Apple officially announced the latest version of their new iOS – iOS 6.
They revealed a lot of new features, however most of these features are already available on Android ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich – Android 4).
Apple added many new features into iOS 6, as they stated there are over 200 new features coming into iOS 6. One of the major changes that’s coming into the new version is the new mapping system. Apple are not going to use Google Maps anymore, as was expected, and they’re going to use their own mapping system and navigation powered by TomTom.
There doesn’t appear to be any offline navigation support, which is something that Google announced recently with their Android devices. It also appears iOS owners will lose bicycle, pedestrian, and transit functions seen in Google Maps on iOS 5. Google Maps Navigation is a tried and tested service and application that will be tough to beat.
Here’s a quick comparison on some of the major features on iOS 6 and Android 4 (source: zdnet.com):
| Apple iOS 6 | Android Ice Cream Sandwich | |
| Maps | Turn-by-turn, 3D | Turn-by-turn, walking/biking/transit, 3D, offline coming |
| Voice control | Siri | Google Voice Actions, S-Voice on SGSIII |
| Travel and reward card management | Passbook | 3rd party apps |
| Unique account signatures, limited attachment support, VIP filtering | Unique account signatures, complete attachment support, VIP filtering, full Gmail client | |
| Service sharing | Facebook and Twitter | Virtually all cloud and social services |
| Notifications | Reply with text, Do Not Disturb, Shade | Reply with text, Do Not Disturb (3rd party), Shade, premium experience |
| Video calling 3G & WiFi | FaceTime, Skype, Tango others | Google Talk, Skype, Tango, others |
| Video stabilization | Yes | Yes |
