• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

iOS 6 |OT| New Maps? googy pls

mollipen

Member
maybe not immediately, but i can't see any logical reason for apple to include podcasts in the music app and in the podcast app.

* Podcasts are no longer accessible by my car stereo (with iPod integration) because they exist outside of the "iPod" portion of iOS.

* The Podcasts app isn't recognized as the last part of my iPhone to have been playing audio at a certain point (not sure what the trigger is yet). Hitting the pause/play button on my headphones just starts up the first music track in my Music library, not the last podcast.

* Podcasts app doesn't sync what has and hasn't been played in iTunes (at this point).

All three of those have to be fixed in order for me to not rage over this change, and with the Podcasts app now a totally separate entity, I'm not sure they're all going to be fixable.
 
* Podcasts are no longer accessible by my car stereo (with iPod integration) because they exist outside of the "iPod" portion of iOS.

* The Podcasts app isn't recognized as the last part of my iPhone to have been playing audio at a certain point (not sure what the trigger is yet). Hitting the pause/play button on my headphones just starts up the first music track in my Music library, not the last podcast.

* Podcasts app doesn't sync what has and hasn't been played in iTunes (at this point).

All three of those have to be fixed in order for me to not rage over this change, and with the Podcasts app now a totally separate entity, I'm not sure they're all going to be fixable.

Ugh seriously? #1 is really really irritating.
 

SuperPac

Member
* Podcasts are no longer accessible by my car stereo (with iPod integration) because they exist outside of the "iPod" portion of iOS.

What happens when you plug your iPhone into you car stereo, go into the Podcasts app (not Music) and hit "play"?

For me, it overrides whatever the Music app was playing and begins playing a podcast. This is how I use Downcast/Instacast with my car stereo (I drive a Honda Civic - not sure if other car manufacturers are different in this regard). When I get in the car I open up Downcast, hit play, hook the iPod connector in and because Downcast is now in control of music function it plays the podcast.

* The Podcasts app isn't recognized as the last part of my iPhone to have been playing audio at a certain point (not sure what the trigger is yet). Hitting the pause/play button on my headphones just starts up the first music track in my Music library, not the last podcast.

If it's been a long time since you stopped a podcast (or sometimes even if it's only been a few minutes), started doing things in other apps, etc., the OS may have closed Podcasts in the background because it needed the memory. If it did and you hit pause/play on your headphones then it defaults to the Music app. I've found iOS6 background closes other apps a LOT faster than iOS5 did. This would be true for any other audio app - Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, etc.
 
* Podcasts are no longer accessible by my car stereo (with iPod integration) because they exist outside of the "iPod" portion of iOS.

* The Podcasts app isn't recognized as the last part of my iPhone to have been playing audio at a certain point (not sure what the trigger is yet). Hitting the pause/play button on my headphones just starts up the first music track in my Music library, not the last podcast.

* Podcasts app doesn't sync what has and hasn't been played in iTunes (at this point).

All three of those have to be fixed in order for me to not rage over this change, and with the Podcasts app now a totally separate entity, I'm not sure they're all going to be fixable.

fwiw, my BMW's iDrive has been acting up too since iOS 6, and that was before the podcasts app was a thing to begin with.
 

mollipen

Member
What happens when you plug your iPhone into you car stereo, go into the Podcasts app (not Music) and hit "play"?

Yeah, to be fair, I can (and did) do this. But compared to my experience before this app, it's a huge downgrade.

I just kind of wish that the Podcasts app was more of a new front-end for the podcasts which can still exist in the Music app, versus a separation of them. Because, really, the Podcasts app just feels clunkier than playing the podcasts the old way. I liked the old way—and while I don't want to stop people from getting a new way, I don't like that coming at the cost of the old way.
 

SuperPac

Member
Yeah, to be fair, I can (and did) do this. But compared to my experience before this app, it's a huge downgrade.

I just kind of wish that the Podcasts app was more of a new front-end for the podcasts which can still exist in the Music app, versus a separation of them. Because, really, the Podcasts app just feels clunkier than playing the podcasts the old way. I liked the old way—and while I don't want to stop people from getting a new way, I don't like that coming at the cost of the old way.

If you've not tried Downcast I cannot recommend it enough. And it will import whatever podcasts you already subscribe to in iTunes. http://downcastapp.com/help-ia/importing-exporting.html Doesn't really help if you also want to listen to podcasts anywhere except your iPhone/iPad, but as someone who listens to a lot of podcasts while driving it's an essential app.
 

