17 ms·

Apple iOS6 Preview

146 points by rkrishnakumar 14y ago

wavephorm 14y ago
iOS 6 is not compatible with: iPad 1 Damnit, did I just have an aneurism? Seriously, the iPad 1 isn't old (or doesn't feel old to me), and it came out around the same time as the iPod touch 4th generation, which is supported. I'm really getting sick of this "throw-away hardware" culture that Apple is enforcing.
- Watabou 14y ago
  And yet the 3GS is supported. I think I'm right in saying that almost no one would have worried too much if Apple had dropped the 3GS too. They would have understood that the 3GS wouldn't be able to run the latest and greatest iOS. The fact that they are supporting the 3GS and not iPad 1 is surprising.
  - veyron 14y ago
    The 3GS phones are still being sold. It would be a real surprise if it didn't support a product currently on the market ...
    - sandipc 14y ago
      Agreed - the iPad 2 is also still being sold, so there's incentive to support that too (over the iPad 1).
    - artmageddon 14y ago
      I currently have a 3GS and am planning on getting the new iPhone when it's released, and will give my 3GS to a family member when that times comes. I'm excited about the new features for iOS6, but I'm a little wary of the performance. Upgrading from iOS4 to iOS5 was quite nice, but it caused a large number of performance hits when it came to app loading and switching between apps. Even bringing up my Messages would cause delays in which I could count to "10-Mississippi" before finally being able to let me interact with it. I don't expect it to perform the same was at an iPhone 4(s)/(new one), but it does make me grit my teeth a little sometimes :)
  - JunkDNA 14y ago
    The difference is that you can as of today get a 3GS free with contract. Don't underestimate Apple's desire to push competitors out of the low end of the smartphone market. Steve Jobs always said that the Mac went premium when they should have been going for market share and that Apple wouldn't make such a mistake again. Supporting the 3GS is critical for that. Especially when you consider global expansion. The iPad 1 does not have contract lock-in and is not actively being sold by Apple. Apple is not facing serious tablet competition right now so what incentive do they have to support the iPad 1? What are people going to do, throw out the iPad 1 for a Kindle Fire? Maybe if Windows 8 or Android get their act together, but right now, Apple is chasing demand and has little incentive to support old hardware when they can push you into the new one. This is why the tablet space needs some real competition.
    - simonh 14y ago
      It's likely still a memory issue though rather than anything to do with the CPU. As with the 4th gen touch, it's smaller display on the 3G likely means it has enough memory for enough of iOS 6 features compared to the iPad 1.
      - objclxt 14y ago
        I think you're probably right - to give some context, the iPhone 3GS and iPad 1 have the same amount of RAM (256MB), but the iPad has to push roughly four times the amount of pixels as the 3GS.
    - r00fus 14y ago
      > The iPad 1 does not have contract lock-in and is not actively being sold by Apple Bingo. Apple still sells new 3GS phones, so it would directly impact customers that may be buying their products today. This isn't the case with the iPad1. Apple rarely does things (solely) based on technical requirements or some architectural vision. It may be frustrating, but it is consistent - they are primarily customer focused, not specs-focused or vision-focused. Yes, there is attention to specs and an underlying vision of computing, but they are 2nd to the (paying) customers.
  - jsz0 14y ago
    The iPad 1 has the same 256MB of RAM but it has to allocate more than double the amount of space towards VRAM than a 3GS. Also in general iPad applications have a larger memory footprint than iPhone applications. Those two factors combined pretty much doomed it. Most importantly Apple just decided to starve it of RAM. Very bad design choice.
- ctdonath 14y ago
  I'm not surprised, as iOS went thru 3 versions on iPad, and the newest hardware is far enough ahead of the old that keeping up compatibility across all versions (original hardware included) would grow strained. But yeah, that's a big downer. I'm still lovin' my iPad 1, and won't be able to swing a replacement anytime soon (assuming the new iMacs show up, which to the surprise of many didn't today).
- blutonium 14y ago
  First generation hardware is difficult to support. They dropped the original iPhone in iOS 3.
  - xol 14y ago
    That almost gave me an aneurysm at the time - I had a first generation iPod touch, and it quickly became less useful app-wise. But long term it was still probably the right move, iOS 3 ran slowly on the first gen touch.
    - ja27 14y ago
      And iOS 6 dropped the third generation iPod Touch. Even iOS 4 is noticably laggy on mine.
- ZanderEarth32 14y ago
  Yea, this is a real downer. I still like my iPad 1 and was planning on upgrading eventually, but it feels like Apple is kind of forcing my hand here. PS I realize I don't have to upgrade, so Apple isn't really forcing me to do anything.
- fjarlq 14y ago
  An iPad 1 is not trash, even though it can't run iOS6. I suspect you'll be surprised how well it holds its value when you resell yours.
  - stock_toaster 14y ago
    Not to mention that, but you can jailbreak it and install things via cydia.
  - photojosh 14y ago
    Looked into selling our 64GB WiFi+3G iPad 1 just after the launch of the new iPad. Going rate on eBay was ~AU$350, originally AU$1050. For that, plus the losses in fees, we just kept it.
- ryannielsen 14y ago
  I'm really getting sick of this "throw-away hardware" culture that Apple is enforcing. Just because iPad 1 can't run iOS 6 doesn't mean it's suddenly "trash". Also, the first iPad is woefully underpowered – thanks to the display, it's quite memory and graphics constrained. It's entirely possible Apple wasn't willing get new iOS features working well on that hardware, especially considering iPad 1's install base is a rapidly decreasing percentage of the overall iPad market.
  - simonh 14y ago
    I forgot about the display. It's likely it increases memory requirements relative to the 4th gen touch enough to be a problem.
  - wavephorm 14y ago
    I don't care about new iOS features, or any of their iCloud nonsense, I know it won't support Siri (ipad1 lacked a microphone). What I do care about is the web browser on my iPad not receiving any software updates... ever. That's a serious problem. Without any software upgrades ever, the iPad will become the future IE. In fact, this is worse because of Apple's closed system they also won't allow 3rd parties to upgrade the software either. That means no new web browsers, audio players, or any other new type of software which might threaten their platform. Apple wants to pretend that software can't be upgraded because you're using old hardware, which not only is completely retarded, it defeats the purpose of software.
    - biot 14y ago
      iPad 1 does have a microphone; I use mine for Skype calling at times.
      - wavephorm 14y ago
        Oops, I've actually never used it. So I guess Siri should be able to work on iPad 1 also. Anything Apple says about the hardware being incapable of using Siri sounds is probably a load of their typical bullshit.
- simonh 14y ago
