Apple releases iOS 6 beta 3 with new settings for Maps

Mid-July and we are at beta 3.  Maybe we'll see the final prior to "fall"

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Originally Posted by Kennysmoothx 

Lets see what new changes are in store for us,
My OTA update showing as Beta 2 however, I wonder if thats just a glitch?

iPhone 4 here, downloading Beta 3 now. Shows as about 320MB

393 MB on the "new" iPad and 320 MBs on the 4S. Loving both betas so far! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleInsider 

... whether to measure distances in miles or kilometers. ...

I hope that outside the US, those of us that actually use kilometres, will have a dialogue that spells the word correctly.  ;-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 


No, that's exactly the reason we need an off switch. I don't like being forced to see Twitter in iOS and OS X, and I sure as heck won't like being forced to see Twitter and Facebook in iOS and OS X.

I totally agree with this sentiment. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 


No, that's exactly the reason we need an off switch. I don't like being forced to see Twitter in iOS and OS X, and I sure as heck won't like being forced to see Twitter and Facebook in iOS and OS X.

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Originally Posted by Napoleon_PhoneApart 

 

I totally agree with this sentiment. 

Add me to the list.  Frankly, I really don't feel inclined to do this update.  I don't want anything related to Twitter or Facebook (or Google, for that matter) on my iDevices.  First, it's wasted resources, both in storage and CPU cycles.  But mostly it's the data leakage.  Not just the data that you know is leaking out because you either intended to do so or grudgingly allow it, but all the data that you don't know about because it's a locked-down device.  I have great control on my laptop of the data that exits out to the net, via /etc/hosts, DNT+ and best of all, Little Snitch.  An iDevice has nothing to limit any random app from sending information back to their servers without your consent.  That's unacceptable.

There is a neat iOS app for jailbroken devices similar to Little Snitch (Firewall IP), but I tried to buy it using a Visa gift card and could never get through the process (anyone have any tips on this?  I'm happy to pay them their few bucks, but I'm not going to use a credit card to do so.)  Having the Apple store work so easily is wonderful, but lacking even the most basic access to a network filter is ridiculous.  As a result, sadly, I rarely connect my iDevices to the net.

Quote:

Originally Posted by el3ktro 


Don't log in to Twitter and Facebook and you won't see it anywhere in iOS or OS X! It's as simple as that ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 


Except that's not the case, and you see it everywhere whether you use it or not.

And elektro obviously didn't bother to read my (very next) post either.  Even if I don't see any damn Facebook logo on my screen, there's shit going on behind the scenes that I DON'T WANT AT ALL on my devices!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 


Except that's not the case, and you see it everywhere whether you use it or not.

Except you don't, if you don't log in to either service in the settings menu. I just tried this on Beta 3, and no popups, no contact syncing, no contextual menu, nothing.

Are you happy when you're not complaining about things, or what? You're worse than a 90 year old woman with a broken hip and an empty carton of smokes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostface147 

It'd be nice to turn off the turn by turn navigation. It's annoying. I can function just fine without them, as I have for my entire life.

You don't have to turn it off. If you don't like it, just don't use it.

After you put in your where from and where to info, hit "Route." This brings up the routing screen with the little blue line charting your course. If you hit "Start" in the top right, it turns on Voice Guided Nav. Since you don't want that, go ahead and click the button on the bottom left that's just to the right of 3D, the one with the little lines through it that looks like a bullet point list. Viola! Step by step nav instructions, just like the old version, except this time you don't have to keep hitting "next" after every portion of the route.

Feel free to return to your fine functioning life now, as I've apparently just solved your most critical conundrum for you.

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Originally Posted by SolipsismX 

I hope is better on my iPhone 4. Missing the old Maps app. I hope Google releases their App Store version soon.

This is what I have been thinking about. Wasn't it a while back that Google decided to charge companies that deployed Google Maps if they exceeded x accesses per day or something? So with the density of usage based on iOS devices, they could have been making some money off this.

Now, if they release it as a free app, how do they intend to charge individual users? So it appears that they still lose whatever they could have made if Apple had continued to use Google Maps as the built-in app.

As for Maps on iOS 6, here in India it is ok - not as bad as I expected it to be. It did find a lot of places that I didn't think it would. But the maps are at least a couple of years old, which is a real pain. And, as expected, there is no 3D view. When the 3D option is selected, it just rotates the maps at an angle, like flight-view.

We never had turn-by-turn in India anyway with Google Maps as well, so that isn't something we will miss. But the outdated maps is a real concern. Unless things really change between now and Fall.

I'll be waiting for the update which adds 'Street View - ON', or just one which adds 'Use Google Maps - ON'.

Maps without Street View are virtually useless to me. 

Originally Posted by Cash907 

 

Except you don't, if you don't log in to either service in the settings menu. I just tried this on Beta 3, and no popups, no contact syncing, no contextual menu, nothing.

 

Are you happy when you're not complaining about things, or what? You're worse than a 90 year old woman with a broken hip and an empty carton of smokes.

