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Google updates Chrome app for iOS 6, makes it friendly with the iPhone 5
Over the next few weeks, we can surely expect iOS developers from all over the globe to start pushing out updates to make their applications better interact with Apple's iOS 6 and that all-new screen found on the iPhone 5. And, because we know some of you choose Chrome over Cupertino's built-in Safari browser, we thought we'd single out the fact that Google has outed a new version of the app which makes it friendly with the new iPhone's larger display as well as the most recent variant of iOS. Aside from the iPhone 5 / iOS 6 compatibility, though, Mountain View also bundled in some undisclosed stability and security improvements in version 21.0.1180.82 (!) of the web browsing application. As is usually the case, you'll find the updated Chrome goods in the App Store -- link for that is just down below.
Gyft for iOS now compatible with Passbook, adds gift cards from more than 200 retailers
With Apple having recently introduced its novel Passbook feature in the latest version of iOS, it's only natural for app makers to try and take advantage of such miscellaneous hub. With that in mind, Gyft -- a 2012 TechCrunch Disrupt finalist -- has made its application fully compatible with Cupertino's newfangled iOS 6, adding support for the iPhone 5's 4-inch screen and, most importantly, the ability to add gift cards from many retailers to Passbook; some of which include Amazon, Target, Lowe's, GAP, American Eagle and Starbucks. You can grab the Gyft (v1.2) application now directly from your iDevice, or there's always the link below if that makes it slightly easier for you.
Tip: Making ITPC links work with the official Podcasts app
My iPhone 5 arrived last Friday, and because my old iPhone 4 had gotten so cluttered with apps, I decided that instead of restoring from an old backup, I would go ahead and just start over completely. Most of my important documents and logins are all stored in iCloud, so it wasn't a big problem to start from scratch. Doing so will allow me to cut back down on apps, making sure I only install the ones I'll use (at least to begin with). But one issue did present itself: Because I decided to no longer sync with my iTunes install on my Mac, I had to re-subscribe to all of my podcasts manually in Apple's new Podcasts app. Most of those weren't an issue -- I mostly listen to famous podcasts like Adam Carolla's show and the Thrilling Adventure Hour. But a few of my podcasts are harder to find: They come only through ITPC links, which is a special browser protocol that will automatically subscribe you through iTunes when linked (with authentication where necessary, usually for premium content). I tried clicking on the ITPC links for my podcast in Mobile Safari, but Safari, unfortunately, doesn't recognize the link automatically. For a while, I worried that I'd have to sync up to iTunes just to subscribe to the few podcasts that use this authentication. The solution? It turns out to be surprisingly easy: Just change the "itpc://..." specifier at the beginning of the URL to "feed://..." Instantly, when you load up that URL, iTunes will jump in and help you out. In fact, if you have the Podcasts app installed already (and if you regularly listen to podcasts, you should), the app itself will pop up, and load up the feed for you. It makes me wonder why the ITPC protocol itself isn't just supported in Mobile Safari, but nevermind. Changing the URL to "feed" will get you exactly what you're looking for.
Editorial: Apple's smart Maps maneuver
More Info Nokia stacks up its maps next to Apple's and Google's, politely suggests it comes out on top (update: more detail) Apple says it's 'just getting started' on Maps for iOS 6, are you willing to wait? (poll) MapQuest picks TomTom Maps to power iPhone and Android turn-by-turn navigation apps It might seem as if Apple chose its iOS 6 release last week to practice the biblical directive to love one's enemy. For, by ejecting Google Maps from updated iPads and iPhones, Apple hath caused glorious comparisons to shine upon its foe. If most people were unaware of comparative feature sets and quality aspects that distinguish Google Maps from Apple Maps, every tech-loving person on God's earth is an expert now. The media love a bloodbath, and Joe Nocera led the rhetorical pack by calling Apple Maps an "unmitigated disaster" in a NY Times piece. He wondered whether such calamity would have ensued if Steve Jobs (who called the 1998 "hockey puck" mouse the world's best pointing device) were guiding the company's product evolution. Mr. Nocera argues the Maps replacement as an indicator that Apple has peaked. I argue that replacing Google Maps with Apple Maps was shrewd, inevitable and an indicator that Apple understands the true battle it wages.