  Unlike all those 2010 Android devices that are all running ICS... er ... So far the main reason Apple has not supported new OS updates on old hardware is due to hardware requirements, usually memory. I agree it seems odd as the 4th gen touch is basically the same spec as the iPad 1, but in general their record in this area is unmatched by any of their competition. Nobody else even comes close.
  - gnaffle 14y ago
    I know, but that's really no excuse. I don't have a problem with Apple dropping support for old hardware, but this feels a little forced on a device that's only two years old. Of course, forced obsolescence is a fact of life with commercial, proprietary products, and of course you're not entitled to software updates apart from bugfixes. But it's very different world compared to the PC world where companies like Microsoft and other OS vendors have an incentive to stretch compatibility as far back as possible. As more and more developers drop support for iOS 5, an otherwise perfectly working device becomes less and less valuable, which is a shame. Of course an option is still to jailbreak it.
    - simonh 14y ago
      So what should they do about the memory limitations on old devices. Just not add more features to the OS, so it still works on the older hardware?
      - gnaffle 14y ago
        No, they could add features, but leave out those features on older devices just like they have done previously with each new iOS release. Many if not most of the new features in iOS 6 doesn't require more processing power.
- mikeash 14y ago
  You automatically assume hardware is trash when it doesn't support the latest OS but still works just fine with the older version, and you're blaming Apple for a throw-away culture? I think you need to look in a mirror....
  - alanh 14y ago
    A significant number of apps require the latest version of the OS. The utility really does drop off if you are a major OS version or two behind. Trash? Maybe not, but definitely worth much, much less. I agree that 2.5 years is far too soon to stop updating the iPad’s OS.
    - lotu 14y ago
      Remember how computer were last decade, and you need to buy a new one every year and a half? Well that's tablets and smartphones now.
      - alanh 14y ago
        No, it was never “every year and a half”! It was more like like every two years for hardcore gamers and at least 3 years for real people.
- bjustin 14y ago
  The iPad 1 is more than two years old, so is not supported in upcoming OS versions. Every iOS devices has been updated only two major OS versions so far; it looks like the 3GS will be the first to beat this trend with three major OS updates from iOS 3, but has the advantage of a rather low resolution screen needing less memory for graphics.
- UnHappy 14y ago
  Maybe Apple should warn people that when they shell out $600.00 for an Ipad that in about 2 years Apple will no longer support it with their new software. I was looking to buy an Apple laptop. Not now. Not EVER! Why would I? will Apple refuse to support that with new software in 2 years? What a JOKE. I did not know that my iPad would be treated by Apple like a disposable throw away item like a cardboard camera. My first purchase of an Apple product will be my last. I took a bite of the apple and all I got was a worm. Steve Jobs told us it was a magical device. I feel it was more of a rotten apple
- easp 14y ago
  It's kind of lame, but it was clear within weeks after launch that the original iPad was gimped for RAM. Apple manged to make it bearable for a while, but iOS 5 on the original iPad has always been hitchy with a crashy Mobile Safari, so it's no surprise that iOS isn't going to be supported.
RowanH 14y ago
Did I just read this right "iOS 6 brings even better web browsing to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch." .... "And when you’re posting a photo or video to eBay, Craigslist, or another site, you can take photos and video — or choose from your Camera Roll — without leaving Safari." mobile web just took a huge step forward if so.....
- ceejayoz 14y ago
  Yep, it looks like Safari's getting upload support. Finally!
- kingofspain 14y ago
  Ooh, if this means that even a file upload limited to photos is available then that makes my life a million times easier.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  This has been in HTML for almost 2 years now. Rather than being a step forward foe the mobile web, it shows how behind the mobile web is, as the two most dominant players in mobile only update their browsers once a year. I'm guessing iOS6 doesn't add support for IndexedDB either. So we're stuck using the deprecated WebSQL until mid 2013 or later.
  - acdha 14y ago
    > it shows how behind the mobile web is, as the two most dominant players in mobile only update their browsers once a year. As opposed to the desktop world where IE 8 is still your best-case minimum browser?
    - 0x006A 14y ago
      As opposed to the desktop where you can install any browser you want.
      - acdha 14y ago
spot 14y ago
looks like a lot of catchup with android. from maps to sharing to video chat to reply with text message to offline browsing, android has all of this. competition is a wonderful thing. this is the right way to do it (not with a lawsuit)
- wahnfrieden 14y ago
  Easy reply messages / reminders accessible when you have an incoming call? Passbook? (this one is huge)
  - fluidcruft 14y ago
    > Easy reply messages / reminders accessible when you have an incoming call? Reply via text has been a popular feature in custom Android ROMs for a while. Setting a reminder is new to me, though.
    - jaxn 14y ago
      Reply via text was a key feature on Palm Treo a decade ago. I believe Blackberry too. The reminder looks very cool. I use iOS reminders every day. Often with location info too.
    - fpgeek 14y ago
      Ironically, those "copyists" Samsung and HTC had "reject call with text" in their Gingerbread editions of TouchWiz and Sense (I'm not sure about earlier skins since I haven't used them), even before Google added it to ICS. I'm sure both are kicking themselves that they didn't try to patent it (though I suppose patents move slowly, so maybe they have).
      - dirtyaura 14y ago
        It's likely not patentable, similar feature has been in old Nokia phones years ago. Many current mobile usage ideas, like e.g. location based reminders, Nokia had in design board or development internally already in early 2000s. Many ideas are common sense. At the end of the day, ideas don't matter that much, it's the execution that matters.
ashazar 14y ago
Just a wasted 1 year... Not much of an improvement since iOS 5. Maps (with turn-by-turn navigation) and offline reading seems nice, but nothing else.
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  But they've added a lot of new developer APIs, which is the loveliest part. But as an avid iOS user, I call my beloved platform semi-broken until it gets a decent inter-app communication channel (something better than documents in the cloud). I'm disappointed that I have to wait for at least iOS 7 for that...
  - ashazar 14y ago
    Yes, you are right about the new APIs. Since i'm not an iOS developer, i was looking from the eye of an end-user. "I'm disappointed that I have to wait for at least iOS 7 for that..." Couldn't agree more.
- jsz0 14y ago