I can confirm the lack of Facebook presence sans login. No need to get personal, however. It's a typical reaction of most power users: insatiably compelled to poke and tweak every aspect of an OS, regardless of necessity. I see it often from Android or Windows switchers: "How do I defrag my iPhone? Where's the task manager? I need to double-tap the home button and manually close everything in this 'recents' list! My friend who is a server admin said so."

As evidenced many times before, this is simply not required on iOS; it's built for speed and optimal battery life. Nothing is running in the background that is not absolutely necessary. Pretty much the antithesis of that one smartphone with a dedicated Facebook light-up hardware button.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blah64 

 

 

And elektro obviously didn't bother to read my (very next) post either.  Even if I don't see any damn Facebook logo on my screen, there's shit going on behind the scenes that I DON'T WANT AT ALL on my devices!

There's "shit going on behind the scenes"? Like what? Can you elaborate on that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 


Except that's not the case, and you see it everywhere whether you use it or not.

That's simply WRONG. If you don't log in to Twitter or Facebook in iOS, you don't see it. The "Post" and "Tweet" buttons in Notification Center are gone, Facebook and Twitter don't show up when tapping the new "Share" button and you won't see the Facebook Like button in the App Store.

Whether Facebook tracks users signed in or not is somewhat unclear. Perhaps it's something that Facebook has "fixed" in the past few months.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/facebook-sued-for-15-billion-in-suit-over-user-tracking.html

In any case EFF notes that Facebook does have room to improve in defending user's privacy. Then again nearly every social service does.

https://www.eff.org/pages/who-has-your-back

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Originally Posted by Kennysmoothx 


Hmm Perhaps, Although I'm sure they are working on a public fix for it(One that wont require a software update), as this hack I'm sure is causing tremendous revenue loss as well as causing a huge security loophole.

I thought it was said that it was a core OS problem that required an OS update because it cannot be patched?

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Originally Posted by el3ktro 

 

There's "shit going on behind the scenes"? Like what? Can you elaborate on that?

 

Tallest Skil and I may have different pain points, not sure.  Myself, it's not just the visible stuff that I find unacceptable (that part is grossly unacceptable, but I feel like Apple will probably get that taken care of in a reasonable way eventually; from the sounds of the couple previous posts, perhaps as early as the next OS release).

But unless you're running wireshark or some other network sniffing tool, or unless you run some kind of network filter like Little Snitch, you have absolutely no idea what kind of information is being transmitted back to various "mother ships", especially over cellular networks because you have no way to insert any protection between your device and the internet.  GatorGuy's link above ( http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/facebook-sued-for-15-billion-in-suit-over-user-tracking.html )  shows that companies like Facebook are absolutely not to be trusted.  (Google is even worse, but being on the bad side of Apple they are less likely to have hooks into iOS users over time).  These companies have thousands of developers working on ways to track you, and some of these methods don't require you to be signed into anything.  

Much of this is already happening when you browse the net on your standard OSX (or Windows) machines.  Think about how a FB "like button" works.  You don't have to be signed into anything, merely visiting a web site that has one of those buttons sends valuable information about you to Facebook, including your IP address, which is often used along with other information to attach you to a unique profile.  On a desktop machine there are many options to disable that tracking.  On iOS however, unless you are jailbroken and buy something like Firewall IP, you have no way at all to block that kind of "spyware".  And you have no idea when it's happening, nor what kind of information is being transmitted.  Apple has some safeguards in place, but only for the most obvious and obnoxious kind of tracking, like real-time location.

I assume some of that risk is mitigated when enabling iOS Safari settings, such as Private Browsing, reject cookies, and disable JavaScript.

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Originally Posted by Vorsos 

I assume some of that risk is mitigated when enabling iOS Safari settings, such as Private Browsing, reject cookies, and disable JavaScript.

That's only applicable while using Safari, not for any of the other apps you use!

You have virtually no control over what other apps choose to send back to their company servers (other than a few really obvious things that Apple has wrapped in special APIs, like real-time location).  Other data stores are slowly being limited, like full access to your address book (iirc), but it's case-by-case.

You might also think: who cares, this single app can at best know only about it's own statistics, etc., but when the apps have full-time access to the internet without any way for the user to restrict them, they can and do pull in code from various advertising networks, google, trackers, profilers, etc., so they are able to aggregate (and disaggregate all kinds of data).  It's ugly.

All we need is the equivalent of Little Snitch (or Firewall IP) and much of this would be manageable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blah64 

 

That's only applicable while using Safari, not for any of the other apps you use!

 

You have virtually no control over what other apps choose to send back to their company servers (other than a few really obvious things that Apple has wrapped in special APIs, like real-time location).  Other data stores are slowly being limited, like full access to your address book (iirc), but it's case-by-case.

 

You might also think: who cares, this single app can at best know only about it's own statistics, etc., but when the apps have full-time access to the internet without any way for the user to restrict them, they can and do pull in code from various advertising networks, google, trackers, profilers, etc., so they are able to aggregate (and disaggregate all kinds of data).  It's ugly.

 

All we need is the equivalent of Little Snitch (or Firewall IP) and much of this would be manageable.

Unless apple allows the apps to look into each other, blocking things like that, or even thoroughly scanning an app installed for malware is not possible.