iOS 6 beta hands-on

I had a chance to try Apple’s new iOS 6 beta software on my iPhone. Here’s some quick hands-on review. Overall, it doesn’t seem as buggy as when Apple released iOS 5 beta. This version feels a lot more complete and snappier. I can tell you that Apple software engineers had put a lot of thoughts and efforts into this. This update includes many UI changes and new features.

1. New phone UI. Background status bar is now in navy color in most apps.

1. Weather app got a little UI boost as well.

1. Music app now has a new UI. It maybe extremely personal and not true but when I play random track, it feels more random than before. Previously, I couldn’t get away with the feeling that random track is playing similar songs in cycle over and over..

1. iOS 6 supports Facebook integration. Now we can post to FB directly from Photo app and etc.

1. Passbook is like virtual wallet for iOS. Pretty sweet and I want to try out but not sure how to use it..

1. In Settings, it has “Do Not Disturb” option. Also, it’s not shown here but there’s new option called “Privacy”.

1. Direction is not available in Korea. What a lame. Also, the new Map app is a bit flimsy in Korea. River is not displayed correctly and street names and POIs are not fully covered. Oh well, we got Naver/Daum map and Olleh navi.

1. Direction (turn-by-turn navigation) works perfectly in the States.

1. I guess the map data is shared from TomTom.

1. New Map app has built-in Yelp review. Not applicable in Korea. Lame..

1. Picked a wrong screenshot but if you click on a POI, it shows you its picture and Yelp review.

Since my phone is iPhone 4, which doesn’t support Siri, I wasn’t able to try out Siri in Korean. Overall, to put it simply, I feel like I just got a gift from Apple. In the next update or so, I really hope that they gradually expand supports for users in Korea especially Map stuff. I can’t wait to see the next iPhone.

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