The iOS 6 Maps app is why my next phone may be a Samsung, not an iPhone 5
My next phone won't be the iPhone 5 I've been dreaming of for a year; it'll be a Samsung Android handset. Why? Two words: Google Maps. This isn't a political statement. It's not an empty protest over how bad Apple's Maps app is. It's because for the first time I've lost confidence that an Apple product is the best choice for my needs. In iOS 6 and on the iPhone 5, a significant feature -- one that tens of millions of people rely on daily -- does not work as it should. In fact, calling it "a feature" doesn't do it justice; it's a necessity for any smartphone. For me, it's as important as email and phone calls and surfing the web. Maybe more important -- mapping tells us where we are in the world and where we are going. As of iOS 6, this capability we've come to rely on so heavily can no longer be trusted. The iOS 6 Maps launch has underlined what we already knew: No one does maps like Google does -- not even close. By leaving Google Maps off iOS 6 Apple has done a deep disservice to its user base. That user base, by the way, is orders of magnitude larger than it ever was when the Mac dominated Apple's product line and profit margins; this is something that potentially touches hundreds of millions of users around the world. Apple Maps is not a finished product. I wouldn't even call it a beta product. It misplaces airports and schools and roads. It leads me in the wrong direction. It doesn't show me stores or schools or parks that are clearly right in front of my eyes. This obliterates the user experience on iPhone. I've used every iPhone that has ever existed. My current phone is an iPhone 4S and I pre-ordered an iPhone 5 on launch day. As of yesterday, I've canceled that pre-order and am planning on picking up a Samsung phone this week. Now, before I get into the reasons for my leap to Android (and why Apple Maps are so bad), before someone accuses me of being an "Apple hater," I want to explain how hard a choice this was for me -- and how I am the last person who'd choose to dump on Apple. I write for TUAW. I've used Apple technology almost exclusively for the last 12 years of my life. I also spent half a decade of my life working for Apple. I still have dozens of friends at Apple in design, marketing and sales. Besides my personal and professional connections to the company and its products, I also have a financial interest in seeing the company succeed; I've been steadily investing in it for the last 11 years. But like most other people, if you eliminate all my personal, professional and financial connections, I really only ever went by one criterion when deciding to use an Apple product: I believed it was the best product for my needs; it performed the best out of all the other products out there for what I needed it to do. In short, as Steve Jobs used to say, "It just works." With Apple Maps, it no longer does. With Apple Maps, the iPhone is significantly hampered. Apple's new Maps is a black mark on the company's stellar product record in the Steve Jobs II era and beyond. Sure, Apple has released some iffy stuff (Ping, MobileMe) and hasn't been immune to its share of engineering faults ("Antennagate") or not fully baked features (Siri). But those things didn't hinder a product we were depending on in a significant way for a significant number of users. Apple Maps does. What's so broken about Maps? Sure, it looks different than Google Maps -- Apple would say "better than" -- but it's easy to get used to the way Maps looks instead of the yellow, reds, and greens of Google Maps. And yeah, the elimination of transit directions is also a significant setback, but there are plenty of third-party apps that work better than public transit directions ever did in Google Maps, covering most urban and suburban areas with transit services. The real failure of Apple Maps comes from the fact that it is still clearly an alpha product (not even a beta like Siri -- an alpha) that should never have been released in its current state. Now, as my colleague Michael Rose pointed out, Apple may have had some legitimate reasons (like turn-by-turn navigation that Google didn't allow under its API) to create its own mapping solution. But another significant reason is Apple wants to wean itself off of any dependance it has on Google. Will it be a win for users? Maybe, but only when the entirety of Apple Maps finally works as well as Google Maps does. Unfortunately that's not going to happen any time soon. It feels like Apple put corporate strategy ahead of user experience -- granted, that's happened before (No floppy drives! No serial ports! No optical drives!) but generally in the service of something readily perceptible. I mean, this is a company that says it sometimes doesn't release great products they've created in the labs because they weren't quite right or didn't fill a need that users could better get from someone else. "Not quite right" is an understatement when referring to Apple Maps and "can't get it better anyplace else" is just flat out wrong as long as Google and its mapping data is around. Same location. Apple Maps, left. Google Maps, right. So how bad is Apple Maps? There are Tumblr blogs and Twitter accounts dedicated to how bad Apple Maps is. I thought they were funny and not a big deal -- at first. But then I stepped out over the weekend doing my usual stuff (going to work, meeting friends, traveling) and found out just how hampered my iPhone had become. I live in London. It's the biggest city in the UK. It's one of the capitals of the world that tens of millions of travelers and tourists pass through every year -- not to mention the 10 million people who live here -- and Apple Maps hardly functions here. This is in the biggest, most important city in the UK. Now think about the smaller cities around the country where Apple's data providers have misplaced entire airports, or located villages miles from where they should be. Let me give you an example: today I was in central London and I ran a series of searches on my iPhone 4S in Apple Maps. Every single search query I entered either turned up no results or misplaced results. I was meeting a friend at Circus Space, which I know is somewhere in the Shoreditch (east) area of London, but Apple Maps showed it was located across the city on the west side. Moving on, I decided to do a search for O'Neills Pub. O'Neills is a series of chain restaurants in the UK. In London it's hard to walk for 10 minutes without passing one. When I did the search, Apple Maps showed only three locations (two of them wrong) and all miles from where I was (and where a majority of O'Neills are). I then tested Maps again by searching for "Pret," a series of popular