Vyer

Member
Is the 'iPod integration' different than a bluetooth connection? I have Ford Sync and it connects through BT (so that I can also make/receive calls with it, as well as play any audio content) and it picked up the Podcast app just fine.
 
What happens when you plug your iPhone into you car stereo, go into the Podcasts app (not Music) and hit "play"?

For me, it overrides whatever the Music app was playing and begins playing a podcast. This is how I use Downcast/Instacast with my car stereo (I drive a Honda Civic - not sure if other car manufacturers are different in this regard). When I get in the car I open up Downcast, hit play, hook the iPod connector in and because Downcast is now in control of music function it plays the podcast.

I wasn't aware that was possible. Don't you lose the in car controls though even if this does work? Normally, for stuff that isn't through the main Music app, I always went through Bluetooth but that limits my control over the phone.

Is the 'iPod integration' different than a bluetooth connection? I have Ford Sync and it connects through BT (so that I can also make/receive calls with it, as well as play any audio content) and it picked up the Podcast app just fine.

It is since my car has both and they function differently. Speaking of Ford Sync, how do you like it with the iPhone? Pros? Cons? My wife is looking to get a car with Ford Sync and we're curious how well the iPhone interfaces with it.
 

Vyer

Member
It is since my car has both and they function differently. Speaking of Ford Sync, how do you like it with the iPhone? Pros? Cons? My wife is looking to get a car with Ford Sync and we're curious how well the iPhone interfaces with it.

Well it's the first time I've used hands free stuff in a vehicle, so I don't have much to compare it too, but I've been pretty happy with it. For calls and such it's been pretty solid, generally the car mic picks up my voice pretty easily, people tell me they have no problem hearing me and the speakers work great so I really don't have any issues at all with the sound quality in the connection. Sync pairs with a phone (and can do mutiple phones) and downloads the phone book from your phone. Sometimes it's a little wonky if you are calling out an entry in the PB that may be a little too close to another contact, but for the most part it works as it's supposed to.

I don't have the touch screen version, so the directions/controls aren't quite as 'intuitive' as I'd like, but once you read through the instructions and get some experience with it there isn't a problem.

Music/podcasts are also solid, but there's a few more issues there. For one, they are not voice controlled (ie, I can't tell sync to 'Play ____') in bluetooth mode. Supposedly from what I was told by the dealership that's an iPod Mode (reading above, I guess I understand that a little more clearly now lol) function only. So that's a downside. Other than that it seems to work pretty well with pretty much all my music and any audio app I've thrown at it. It also picks up where I left off when I get back in the car consistently as well. Every once and a while if I'm in an area where the cell data connection is poor and the phone is having a hard time streaming, that'll throw Sync out of whack and I'll have to switch over to AM/FM or something and then back to Bluetooth for it to kick back in.

Probably my only major complaint is there seems to be an issue with Sync and the iPhone that it doesn't pick up the 'play automatically' setting correctly (if you have it turned off). So, unfortunately, that means that often the phone will start playing from my music as soon as I get in, even if I wasn't listening to it or streaming from an app whenever I got out. Even if I'm not in Bluetooth mode and I have the radion on or something. VERY annoying if I didn't have a car charger plugged in I'm sure as you would be running and using battery maybe without even realizing it. Luckily tapping the pause control on the dash will stop it and I've kind of conditioned myself to that, but still.


From what I understand - in terms of the iphone - the next iteration is supposed to have some sort of improved Bluetooth software or something, so if I do go iphone again I would hope there would be even better connectivity.
 

SuperPac

Member
I wasn't aware that was possible. Don't you lose the in car controls though even if this does work? Normally, for stuff that isn't through the main Music app, I always went through Bluetooth but that limits my control over the phone.

No, you don't lose in-car controls, you can still skip around etc. but only within the podcast playlist that's playing. Otherwise the controls are in the app (unlike with music player which disables app controls when you're hooked into an accessory).
 
No, you don't lose in-car controls, you can still skip around etc. but only within the podcast playlist that's playing. Otherwise the controls are in the app (unlike with music player which disables app controls when you're hooked into an accessory).

Well I lose the ability to navigate among all my podcasts though don't I? That's what I currently can do. So at best I get pause and next. Since we are on this, is audio books still in the Music app?
 

SuperPac

Member
Well I lose the ability to navigate among all my podcasts though don't I? That's what I currently can do. So at best I get pause and next.

