WWDC 2012: Apple gives user more control in iOS 6
As folks are digging in to Apple’s just-released iOS 6 beta, more details about functions and features are coming to light. Faster Bluetooth toggling, Do Not Disturb and Privacy are among the 200 new features that users of iOS devices can look forward to.
Just a quick tap after opening up Settings is access to turn Bluetooth on and off. In iOS 6, it’s a stand-alone setting underneath “Wifi,” no longer tucked inside of General, according to screen shots from Apple Insider. One less tap and no scrolling does make a difference and will help to save a too-fast-draining battery.
And right below that is a “do not disturb” option. Anyone who uses either an iPhone or iPad for work and for play knows that setting the barriers between those two divergent lives can be tricky. This new feature comes closer to letting us find a way.
So, you will be able to select specific times -- off hours, a novel concept --when apps and notifications won’t show up on your iPhone or iPad, AI reports. But it’s not an impermeable block; you can allow a chosen few to get through.
Down a little further, below Picture Frame and above iCloud, is Privacy, which will let you take a look at what apps are tapping into your location, contacts, calendars, reminders and photos -- and shut them out manually. Privacy displaces but encompasses the current Location Services setting.
One last little thing that has been missing from iPads that many of us scratched our heads about -- a native clock app -- has finally been handled in iOS 6, according to AI. Yes, time is back in your hands, iPad owners. You’ll get a Clock app that includes alarms, timers, a stopwatch and world clocks, so you know what time it is there before you try to FaceTime your cousins in Belgium.
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