  iOS is a mature platform at this point. Apple doesn't usually shuffle things around or make huge changes just to say they did it. It has to fix a specific problem or add enough functionality to justify increasing complexity. Some significant changes weren't really covered in detail (App Store redesign) so likely there will be more to come on iOS6 when the 6th generation iPhone is released. (or just read the rumor sites later today to get all the little details)
- cdcarter 14y ago
  I think Passbook is actually the star of this upgrade. My phone noticing I walked into a Starbucks and giving me a quick shortcut to bring up that barcode? Brilliant!
  - buro9 14y ago
    You have no idea how much of an advertiser wet dream this capability is. When I worked for Yell/Yellowbook, one of the most common requests was for anything that we could develop that could "Allow a shop to know when you were walking by, and offer deals and enticements to get you either into the shop fully or to push you towards the items that they most want to sell to you.". This never didn't horrify me. May be good for them, but terrible for consumers. If Apple have managed to package the functionality such that consumers are excited by it then it is a gold mine for Apple.
leeb 14y ago
Impressed by all the new accessibility features! Guided Access seems like it will be hugely useful for both parents and professionals working with children with autism - in addition to the example from the keynote of administering tests on the iPad.
- jasonlotito 14y ago
  A big yes! As a father of an autistic child, the first thing I actually cheered for was being able to lock out the home button! Such a simple thing will make a big difference. I haven't even spent much time looking at the other features under Guided Access yet.
- duskwuff 14y ago
  Guided Access also seems like it'd be useful for setting up applications for "kiosks" and other restricted environments.
timdorr 14y ago
Interesting that the new Maps makes no mention of public transit support. Is that gone completely now? It looks like your app can register as a "router" to support different types of navigation routing, but it would suck if that is no longer built in.
- rb2k_ 14y ago
  At least the beta supposedly just points you at the app store for public transport in Boston. (haven't tried this myself, asked a friend of mine who installed the beta)
  - stevenp 14y ago
    Right now transit directions are dead in the water since nothing in the App Store supports the new API yet.
    - alanh 14y ago
      "Dead in the water" means no progress will be made. http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/dead+in+the+water.html http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/dead+in+the+wat...
- technoslut 14y ago
  Since it was Google's data, Apple will probably build it back in at some other point since it's what they've done previously.
  - glhaynes 14y ago
    Hopefully Google will produce (and be allowed) a Google Maps app for iOS.
    - glogla 14y ago
      And we will see whether Apple will allow such app in their store. I would imagine they will not, because they would rather have people using their own maps, but perhaps they will be benevolent this time.
chuinard 14y ago
If you look at the Passbook preview (http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#passbook http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#passbook), the example is 'John's card' with Starbucks. Johnathan's card anyone?
- jmelloy 14y ago
  Their examples almost always use an Apple ID with the name "Johnny Appleseed"
sgt 14y ago
Does the "iOS 6" image seem blurry to someone else or is it just me? That's not very Apple-like.
- ynniv 14y ago
  Good catch! The image is 668x222, but the img tag is width="667" height="221". <img src="http://images.apple.com/ios/ios6/images/title.jpg" width="667" height="221" ...>
antr 14y ago
I'm very curious about the Passbook app. This seems to be the beginning of Apple's payments platform, and not just that; coupons, location based alerts, and - why not - P2P payments.
- revscat 14y ago
  Yeah, this stuck out to me as well, more than pretty much anything else they announced this morning. This has the potential to be quite a large piece of their ecosystem. If they do it like they have done with iCloud -- starting out with a few applications, then expand its functionality later -- then it could be quite interesting.
  - MBCook 14y ago
    That's exactly what I was thinking. Android has a lot of features. Turn by turn directions? Android has had it for years. Notifications? Android first. Video calls over cellular? Android apps did that. But Passport, that's a fantastic feature. Adding in the geofencing (so my airline ticket shows up when I get to the airport) is genius. But more than anything else, you know that everyone is going to integrate into this. Every brand already has their own app (some with this sort of functionality). That's going to be a HUGE block of users. Android apps can't easily fill that space, because they'll all have different standards. The fact that there is only one standard on iOS now is very convenient. Google could add one, but that would take dev time, not to mention how long it would take to get 5.0 on a reasonable number of devices. It wasn't a headline, but it could easily be one of those features that everyone ends up loving and using all the time.
    - WrkInProgress 14y ago
      Some of the ideas behind passport are available in other apps or on other platforms. Windows Phone 7.5 has something very similar for boarding passes/departure information via live tiles. The downsides to the Windows Phone approach is that it's for specific apps and specific airlines. What do you mean by "Android apps can't easily fill that space, because they'll all have different standards." ? Passport looks very similar to part of the features already available in things like Google Wallet and Square's Card Case. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this doesn't have the potential to be great for Apple, iPhone users, retailers, and iOS app developers ....
rflrob 14y ago
One of my greatest points of irritation with the old Maps app is that there are no scale bars. People working on Google Maps have told me it's Apple's problem, and Apple employees (though granted not people directly involved with iOS) have told me it's Google's problem. Maybe now that it's all under one roof, someone can figure out how to put them in...
- whalesalad 14y ago
  I wish the zoom slider existed too. Sometimes I cannot afford to use two hands to pinch-squeeze and it would be nice to adjust zoom level with one finger.
  - astral303 14y ago
    you can double-tap with one finger or two fingers to do stepped zoom in or zoom out
vmyy99 14y ago
Siri needs to learn R-R-Russian :).
astral303 14y ago
Maps with turn-by-turn navigation (long overdue) and transit APIs sound very promising. Having portable maps is one of the key strengths of a smartphone and this kind of lower-level integration now kicks it up a notch. He mentioned "biking and hiking" for the transit apps: that's exciting! Also, turn-by-turn navigation has this "overview" mode--tap it and you exit the forced-point-of-view navigation and get to pan around the map in 2D mode. This is critical for being able to inspect the area for improvised routes. In the past, this has not been easy to do on all my old-school GPS navigation devices, including a Tom Tom hardware unit of a year ago. Cannot compare to Google Navigation or Tom Tom on the iPhone, so it would be great if anyone familiar with those can chime in. Fully vector maps (no more f'king double tap to get that shit at pixel-perfect view) and much more legible traffic marking (such that it doesn't kill the name of the street) are two minor changes that will have a major impact for me personally.
