iOS 6 - Apps Overview

With iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2, Apple has updated its Podcasts app with support for iCloud subscription syncing. Just a few minutes later, updates to Apple’s other apps went live in iTunes, including iLife and iWork apps and utils like Find My Friends, Remote, AirPort Utility and more. With so many third-party apps being updated for iOS 6 support as we speak, you may want to prioritize your downloads. Here’s what’s new in Apple’s own updated apps for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad…

iBooks version 2.1.1 is a maintenance update weighing in at 42.4MB and addressing an issue which prompted you to sign in with your Apple ID at unexpected times. Apple urges people who experienced this issue to open iBooks after updating.

Find My Friends version 2.0  now features location-based alerts, a feature requiring iOS 6 and allowing, say, parents to receive alerts when their kids leave school or when a family member arrives home safely. You can also take advantage of this feature to have Find My Friends notify others about your location. Find My Friends 2.0 also brings friend suggestions and favorites and weighs in at 18MB.

Find My iPhone versions 2.0  weighs in at 13.9MB. The program adds the battery charge indicator and lets you (finally!) login forever. On iOS 6, if the account used to log in is the same as the iCloud account configured on the device and the device has passcode enabled on it.

Last, but not the least, the app has a new feature called Lost Mode, pictured below.

Available on devices running iOS 6 or later, Lost Mode locks a missing device with a four-digit passcode and can display a contact phone number right on the lock screen. The interesting bit: while in Lost Mode, your device will keep track of where it has been and display its recent location history when you check in with the Find My iPhone app..

iTunes Movie Trailers 1.2  weighs in at 3.7MB, adds support for iOS 6.

iTunes U version 1.3  weighs in at 18.3MB and adds support for iOS 6, also enabling a new single day view to see all of your posts and assignments due on a particular day and addresses an issue which prevented Closed Captioning from appearing when available.

iAd Gallery version 1.2  is a 1.7MB compatibility update which brings the program up-to-date on iOS 6-enabled devices.

AirPort Utility version 1.1  is 4.3MB and adds support for iOS 6.

Remote version 2.4  weighs in at 19.3MB and adds support for iOS 6.

Keynote version 1.6.2  weighs in at 286MB, it supports iOS 6 and brings out an interesting new ability to open a presentation in another app.

Pages version 1.6.2, just like new versions of Numbers and Keynote, brings iOS 6 support and the ability to open a document in another app. The updated versions is a 231MB download.

Numbers version 1.6.2  weighs in at 255MB. The program supports iOS 6 and can open a spreadsheet in another app.

GarageBand version 1.3 weighs in at a whopping 560MB. In addition to supporting iOS 6, this new version lets you create custom ringtones and alerts for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (requires iOS 6 or later) and import songs from the Music library on your device, play or record with GarageBand in the background while using other apps (requires iPhone 4S, iPad 2 or later).

iPhoto version 1.4 is a 144MB update bringing support for iPod touch, Shared Photo Streams in iOS 6 (Aperture, too), the ability to work with up to 36.5-megapixel images and import full-rez photos via iTunes File Sharing, six new ink effects such as Chalk and Palette Knife, bulk exports, video uploads to Facebook, location and friend tags when sharing images on Facebook and a whole bunch more.

Full release notes for iPhoto 1.1

• Added support for iPod touch (4th generation and later)
• Coaching tips have been added to the Help system on the iPhone and iPod touch
• Effects now include six new Apple-designed ink effects such as Chalk and Palette Knife
• Images up to 36.5 megapixels are now supported*
• Full resolution photos can now be imported via iTunes File Sharing
• Tag albums can be created by adding custom tags to photos 
• “Updating Library” alert appears less frequently
• Multiple photos can now be saved to the Camera Roll at one time
• Cropping presets now use detected faces to determine composition
• Tilt-shift and gradient effects can now be rotated
• Facebook sharing now supports single sign-on in Settings
• Comments can be added more easily when posting photos to Facebook
• Videos can be uploaded to Facebook
• Locations and friend tags can now be set when posting photos to Facebook
• Comments and locations can be set on individual photos when sharing a group of photos to Facebook
• Any photo previously posted to Facebook can be more easily replaced with a more current version
• A notification is now displayed when an upload to Facebook completes in the background
• Photos can now be shared directly to Cards, iMovie, and other supporting apps
• Journals now include new layout options
• Fonts and alignment of text in journal items can be modified
• New style and color options are available for Note and Memory items in journals
• Journal Note and Memory items can now be resized
• Dividers can be added to break journal pages into sections to control the reflow of layouts
• A new Swap mode makes it easier to change the placement of items in a journal layout
• You can now place a pin on a journal map when no location data is present
• Links to journals can now be shared directly to Facebook and Twitter, and via Messages
• Links to remote journals can now be shared even if the journal was created on another device
• A new Publish Changes button provides control over when to update your journal
• An overlay displaying month and year now appears when scrolling in Photos view
• Photos can now be sorted by date and can be filtered using new criteria
• Photos view now includes a Power Scroll strip for high-speed scrolling
• Grid of thumbnails can now be expanded to multiple rows in portrait orientation

*36.5MP images supported on iPhone 5 and third-generation iPad

iMovie version 1.4  weighs in at 473MB and brings 1080p video sharing option, three new trailers to work with (Adrenaline, Coming of Age and Teen), the ability to create a slideshow by sharing photos from iPhoto for iOS and have iMovie automatically animate photos added to any trailer with the Ken Burns effect.

Other tidbits: you can now open the Precision Editor on the iPad to create split audio edits, play clips in the Video Browser before adding them to your project and tap the help icon to display Coaching tips. Finally, audio recordings captured in a project now appear in the Audio Browser for easy access.

Cards version 2.0 weighs in at 92.3MB and brings native support for the iPad, in addition to six new letterpress holiday card designs, with new layouts supporting up to three photos on a single card. You can now mail customized cards to up to twelve recipients in the same order, and share images in iPhoto directly to the Cards app.

On the iPad, Enhanced Card History view is available. Another new feature: automatic image sharpening, which goes a long way towards improving print quality. Other nice-to-haves include improvements to address verification and the checkout process.

If you spot updates to Apple’s other iOS apps, ping me in comments and I’ll update this post accordingly.

Stay Tuned..