sandwich eateries in London. Pret is even more ubiquitous than O'Neills. Apple Maps returned half-baked results -- only showing me three in the area and totally missing the one I was standing two feet away from. There should be a Pret where the blue arrow is pointing. I know because I was standing right next to it (and even took a photo of it). I've got friends coming to London next month to visit me and over the summer I've been telling them that no matter what they do they need to bring an unlocked iPhone with them because it'll make navigating London so much easier. But now, that won't be the case anymore. Using Apple's Maps on their iPhone is just going to get them lost in London. But this isn't just about London (although, Apple, how hard is it to use Tube icons for tube stations like Google, Bing and Yahoo do?). Apple Maps data is horrible across Europe and Asia. My friend from Singapore was visiting London this weekend and we were exploring the new features of iOS 6 together on our iPhones. Within 30 seconds of using Apple Maps to check out his home city of Singapore it was obvious (and somewhat shocking to him) just how misplaced things were. This doesn't bode well for Apple and their hopes of continued expansion in Asia. [Mike's fellow Brit and former TUAW contributor Nik Fletcher is visiting the US at the moment, and noted on Sunday's Talkcast that he had to throw in the towel on iOS 6 Maps during his first day walking around New York City. He ended up searching for sights and destinations using his wife's un-upgraded iPhone instead. –Ed.] Now to be fair, some people don't have a problem with the new Maps. Indeed, the turn-by-turn directions are very nice, as are the 3D views. But the people saying the new Maps is just fine seem to live in the suburbs of American cities where they rarely use Maps on a daily basis (they only drive from home to work or home to the grocery store or places they already know), or they live in smaller cities where they know where most things are already. However, if you live in a major city or are a business traveler Maps is probably the most important app on your phone. And the fact that you can't trust it anymore and it doesn't work as it should is devastating. Why this is such a big deal In the five years since Apple introduced the first iPhone, mobile maps in our pockets have become a major selling point and a necessary feature for any smartphone. Depending on what study you read, mobile mapping is the number one or number two most-used feature on smartphones (ahead of surfing the web, texting and calling). And Apple, a company known for ease of use and putting their users first was at the top of the pack. The company had the foresight to work with Google, the best mapper in the world, since the first iPhone OS. That's changed in the years since. Apple and Google don't like each other now. It didn't change because Google said, "We're out of here." It's because Apple said, "You're not giving us what we need. We're doing it without you. See ya." As noted above, Google wasn't willing to allow iOS to offer turn-by-turn navigation on Apple's terms, and perhaps the search company was insisting on more access to user data than Apple was willing to give. But negotiations go both ways, and maybe three years ago Apple thought this would be easier than it is -- or that users would be more forgiving than they are. Maps on a smartphone are a necessity. But maps are only as good as their accuracy, the depth of their data and the ability to search for that data. Apple Maps handles direct addresses (full address with ZIP or post-code) pretty well, but available data (businesses, restaurants, etc.) and search are horrible. How is Apple's mapping technique different than Google's mapping technique? The reason Google Maps is so much better than Apple Maps is because of the amount of time each company has invested into mapping, how they cull their data and the resources they've put behind the problem. Apple got into the mapping game in the late 2000s when it started buying up companies in the field. It then took technology and data from these separate companies, leased data from about 20 other companies and threw that all together into their new Maps app. When Google started mapping almost 10 years ago, it originally went the route Apple is going now: buy up small companies, merge all the different sets of data and just hope things work. However, Google soon found out that that was the wrong way to create reliable maps. So Google started mapping from scratch, scouring the earth with Google Street View cars, constantly refining data and integrating its core strength -- search -- into Maps. The result is arguably the best non-military map of the world that's ever existed. Another reason Google was able to quickly build the best mapping system ever is because it had, at its peak, nearly 7,000 people working on Google Maps. That's certainly a much bigger field force than Apple has working on maps, yet both companies are trying to cover the same planet. I'll tell you the analogy I used with a friend today when she asked me why Apple Maps is inferior to Google Maps: if Maps were a novel, Google would write its book from line one on page one, refining the prose along the way, and only stop when it reached the last period on the last page. Google would write the book through completely, telling the entire story as best as possible. Google's writers would be Proust and Tolstoy and Hemingway. Apple's book, on the other hand, would be cut and pasted together from 20 other already written books (fiction, non-fiction, Sears catalogs from 1993), hoping overlays matched and not caring if the editor turned on spellcheck or not. The editor of Apple's book would be E.L. James. How Apple can fix this mess (and Google's stand-alone iOS Maps app). It can't. Well, not anytime soon. It took Google seven years and thousands of people to build up a good mapping service. Apple is not going to fix its Maps in the next three or even 12 months. It's not likely anyway. And what actually scares me is Apple Maps wasn't just thrown together in the last year. It's the result of already at least three years of work and it's still horrible. It's still an alpha product. So no, Apple is not going to fix this any time soon. I mean, we're talking about correctly mapping the entire planet here. That's going to take a lot of time and a lot of manpower. So, if you rely on Maps, I hate to tell you this, but don't think iOS 6.1 in January is going to get Apple's Maps close to the level that Google Maps hit on the iPhone even back in 2007. If you ask me, it hardly competes with MapQuest in 1995. But just because Apple can't fix this mess soon doesn't mean it can't fix this mess faster. Apple can tackle this in one of two ways: 1) Money and manpower. 