iOS 6 became available for download today and if you want to get up to speed on what exactly is included with update, check out my review here. Some of the major highlights are the completely redesigned Maps app, upgrades to Siri, and several other new features. But with iOS 6 there are over 200 new features and clearly I couldn't cover them all in my review.
Part of what makes this update a must-have for Apple's mobile devices are the numerous smaller tweaks that make using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch easier. I'm talking about the little conveniences that are an upgrade to previous versions that take away unnecessary steps or add a smart feature for your everyday phone use. I've rounded up five that I came across in my testing, but there are certainly many I could list here.
Hourly weather
Not everybody will use this feature, but when you work on the often foggy streets of San Francisco, you never know what kind of weather your going to get throughout the day. A common thing in this office is to ask the people around you, "Anyone been outside? Do I need a jacket?" Sure, we're spoiled with weather here for the most part and I can see when it's raining obviously, but it's not so clear what the weather is really like from the 6th floor window.
In iOS 6, I can go to the regular weather app on my home screen, find my city (which is often already up), touch the day of the week, and then the usual weekly outlook will instead show the weather by the hour. Obviously today is pretty comfortable (so it's a bad example), but I can certainly see where this little feature will come in handy.
The Share button What used to be a simple list of buttons stacked on top of each other was functional, but it wasn't pretty. The number of buttons was also limited by screen real estate and with new additions like Facebook integration, Apple needed to come up with a way to show more.
Now with iOS 6 you get a bunch of icons that spring into view when you hit the share button. The look is a lot like the home screen and offers your standard share locations like Messages, Facebook, and Twitter, but you also have the new Shared Photo Stream button handy.
Yes, it's a small change, but I like how it fits in with the overall iOS aesthetic.
Game Center challenges
Anyone who follows my weekly iOS collection on Fridays knows that I love to play games. Game Center has never really impressed me (I don't spend a lot of time using it), but a new feature is kind of cool when you want to both brag to a friend and try to get him to beat your high score in a game.
With the new iOS you can now issue a challenge to a friend who shares the same game with you. Simply go to your friend's page, touch the game in question, then touch his high score. A new window will open up where you can issue a challenge for your friend to beat your high score and you can even send a taunting message if you like. Your friend will receive a notification of the challenge and a special song will play on his device.
Now if Apple could just let me know what another friend is playing currently so that I could challenge or join him in a game, I'll like Game Center a bit more. Maybe in iOS 7?
iTunes preview history
Whenever I'm browsing the iTunes store for music, I like to check what's new, see what's hitting the most popular lists (and roll my eyes -- I'm not as young as I once was), then maybe I'll do some searches of favorite artists.
As I browse, I'll often use the preview button to see if I like a new song. Sometimes I even listen to a clip of music I already have (you know you do it too). But after a browsing session, I don't really keep track of what I was looking at.
In the update, you'll now have a new button in the upper right hand corner of the interface that shows your preview history. It's nothing fancy, but it lists out all the songs I have previewed so now I'll be able to go back later and buy a song if I want.
Yelp-powered restaurant listings
One of the biggest updates in iOS 6 is the new Maps app that replaces the Google-powered offering you used in previous versions of the OS. One small feature I think a lot of people will appreciate are the new Yelp-powered options when you search for restaurants.
Now, when you search for, say, "Mexican Food" the Maps app will drop pins on restaurant locations just like before. But now when you touch the blue arrow to get more info, you'll find a little more to browse than just the address and phone number.
New tabs across the top of the interface let you look at Yelp reviews for the restaurant as well as user taken pictures of the food. It's not a big deal, and you could probably open Yelp to see these features, but it's great when you're doing a search on the road and are having trouble making a decision on what to eat.
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