Through your car controls it's as if you're stuck in one playlist, so you can use shuffle, skip, pause, etc. or whatever controls you would normally have. To navigate to another playlist or podcast you'd pick up your phone and use the app. Same for if you want to use a podcast-app specific feature like 30-second skip or playback speed. Maybe that bothers some people, but to me there were just too many downsides to using the Music app to manage podcasts.
 

Holy Wars

Banned
The new podcasts app would be amazing if it took advantage of the fact it was its own app and auto downloaded stuff without you opening it. As it is, I don't get the point.
 

hirokazu

Member
The new podcasts app would be amazing if it took advantage of the fact it was its own app and auto downloaded stuff without you opening it. As it is, I don't get the point.
That's one of the least of my concerns about the app. It would be amazing if it actually worked properly.

Also, there's a black line that appears at only one zoom level in Sydney in Maps since beta 2. It took me up until now to realise that it's supposed to represent the train tracks. It's so wildly inaccurate it's laughable, but the bigger question is, why does it only appear at a specific zoom level? Zoom in further, it disappears, zoom out, it disappears.
 

numble

Member
Looks like iOS 6 changes map data based on where you are, at least in beta 2, at least in China...

I'm now in China, and there is now more data on maps in China/Hong Kong, along with a big ole AutoNavi logo on the bottom of the maps.

Unless there was a big update to China data on the usual maps, this behavior didn't occur before.

Going to look at North American data from China also reveals sparse maps.

CXcGxl.png


dmMyjl.png


LXCj1l.jpg


HG7yZl.jpg


The map sources link also goes to a different link:
http://gspsa21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution.cn.html
 
* Podcasts are no longer accessible by my car stereo (with iPod integration) because they exist outside of the "iPod" portion of iOS.

* The Podcasts app isn't recognized as the last part of my iPhone to have been playing audio at a certain point (not sure what the trigger is yet). Hitting the pause/play button on my headphones just starts up the first music track in my Music library, not the last podcast.

* Podcasts app doesn't sync what has and hasn't been played in iTunes (at this point).

All three of those have to be fixed in order for me to not rage over this change, and with the Podcasts app now a totally separate entity, I'm not sure they're all going to be fixable.

The way i use mine similar to above is I just load up Instacast and play it through my Mazda 3'a bluetooth. But yeah, that would really be annoying.
 

cubanb

Banned
I just installed ios6 on my Ipad 3. I am having trouble logging into my apple id. Did something go wrong with my install or is itunes down or something?
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
I just installed ios6 on my Ipad 3. I am having trouble logging into my apple id. Did something go wrong with my install or is itunes down or something?

If something was wrong you wouldn't have gotten that far. Beta 1 had a glitch where you sometimes had to sign into your Apple ID 2-3 times before it actually logged in, maybe this is still the case in Beta 2?
 

noah111

Still Alive
Finding myself using the spotlight a lot more lately, for some reason. It's a bit slow sometimes but finding and playing a song through the spotlight rather than opening up the music app and doing a search that way, saves time. For contacts too, even. Problem (apart from being sluggish sometimes) is I need to be on the home screen to even use it. If they would just make it a bit more ubiquitous like putting it on the screen when the switcher is activated, I could see spotlight actually becoming something real useful.

Also noticed the lack of a lock icon in the status bar now (on the lock screen). Feels oddly bare. :lol Would be a perfect spot to place the NC grabber permanently. NC from the lock screen is long overdue imo.
 
The iOS6 preview runs AGONIZINGLY slow on my iPhone 4. I can't even use maps anymore coz it would take about 40 seconds to load a location I typed in.
 

lupinko

Member
The iOS6 preview runs AGONIZINGLY slow on my iPhone 4. I can't even use maps anymore coz it would take about 40 seconds to load a location I typed in.

Aside from some glitches or bugs to be expected from a beta, iOS6B2 runs well on my iPhone4. Safari is actually better now.
 

KingKong

Member
One thing I would love in iOS is the instapaper scrollbar where when you hold your finger on the position bar, it enlarges and scrolls 5x faster
 
Aside from some glitches or bugs to be expected from a beta, iOS6B2 runs well on my iPhone4. Safari is actually better now.

Hmmm, I wonder why mine is so slow. I have iTunes Match turned on but even with that and my apps I have like 2 gigs open. I've been good about cleaning up the multitask bar every once in a while too, so I dunno what it is.
 
