Apple loses its bite

My Samsung Galaxy S II that runs on Android is about a year old now. Though I love my phone, I have always conceded that the iPhone’s operating system is better. While Android is very capable, the inner geek in me has always admired iOS’ cooler features like Siri on smartphones. Every time Apple updated its OS, users like me would invariably go, ‘Wish my phone could do that’.

But this has changed with the release of iOS 6, which Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled last week. For once, Android users went, ‘Hey, my phone can already do that’. Let’s look at some of the new features of iOS 6, that Apple fanboys are calling “revolutionary”.

New maps
Apple ditched Google’s map application, and replaced it with one powered by TomTom, a company that sells navigation systems, and a few other like Waze and OpenStreetMaps. The big talking point is the turn-by-turn navigation in the new map application. But this has been a standard feature on even mid-range Android phones. While I am happy that Apple users finally have this feature, forgive me if I yawn.

Facebook integration
iOS 6 comes with tight Facebook integration. The main advantage is that users will be able to share a photo as soon as they click it. Again, this is a standard feature in Android. In fact, sharing in general is far easier in Android than on iOS. As soon as you install a social app (like Facebook or Twitter), the option to share using that network automatically appears in the sharing menu.

Better Siri
Siri is the most innovative app on iOS, and Apple has improved it further by tying up with content partners like Yelp. As a result, Siri can now recommend restaurants, update you on match scores and provide movie reviews. Since these partnerships are all US-based, it is not clear how much this will improve the experience in other countries like India.

Reject call using SMS
You are in a meeting and can’t receive a call. You cut the call, and then send an SMS explaining why you can’t answer the phone. This new feature allows you to reject the call and send an SMS simultaneously. Tech blogs listed this as one of the cool new features of iOS 6. While the stock Android doesn’t have this feature, Samsung has built this capability into all its Android phones. It’s a shame it took Apple this long to integrate this feature into its OS. On their own, these features will improve user experience. But they do nothing to make Apple look like the most innovative company around — l its updated OS, Jellybean, for 2012. Steve Jobs’ absence is certainly.