- JoeCortopassi 14y ago
  Maps in iOS6 look great, but will moving away from Google break legacy apps for <5.1? I'm sure main stuff will integrate pretty seamlessly, but what about the little stuff? (e.g. in a UIWebView, if I make a link to google maps, when the user clicks it, they are taken to the Map app). In the long run, it's the right decision, I'm just eager to test some of our MapKit apps on iOS6, to see what breaks
  - vijaykiran 14y ago
    FWIW, my small app which uses MKMapView just to show a location - works fine on iOS6 as is. Of course. I'd guess that API (is and) will be backward compatible.
  - _frog 14y ago
    I'll chime in here as I'm currently working on an app that uses MapKit extensively. MKMapViews work in pretty much the same way as they did in iOS 5, no breaking changes. The one thing that did break in my case was the feature of my app that opened up a walking route in the old Maps app. On iOS 5 this is done by redirecting any maps.google.com URL requests to the Maps app but of course this doesn't work with the new method. Thankfully they've replaced this with a generic API that allows you to programmatically create a routing request (no more string concatenation!) and pass it to any app which implements the required protocol for handling it, right now that's just the Maps app but I'm sure that selection will expand once iOS 6 is out.
robomartin 14y ago
I wish they had added some form of multi-user or user control to iOS. Today, if you hand your iOS device to someone they can access things you might not want them to. Same if you loose it or need a repair. I'd love to setup users for kids and guests and segment app access in this fashion.
oomkiller 14y ago
Anyone able to download the beta yet, or is everyone getting "Access Denied" like I am?
chrislomax 14y ago
It's hard to get excited when there is no mention of how well it is supported in the UK. I don't know how well Siri will do in the UK with the updates and if we will get the map support for turn by turn. We still can't search for businesses in the UK
- neilparikh 14y ago
  It's the same in Canada. It's quite frustrating, especially when that's one of the heavily marketed parts of Siri.
gav 14y ago
I was interested to see "The Transamerica Pyramid Building is a registered service mark of Transamerica Corporation" at the bottom of the page. I can't see how using a photograph of SF requires this disclaimer.
- dsuriano 14y ago
  Better safe than sorry? I agree with you, but maybe Transamerica Corporation's legal department would think it's too close to their ads and such (huge stretch though).
Derbasti 14y ago
So... is this maps thing going to work in Europe?
Casc 14y ago
Passport could be pretty big... point of sale advertising, in store purchases, promotion, etc... A lot of potential revenue here. I had an idea similar a while back and then found... http://keyringapp.com/ http://keyringapp.com/ Apple is in a much better position to launch something like this, as it needs quite a few relationships difficult for a new start up to establish and scale.
hughw 14y ago
No word on WebGL support in Safari -- anyone have any information?
- GuiA 14y ago
  Running the iOS6 developer preview here on iPhone 4S (will try on iPad at home tonight)— WebGL still doesn't work in mobile safari.
  - hughw 14y ago
    Thanks! Bad news, though.
alanfalcon 14y ago
I've been trying to get serious about claiming specific periods of the day for productivity, and have been trying to find a good way to allow my wife to still contact me in case of emergencies while otherwise preventing other distractions from coming through on my phone. The new Do Not Disturb features are exactly what I've been looking for, and I really like some of the specific touches like the ability to let people call twice to bypass the setting.
- hrbrtglm 14y ago
  That's a nice feature, but still looks half-baked for me. It's now ios6 and you still need to jailbreak your iphone to blacklist people harassing you with phone calls or imessage. What I do need is a blacklist feature which send to /dev/null people I don't want to talk to or receive imessage or sms from, and the DND feature looks more like a whitelist only available to phone calls. Maybe in ios 7 ? It seems like a basic feature and I wonder which Apple Developper Program rule prevent to develop such an app available in the app store.
  - DeepDuh 14y ago
    Can't you just blacklist on your provider?
    - hrbrtglm 14y ago
      No, I can't ! There's no way a provider could help you block unwanted imessages sender or unwanted facetime caller anyway. What is your provider who let you do that for free on behalf of apple products ?
      - DeepDuh 14y ago
        well ok, with imessage it doesn't work, but you also talked about phone calls. I agree, blacklisting should be there.
- kschua 14y ago
  If you are using a Blackberry, my Blackberry App (Callernizer) does exactly that.
gbog 14y ago
The same way the answer to a headline with a question mark is no, every time I read "even more" in a new product description I understand "nothing new", and there are a lot of "even more" on this one.
cageface 14y ago
iOS was a revelation in 2007 but it seems to have stalled since then. The static grid of information-free tiles and clunky task management are starting to feel downright archaic even compared to Android and their decent into cheap skeuomorphism continues unabated. Apple is lucky Google is having so much trouble getting ICS out there.
- jsz0 14y ago
  On the flip side both the iPhone and iPad have amazing customer satisfaction numbers so we can probably conclude that most iOS users like things the way they are. Why would Apple want to change it up too much? If live tiles or better task management were important we'd all be using WP7 or WebOS.
  - cageface 14y ago
    Sure, it shows how far ahead of the game Apple was in 2007. But they've left the door open for competitors, in my opinion. If Google had the distribution issues plaguing ICS sorted out they would be in trouble, IMO, particularly because the iOS UI conventions are more awkward on tablets and that's currently Apple's stronghold.
methodin 14y ago
I find it strange, but perhaps I'm just missing some crucial, that it appears as if this update is really just app updates for ios? I do not own any ios device but I normally expect some updates to the OS itself in some capacity. Am I reading this list wrong?
neilparikh 14y ago
Anyone know when the iOS 6 SDK will be released to non-paying developers? I'm not enrolled in the developer program, as I have no intention of publishing an app to the app store at the moment, but I'd like to play around with the new APIs.
- ben1040 14y ago
  Free developer accounts get to download the SDK when the iOS software is released to the public. And since major iOS releases are tied to new iPhone releases, you're looking at sometime this fall.
vu0tran 14y ago
Not sure how I feel about the Facebook integration...
vu0tran 14y ago
A bit bummed that Siri in iOS 6 won't be supporting iPhone 4
shellehs 14y ago
China will be a very significant market for Apple. Here Google gains too much competitors, the biggest competitors are partners of Apple now. And also the market potential, there are still lot of demand of iOS devices, Mac OS devices, more than North America.