2) Google. Apple has almost $120 billion in the bank. Everyone on Wall Street says Apple can't possibly ever begin to spend that money. Well, now it can. And it needs to, because the "It just works" mantra of the iPhone is very much on the line. What Apple needs to do is take a chunk of its cash hoard (5 percent? 10 percent? Multiple billions.) and throw it into mapping. Hire the talent and build the fleet to start replicating Google's street-level intelligence, at least in the major cities. Then hire lots and lots of mapping engineers. Give the Google team members a call and offer to double their salary if they jump ship and come work for you -- in fact, it looks like this may already be happening. But even if Apple throws $12 billion at the mapping problem, it's still going to take time to fix (though not as long). In the meantime what Apple really needs to do is crawl back to Google. No, Apple isn't going to get rid of the new Maps. The company's got too much pride for that (and maybe one day, some years from now, Apple's maps will have grown in to something much better than Google Maps). But until then, for the users' sake, Apple needs to get Google Maps back on the iPhone for those who want it. For some users, the Google Maps web app usable in Safari may be a reasonable workaround for the faults in the dedicated iOS Maps app. Unfortunately, for me it's just not a substitute. If you combine it with Google's Search app, it's not horrendous -- it's just very inconvenient. There are now many, many more taps to do the same thing that the native Maps app can do quickly. Then there's the hypothetical standalone Google Maps app for iOS. Except that it's not hypothetical. Two high-level sources inside Google have confirmed to me that the app exists. Where the employees disagree is on the status of the app. One tells me that Google has sent the app to Apple for approval, but Apple is just sitting on it. The other tells me that he believes Google has yet to put the finishing touches on the app and has not submitted it to Apple. But either way, it's a real thing. If Apple still respects its users and really cares about the user experience, like I suspect it does, the company will approve the Google Maps iOS app right away and without further delay. And if Google has yet to submit it, then Tim Cook needs to get on the phone and call Larry Page today and tell him to do so. This is no time to let pride get in the way. Oh, and the statement Apple released a few days ago saying "Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get" is a cop out. A necessary feature like Maps shouldn't be rolled out until it works relatively well; if I reported every Apple Maps mistake in London (like the app allows you to do) I would need to give up my job and personal life because there's just not enough time in the day to correct all of the Maps mistakes in my area and still live my life. When Apple released that statement, I wrote "Some people have called Apple's Maps the company's 'Vista' moment. Though I am quite annoyed by the downgrade, I liken Apple's Maps more to iMovie '08. That's when Apple totally revamped iMovie and turned it into the start of something better, but it didn't start surpassing the old iMovie until the next iteration of the new app." Boy, was I wrong. After a weekend of really using them, the current state of Apple's Maps is way worse than Vista. Why I'm going to Samsung You never miss anything -- and realize how heavily you rely on it -- until it's gone. That's the case with Apple Maps. Until my first full weekend of usage of Apple's new Maps in iOS 6, I didn't realize just how heavily I relied on Google Maps on my iPhone in my daily life. Whenever I needed to find anything in London, it was just there, at my fingertips. Now it's not. I can live with sometimes spotty iCloud email or a not fully baked Siri, but as it turns out I can't live without reliable maps, not when I live in a major metropolitan area and frequently travel to other European cities. And as I said, even if Apple throws billions of dollars at Maps, it's still going to take a lot of time to fix. What's the most difficult about Maps in iOS 6 is the loss of faith. Now I never know if something I'm looking for really might be close to me, but I'm just not seeing it -- or if something that Maps says is there will actually be there, which can theoretically go beyond inconvenient to dangerous. True, the browser version of Google Maps is there, but it's an inferior experience; it's slow, clunky and doesn't integrate across the OS like the native Maps does. For me, knowing that Maps is my "killer app," it's just not good enough. Don't get me wrong, I think Samsung has blatantly ripped Apple off, but that also means its got the best copy of the iPhone out there. And it uses Google Maps -- something I trust implicitly. I don't like having to print out maps before I leave the house -- like I had to today -- so I know without a doubt that I can get to the place I need to go. My phone should be able to do that. The iPhone no longer dependably does. Samsung's phones and Google Maps can. This, of course, is another problem for Apple. The company just gave Android its biggest selling point ever: "We have maps that work. We have maps that you can trust." I didn't cancel my iPhone 5 order lightly. It hurt to do so. But I did it for the same reason I originally went with Apple products years ago -- they "just work." The iPhone 5's maps no longer "just work." So that phone is not the best choice for me any longer. It's a shame too, because I was loaned an iPhone 5 for 24 hours on Saturday and it literally is a thing of true beauty. Hands down, it is the best designed phone ever. It's light and thin and fast and beautiful. But it doesn't have a critical feature that I rely on anymore. So, what should you do? If you like iOS and the iPhone and don't depend on Maps as your "killer app," by all means, stay with the iPhone. If the browser version of Google Maps, or one of the third-party nav or search apps, works for you then don't sweat it. I know I'll still be using all of Apple's other products -- because they still "just work." And if Apple allows Google Maps in the App Store, I'll jump ship back to the iPhone 5. But if you rely heavily on Maps -- especially if you live outside of America or travel a lot -- you might want to seriously think about whether you can live with iOS 6's Maps. If not, Android is now the main game in town that has Google Maps. Either way, let me know how you feel about Apple's Maps in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter (@michaelgrothaus) if you want to recommend a good Samsung phone for me.
