With iOS 6, Apple moves towards a Google-free world
| ||
The software is positioned as a new front to take on the might of Google’s Android operating system
| ||
Rich Jaroslovsky
| ||
The new version of iOS, the software that runs Apple’s
iPhones and iPads, may be more important for what was taken away than
for any of the things added.
Gone from iOS 6 are two formerly built-in Google apps that were integral to previous versions of the operating system: Google Maps and YouTube. (The latter, at least, can be reinstalled from the App Store.) Google’s search capability is still there, but Apple’s improvements to Siri, its voice-based personal assistant, provide an alternative way of finding more and more information. And a new Apple app called Passbook represents a toe in the water of mobile payments, something Google has aggressively been pursuing with its Google Wallet software. In short, while iOS 6 introduces some neat tricks into the iUniverse, it feels less like a major enhancement and more like another front in Apple’s increasingly bitter war over Google’s Android operating system. The new software comes pre-installed on the iPhone 5 and is available as a free download for iPads, iPod touches and previous iPhones. I tested it on a variety of devices, ranging from a current-model iPad to a three-generations-old iPhone 3GS, and found it smooth, stable and responsive. Panoramic Photos I also appreciated several of its new features, including bringing Siri to the iPad for the first time and allowing the iPhone 4S to take the same kind of panoramic photographs as the iPhone 5. But the change that’s grabbed the most public attention is the new Apple navigation app that has supplanted Google Maps. As I wrote in my iPhone 5 review last week, while the new app is gorgeous and the spoken turn-by-turn directions are a welcome addition, the software is too easily confused. In addition, it displays many fewer nearby points of interest. Still, it’s obvious by now that the new application is inferior to the one it replaced, and I expect Apple to devote considerable resources to remedy it. Smarter Siri It’s a path similar to the one the company is already following with Siri, which was introduced last year on the iPhone 4S. The voice assistant has proven to be a polarising feature, some users enjoying the convenience of just talking to their devices and others disliking it for its miscues. In general, I’m in the first camp, and like Siri’s new tricks. She — it? — now provides sports scores (and even sometimes point spreads), can make dinner reservations via Open Table, passes fewer queries to Google web searches and has generally gotten better at understanding what I want. For instance, when I asked the first version of Siri for directions to San Francisco’s 9 Lombard Street, she interpreted the “to” as “two”, and sent me to 29 Lombard Street; the software now interprets the question accurately. And the query “Do I need a jacket?” now yields weather information, rather than a list of nearby Men’s Wearhouse stores. The most intriguing new app in iOS 6 may be Passbook – not necessarily for what it does now but for what it may do someday. Location Aware Passbook is basically a single place for keeping tickets, boarding passes, loyalty and prepaid cards. But it has some wrinkles, like location and time awareness, that hint at more to come. I used Passbook to store a ticket to a San Francisco Giants baseball game by clicking on an e-mailed link. When I arrived at AT&T Park, my iPhone recognised where I was and displayed a message on the lock screen prompting me to display the ticket. At the turnstile, the electronic ticket was scanned, and I was in. Easy. Simple Pleasures A number of iOS 6’s 200 or so other changes amount to simple pleasures. For instance, a handy new Do Not Disturb setting lets you silence your device between specified hours, while allowing you to note who should be allowed through, and under what terms. Receive a call when you’re in a meeting or otherwise engaged? A finger-flick sends an automatic can’t-talk-now text. And if your data plan allows it, you can now conduct a FaceTime video chat over the cellular network. Along similar lines, Mail lets you designate messages from VIPs in your life for special attention. You can post to Facebook as well as Twitter from the Notification Center and from within many apps. Indeed, given Apple’s war with Google, it isn’t that far-fetched to imagine a day when even core search functions are handled by some Apple-designed replacement. But if the company wants to retain its reputation for putting the user experience ahead of all else, it had better be sure that anything it introduces is better than whatever it’s replacing. Bloomberg |
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
With iOS 6, Apple moves towards a Google-free world The software is positioned as a new front to take on the might of Google’s Android operating system
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Click here to see Original Photo Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - Great Maratha King
-
Click here to see Original Photo Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - Great Maratha King Shiwaji weapons
-
1 Land, Politics And Trade In South Asia: 2 Leadership In 21st Century: 3 Truth Is Multi Dimensional-CD Sri Sri Ravishankar Art 4 What ...
-
Click here for More articles Rashichakrakar Sharad Upadhye - Bhakti Sagar आखाडा का बखेडा? : शरद उपाध्ये - Rashichakra Sharad Upadhy...
-
Kokanatala Malvani Garana Garhana marathi garhane कोकणात देवाला गार्हाणं घालण्याची रीत अजूनही प्रचलीत आहे.चांगल्या प्रसंगी देवाची आठव...
-
आषाढी (देवशयनी) एकादशी इतिहास पूर्वी देव आणि दानव यांच्यात युद्ध पेटले. कुंभदैत्याचा पुत्र मृदुमान्य याने तप करून शंकराक...
-
स्त्रीला गरोदर कसे करावे ? पाहण्यासाठी येथे या मातृत्व प्रत्येक विवाहीत स्त्रीच्या आयुष्यात मातृत्व प्राप्त होणे ही अत्यंत आनंदाची तस...
-
Marathi Bold Actress Amruta Khanvilkar When Amruta Khanvilkar was the losing fina...
-
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS INFORMATION
-
सुरस कथा मार्केटिंगच्या Dhirubhai Ambani Marketing Story in Marathi कथा धिरुभाई अंबानी यांचे वडील गुजरातमधे ग्रामीण भागात प्राथमीक शीक...