146 points by rkrishnakumar 14y ago

iOS 6 is not compatible with: iPad 1 Damnit, did I just have an aneurism? Seriously, the iPad 1 isn't old (or doesn't feel old to me), and it came out around the same time as the iPod touch 4th generation, which is supported. I'm really getting sick of this "throw-away hardware" culture that Apple is enforcing.

Watabou 14y ago
And yet the 3GS is supported. I think I'm right in saying that almost no one would have worried too much if Apple had dropped the 3GS too. They would have understood that the 3GS wouldn't be able to run the latest and greatest iOS. The fact that they are supporting the 3GS and not iPad 1 is surprising.
- veyron 14y ago
  The 3GS phones are still being sold. It would be a real surprise if it didn't support a product currently on the market ...
  - sandipc 14y ago
    Agreed - the iPad 2 is also still being sold, so there's incentive to support that too (over the iPad 1).
  - artmageddon 14y ago
    I currently have a 3GS and am planning on getting the new iPhone when it's released, and will give my 3GS to a family member when that times comes. I'm excited about the new features for iOS6, but I'm a little wary of the performance. Upgrading from iOS4 to iOS5 was quite nice, but it caused a large number of performance hits when it came to app loading and switching between apps. Even bringing up my Messages would cause delays in which I could count to "10-Mississippi" before finally being able to let me interact with it. I don't expect it to perform the same was at an iPhone 4(s)/(new one), but it does make me grit my teeth a little sometimes :)
- JunkDNA 14y ago
  The difference is that you can as of today get a 3GS free with contract. Don't underestimate Apple's desire to push competitors out of the low end of the smartphone market. Steve Jobs always said that the Mac went premium when they should have been going for market share and that Apple wouldn't make such a mistake again. Supporting the 3GS is critical for that. Especially when you consider global expansion. The iPad 1 does not have contract lock-in and is not actively being sold by Apple. Apple is not facing serious tablet competition right now so what incentive do they have to support the iPad 1? What are people going to do, throw out the iPad 1 for a Kindle Fire? Maybe if Windows 8 or Android get their act together, but right now, Apple is chasing demand and has little incentive to support old hardware when they can push you into the new one. This is why the tablet space needs some real competition.
  - simonh 14y ago
    It's likely still a memory issue though rather than anything to do with the CPU. As with the 4th gen touch, it's smaller display on the 3G likely means it has enough memory for enough of iOS 6 features compared to the iPad 1.
    - objclxt 14y ago
      I think you're probably right - to give some context, the iPhone 3GS and iPad 1 have the same amount of RAM (256MB), but the iPad has to push roughly four times the amount of pixels as the 3GS.
  - r00fus 14y ago
    > The iPad 1 does not have contract lock-in and is not actively being sold by Apple Bingo. Apple still sells new 3GS phones, so it would directly impact customers that may be buying their products today. This isn't the case with the iPad1. Apple rarely does things (solely) based on technical requirements or some architectural vision. It may be frustrating, but it is consistent - they are primarily customer focused, not specs-focused or vision-focused. Yes, there is attention to specs and an underlying vision of computing, but they are 2nd to the (paying) customers.
- jsz0 14y ago
  The iPad 1 has the same 256MB of RAM but it has to allocate more than double the amount of space towards VRAM than a 3GS. Also in general iPad applications have a larger memory footprint than iPhone applications. Those two factors combined pretty much doomed it. Most importantly Apple just decided to starve it of RAM. Very bad design choice.
ctdonath 14y ago
I'm not surprised, as iOS went thru 3 versions on iPad, and the newest hardware is far enough ahead of the old that keeping up compatibility across all versions (original hardware included) would grow strained. But yeah, that's a big downer. I'm still lovin' my iPad 1, and won't be able to swing a replacement anytime soon (assuming the new iMacs show up, which to the surprise of many didn't today).
blutonium 14y ago
First generation hardware is difficult to support. They dropped the original iPhone in iOS 3.
- xol 14y ago
  That almost gave me an aneurysm at the time - I had a first generation iPod touch, and it quickly became less useful app-wise. But long term it was still probably the right move, iOS 3 ran slowly on the first gen touch.
  - ja27 14y ago
    And iOS 6 dropped the third generation iPod Touch. Even iOS 4 is noticably laggy on mine.
ZanderEarth32 14y ago
Yea, this is a real downer. I still like my iPad 1 and was planning on upgrading eventually, but it feels like Apple is kind of forcing my hand here. PS I realize I don't have to upgrade, so Apple isn't really forcing me to do anything.
fjarlq 14y ago
An iPad 1 is not trash, even though it can't run iOS6. I suspect you'll be surprised how well it holds its value when you resell yours.
- stock_toaster 14y ago
  Not to mention that, but you can jailbreak it and install things via cydia.
- photojosh 14y ago
  Looked into selling our 64GB WiFi+3G iPad 1 just after the launch of the new iPad. Going rate on eBay was ~AU$350, originally AU$1050. For that, plus the losses in fees, we just kept it.
ryannielsen 14y ago
I'm really getting sick of this "throw-away hardware" culture that Apple is enforcing. Just because iPad 1 can't run iOS 6 doesn't mean it's suddenly "trash". Also, the first iPad is woefully underpowered – thanks to the display, it's quite memory and graphics constrained. It's entirely possible Apple wasn't willing get new iOS features working well on that hardware, especially considering iPad 1's install base is a rapidly decreasing percentage of the overall iPad market.
- simonh 14y ago
  I forgot about the display. It's likely it increases memory requirements relative to the 4th gen touch enough to be a problem.
- wavephorm 14y ago
  I don't care about new iOS features, or any of their iCloud nonsense, I know it won't support Siri (ipad1 lacked a microphone). What I do care about is the web browser on my iPad not receiving any software updates... ever. That's a serious problem. Without any software upgrades ever, the iPad will become the future IE. In fact, this is worse because of Apple's closed system they also won't allow 3rd parties to upgrade the software either. That means no new web browsers, audio players, or any other new type of software which might threaten their platform. Apple wants to pretend that software can't be upgraded because you're using old hardware, which not only is completely retarded, it defeats the purpose of software.
  - biot 14y ago
    iPad 1 does have a microphone; I use mine for Skype calling at times.
    - wavephorm 14y ago
      Oops, I've actually never used it. So I guess Siri should be able to work on iPad 1 also. Anything Apple says about the hardware being incapable of using Siri sounds is probably a load of their typical bullshit.
simonh 14y ago
Unlike all those 2010 Android devices that are all running ICS... er ... So far the main reason Apple has not supported new OS updates on old hardware is due to hardware requirements, usually memory. I agree it seems odd as the 4th gen touch is basically the same spec as the iPad 1, but in general their record in this area is unmatched by any of their competition. Nobody else even comes close.
- gnaffle 14y ago
  I know, but that's really no excuse. I don't have a problem with Apple dropping support for old hardware, but this feels a little forced on a device that's only two years old. Of course, forced obsolescence is a fact of life with commercial, proprietary products, and of course you're not entitled to software updates apart from bugfixes. But it's very different world compared to the PC world where companies like Microsoft and other OS vendors have an incentive to stretch compatibility as far back as possible. As more and more developers drop support for iOS 5, an otherwise perfectly working device becomes less and less valuable, which is a shame. Of course an option is still to jailbreak it.
  - simonh 14y ago
    So what should they do about the memory limitations on old devices. Just not add more features to the OS, so it still works on the older hardware?
    - gnaffle 14y ago
      No, they could add features, but leave out those features on older devices just like they have done previously with each new iOS release. Many if not most of the new features in iOS 6 doesn't require more processing power.
mikeash 14y ago
You automatically assume hardware is trash when it doesn't support the latest OS but still works just fine with the older version, and you're blaming Apple for a throw-away culture? I think you need to look in a mirror....
- alanh 14y ago
  A significant number of apps require the latest version of the OS. The utility really does drop off if you are a major OS version or two behind. Trash? Maybe not, but definitely worth much, much less. I agree that 2.5 years is far too soon to stop updating the iPad’s OS.
  - lotu 14y ago
    Remember how computer were last decade, and you need to buy a new one every year and a half? Well that's tablets and smartphones now.
    - alanh 14y ago
      No, it was never “every year and a half”! It was more like like every two years for hardcore gamers and at least 3 years for real people.
bjustin 14y ago
The iPad 1 is more than two years old, so is not supported in upcoming OS versions. Every iOS devices has been updated only two major OS versions so far; it looks like the 3GS will be the first to beat this trend with three major OS updates from iOS 3, but has the advantage of a rather low resolution screen needing less memory for graphics.
UnHappy 14y ago
Maybe Apple should warn people that when they shell out $600.00 for an Ipad that in about 2 years Apple will no longer support it with their new software. I was looking to buy an Apple laptop. Not now. Not EVER! Why would I? will Apple refuse to support that with new software in 2 years? What a JOKE. I did not know that my iPad would be treated by Apple like a disposable throw away item like a cardboard camera. My first purchase of an Apple product will be my last. I took a bite of the apple and all I got was a worm. Steve Jobs told us it was a magical device. I feel it was more of a rotten apple
easp 14y ago
It's kind of lame, but it was clear within weeks after launch that the original iPad was gimped for RAM. Apple manged to make it bearable for a while, but iOS 5 on the original iPad has always been hitchy with a crashy Mobile Safari, so it's no surprise that iOS isn't going to be supported.

