iOS 6: My first experiences

I upgraded both iPhone 4 and iPad 2 to iOS 6 this morning. Here is a short list of my first experiences:

• The feature I was really waiting for is the “Do not disturb” mode. It now allows me to be available via phone at night for family members but not being disturbed by incoming mails, messages or other phone calls. So far the feature works as it should, with one exception: If you do have contacts which are linked to another contact and put them into your “Favourites” group, then calls by that contacts will not come through the filter. As soon as you unlink this contact it does work again. For me it sounds like a bug (or I maybe did not yet understand the linked contact feature).
• In general the phone feels a bit more responsive. But that might be just a feeling 😉
• The VPN configuration does now really save my password .. something which was not working for me in 5.1.1. Unfortunately the VPN connection is still disconnected as soon as you put the phone in standby mode. So I still cannot use my FritzPhone app to be connected to my home phone if I am not at home.
•  If you search for an App the result does now display in which folder the App is located. Something I missed often.
•  If you update your Apps you no longer need to enter the password for your Apple ID. Also something I like.
•  The German keyboard has now an additional new layout where the German Umlaute are displayed. It does help on the iPad but I will disable that on the iPhone due to the smaller keyboard.
•  Shared photo streams: Something I think will not use. I would have liked it if you were able to send a link to anybody even if they do not have an Apple ID and iCloud. So I would be able to do fast sharing of photos with anybody else. However as it is limited to Apple iCloud access it is quite useless for me.
•  The new Maps application is quite a mess and I would call it the biggest disadvantage and disappointment of iOS 6. You will find e.g. restaurants which no longer exist or which are located somewhere else in the meantime, the satellite view is worse compared with Google Maps and so on. You will find many, many complaints in the Internet already. Either Apple needs to do rework here very fast or Google needs to publish a native app. In the meantime I have created an icon for Google Maps on the Home screen and use that as a workaround.

So if I look at the list above: Only small things. So not sure if it is worth upgrading … However: At least it is free 😉