History' showing the change log all the way up to the first release.

Tapping an App Store, iTunes or iBook link will bring up iTunes preview providing an preview for the respective link with screenshots, description, reviews and other information so you don't need to leave the application.

Status Bar

The status bar color now matches the application that you are using. Settings and Mail that change the status bar to blue as opposed to grey in the previous versions of iOS. It should be worth mentioning that it doesn't work every application, developers must have to first enable it.

Share Sheets

Aside from Photo Share, Apple also redesigned the 'Share' button replacing a stack view with icons of their respective actions. Send an email, compose a message, share it to Photo Share, compose a Tweet, send it to Facebook or Weibou, assign as a contact photo, copy, print, save to photos or use as a wallpaper

Reorder Applications

Starting with iOS 6, the Apple TV can now reorder icons on the menu. Hold down the select button on your Apple Remote on an icon highlighted causing the main menu icons to wiggle, like the home screen icons on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Clock

The iPad was always missing Stocks, Weather, Clock and Voice Memos since the original iPad. Thankfully, now in iOS 6 there is now a Clock application. Like on the iPhone, you set World Clocks, set alarms and timers for use as a stopwatch. Alarms are set up in grids showing the current week below, with all your alarms that are set. Like on the iPhone, you can also specify sounds for every alarm, or set a song from your music library.

The World Clock looks awesome on the big screen, with the clocks arrayed across the top and the chosen cities shown on a world map which also provides weather for the city. You can also add up to 24 World Clocks.

Recolored Music

Music, has now been recolored and has received a polished sliver and black look, along with a reflective volume slider from different angles. You may notice the sleek playback controls and orange shuffle and repeat icons.

Guided Access

Apple is the best in the business when it comes to easy accessibility options and now Apple introduced Guided Access. This feature will allow users to selectively disable portions of a device’s screen from use allowing the user to remain on task and focused. Among this you can disable hardware buttons so you don't exit the application, or even disable certain portions of apps so that your always focused.

Emojis

Apple has included new emoji icons in iOS 6, specifically the monkey faces, tongue, and males and females holding hands in the screenshots above. Just another little feature — one of over 200 that Apple included in iOS 6. Checkout this thread to see more Emojis icons.

iOS 6 still includes features from iOS 5 released last year.

Revamped Notifications

In iOS 5, notifications are all-new and improved. There’s a new drop-down menu called Notification Center, which allows you to keep track of all of your notifications in one convenient location. To reveal Notification Center, you simply swipe down and you can then choose which notifications you would like to see. If you want to delete the notification, you can simply tap the “X” button located next to it.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a “clear all” option for deleting your entire queue of notifications. This is something, however, that could be seen in a future update. New notifications also appear briefly at the top of your screen, without interrupting what you’re doing. Furthermore, they appear on your lock screen for quick and easy access.

iMessage

This is an official application designed by Apple that allows you to send text messages to other iOS devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. It’s compatible with any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that is running iOS 5 or later.

Newsstand

Another application designed by Apple. This one adopts the iBooks bookshelf design as a convenient place to show you all of your App Store subscriptions. This includes newspapers and magazines, which the app will alert you about when there is new issues available. There is also a new section on the App Store that is specifically dedicated to subscriptions.

Reminders

You can create reminders for yourself in a neat and clear to-do list. There’s also integrated calendars for your convenience. Reminders also works with iCal, Outlook, and iCloud, so changes you make update automatically on all your devices and calendars.

Safari

There’s a variety of new features in this mobile browser from tabbed browsing on iPad to the Safari Reader. The latter allows you to display web articles without any ads or any other distractions. There’s also Reading List, which saves web pages offline for later viewing. These web pages can be synced with iCloud.

“PC Free”

This is perhaps the most creative feature of iOS 6. Thanks to a combination of Apple’s iCloud service, on-device software updates, and on-device setup, you'll be able to use your iOS device without ever connecting or configuring it with a Mac or PC. You can do everything wirelessly and backup and restore your iOS device through iCloud.

