Articles about iOS

It's the question I should have asked nearly two weeks ago, instead of or perhaps in addition to "Will Apple Maps keep you from upgrading to iOS 6?" Surely the Cupertino, Calif.-based company must worry about such circumstance. On Friday, I asserted this concern as top reason CEO Tim Cook apologized for so-called "mapgate".

Apple has a real problem. The new maps app, which replaces the one Google provided for five years, misidentifies locations, gives wrong directions and lacks details. Considering just how popular mapping and local search are to smartphone users, the bad publicity is sure to keep somebody from buying iPhone 5. That Cook's remedy is telling iOS 6 customers to use another mapping program spotlights just how bad is the situation and how great the concern bad publicity will hurt device sales.

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Apple's CEO is "extremely sorry" about the "frustration" the company's homegrown maps app "has caused our customers". Sorry isn't good enough because it's directed at the wrong place. Apple replaced Google Maps in the newest version of iOS on September 19, and even Cook admits "we fell short on this commitment" to "make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers". Simply stated: Apple Maps app sucks, but he apologizes about the wrong thing.

Cook's letter of apology should go further and get to the root problem: Why Apple ditched Google Maps in the first place. Before his death, Steve Jobs told his biographer that Google's Android essentially is a stolen product, a copycat: "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this". Apple bombs Android competitors with patent lawsuits, risking fallout in the form of legal precedents that could hurt all tech companies. Apple's dumping Google Maps, and also YouTube, from iOS are warfare tactics -- and bigger than copying concerns when looking at local search as future ad revenue opportunity. Apple customers are collateral damage from nuclear fallout that is the new mapping app.

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This morning, Apple posted an apology from the CEO about iOS 6 maps, which replaced the mature Google product available in the five previous versions of the operating system. Complaints about misidentifications and misdirections flooded the web, starting with the software's release on September 19.

The letter, posted on Apple's website and signed by Tim Cook, is a rare mea culpa. Ironically, Cook's temporary remedy: Use map apps like Bing or do what colleague Wayne Williams suggested yesterday -- create a shortcut to Google Maps web app. Wayne's Apple Maps review shows exactly what's wrong with the experience he describes as a downgrade.

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Although there are downsides to the latest version of iOS 6, it’s mostly a welcome improvement, with of course the notable exception of the new maps feature that is a poor substitute for the Google app it replaced.

If you’re unhappy with the poor-quality cartography, incorrect place names and dodgy and potentially dangerous driving directions that seem to be the app’s stock-in-trade, don’t worry -- there’s a quick fix available that should tide you over until Google releases its sorely needed-new Maps application.

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Weather apps consistently rank behind games as the second most popular class of mobile applications (Source: Nielsen) but does your weather app tell you where you're most likely to be hit by a bolt of lightning?

WeatherBug Elite for Android, which received a major version update today, includes that very feature, called "Lightning Alerts."

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One week after Apple announced two million iPhone 5s were pre-ordered in 24 hours, the Cupertino, California-based corporation claims even stronger iPhone 5 sales during the launch weekend.

iPhone 5 sales topped over five million units in the three days after the September 21 launch according to the press release issued by Apple on Monday.

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Surely Apple is furious as not even a day after the iPhone 5 launched the device is jailbroken.

On his Twitter account Grant Paul posted a photo of an iPhone 5 with Cydia trumping on the screen, indicating that the device is jailbroken. But hold your horses, as the details are scarce at the moment and no date has been provided by the developer as to when or if the jailbreak will be publicly available.

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If you have a newish iOS device -- whether it’s iPhone, iPad or iPod touch -- there’s a good chance you have already upgraded to iOS 6 and are using it now. According to a study by Chitika some 15 percent of users with a compatible device upgraded in the first 24 hours, and that figure will likely have at least doubled by now, a couple of days later.

Apple says iOS 6 has 200 new features, and while some of them are very useful inclusions, such as Facebook integration throughout, and Shared Photo Streams, iOS 6 isn’t the dream operating system it could have been. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Steve Jobs would ever have allowed it to have been released if he were alive today. Here, in no particular order, are the areas where I feel Apple could have tried harder. Yes, based on my real-world experience, and regretful iOS 6 upgrade.

