Apple iPhone 5 may not debut at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) being held in San Francisco in June. But the next installment of Apple's mobile platform dubbed iOS 6 possibly will.
Launched at WWDC 2011, iOS 5 is turning a year old. So it is time for Apple to roll out the next installment of its mobile platform.
The first evidence of iOS 6 came up, when Apple employees reportedly gave a pilot run to its new mobile OS on the new iPad. The development of iOS 6 is under progress and it is expected to launch at WWDC 2012.
"We have a great WWDC planned this year and can't wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers," says Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, hinting about iOS 6.
Here is a list of top 5 features that we expect to see in iOS 6.
Toggles in Notifications Tab
iOS 6 is expected to bring toggle buttons integrated in notification tab. This feature is common on Android phone. However, SBSetting jailbreak already offers this functionality on iOS. Users will be able to quickly toggle useful setting like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, toggle 2G/3G/4G and adjust brightness level.
Better Siri
Siri is the most lovable feature about iPhone 4S. The iOS v5.1 update brings more languages to Siri, but still the virtual assistant is in beta mode. In iOS 6, an update to Siri is guaranteed but we cannot confirm whether Apple will ditch the "beta" moniker out of Siri or not. Rumors about Siri support for iPad are also buzzing high.
Split-screen multitasking for iPad
The new update can bring a new way of multitasking on iPad. Users will be able to run multiple apps side by side. Moreover split-screen multitasking will allow users to work on different apps at a same time.
Facebook Integration
Released earlier this year, iOS v5.1 brought built-in twitter integration to iGadgets, allowing users to share their doings right away. But the most popular social networking Web site - Facebook - is still not as friendly as Twitter on iOS. The next version of Apple's mobile platform is expected to bring deep Facebook integration to Apple devices.
Messages with IM support
iMessages is one of the top-highlighted feature of iOS 5.1 that allows users to sync all the texting data across Apple devices sharing same Apple ID. It allows users to send text and multimedia messages to friends on iPhone, iPad or Mac free-of-cost. On Mac OS X, the app is in beta version, but it supports IM chatting. We may see the same functionality on iPhone too with iOS 6 update.
(reported by Johnny Wills, edited by Dave Clark)
