iphone

Top 5 features missing from iPhone 5

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The iPhone 5 has arrived, and it's pretty great. But I can't shake this nagging feeling that Apple could have done more.

A week ago, CNET's David Carnoy penned a great roundup of the most-wanted features that didn't make it into the iPhone 5. It seemed like easy pickings for a Top 5 video, so I imposed a ranking, stood in front of a camera, and created the video you see before you (click here if you don't see a video at the top of this … Read more

Local search field test: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

Yesterday we performed a field test of the turn-by-turn directions on both the iOS 6 Apple Maps app on the iPad and Google Maps on a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Both fared pretty well with getting us to our destinations, but Google Maps came out on top. As we pointed out yesterday, a number of people have been complaining about the Apple Maps app, from inaccuracies to poor directions.

Today, in part two of our testing, we did a number of searches for landmarks and other destinations to see how each app performed. After only a couple of tests, it was … Read more

Why Apple made the right decision with iOS 6 Maps

Imagine you are Apple CEO Tim Cook. You control the single most profitable phone on the market, the iPhone. You have full control over your mobile OS -- iOS -- and the applications that run on it.

Except that's not actually true. You don't have full control over your mobile OS, because two of your default applications rely heavily on technology and data provided to you by Google, your greatest enemy. I am talking, of course, about YouTube and Google Maps, which have been part of iOS since the very first iPhone.

Removing YouTube is simple enough. Google wanted full control of the YouTube app, … Read more

Life in the iPhone 5 line: Fashion as a must-have 'feature'

I may write a CNET column called called "Common Sense Tech," but I can't say that I or any of those who were in line with me today for iPhone 5 are showing much common sense. But the iPhone, perhaps more than any other device, illustrates how important a feature that fashion can be, in addition to function, when it comes to tech purchases.

Don't get me wrong. The iPhone 5 is an excellent phone, as our CNET iPhone 5 review covers. As usual, I'm not trying to spark some type … Read more

Restrict iMessage alerts to your contacts only

When I first wrote about iMessage last year with the release of iOS 5, I made a huge mistake. I had gone through and edited all of the screenshots, but forgot to blur out an e-mail address linked to my iMessage account. Readers noticed this, of course, and began sending me iMessages almost immediately.

I heard from a lot of nice readers, and I also had the occasional person who would send me multiple messages at all hours of the night. It took me a few weeks to figure out how these people knew how to contact me, but even … Read more

How to set multiple e-mail signatures on iOS 6

Multiple e-mail signatures, a feature that should have been in iOS from day one, has finally been added to the operating system with the iOS 6 update.

Before iOS 6, users would have to set one generic signature and then add any extra information as they were sending the e-mail. Not anymore.

To set up your e-mail signatures, launch the Settings app and then select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Scroll down until you find the Signature option and tap on it. You'll be presented with the option to set one e-mail address for all accounts, or to set a signature … Read more

Apple Maps in iOS 6: What you need to know (FAQ)

It's only been a day since iOS 6 went live, but the world has sounded with a Greek chorus of complaints over the new Maps app made by Apple.

In case you don't already know, iOS 6 makes a big change in your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch's mapping features. It removes the Google Maps app that you've long used and replaces it with Apple's home-baked mapping service. At first, you may not notice the change since the app's icon, and much of the interface looks almost the same. Once you try to use … Read more

iPhone 5 begins its world tour in Australia

And they're off.

Throngs of people around the world are piling into Apple stores to claim the iPhone 5, promising to deliver a huge weekend for a device that has already seen record sales.

Apple said 2 million new iPhones were sold the day it became available for pre-order. Within 24 hours, shipping times slipped to two weeks for the device. Currently, the wait for a pre-ordered iPhone sits at 3 to 4 weeks.

Aussie siblings James and Tamsyn Vohradsky were said to be the first people in the world to purchase the new phone at retail.

Customer demand … Read more

Apple's Siri trounces Samsung's S Voice (hands-on)

I've updated this hands-on to reflect Siri's new tricks in iOS6; it originally posted June 21, 2012 comparing S Voice on the Galaxy S3 -- which is still current -- to Siri on iOS 5. If you're wondering, tomorrow I'll be comparing the updated Siri to Google Voice Actions.

Voice assistants like Siri, S Voice, Google Actions, and Microsoft's TellMe aren't new, but they are evolving into more mainstream features that can expedite results. S Voice, which launched this summer on the Samsung Galaxy S3, is Samsung's answer to Siri. That also makes … Read more