You'll be able to sync your iOS device with iTunes wirelessly, and automatic syncing is also available. Wi-Fi sync needs to be enabled in the Settings app, and you need to sync with iTunes over USB at least once to set it up to sync over your Wi-Fi network. You can continue to use your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad while syncing.

Other Noteworthy Features:

• FaceTime over 3G and 4G networks
• Faster JavaScript
• Chines Features
• The boot logo spinner when powering your iOS device on/off is now optimized for the Retina display
• Kernel ASLR
• New "Lost Mode" for Find My iPhone - "triggers an attention grabbing sound, and prompts the person that finds the iPhone to call a specific number set by the owner remotely"
• Unified phone number and email for FaceTime.
• New iOS 6 APIs for developers, part of iPhone SDK

Pricing and Availability

iOS 6 will be available as a free update for all supported devices in the fall. iOS 6 is available now as a beta for registered Apple developers. Although not all features are supported on all devices -- or all generations of all devices -- iOS 6 can be installed on the following:

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4 GSM
• iPhone 4 CDMA
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 5
• iPad 2nd Generation
• iPad 3rd Generation
• iPod touch 4th Generation
• iPod touch 6th Generation
• Apple TV 2
• Apple TV 3

Should you upgrade?

If you like what you saw then yes -- update in the fall! But you should take these two thoughts into consideration. First, if you're on older and slower hardware like iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 4 and you're reading this just as iOS 6 becomes available, you might want to wait a few days and make sure there aren't any reports of excessive sluggishness or other issues. Second, if you're jailbroken and like to remain jailbroken, and don't like tethered jailbreaks, you might want to wait until an iOS 6 jailbreak for your device is released. (iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPhone 4S might take a while.) Otherwise iOS 6 is a fantastic update with incredible new functionality -- and it's free. It will take your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch in a entirely new direction.

FAQ:

What features are compatible with my device?

• Siri and Voice Diction require iPhone 4S or new iPad (3rd generation).
• Shared Photo Streams require iPhone 3GS or later or iPad 2 or later.
• Flyover require iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later.
• Passbook is iPhone and iPod Touch only.
• FaceTime over 3G requires iPhone 4S or new iPad (3rd generation).
• Turn-by-turn navigation require iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later.
• VIP list, VIP and Flagged smart mailboxes require iPhone 3GS or later or iPad 2 or later.
• Offline Reading List require iPhone 4 or later or iPad 2 or later.
• AirPlay Mirroring require iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later.

Is there Facebook integration?

• Yes, along with Twitter integration from iOS 5.

Does Maps still use Google Maps and have Street View?

• No, iOS 6 has been redesigned to include Apple's own maps. Street View has been replaced with Turn-by-turn navigation on the compatible devices.

Does iOS 6 include widgets or toggles?

• No. But you can view stocks, weather and post tweets or update your Facebook status from Notification Center.

I am a registered developer, can I download iOS 6?

• Yes. It can be downloaded from the Developer Center.

I am not a registered developer, can I download iOS 6?

• Please checkout this thread.

Can iOS 6 be jailbroken?

• Yes, with the latest version of Redsn0w (Mac, Windows) on the following devices:
  • iPod touch 4G
  • iPhone 3GS
  • iPhone4 (GSM)
  • iPhone4 (CDMA)
• You can follow this guide to jailbreak iOS 6.
• Let it be noted that this is a tethered jailbreak meaning you will need to re-apply the jailbreak each time you power off your iPhone or iPod touch — and is intended for developers only, but anyone can apply the jailbreak to their iOS 6 device if they really want to. Keep in mind that there is no functional Cydia, just SSH for developers.
• To install packages please read this thread.

Can I upgrade OTA (Over the Air) when iOS 6 is released?

• If you are running iOS 5 or later and have a compatible device then yes. And you can still use iTunes to upgrade.

What are the 200 new features of iOS 6?

• Checkout the Community Project of finding all iOS 6 features.

Where can I see more iOS 6 Screenshots?

• Checkout the iOS 6 Beta Screenshots Thread.

If you have any questions, just ask!

*Reserved*

You should publish an iBook. Fantastic work.

There's too much work involved and it may or may not cost money to publish an iBook.

I'm not sure what you mean by that?