What’s Exciting in iOS 6?

This morning at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco Scott Forstell introduced iOS 6 – the next version of the operating system powering your iPhone and iPad that will be available in October.

You can get a full iOS 6 Preview from Apple. Here are the new features I’m most excited about.

New Maps with Turn by Turn Navigation

Sorry TomTom, like Android iOS 6 now ships with free turn-by-turn navigation and an entirely Apple designed mapping solution (no more Google Maps). Somewhat hidden in fine print turn-by-turn is only available on iPhone 4S (and powered by Siri). Siri still doesn’t officially support New Zealand English so we’ll see how well she manages telling you to turn left onto Karangahape Road. It’s totally mindboggling that Apple has gone head-to-head with Google flying their own planes to map and photo the world. Two features missing-in-action in the new Maps app, the first won’t be missed (Google ads) but it also appears there’s no longer street view.

Facebook intergration
Like it or not Facebook has become one of the default ways of keeping in touch with friends and family. Like a much better White Pages or email client Facebook is always up-to-date and organized while apps become more interesting with friends (if you all permission). Sometimes it’s the simple things that make all the difference, like seeing a friendly face when your phone rings.

Passbook
This one is likely to take a will to filter down and be widely usable in New Zealand as it requires major corporate partners to get on board. Similar in some ways to Google or Square Wallet, Passbook keeps all your loyalty cards, coupons and tickets togeter in one app. Think of this as Apple’s first shot in the upcoming mobile commerce battle.

Lost mode
A very serious new feature that you’ll never want to use. If your iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen there are additional options you can set remotely including setting a pass code and allowing the finder to call you on a specified number. Find My iPhone is already under iCloud Settings on iOS 5 and you should set it up right now if you haven’t already.

Phone

Do Not Disturb heads up the new features available in the Phone app letting you silence ringtones and notifications at certain hours and from certain people. It’s something that’s been available forever in other handsets forever as profiles but implemented nicely by Apple in iOS 6 including a way to mute repeated calls from the same number.

Finally but less exciting is no support for iPhone 3G or iPad 1 – devices just three and two years old and making iOS 6 a strong reason to update your hardware as well.