Anyone having really annoying bug where you lose Internet? iPad 3 here and I lose Internet throughout the device and whenever I open settings it just freezes and I have to force quit. Pad keeps a full wifi signal the entire time just no Internet connection. Only solution is a reset.
 

jts

...hate me...
Anyone having really annoying bug where you lose Internet? iPad 3 here and I lose Internet throughout the device and whenever I open settings it just freezes and I have to force quit. Pad keeps a full wifi signal the entire time just no Internet connection. Only solution is a reset.
Yup. Exactly the same on my iPad 3.
 
I know, but... i'm here for the promised magic!

if my 'smart' phone can't wake me up at my stop, why technology? :p

Trust me, I am equally annoyed.

"Siri remind me to buy toilet paper when I leave work."

I am not going to spell out the details for you, but let's just say that the reminder never went off.
 

hirokazu

Member
Looks like iOS 6 changes map data based on where you are, at least in beta 2, at least in China...

I'm now in China, and there is now more data on maps in China/Hong Kong, along with a big ole AutoNavi logo on the bottom of the maps.

Unless there was a big update to China data on the usual maps, this behavior didn't occur before.

Going to look at North American data from China also reveals sparse maps.

CXcGxl.png


dmMyjl.png


LXCj1l.jpg


HG7yZl.jpg


The map sources link also goes to a different link:
http://gspsa21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution.cn.html

Wow, that look completely different from what I get in the same locations. Not just the data, the style of the vector roads and stuff is completely different to regular maps too.
 

hirokazu

Member
Finding myself using the spotlight a lot more lately, for some reason. It's a bit slow sometimes but finding and playing a song through the spotlight rather than opening up the music app and doing a search that way, saves time. For contacts too, even. Problem (apart from being sluggish sometimes) is I need to be on the home screen to even use it. If they would just make it a bit more ubiquitous like putting it on the screen when the switcher is activated, I could see spotlight actually becoming something real useful.

Also noticed the lack of a lock icon in the status bar now (on the lock screen). Feels oddly bare. :lol Would be a perfect spot to place the NC grabber permanently. NC from the lock screen is long overdue imo.

Not even sure why they bothered to remove the lock icon to replace it with nothing. It displayed the device status clearly and efficiently.
 

hirokazu

Member
Anyone having really annoying bug where you lose Internet? iPad 3 here and I lose Internet throughout the device and whenever I open settings it just freezes and I have to force quit. Pad keeps a full wifi signal the entire time just no Internet connection. Only solution is a reset.
I wrote about that. In many instances the system is responding in the background (I can take screenshots, low battery warnings still display, etc) but I can't quit Settings and the only way I can do anything is to force reboot the iPad.
 

numble

Member
Here is a comparison of a map area in iOS 6 maps that will look different depending on whether you are looking at it from China or elsewhere:

Outside China, Inside China
cMJZ4l.jpg
byL2ql.jpg


Other things to note:
1) Its not using Apple cartography, or at least it is different from the cartography Apple uses elsewhere. I'm betting its AutoNavi's cartography, since many Chinese map services mimic the Google Map style.
2) Its not using vector data, it looks like its using tiles, like the "old" maps. But it seems to load faster than the old ones.
3) Both Google and Apple are using AutoNavi in China (both screenshots below show attribution to AutoNavi). Apple shows more data at higher zoom levels than Google, it may even have more data for some reason. This is also a random small town, in case you want to know how detailed data is:
HW4Dkl.jpg
USmrKl.jpg

4) It follows PRC geography. Note the 9-dashed line that represents China owning most of the South China Sea, and another dash to include Taiwan:
uVHP1l.jpg
 
Hmm I've now got a bug on the iPad3 where Wi-Fimwill either not connect, or shows its connected but doesn't work. If I go into Settings when this happens, it hangs and requires a hard reset. :(

Yeah had that on my iPhone.

I just recently took my phone apart to fix the home button and I thought I fucked up the re repair process, was almost 2 seconds away from crying (for those who have taken an iPhone apart, you know what I mean)- but I just resetted it, and it was A OK after that

You mean the option to Flag an email in addition to Mark as Unread? Since iOS 5 debuted.

No no, literally the flag icon. I know the ability was there, just don't know if the flag icon was always there

I'm noticing all throughout the phone that colour depth is a lot stronger, even the clock.app icon seems to have changed
 
Top Bottom