RowanH 14y ago

Did I just read this right "iOS 6 brings even better web browsing to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch." .... "And when you’re posting a photo or video to eBay, Craigslist, or another site, you can take photos and video — or choose from your Camera Roll — without leaving Safari." mobile web just took a huge step forward if so.....

ceejayoz 14y ago
Yep, it looks like Safari's getting upload support. Finally!
kingofspain 14y ago
Ooh, if this means that even a file upload limited to photos is available then that makes my life a million times easier.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
This has been in HTML for almost 2 years now. Rather than being a step forward foe the mobile web, it shows how behind the mobile web is, as the two most dominant players in mobile only update their browsers once a year. I'm guessing iOS6 doesn't add support for IndexedDB either. So we're stuck using the deprecated WebSQL until mid 2013 or later.
- acdha 14y ago
  > it shows how behind the mobile web is, as the two most dominant players in mobile only update their browsers once a year. As opposed to the desktop world where IE 8 is still your best-case minimum browser?
  - 0x006A 14y ago
    As opposed to the desktop where you can install any browser you want.
    - acdha 14y ago

spot 14y ago

looks like a lot of catchup with android. from maps to sharing to video chat to reply with text message to offline browsing, android has all of this. competition is a wonderful thing. this is the right way to do it (not with a lawsuit)

wahnfrieden 14y ago
Easy reply messages / reminders accessible when you have an incoming call? Passbook? (this one is huge)
- fluidcruft 14y ago
  > Easy reply messages / reminders accessible when you have an incoming call? Reply via text has been a popular feature in custom Android ROMs for a while. Setting a reminder is new to me, though.
  - jaxn 14y ago
    Reply via text was a key feature on Palm Treo a decade ago. I believe Blackberry too. The reminder looks very cool. I use iOS reminders every day. Often with location info too.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    Ironically, those "copyists" Samsung and HTC had "reject call with text" in their Gingerbread editions of TouchWiz and Sense (I'm not sure about earlier skins since I haven't used them), even before Google added it to ICS. I'm sure both are kicking themselves that they didn't try to patent it (though I suppose patents move slowly, so maybe they have).
    - dirtyaura 14y ago
      It's likely not patentable, similar feature has been in old Nokia phones years ago. Many current mobile usage ideas, like e.g. location based reminders, Nokia had in design board or development internally already in early 2000s. Many ideas are common sense. At the end of the day, ideas don't matter that much, it's the execution that matters.

ashazar 14y ago

Just a wasted 1 year... Not much of an improvement since iOS 5. Maps (with turn-by-turn navigation) and offline reading seems nice, but nothing else.

