Ever since 1983, the World Wide Developer’s Conference held by Apple Inc. has become the most eagerly awaited annual event for all techie enthusiasts! This year, Apple Inc. releases their latest version of operating system iOS 6 at WWDC. Here are some of the key features and improved functionalities that make an upgrade to iOS 6 worthy!

Siri’s Extended Reach

The voice-based personal assistant which initially had restricted availability ( only iPhone 4S) has now been made compatible to iPhone 5, the new iPad and the 5th generation iPod Touch. The latest version has increased abilities such as launch maps, display movie reviews and showtimes, update Twitter and Facebook status and even make dinner reservations! With increased accuracy, the new smarter Siri is soon to make voice based controls the go-to interface for all smartphone and tablet tasks!

Facebook All The Way

Similar to the Twitter integration on iOS 5, Facebook has now become an integral part of the Apple experience with iOS 6. The iOS 6 has a tighter Facebook integration as it enables users to seamlessly share photos taken from the phone camera on Facebook as well as incorporate Facebook events automatically to the phone Calendar. Moreover, when Facebook friends update their contact numbers or addresses, the info gets instantly updated in the Contacts! This calls for the users to be highly alert as they might end up sharing more than what they intended and will have to spruce up their privacy settings!

The New Mobile Wallet – Passbook

This new mobile wallet will enable you to keep digital copies of all your plastic and paper coupons, tickets, giftcards, passes etc.. It is not a typical tap and pay alternative to the credit card. It just imparts the convenience of using a single app to check in to various venues without having to carry around a bunch of passes and coupons! Many service providers such as American Airlines, United Airlines, Starbucks, Fandango Movies, Target, Walgreens etc., have enabled their apps to support Passbook. It is most likely that Apple will embrace NFC when they prepare to launch iPhone 6!

Smarter Web Browser – Safari

The OS X Mountain Lion brings with it a new capability called iCloud Tabs that allows users to share their Safari open tabs across all their tabs. For example, if you are writing out an e-mail in Safari on your iPhone while you are at work. When you get back home, you can pick up your iPad and with a single tap get a list of all open Safari tabs and resume your work on the iPad or any other iOS device! The upgraded version also makes it possible to save all web pages in the Reading List even when the user is offline! Users can also take pictures without having to exit the browser. However, the big bummer is that the Reading List option is available only on iPad 2 or later and iPhone 4 or later!

Turn-By-Turn Navigation – Maps

This feature is perhaps the most anticipated application that everyone has been waiting for! Instead of Google Maps, Apple has integrated it’s in-house version of Maps which provides turn-by-turn navigation with the added option of voice instructions and real time traffic information. The app also provides interactive three-dimensional images of roadways, bridges and other structures. However, these features are available only for iPhone 4S or later and iPad 2 or the new iPad users. The iPhone 5 and new iPod Touch will have the new Maps in built in them. There have been concerns raised regarding the effectiveness of these Maps and it is soon expected that Apple will fine-tune these shortcomings and come up with a more sophisticated version!

Apart from the above mentioned upgrades, iOS 6 has over 200 new features such as ability to add signatures to email accounts, ability to reorder mailboxes and filter by favorites, a Guided Access application for the iPad, the DND feature which enables users to determine what calls they want to attend and when etc.. iOS 6 is considered an “evolution” as opposed to a “revolution” and even though it is largely regarded as a collection of refinements, all users still want it!

Written by Sindhuja Sandeep. Edited by Aritra Roy.

Sindhuja Sandeep is a blogger who writes on mobile phone, computers and other technical stuff. Also she is keen in updating about latest technology. At present she blogs for convergence catalyst, a Telecom consulting firm offering Indian telecom trends, market forecast, Telecom Market Analysis & operational strategies across the entire Telecom value chain.