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Review: Apple iOS 6

Core What's New Major Changes Tweaks Wrap-Up Comments  31  

Sep 21, 2012, 8:33 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

iOS 6 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch adds tons of new features, but not all of them work the way they should. Apple managed to pull even with the competition with some of the new features, but still lags in others. Phone Scoop digs deep with iOS 6.

Apple's annual update to its smartphone and tablet platform is less a revelation and instead is more a retrench. Apple is clearly digging in to defend itself from competitors such as Android and Windows Phone. iOS 6 adds plenty of new features, but less pizzazz. Are the platform's new powers enough to fend off the onslaught from Google, or are they just enough to bring parity to the two battling behemoths?

Core

The sixth version of iOS doesn't look or feel all that much different than the original version of iOS did. There are simply more toggles, more apps, more controls, and more functions to play with. The home screen behavior and settings menus are unchanged, as it has been since iOS 1. Sure, Apple has nipped and tucked here and there with respect to the design and appearance, but by and large anyone familiar with iOS 1 will feel right at home with iOS 6. I, for one, wish Apple would refresh the look and feel in a way similar to how Google has updated Android over the years.

If performance matters more to you than aesthetics, you'll be pleased with iOS 6. Despite the fact that there's more to the operating system, it doesn't suffer when it comes time to get some work done. In our tests, it behaved the same on the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and the iPhone 5. There was no perceptible difference in speed. iOS remains the fastest mobile operating system available. It is fluid, graceful, and eye-blinkingly fast. iOS 6 can run the most insane and graphics-intensive games without even the slightest pause in performance. No other platform is as quick to respond to user input.

Core  

About the author, Eric M. Zeman:

Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.

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LibtardExposer

Sep 23, 2012, 8:06 AM

If Android makes a new OS...

WOW I have upgraded from Gingerbread and ate an ICE Cream Sandwich not much different food is food long as it feels my belly..... Then people start crying about how it was not that much different! Then you have the people saying it is because it's a different type of food that makes it different... Well I am here to say Fanboys to their own it won't matter if apple makes a phone that could move a mountain but then critics will say I would get the free model on an upgrade because there is no difference between the two !!! GIve me a break throwing the 4g LTE Chip inside made it way different... Enough people are buying their products because it lasts longer than other phones (not saying the iphones wont break or that they don't have problems.....
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There are two ways that people are looking at the iPhone 5...

There are those who are comparing it only to previous iPhones, and by that standard, sure....it excels....

But then are those who are comparing the iPhone 5 to OTHER smartphones on th...
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bluecoyote

Sep 21, 2012, 9:41 PM

Widgets on Android aren't done right

Like Copy + Paste, Widgets feel like something Android still doesn't do right.


First, the lag-
There's often a noticeable 1-2 second (sometimes turning into a 5 second on start-up) pause before a widget refreshes if it isn't on your primary home screen, which on iOS is enough time to launch the app, see the info, and quit the application to go back to what you were doing.

Usually upon reboot, I have to swipe across all of my home screens to get each widget to 'load.'

Then, the drain-
On several occasions I've had widgets turn into complete battery drains, constantly calling on things like location services. Because Android's power meter isn't exactly transparent, you usually have to re-boot the phone or re-install each widget...
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I'm sorry to see your android experience wasn't like mine! I've had a couple android devices, but right now I'm using a G1. I've had superd and cyanogen on it, and right now I'm using cyanogen 5, just for reference. Personally, my battery drains away ...
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...
I just learned why my phone was not keeping my homescreen in memory. I checked spare parts and found a nifty little option that forces the phone to keep the homescreen in memory. Cool! So I don't have that issue any more.
Practice

Sep 21, 2012, 9:06 PM

But it's an iPhone!

But it's an Apple iPhone which is better than anything else, forever!! 👀
Unfortunately, Apple is starting to suffer due to its longstanding policy of holding back certain features so that they can give customers a reason to upgrade when they add them to the next version. They need to stop holding back and start putting ...
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inferno329

Sep 22, 2012, 6:57 PM

Left to Right panorama photos

All you need to do to shoot the panorama photo from right to left is hit the arrow on the screen, that will flip it. i thought that was retarted at first, but figgured out how to get it to go the other way 🙂
ElTriste

Sep 22, 2012, 1:32 PM

here come the iphan boys

To hate on teh fonescoopz! How dare you say apple was behind on technology!!! 👀
They are.... behind...... way behind
acdc1a

Sep 22, 2012, 9:33 AM

It Just Works!

...except when it doesn't. 😲
 
 
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