iPhone 5 camera gets tested in Iceland, panorama and low-light comparison with iPhone 4S included
Sure, we tested the iPhone 5's camera in the well-lit streets of New York City, but if you're wondering how Apple's latest functions when used primarily as a shooter, TREK has a pretty remarkable look. Photog Austin Mann and a few of his closest pals took a pair of iPhone 5s to Iceland following launch weekend in a bid to test the unit's durability, capability and image quality next to the 4S. After two days of geyser spray and admitted "drops in mud," the uncovered 5 seemed to be a-okay, and when it comes to output from the sensor, that's worthy of praise as well. The low-light capabilities of the 5 are perhaps the most impressive upgrade compared to the 4S, with much less noise seen in shots from the former. He also gushed over the panorama mode, which admittedly churned out some pretty seamless results of the Icelandic countryside. As for shutter speed? That too has been "significantly" improved over the 4S. He interestingly noted that Snapseed was acting a bit wonky with iOS 6, but one has to wonder how much smoothing will be done by the Nik team now that Google's calling the shots. Hit the source link below for the full rundown, comparisons included, and a video that shows how the iPhone 5 reacts after sunset.
iPhone 5 sales hit 5 million in first weekend
So, how's that new iPhone doing? Not too shabby -- looks like Apple's moved more than 5 million in three days, according to a press release the company just dropped. Cupertino is also reporting that iOS 6 has been installed on more than 100 million devices since the operating system was unleashed on the world. At present, the iPhone is available in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Australia, with 22 more countries being added to the list before the end of the week. By the end of the year, the number is expected to top 100. Check out the obligatory back-patting by Tim Cook and pals in the presser after the break.
One not-so-secret reason Apple built its own Maps for iOS 6
In the uproar over iOS 6's move to Apple's homegrown Maps service, the driving theme is user frustration (not to say outright anger). Even the most ardent apologists have to acknowledge that Maps has serious issues, and the company's critics are having a field day. Some of the challenges may be remediable in the short term, while others may take far longer to address effectively. Apple is reportedly doing deep-dive recruiting into the fallow, contract-complete engineering pool that helped to build Google Maps in the first place. Yes, this stuff is hard. We're going to dive into the Maps conundrum (and a little product launch from Friday) on tonight's Talkcast, so bring your suggestions, complaints and consolations. You can connect to us live here at 10pm Eastern Sunday night, or listen in after the fact. For iOS 6 users, especially those who upgraded without realizing that Maps was changing under their feet, things are awkward. In the short term, we're seeing a lot of workarounds and substitutions for everything from Google's Street View feature (the $0.99 Live Street View app does a fine job) to transit directions (if they cover where you live, Embark's offerings are sharp and accurate) to simply going with a bookmark to the mobile version of Google Maps itself. We're also seeing a lot of enthusiastic attribution of motives: "Apple wants to force its customers to use its own products, even when they are not as good as those from rivals," opines Joe Nocera in the New York Times. "They put their own priorities for corporate strategy ahead of user experience," suggests Anil Dash. "Apple put crapware on their most important product on purpose in order to screw a rival at the expense of users," claims Mike Elgan over at Cult of Mac. (Elgan's post suggests that Apple is obsessed with Google, but he also says that "Google+ is the Google Maps of social networks," which makes me wonder if perhaps he hasn't got some other things mixed up.) Those assertions make for strong narratives and good, meaty, angry articles. They're forceful, and have the ring of truth. But to suggest that the only reason Apple would make this change is for the sake of forcing Google off of iOS -- punishing users in the process, without a care or a caution -- is naive and mistaken. Apple's move away from Google's maps isn't about screwing users to make a corporate political point; it's about trying to give iOS users a better maps experience in the long run. What's the one big thing that Android devices -- since 2.0, in 2009 -- have been able to do with their maps that iOS devices, natively and without expensive third-party apps, couldn't do? Realtime, turn by turn navigation. The feature that lets you replace your $100-and-up dashboard GPS unit with only your phone and your voice, included in the box with millions of Android phones. A specific, unarguable and easy-to-market differentiating feature. Droid does; iPhone doesn't. Why doesn't the Google-backed Maps app on iOS 5 do realtime nav? Well, as Ars Technica pointed out in June, it's simply not allowed in the Google API license agreement for Maps. Easy enough for Google to provide the feature to its own operating system (once the underlying map data licensing hurdles were cleared when it turned over from NAVTEQ data to its own geobase in the late 2000s), but third parties? Nope. This was confirmed as a constraint when developers asked the question at WWDC several years ago. No realtime nav, no vector map tiles, no way. But, surely, Google and Apple could make a deal to get around that pesky license? Given the special relationship between the two companies? Apparently not. As iMore notes and the Wall Street Journal delves into, Google was not willing to license turn-by-turn to Apple. Perhaps Apple drove too hard a bargain; perhaps Google's team wanted more access to user data, or to bundle the Latitude find-your-pals application into the mapping suite. Some suggest that Google wanted to keep turn-by-turn as a competitive tool for Android. But Charles Arthur's assertion in the Guardian that Apple "didn't want it" regarding realtime nav appears to be unfounded. Apple wanted it; Google wouldn't give it up. Google's role as the mapping provider for iOS was never an easy fit from a corporate perspective, but it became downright untenable when the intransigence over turn-by-turn kept the iPhone's mapping capability a generation behind the Android front line. Navigation isn't a trivial feature; getting a solid app for your driving directions can cost real money, or require an ongoing subscription. Apple's users were getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop because Apple didn't own the technology -- and that's the horse driving the cart in this case, not the other way around. If Apple can't build products that include the features users want most, they won't be insanely great, they won't delight, and they won't sell. That's the not-so-secret reason for the change to Apple's Maps. If iPhone users couldn't do turn-by-turn directions for free, Apple surmised, at some point they would stop being iPhone users. Maybe that's a crass, commercial reason, but it's not politics; it's real features for real customers. And it's part and parcel with other Google-controlled or blocked features (voice search for Maps, requiring a Maps tile to show whenever the geocoder is used, high-quality vector Maps for Retina) that were dragging the platform behind. None of that helps the current facts on the ground, as it were, when it comes to Maps in iOS 6, even if Apple should have leapt off long ago. In fact, users of pre-iPhone 4S devices may be extra peeved, as they don't even get the benefits of the turn-by-turn nav as they're sacrificing the data depth and accuracy of the Google infrastructure. This stuff is hard, and perhaps Apple's sin here is one of hubris -- thinking that the company had the smarts to solve several genuine problems at once, without realizing that the problems are actually that difficult. It's unfair and unfactual to say, as Joe Nocera does, that the Maps iOS 6 situation would not have come off the tracks the way it has if Steve Jobs were still running the company. Goodness knows, hubris -- and failure -- were things Steve had plenty of experience with, as Jean-Louis Gassée points out. But what is true is that Tim Cook and his team now face the challenge of rebuilding some user trust, explaining why they chose this path, and actually fixing the Maps app without resorting to any reality distortion fields. Thanks to Rene Ritchie for research help on this post.
