iOS 6

Apple's lastest update to its line of iPhones and iPads is rumored to be released this fall alongside the next iPhone.

I've been beta testing two big pieces of upcoming Apple software: iOS 6 and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the upcoming updates to the software that fuels the iPad and Mac computers. There is a lot to like in both.

With those familiar with Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to, essentially, use the same operating system across all of its devices: phones, tablets, laptops, desktops. Even the XBox has a user interface based off of the new Start Menu. This does not work very well for an obvious reason: phones and tablets are primarily designed to be guided by touch; laptops and desktops, on the other hand, rely on mice and keyboards.

Apple's strategy for iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion takes a page out of Microsoft's book but is much more successful in its implementation. Those familiar with Mac OS X and iOS will know that with the last update to the Mac operating system, aka Lion, know that Apple took a turn in iOS's direction by adopting bits and pieces of the mobile operating system's user interface into the desktop operating system. Mountain Lion takes this further, as updates, and even entire apps from iOS are fused into the new desktop OS.

iOS 6 isn't as far along as Mountain Lion; hopefully by the time iOS 6 is released, we will see some improvements in performance (Google announced a significant update to Android yesterday that will see performance close to if not better than iOS), more multitasking options, and some user interface updates. The iPhone is five years old, yet the user interface is nearly identical to this date. While Windows has looked similar over the years, as has Mac OS X, both have had clear evolutions in their interfaces. Android has changed *significantly* over the past year or two; it may not be as fast, on the whole, as iOS, but at this point its user interface is more attractive.

Overall, however, the "marriage," so to speak of Apple's product lines is looking like it will have a much smoother honeymoon than Microsoft's counterpart. Meanwhile, Google's Android does not have a desktop/laptop counterpart, and Google's Chrome OS expirement has been...well, largely an expirement.

Copyright 2012 Bob Caldwell, NMLS# 188544