Total Pageviews
Categories
- Mehandi Designs (1)
- rail chakra (18)
- rel chakra (17)
- relchakra (18)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2012
(1722)
-
▼
October
(226)
- Industrial design competition
- titles in our stock
- Fancy Nameplates for house doors
- Industrialist Akanksha Rathi found dead
- Security guard at Mahim ATM attacked
- Tough times for commuters will continue. After the...
- Biker crashes into Uddhav’s wife’s car at Kalanaga...
- Firemen don’t need life insurance, compensation gi...
- MODI MOCKS PM, CALLS HIM MAUN MOHAN SINGH
- Largest publisher: Random House, Penguin merge
- The Secret Series Complete Collection - Pseudonymo...
- In search of the lost children Families of the ki...
- ‘Cancel Wadia hospital lease’
- Twenty women ran away from a government-run women ...
- 10,646 Indians jailed abroad and forgotten
- A SIGN OF CHANGE As Belapur gets set to celebrate ...
- AFFORDABLE LUXE LIVING Luxury affordable housing o...
- The realty sector urgently requires the government...
- Rudraksh helps in stabilising and anchoring the bi...
- DUBAI VISA IS NOW OFFERED FOR FREE
- Get home décor that dazzles
- Answers queries from readers on property matters a...
- Govt steps in to protect poor kids in schools
- Home guard hurt in the eye at Currey Road stn
- No new teaching college: State Govt will not affi...
- Couple smuggles watches, held Watches worth Rs1.8...
- baby boy stolen from Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hos...
- NGOs, med council laud court order on PCPNDT Act
- People are forwarding chain mails which claim that...
- Two days after Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray made ...
- Anticipating a rise in noise pollution during Diwa...
- City felicitates astronomy Olympiad winners Team ...
- Soundtrack to history: 1878 Edison audio unveiled
- Comedian Jaspal Bhatti killed in car accident
- Wrestling Between Two Cute Babies
- Springer Verlag titles
- Jejuri Mahakhanda Dasara - 42 kg sword lifted by t...
- Mehta publishing house contacts Marathi Book selle...
- New Editions
- Dropping of the words “Mao Zedong thought” from tw...
- Polls say combative Obama trumps subdued Romney in...
- King of Spain Juan Carlos I will be on a state vis...
- Bangla to Beed: Love’s labour lost 20-yr-old cros...
- LPG cap to up your hospital bills Higher costs of...
- Ex-chief secy, 25 state babus booked Initially es...
- Around the World in 80 Days is a popular movie tha...
- Roll up your sleeves for Sindoor Khela Bidding Go...
- HuJI threat: 14,500 cops fan out to likely terror ...
- A first in 40 years: Sena to tone down Dussehra rally
- HC lets the music play Refuses to cancel nod for ...
- received following titles in our stock
- New titles
- SEPT AND OCT NEW RELEASES FROM PENGUIN
- PENGUIN NEW RELEASE
- नजर दोष और उपाय
- Ex-chief information commissioner says wrongly mar...
- A CLOSE LOOK AT THE CHANGING TEACHING-LEARNING PRO...
- What does it take to reach out to a student — info...
- विलक्षण संग्राहक! नगरचे सुरेशराव जोशी SURESHRAO J...
- Ark Hotel Construction time lapse building 15 stor...
- विद्यार्थ्यांच्या ‘नजरबाणांपासून’ बचावासाठी शिक्षि...
- एका मिनिटात १०० अब्ज फोटो - Ramesh Raskar: Imaging...
- Beware of this killer pole Pole no. 12/2 on Harbo...
- Aug 11 riots mastermind arrested Cops claim the t...
- 36% children don’t get pocket money as their spend...
- titles in our stock
- Why saraswati is ignored Our obsession with worsh...
- A goddess among men Appreciates the charms of bei...
- Durga puja’s colonial roots The tradition of comm...
- A salt mine may seem like an unlikely tourist spot...
- Fiction’s got back it’s mojo
- In The Green Room, Wendell Rodricks is like a kind...
- Was Valmiki using Ram and Lakshman to clear Dandak...
- State commission reserves order in autistic child ...
- The rise of Vadra’s Nagar Mahesh Nagar held the p...
- At the Ramkrishna Math and Mission in Khar, seven ...
- Abducted kid rescued in 24 hrs
- WHY THE CHILD MAY RUN?
- For tiny tots, Navratri is all about little Golu d...
- Kunal Kapoor interview
- सिनेमॅटोग्राफर महेश लिमये - Mahesh Limaye Cinemato...
- Amitabh having back pain
- अर्धवट तोडलेला लंगर - Marathi Movie Langar Review
- Saif and Kareena kiss
- Review - "Student of the year" Hindi Movie
- १० ‘मस्ट’ आर्थिक गोष्टी - 10 must know Financial M...
- INORGANIC CHEMISTRY: A MODERN TREATISE D. Banerje...
- Attack police, lose passport
- MCOCA for 68 chain-snatchers, jeweller in Thane
- Do looks mean you would also have a good nature?
- Times Utsav. The event promises to be a haven for ...
- Is Aadhar not a valid ID proof?
- 31 Author: Upendra Namburi - Book Review
- Author Manreet Sodhi Someshwar talks to After Hrs ...
- Bickram Ghosh sets new percussion record
- penguin October new release
- Panel moots law to protect privacy ‘Unclear regul...
- CM’s right on 50-year vision
- Meditate for better agri yield! Yogic agriculture...
- Loser not weeper, helpline comes in handy
-
▼
October
(226)
No comments:
Post a Comment