iPhone User Guide for iOS 6 now available as an eBook
Always nice to see something free from Apple, and the timing couldn't be better. The iBooks version of the iPhone User Guide for iOS 6 is available on the iBookstore. Apple isn't much on paper manuals these days; most Apple products come with a thin little guide, so many users get their tips from websites like TUAW and others. This Apple e-book is quite complete, with chapters explaining all the new features in iOS 6. I found the chapter on Siri and changes in the camera app most helpful. The book is illustrated, and every bit as good as something you'd buy online or at a book store. This is a good idea, but it's certainly not being trumpeted by Apple; you just kind of have to know it's there. That's what we're here for, so get over to the iTunes and download it. Apple is also offering free user guides for the iPhone, the iPad, and iOS 5.1 if you didn't upgrade. There's a few screen grabs in the gallery. The book can only be viewed on an iOS device using the iBooks app. %Gallery-166352%
AmEx, Starbucks announce plans for Passbook integration: both live by end of the month
When it launched with iOS 6 this Wednesday, Apple's Passbook mobile-ticketing feature boasted a handful of high-profile partners -- including Fandango, Live Nation, Lufthansa and Ticketmaster -- but that list still leaves plenty of room for fleshing out. According to Venture Beat, AmEx is launching integration with Passbook later today. The credit card company's Passbook functionality will include notifications for new account transactions, along with the ability to view your current balance and redeem membership rewards points. The service can also use smartphones' location to verify charges flagged as suspicious. Starbucks, which was featured in an early Passbook demo at WWDC, also announced the timeline for its integration with the service, tweeting today that an "update is coming at the end of the month" and offering no further details. Judging by Apple's earlier previews, Passbook will let customers pay with a Starbucks card. The coffee chain's Passbook functionality looks to be quite similar to its partnership with Square, which will be the go-to mobile payments option for non-iOS customers when it launches this fall.
iPhone 5 jailbroken, but not yet ready for public consumption
You knew that the hackers of the world would be anxious to jailbreak their fresh new iPhone 5's, and the feat's been accomplished just a day after older hardware running iOS 6 was similarly set free. Grant Paul posted the picture you see above on Twitter, confirming his new, elongated iPhone is, indeed, running Cydia. Unfortunately, the jailbreak isn't available to the rest of us just yet, but it shouldn't be long before the masses gain access, too. Viva la liberté!
iPhone 5 / iOS 6 app update roundup: new versions for a taller world
Call it a hunch, but we suspect that at least a few of you picked up an iPhone 5 today, or at least made the leap to iOS 6. If you're in either position, you may be wondering just what apps to feed Apple's flagship (or that fresh new firmware) once it's ready to go. We've got a quick-hit list of titles that have been updated to take advantage of the tall display and new OS that go beyond Apple's own work. The biggest upgrades of the lot come from keynote darling CNN as well as Flipboard: both have done more than add extra columns on the iPhone 5, offering an interface you won't see on any mere 3.5-inch iPhone. Some bread-and-butter apps have made the launch week cut as well, such as Facebook and Twitter. There's even more if you're willing to dig deep. Third-party Twitter client Tweetbot beat the official app to the punch by days, and we've likewise spotted updates to Evernote, its rival Remember the Milk and Yelp. We know some apps aren't fully iPhone 5- or iOS 6-native -- Instagram, for example, and most anything from Google -- but it's apparent that the holdouts are increasingly the exception, rather than the rule. Did you catch any other noteworthy apps that received a boost in recent hours? Let fellow owners know in the comments. CNN - App Store Evernote - App Store Facebook - App Store Flipboard - App Store Kindle - App Store Pulse - App Store Remember the Milk - App Store Tweetbot - App Store Twitter - App Store Yelp - App Store
Verizon iPhone 5 is unlocked, able to accept GSM SIMs right away
Great news for those waiting anxiously at the door for their UPS / FedEx delivery... well, for those awaiting a Verizon iPhone 5, anyway. We've already broken down the differences between the trifecta of iPhone 5 models, and it seems that the one VZW is hawking is a real gem for travelers. Aside from handling Verizon's LTE waves just fine, the nano-SIM slot will also accept cards from any other GSM carrier worldwide. In other words, AT&T nano-SIMs will get you onto its HSPA+ network, and T-Mobile nano-SIMs will play nice as well. If you're heading overseas, you can pick up a local nano-SIM on arrival and plug it straight in -- no unlocking code necessary. To confirm, this even applies to Verizon iPhone 5 units that were purchased under contract. You can hit the video after the break for proof, but heed one word of advice: wait until you find a legitimate nano-SIM to throw in there. It looks as if the cut-and-stuff approach leaves a bit to be desired.