pooriaazimi 14y ago
But they've added a lot of new developer APIs, which is the loveliest part. But as an avid iOS user, I call my beloved platform semi-broken until it gets a decent inter-app communication channel (something better than documents in the cloud). I'm disappointed that I have to wait for at least iOS 7 for that...
- ashazar 14y ago
  Yes, you are right about the new APIs. Since i'm not an iOS developer, i was looking from the eye of an end-user. "I'm disappointed that I have to wait for at least iOS 7 for that..." Couldn't agree more.
jsz0 14y ago
iOS is a mature platform at this point. Apple doesn't usually shuffle things around or make huge changes just to say they did it. It has to fix a specific problem or add enough functionality to justify increasing complexity. Some significant changes weren't really covered in detail (App Store redesign) so likely there will be more to come on iOS6 when the 6th generation iPhone is released. (or just read the rumor sites later today to get all the little details)
cdcarter 14y ago
I think Passbook is actually the star of this upgrade. My phone noticing I walked into a Starbucks and giving me a quick shortcut to bring up that barcode? Brilliant!
- buro9 14y ago
  You have no idea how much of an advertiser wet dream this capability is. When I worked for Yell/Yellowbook, one of the most common requests was for anything that we could develop that could "Allow a shop to know when you were walking by, and offer deals and enticements to get you either into the shop fully or to push you towards the items that they most want to sell to you.". This never didn't horrify me. May be good for them, but terrible for consumers. If Apple have managed to package the functionality such that consumers are excited by it then it is a gold mine for Apple.

leeb 14y ago

Impressed by all the new accessibility features! Guided Access seems like it will be hugely useful for both parents and professionals working with children with autism - in addition to the example from the keynote of administering tests on the iPad.

jasonlotito 14y ago
A big yes! As a father of an autistic child, the first thing I actually cheered for was being able to lock out the home button! Such a simple thing will make a big difference. I haven't even spent much time looking at the other features under Guided Access yet.
duskwuff 14y ago
Guided Access also seems like it'd be useful for setting up applications for "kiosks" and other restricted environments.

timdorr 14y ago

Interesting that the new Maps makes no mention of public transit support. Is that gone completely now? It looks like your app can register as a "router" to support different types of navigation routing, but it would suck if that is no longer built in.

rb2k_ 14y ago
At least the beta supposedly just points you at the app store for public transport in Boston. (haven't tried this myself, asked a friend of mine who installed the beta)
- stevenp 14y ago
  Right now transit directions are dead in the water since nothing in the App Store supports the new API yet.
  - alanh 14y ago
    "Dead in the water" means no progress will be made. http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/dead+in+the+water.html http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/dead+in+the+wat...
technoslut 14y ago
Since it was Google's data, Apple will probably build it back in at some other point since it's what they've done previously.
- glhaynes 14y ago
  Hopefully Google will produce (and be allowed) a Google Maps app for iOS.
  - glogla 14y ago
    And we will see whether Apple will allow such app in their store. I would imagine they will not, because they would rather have people using their own maps, but perhaps they will be benevolent this time.

chuinard 14y ago

If you look at the Passbook preview (http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#passbook http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#passbook), the example is 'John's card' with Starbucks. Johnathan's card anyone?

jmelloy 14y ago
Their examples almost always use an Apple ID with the name "Johnny Appleseed"

sgt 14y ago

Does the "iOS 6" image seem blurry to someone else or is it just me? That's not very Apple-like.

ynniv 14y ago
Good catch! The image is 668x222, but the img tag is width="667" height="221". <img src="http://images.apple.com/ios/ios6/images/title.jpg" width="667" height="221" ...>

antr 14y ago

I'm very curious about the Passbook app. This seems to be the beginning of Apple's payments platform, and not just that; coupons, location based alerts, and - why not - P2P payments.

revscat 14y ago
Yeah, this stuck out to me as well, more than pretty much anything else they announced this morning. This has the potential to be quite a large piece of their ecosystem. If they do it like they have done with iCloud -- starting out with a few applications, then expand its functionality later -- then it could be quite interesting.
- MBCook 14y ago
  That's exactly what I was thinking. Android has a lot of features. Turn by turn directions? Android has had it for years. Notifications? Android first. Video calls over cellular? Android apps did that. But Passport, that's a fantastic feature. Adding in the geofencing (so my airline ticket shows up when I get to the airport) is genius. But more than anything else, you know that everyone is going to integrate into this. Every brand already has their own app (some with this sort of functionality). That's going to be a HUGE block of users. Android apps can't easily fill that space, because they'll all have different standards. The fact that there is only one standard on iOS now is very convenient. Google could add one, but that would take dev time, not to mention how long it would take to get 5.0 on a reasonable number of devices. It wasn't a headline, but it could easily be one of those features that everyone ends up loving and using all the time.
  - WrkInProgress 14y ago
    Some of the ideas behind passport are available in other apps or on other platforms. Windows Phone 7.5 has something very similar for boarding passes/departure information via live tiles. The downsides to the Windows Phone approach is that it's for specific apps and specific airlines. What do you mean by "Android apps can't easily fill that space, because they'll all have different standards." ? Passport looks very similar to part of the features already available in things like Google Wallet and Square's Card Case. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this doesn't have the potential to be great for Apple, iPhone users, retailers, and iOS app developers ....

rflrob 14y ago

One of my greatest points of irritation with the old Maps app is that there are no scale bars. People working on Google Maps have told me it's Apple's problem, and Apple employees (though granted not people directly involved with iOS) have told me it's Google's problem. Maybe now that it's all under one roof, someone can figure out how to put them in...

whalesalad 14y ago
I wish the zoom slider existed too. Sometimes I cannot afford to use two hands to pinch-squeeze and it would be nice to adjust zoom level with one finger.
- astral303 14y ago
  you can double-tap with one finger or two fingers to do stepped zoom in or zoom out

vmyy99 14y ago

Siri needs to learn R-R-Russian :).

astral303 14y ago

Maps with turn-by-turn navigation (long overdue) and transit APIs sound very promising. Having portable maps is one of the key strengths of a smartphone and this kind of lower-level integration now kicks it up a notch. He mentioned "biking and hiking" for the transit apps: that's exciting! Also, turn-by-turn navigation has this "overview" mode--tap it and you exit the forced-point-of-view navigation and get to pan around the map in 2D mode. This is critical for being able to inspect the area for improvised routes. In the past, this has not been easy to do on all my old-school GPS navigation devices, including a Tom Tom hardware unit of a year ago. Cannot compare to Google Navigation or Tom Tom on the iPhone, so it would be great if anyone familiar with those can chime in. Fully vector maps (no more f'king double tap to get that shit at pixel-perfect view) and much more legible traffic marking (such that it doesn't kill the name of the street) are two minor changes that will have a major impact for me personally.

