My Favorite IOS6 features on the iPad 3 (so far..)

While the maps app indeed appears to not be up to much, this isn’t a reason not to update your iPad 3 to IOS6 becaise rumour is Google have a Maps app waiting for approval and there are many many new features the update does provide.

These are a few i’ve run across in the last two days.

Upload from within Safari

While there are Apps for most things you will need to use within the iPad infrastructure sometimes having Safari open means a quick Facebook.com can be quicker then opening up the Facebook App. Historically however uploading photos to Facebook from within Safari has not been something you could do. Well with IOS6 you now can upload images to sites from within Safari.

While the Facebook App might not seem like the best example, the WordPress site is much better still than the WordPress App. (And I know its an iPhone image, but the principle is the same)

App Store stays open when installing apps

I’ve covered this already however it was one of my top 5 gripes never really saw the point of dropping the user out of the App Store just to show the App is being installed. Well in IOS6 this no longer happens the install starts and you can carry on browsing those great apps.

New Apps installed on the Desktop get a little sign telling you they are new.

Share to options and dialog

The share dialog is getting better its moving in the right direction rather than being the dull text list of places you can share content to Apple have gone for something a little more OSX desktop like. This new look and feel interface is again a huge step forward and I’m hoping from a developers stand point eventually if not now they can add additional apps much like Android.

As it is the change and updated look and feel is a step in the right direction.

Sending multiple photos by mail

Getting photos into mail was a single photo per mail event in the previous versions of IOS has involved selecting a photo and sharing to mail. This was done on each photo one by one.. Not great IOS 6 when you click the share icon you can select multiple photos and send them to the mail app. This is a lot quicker than in previous versions and works really well..

iPad clock & weather

So while Passbook gets added to the iPhone iPad users get a new Clock. This clock tells the time (using the Swiss station clock according to the Swiss) locally and in other locations. When you add a location not only do you get the time there the world map shows you a little info-graphic of the weather in that place as well. As well as telling the time the clock provides an obligatory Alarm, countdown and stopwatch feature.

Adding a Photo directly from the Mail App

As well as getting photos into a mail via the photo app which can be a pain when you have already started typing a mail. Well it looks like this new feature might be a bonus.

• Open the Mail app and tap to compose a new message
• Tap and hold anywhere in the body area of your email message. This will bring up the popover menu shown in the screenshot above, with a button for ‘Insert Photo or Video’. Tap that button.
• That will bring up a Photos dialog where you tap to choose the album you want to select a photo or video from – Camera Roll, Photo Stream etc. Tap the album you want, then tap on the image or video you want to attach.
• You can tap and hold again in another email body area to insert more images.

Launch Apps with Siri

Apple told us Siri got smarter in iOS 6, but they neglected to mention that she’d launch apps for you. All you have to do is activate Siri and then say the word “launch” plus the name of the app you want to open. While this may seem a little lazy, it’s really useful if you have a bunch of apps and don’t necessarily remember where they all are. You no longer need to search—Siri can do the work for you.

Facebook integration

IOS5 brought us Twitter IOS6 brings us Facebook and being the number one sharing site on the web this is a big addition and one you cant help but think would have been there pre Steve Jobs demise had the man not held a grudge? Either way it is deeply embedded within Share and the Whole OS now

Send from notifications

With all the integration into sharing it would be a shame to not mention the update to Notifications. It’s a shame Apple didn’t do the Mountain Lion style Notifications done so well as part of the Jailbreak Cydia tweak however they have added Tweeting and Facebook messages from the Notifications.

Thoughts

Apple isn’t s company which make huge improvements on each release however we have seen on OSX that over time these improvements mount up. Little things like media upload via Safari and 3G facetime suddenly make this tablet even more of a road warrior option and I’m wondering if the day of the mobile is not so much dead but less smart and more function? Siri needs more of my attention and i’m sure under that hood again is more than is being shown right now. Like Google Now Siri should be learning about me, what i search for on the web and use on the iPad and providing me that information as well. And it will do over time..

This is a good release, this is not an Apple Maps release this is an IOS6 update..