18 Hours with the new iOS 6 on my iPhone

Well it has now been 18 hours since I have updated my iPhone 4S to the new iOS 6 beta. I feel that I have used it enough now to make a fair review on it.

One of the first things that I have noticed with the new iOS is that the status bar at the top now changes colors to which ever app you are using. Notice in the picture below. To be honest I am not too sure how I feel about it. I think I almost like the black/grey status bar better.

Notice the top is blueish

 Next lets go on to the new Maps feature! Hands down one of my new favorites for this update! Thank god that Apple and Google had some massive fall out and now we all benefit because of this! This new Maps app has turn by turn direction and a nice lady to tell you when and where to turn. Oh and lets not forget that you can have (Drum Roll Please)………..3D maps! Not that we will ever actually need this feature but it is really neat!

“Turn by Turn Directions”

 “3D Maps”

Next up lets talk about the new and improved Siri! With the new Siri it can now access 3rd party apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Flixter, and many other apps. Before you could just ask Siri to ask if it was raining outside when all it really took was just for you to look outside and see that “Yes Jason, it is raining”. You can now tell Siri to open up games you want to play by saying “Lets play Temple Run” and it will open up Temple Run and you can try and beat my high score of 5,453,957.  Also you can say things like “What was the score to the Rangers game yesterday” and you get this.

Check that score out! Rangers whipped the Giants ass 5-0!
Not to mention that we won the series.

What if you want to know where the new Prometheus movie is playing. Well just ask Siri to look it up and you get this.

On to the Facebook integration now. I have to say I am really liking this feature more and more. I really started to see how much stuff I post to Facebook directly from my phone.  Not only can you send stuff to Facebook directly from Safari, but now Facebook will import your Facebook events and friends birthdays and put them in your calendar (now there is no excuse for you not posting on your friends wall and telling them “Happy Birthday”)

Check the “Tap to Tweet” and “Tap to Post” in the Notification Center

Next lets talk about the new feature of declining a call. So lets say that your dad is calling and you are doing something very important like watching TV or taking a dump; well now you can decline the call and set a reminder to call him back in an hour. Well what if you want to let him know that you are in a meeting, well you can send him a text right away and let him know.

Now let us talk about the new iPod user interface. The user interface got a HUGE overhaul. If you are to look at the old one compared to the new one there is no way you can tell it is coming from an iOS device. The only things I wish you could do with it is be able to change to colors of the whole interface all together but no, this is an Apple product and if you try and change anything they made they will sue your ass. But go ahead and take a look.

Now lets talk about performance. The battery life is very much improved by literally 1728347%. On any normal day my phone would already be at about 73% now it is at 91% and I have been on it more than any normal day. The keyboard is a little laggy but that could be because this is a beta and they are still working out all the kinks. Also not to mention that my Messages app has been acting a little funny, but again that can be attributed to it being a beta still. Oh and lets not forget that the Draw Something app is non working because it does not recognize iOS 6 yet and I can not play any of my matches anymore until Zynga fixes that.

Other than the minor glitches of this being a beta I feel that Apple got this update just right. Siri really need to recognize 3rd party apps and the Maps really needed an update (again thank you google for dropping the ball somewhere). I really hope this helps you decide wether or not you want to try and search for the beta and update your own phone but I think it was well worth it!

If you like what you read and want to tell me or you just want to say hello you can email me at jason@jasonaguirre.com or you can find me on twitter @iAmJasonAguirre.