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I've wanted to ask this question all day. But we needed an Apple Maps review first -- Wayne Williams delivered a good one -- and it needed a few hours live on the site. But I can refrain no longer. Will Apple Maps keep you from upgrading to iOS 6?

Considering the bad reaction to Apple's homegrown replacement for Google Maps, it's no idle question. About three quarters of US smartphone owners use location-based services, with mapping programs ranking among the highest, according to Pew Research. If you're among them, and actually would like to reach a destination using an Apple device, iOS 6 may not be for you. That is if the default mapping program is your primary one.

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I upgraded one of my Apple devices to iOS6 last night and the first thing I did, once finished setting it up, was to launch the new Maps component. This, as you’ll no doubt be aware, replaces the aging Google Maps app. I knew from other articles I’d read previously that Apple’s own mapping service wasn’t going to be as good as the old Google one. After all, Apple is new to this mapping lark, and the search giant has years of experience in the field. But I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt, and forgive any minor problems. After all, how bad could it be?

I started, as I am sure most people do, by typing in my address. Well, actually as I live in the United Kingdom I typed in my post code. Apple found my road, Prince’s Drive, but decided it was called Princess Drive. Not the most auspicious of starts.

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Today, two days before iPhone 5 launches, Apple releases iOS 6. We'd like to know what you think of the software, particularly compared to the previous version. Several features are sure to cause reaction, with Facebook integration and Apple's new maps app, which replaces the one from Google, being high among them.

To be honest, given my Apple boycott and iPhone-toting daughter going off to college, I have no iOS device for testing. I can't review, and my best Apple-using writers are in Europe and likely won't blast out anything until tomorrow. But we need reaction today, particularly if iOS 6 turns out to be the update some of you won't want to apply. Judging from some of the reaction on Twitter, many of you should wait -- lest Apple Maps directs you to the river bank instead of your local financial institution.

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In October 2009, I explained why "Apple cannot win the smartphone wars". That was just a year after Google launched the first Android handset, the G1, on T-Mobile and days after Verizon debuted the hugely-successful Motorola Droid. By end of that year, Android had paltry 3.9 percent smartphone sales share, according to Gartner. My prediction drew loads of criticism from the Apple Fan Club of bloggers, journalists and other writers.

Fast-forward to second quarter 2012 and Android's global sales share is 64.1 percent for all phones, not just smart ones. iOS: 18.8 percent. My how times change. Increasingly, Android and iOS look exactly like Windows and Mac OS in the 1980s and 1990s, as I predicted would be the case.

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A new iPhone is Apple's chance to drive competitors nuts, to take technological innovation to new heights and to leave the stage with a justified smug look, but as the dust settles from yesterday's launch event the new handset feels dated already. The Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation should smash the competition to bits but that hasn't happened, has it?

iPhone 5 is not the revolutionary product that could set the world on fire and just like my colleage Wayne Williams I wonder "Hey, Apple, where’s the innovation?" There is a saying that's perfect for landmark product releases: "Go big or go home" and Apple should have followed the former not the latter for what will most likely be flagship device over the next year. It's not enough to sway the current cutting-edge Android smartphones to the curb, so how can it when there will be fierce competition from Windows Phone 8 devices like the Nokia Lumia 920 or Samsung ATIV S?

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So the iPhone 5 has been unveiled and, well, it’s just a bigger version of the iPhone 4S. No great surprise there, as all the rumors and leaks predicted that would be the case. There are some other changes to the device of course; it’s faster, lighter, prettier and has a better camera and a new dock connector, but really it’s just Apple’s phone with a bigger screen, improved OS, and less Google.

If the reports are to be believed, and they are, in October Apple will introduce another new product -- a smaller iPad.

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If you've got iPhone 4 or 4S, recent iPod touch or one of the two recent iPads, Apple will give you iOS 6, and you won't wait long. The Cupertino, Calif,-based company formally announced the release date, September 19, during a media event today.

New iOS 6 features include FaceTime video over cellular, Facebook integration, Passbook for buying movie tickets and other passes, shared photo streams and new maps app, among others. Apple released a developer preview in June. Perhaps most notable among the new features is Apple's homegrown maps app, replacing the one long provided by Google.

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