iOS 6: Talking to Siri and saying "hi"
For many TUAW readers, this weekend represents a first encounter with Siri, Apple's virtual personal assistant. Siri is waiting to help you create reminders, send texts, look up information and lots more. Siri replaces the dance of your fingers on glass with conversations. You talk to your device -- and your device talks right back at you. After setting up your preferences, it's time to give Siri a spin. You can access Siri in several ways: Press and hold the Home button for a couple of seconds. Raise your iPhone to your ear. (Not available on iPod touch or iPad -- they don't have proximity sensors) Engage it from your wired (iPhone earbud-style) or wireless (Bluetooth) headset by squeezing or pressing the control button. Siri also works with many car kits. A small blue speaker icon appears in Siri's display when you connect through Bluetooth. Chimes tell you when Siri is listening to you. A higher-pitched "listening" chime (a C♯4 for the musically inclined) lets you know Siri's ready for you to speak. As you speak, the microphone icon acts as a level meter. The rise and fall of the purple bar reflects your speech pattern. To finish talking, you can either pause or tap the microphone button. Siri plays a high-pitched "done listening" chime (a higher A♭4). A purple circle animates around the microphone button as Siri contacts Apple's home servers for speech interpretation. If Siri does not hear any input, it stops listening and plays a lower-pitched "cancellation" chime (an lower A♭3). You can also cancel the interaction by tapping the microphone button during the "contact Apple" phase with the circling purple pulse. Try saying "Hello" to Siri. Ask about the weather. "Will it be cold tonight?" "Should I take an umbrella?" Find out how your favorite teams are doing. "Will the Braves make it to the championships?" or "How is Manchester United doing?" Or just let Siri find you a place to eat dinner. "I'm hungry." Then it's time to have fun. A lot of warmth, humor and whimsy went into Siri's database. Ask Siri if he/she is real. Ask it to open the pod bay doors. Say "OMG" or "LOL". Ask Siri when its birthday is. Tell it, "Take me to your leader." Siri isn't great at telling jokes or singing you a song, but you can try asking. Not sure what else you can say to Siri? There's a post to help with that! Erica Sadun and Steven Sande are the authors of Talking to Siri, a handy guide for Siri users.
Swiss railway says it's 'proud' Apple is using its iconic clock design, still wants to get paid
If you thought the new iPad clock app in iOS 6 looked a little familiar, you're not alone. The design is a near-exact replica of the iconic Swiss railway clock designed in 1955 by Hans Hilfiker and since licensed for use in Mondaine watches. Not surprisingly, both Swiss railway operator SBB and the Mondaine Group have also noticed the striking similarity, and they say they're now looking at ways to remedy the situation with Apple. For its part, an SBB spokesperson tells Reuters that "SBB isn't hurt, but proud that his icon of watch design is being used by a globally active and successful business," while Mondaine co-owner Andre Bernheim notes that "the app is pretty much identical to our Mondaine watch," and adds that these "three companies together -- Apple, SBB and Mondaine -- can together achieve something positive. We'll see how this all ends up." Apple has yet to offer a comment on the matter. Jump past the break to compare the two for yourself.