JoeCortopassi 14y ago
Maps in iOS6 look great, but will moving away from Google break legacy apps for <5.1? I'm sure main stuff will integrate pretty seamlessly, but what about the little stuff? (e.g. in a UIWebView, if I make a link to google maps, when the user clicks it, they are taken to the Map app). In the long run, it's the right decision, I'm just eager to test some of our MapKit apps on iOS6, to see what breaks
- vijaykiran 14y ago
  FWIW, my small app which uses MKMapView just to show a location - works fine on iOS6 as is. Of course. I'd guess that API (is and) will be backward compatible.
- _frog 14y ago
  I'll chime in here as I'm currently working on an app that uses MapKit extensively. MKMapViews work in pretty much the same way as they did in iOS 5, no breaking changes. The one thing that did break in my case was the feature of my app that opened up a walking route in the old Maps app. On iOS 5 this is done by redirecting any maps.google.com URL requests to the Maps app but of course this doesn't work with the new method. Thankfully they've replaced this with a generic API that allows you to programmatically create a routing request (no more string concatenation!) and pass it to any app which implements the required protocol for handling it, right now that's just the Maps app but I'm sure that selection will expand once iOS 6 is out.

robomartin 14y ago

I wish they had added some form of multi-user or user control to iOS. Today, if you hand your iOS device to someone they can access things you might not want them to. Same if you loose it or need a repair. I'd love to setup users for kids and guests and segment app access in this fashion.

oomkiller 14y ago

Anyone able to download the beta yet, or is everyone getting "Access Denied" like I am?

chrislomax 14y ago

It's hard to get excited when there is no mention of how well it is supported in the UK. I don't know how well Siri will do in the UK with the updates and if we will get the map support for turn by turn. We still can't search for businesses in the UK

neilparikh 14y ago
It's the same in Canada. It's quite frustrating, especially when that's one of the heavily marketed parts of Siri.

gav 14y ago

I was interested to see "The Transamerica Pyramid Building is a registered service mark of Transamerica Corporation" at the bottom of the page. I can't see how using a photograph of SF requires this disclaimer.

dsuriano 14y ago
Better safe than sorry? I agree with you, but maybe Transamerica Corporation's legal department would think it's too close to their ads and such (huge stretch though).

Derbasti 14y ago

So... is this maps thing going to work in Europe?

Casc 14y ago

Passport could be pretty big... point of sale advertising, in store purchases, promotion, etc... A lot of potential revenue here. I had an idea similar a while back and then found... http://keyringapp.com/ http://keyringapp.com/ Apple is in a much better position to launch something like this, as it needs quite a few relationships difficult for a new start up to establish and scale.

hughw 14y ago

No word on WebGL support in Safari -- anyone have any information?

GuiA 14y ago
Running the iOS6 developer preview here on iPhone 4S (will try on iPad at home tonight)— WebGL still doesn't work in mobile safari.
- hughw 14y ago
  Thanks! Bad news, though.

alanfalcon 14y ago

I've been trying to get serious about claiming specific periods of the day for productivity, and have been trying to find a good way to allow my wife to still contact me in case of emergencies while otherwise preventing other distractions from coming through on my phone. The new Do Not Disturb features are exactly what I've been looking for, and I really like some of the specific touches like the ability to let people call twice to bypass the setting.

hrbrtglm 14y ago
That's a nice feature, but still looks half-baked for me. It's now ios6 and you still need to jailbreak your iphone to blacklist people harassing you with phone calls or imessage. What I do need is a blacklist feature which send to /dev/null people I don't want to talk to or receive imessage or sms from, and the DND feature looks more like a whitelist only available to phone calls. Maybe in ios 7 ? It seems like a basic feature and I wonder which Apple Developper Program rule prevent to develop such an app available in the app store.
- DeepDuh 14y ago
  Can't you just blacklist on your provider?
  - hrbrtglm 14y ago
    No, I can't ! There's no way a provider could help you block unwanted imessages sender or unwanted facetime caller anyway. What is your provider who let you do that for free on behalf of apple products ?
    - DeepDuh 14y ago
      well ok, with imessage it doesn't work, but you also talked about phone calls. I agree, blacklisting should be there.
kschua 14y ago
If you are using a Blackberry, my Blackberry App (Callernizer) does exactly that.

gbog 14y ago

The same way the answer to a headline with a question mark is no, every time I read "even more" in a new product description I understand "nothing new", and there are a lot of "even more" on this one.

cageface 14y ago

iOS was a revelation in 2007 but it seems to have stalled since then. The static grid of information-free tiles and clunky task management are starting to feel downright archaic even compared to Android and their decent into cheap skeuomorphism continues unabated. Apple is lucky Google is having so much trouble getting ICS out there.

jsz0 14y ago
On the flip side both the iPhone and iPad have amazing customer satisfaction numbers so we can probably conclude that most iOS users like things the way they are. Why would Apple want to change it up too much? If live tiles or better task management were important we'd all be using WP7 or WebOS.
- cageface 14y ago
  Sure, it shows how far ahead of the game Apple was in 2007. But they've left the door open for competitors, in my opinion. If Google had the distribution issues plaguing ICS sorted out they would be in trouble, IMO, particularly because the iOS UI conventions are more awkward on tablets and that's currently Apple's stronghold.

methodin 14y ago

I find it strange, but perhaps I'm just missing some crucial, that it appears as if this update is really just app updates for ios? I do not own any ios device but I normally expect some updates to the OS itself in some capacity. Am I reading this list wrong?

neilparikh 14y ago

Anyone know when the iOS 6 SDK will be released to non-paying developers? I'm not enrolled in the developer program, as I have no intention of publishing an app to the app store at the moment, but I'd like to play around with the new APIs.

ben1040 14y ago
Free developer accounts get to download the SDK when the iOS software is released to the public. And since major iOS releases are tied to new iPhone releases, you're looking at sometime this fall.

vu0tran 14y ago

Not sure how I feel about the Facebook integration...

vu0tran 14y ago

A bit bummed that Siri in iOS 6 won't be supporting iPhone 4

shellehs 14y ago

China will be a very significant market for Apple. Here Google gains too much competitors, the biggest competitors are partners of Apple now. And also the market potential, there are still lot of demand of iOS devices, Mac OS devices, more than North America.