Friday 28 September 2012

iOS6 - first impressions

The lure of up to date websocket support was too great, so I jumped to iOS6 pretty much immediately. Upgrade was mostly painless. Aside from the maps, the only real problem I experienced was with a broken gmail account. Seems this is a common problem simply fixed by removing the account from the phone, resetting it and putting the account back. Worked for me - I'm getting emails again. Yay.

Also, as I'm sure everyone is aware, the youtube app has gone away. There is one in the app store to replace it if needs be. There is apparently a google maps app on the way too.

I've not had the horrible experience with the new maps it seems everyone else in the whole world has had. I like the inclusion of places of interest on the main map screen. I dislike the loss of street view. So far, my searches haven't placed me in Spain, on the moon. I can't claim to be a heavy map user though.

Otherwise, iOS6 is pleasant. There are numerous minor UI tweaks - including moving the Bluetooth switch to the top level of the Settings menu and an expandable blob when refreshing emails which is apparently the best thing evaaa. It seems a little faster than iOS 5 but that might be my imagination.

The biggest change I've noticed is the redesign of the app store and music player. Both are pleasing changes to my eye - the icons are clearer and bolder and the target areas are better defined. I like the new "show all music from this album" feature (is it new? or did I miss it before?) which will no doubt inspire me to spend more money on music.

Oh and there is Passport. Great.

Summing up? Bit meh. Looks nice. Maps are (apparently) a problem. Time to go play with the new websockets.