Alternatives to iOS 6's Maps app for navigation and search
OK, we know Apple's Maps app in iOS 6 hasn't been a favorite feature for many people (allow me a bit of sarcasm). Yes, it adds realtime voice navigation, keeps walking directions and links to transit apps -- but it's still painful in many spots. You still, however, must travel from point A to point B without the Google Maps app you used to know. All is not lost if you are resourceful, and we know our readers are. Of course, you can put Google Maps back on your iPhone as a web app, or do the same with Nokia's excellent NAVTEQ-powered maps. Just bring up Safari and type maps.google.com, then save the page to your home screen via the action button. It's not as pretty as Apple Maps, but it has the benefit of Google's years of experience and data. When you first bring Google Maps up, you'll be asked if you want to save Google Maps as on icon on the desktop, and that might be a good idea. Of course, you won't be using Siri to choose destinations by voice, and you won't get spoken turn-by-turn directions, but you'll get transit directions, and even bicycle routes. (The webpage should prompt you to let it access the phone's location.) Google's iOS search app and the Google Places/Google+ Local app all connect to the web-based Google Maps as well. If you're searching for local resources and Maps's database doesn't have what you need (a common reported issue), you can try one of these instead. What else works? On the pay side of the ledger, Navigon has just upgraded its family of apps with transit directions and integration with Apple Maps. It also features Google Street View and local search, and spoken turn-by-turn directions. Other mapping apps are currently on sale, like the Western States (US $24.99 for their regional version). Motion X GPS Drive starts at $0.99 with several options available as in-app purchases. TeleNav GPS Plus is another nice app for $0.99, but you'll need a subscription to use it beyond 30 days. Garmin, which owns Navigon, will have an update to StreetPilot USA any day now with Google Street View and public transit directions. If all you're missing is Street View, check out the $0.99 Live Street View app. There are free apps of course, including the MapQuest app from our corporate cousin (both TUAW and MapQuest are owned by AOL) and the popular-with-commenters Waze. Many of the free nav apps depend on the same data that Apple Maps users are complaining about, so that's probably not a sensible way to go. One bright spot in this rather dismal situation is that I foresee prices of paid apps dropping. The Apple Maps solution is working fine for many users here in the US. It's not holding up so well overseas, and even the US version has plenty of holes. But free is hard to compete with and I expect Apple to step its game up, since a reputation is a horrible thing to waste, and the paid apps will likely get cheaper even if those solutions are better in many ways. We're open to some suggestions, so let us know in comments if you have some good substitutes.
Nokia stacks up its maps next to Apple's and Google's, politely suggests it comes out on top (update: more detail)
You might have noticed a brouhaha over map accuracy in iOS 6. Nokia undoubtedly did, as it's using the iPhone 5 launch to remind us that its strategy has been all about location lately. The crew in Espoo has pitted Nokia Maps from the Lumia 920 against both Apple's equivalent as well as Google Maps -- and to no one's surprise, Nokia's own platform comes out on top. In practice, it's a relatively frank comparison that doesn't try to win on every point. Nokia tends to use a liberal definition of the term "3D" that includes augmented reality, but it's otherwise willing to emphasize its advantages in offline mapping and the sheer scope of its mapping coverage. Apple's very young mapping effort struggles, while Nokia is willing to accept that it doesn't have as much traffic coverage as Google. There is, however, the slight problem of the Lumia 920 not yet shipping: unless you've been blessed with a prototype of the Windows Phone 8 device, Apple and Google are the only ones that have their latest navigation software on a phone you can actually buy. Hit the source for the full, very tall chart as well as a few sly jabs at Nokia's competitors. Update: To clarify, it's true that much of what Nokia is talking about can be found on existing Lumias. However, Nokia did mention that there will be new features coming to Nokia Maps in Windows Phone 8, including the wider offline support, an augmented reality view during navigation and better integration with Nokia Drive.
iOS 6 becomes 15 percent of Apple mobile device traffic within 24 hours
There's been some trepidation among Apple device users over the upgrade to iOS 6 given that it takes away some components while adding others. You wouldn't guess it from the initial upgrade rate, however. Both ChartBoost and Chitika have determined that about 15 percent of iOS data traffic was already coming from Apple's latest release within its first 24 hours of availability -- not bad, considering that it took Android 4.0 roughly eight months to reach a similar ratio and iOS 5 about five days to hit 20 percent. ChartBoost adds that iPhone owners were the quickest to upgrade, which is only logical when the iPhone 4S gets the most new features. The contrast between Android and iOS was entirely expected, knowing Apple's limited hardware pool and reduced carrier oversight. We're more interested in the differences between iOS versions: they suggest that whatever advantages people see in iOS 6, as well as a widespread over-the-air update system, have been enough to spur on many early adopters.
Apple says it's 'just getting started' on Maps for iOS 6, are you willing to wait? (poll)
Now that iOS 6 has arrived on Apple tablets and phones, users at large are getting their hands on the company's new Maps app for the first time only to find at least a few things out of place. The lack of navigation for public transportation was a known limitation going in, but misplaced landmarks, geographical oddities and suddenly blank areas where Google Maps had an abundance of tags (all being cataloged by The Amazing iOS 6 Maps Tumblr, as seen above) have some users bristling. A spokesperson for Apple tells All Things D that it expects things to improve as more people use Maps (check out the entire statement after the break), but is that enough? Hit the poll selections below to let us know if the new experience is truly a move in the right direction.%Poll-77848%
Apple says Maps "will get better"
It's been just over 24 hours since iOS 6 hit and pretty much the whole internet (myself included) is up in arms about the step backwards Apple made to mapping. I'm talking about the removal of Google Maps from iOS and the replacement with Apple's own mapping solution. If you want to see some of the ways Apple's Maps behave that are causing a lot of disappointment, check out this Tumblr blog. In light of the maps outrage, Apple has just issued a statement to AllThingsD saying that Maps will get better. The statement in full: "Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service. We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover, turn by turn navigation, and Siri integration. We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and that we are just getting started with it. Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better." There you have it folks. Some people have called Apple's Maps the company's "Vista" moment. Though I am quite annoyed by the downgrade, I liken Apple's Maps more to iMovie '08. That's when Apple totally revamped iMovie and turned it into the start of something better, but it didn't start surpassing the old iMovie until the next iteration of the new app. Until then, don't go looking for any furniture museums. You may drown.
