Road trip with iPhone and iPad on Beta 3

[Mobster1983]

I installed iOS 6 Beta 3 on my iPad (3rd Gen) and iPhone 4S, before taking a two week vacation driving around California. Used both as my primary devices and was able to do a significant amount of testing in RW situations.

I used the iPad as my primary computer as I left my MBA at home. Absolutely no issues. Battery life was to standard and I was able to access all email and other websites I normally use. Used the Maps app fairly often when I was acting as navigator, more on that below. Had no issues with the iPad crashing or any apps not working.

I used my iPhone 4S as normal, calls for work, texting, email, etc. also read a lot on both devices and syncing between iBooks worked with no issues.

My big surprise was when I pitted my 4S against my brand new Garmin nüvi® 3590LMT. I got the top end GPS for my girlfriend to use for work and brought it with me for vacation. Worked well when entering an address, but when I was driving and wanted to find something along the way it got very frustrating. Not easy to search for something while driving (not to mention highly unsafe). Hitting LA traffic I got fed up and asked Siri how to get to a certain location. It popped up right away in the maps app and showed me exactly how to get there. I started using both at the same time, then finally just put my Garmin away and went straight with the iPhone. Used it for the last few days and it was just amazing asking "how do I get to Wi Spa?" and automatically getting a route. Got a holder and charger for my car and it was a dream. Zero issues, and the data usage was minimal (total of .105 Gb after a week and a half of normal use plus navigation).

The only thing I would add now would be speed limit and your current speed.

 

[throys]

I installed iOS 6 Beta 3 on my iPad (3rd Gen) and iPhone 4S, before taking a two week vacation driving around California. Used both as my primary devices and was able to do a significant amount of testing in RW situations.

I used the iPad as my primary computer as I left my MBA at home. Absolutely no issues. Battery life was to standard and I was able to access all email and other websites I normally use. Used the Maps app fairly often when I was acting as navigator, more on that below. Had no issues with the iPad crashing or any apps not working.

I used my iPhone 4S as normal, calls for work, texting, email, etc. also read a lot on both devices and syncing between iBooks worked with no issues.

My big surprise was when I pitted my 4S against my brand new Garmin nüvi® 3590LMT. I got the top end GPS for my girlfriend to use for work and brought it with me for vacation. Worked well when entering an address, but when I was driving and wanted to find something along the way it got very frustrating. Not easy to search for something while driving (not to mention highly unsafe). Hitting LA traffic I got fed up and asked Siri how to get to a certain location. It popped up right away in the maps app and showed me exactly how to get there. I started using both at the same time, then finally just put my Garmin away and went straight with the iPhone. Used it for the last few days and it was just amazing asking "how do I get to Wi Spa?" and automatically getting a route. Got a holder and charger for my car and it was a dream. Zero issues, and the data usage was minimal (total of .105 Gb after a week and a half of normal use plus navigation).

The only thing I would add now would be speed limit and your current speed.

Sounds great. The final version should be better.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Got to agree here, I used Apple turn by turn navigation yesterday and it worked incredibly well. So good that I will probably end up ditching my dedicated sat nav app. Its simple and clear to look at, very accurate (I was in the middle of nowhere) and the vocal instructions were perfect.

The other thing that I was pleased to see was incredibly minimal battery drain compared to the Co-Pilot app and the phone also stayed cool even though it was an incredibly hot day. Anything else that uses the iPhone GPS tends to cause the phone to heat up after a short while which probably goes hand in hand with the battery drain.

If this is Beta 3 then it can only get better. For me the only thing that is missing is the option to set bookmarks such as home, work, or any other place you struggle to find. Saying that I guess I could have just asked Siri to direct me 'home' but didnt think of that at the time.

Well impressed!

 

[Ntombi]

The other thing that I was pleased to see was incredibly minimal battery drain compared to the Co-Pilot app and the phone also stayed cool even though it was an incredibly hot day. Anything else that uses the iPhone GPS tends to cause the phone to heat up after a short while which probably goes hand in hand with the battery drain.

Okay, if this is true, I will be thrilled, thrilled, thrilled! I really like the Navigon app, but using it for long drive makes my iPhone 4 so hot that the screen actually dims.

I'll be getting the next iPhone on launch day, so that would probably help quite a bit, but if they can do something on the software end as well, that will be even better.

 

[gmanist1000]

I installed iOS 6 Beta 3 on my iPad (3rd Gen) and iPhone 4S, before taking a two week vacation driving around California. Used both as my primary devices and was able to do a significant amount of testing in RW situations.

I used the iPad as my primary computer as I left my MBA at home. Absolutely no issues. Battery life was to standard and I was able to access all email and other websites I normally use. Used the Maps app fairly often when I was acting as navigator, more on that below. Had no issues with the iPad crashing or any apps not working.

I used my iPhone 4S as normal, calls for work, texting, email, etc. also read a lot on both devices and syncing between iBooks worked with no issues.

My big surprise was when I pitted my 4S against my brand new Garmin nüvi® 3590LMT. I got the top end GPS for my girlfriend to use for work and brought it with me for vacation. Worked well when entering an address, but when I was driving and wanted to find something along the way it got very frustrating. Not easy to search for something while driving (not to mention highly unsafe). Hitting LA traffic I got fed up and asked Siri how to get to a certain location. It popped up right away in the maps app and showed me exactly how to get there. I started using both at the same time, then finally just put my Garmin away and went straight with the iPhone. Used it for the last few days and it was just amazing asking "how do I get to Wi Spa?" and automatically getting a route. Got a holder and charger for my car and it was a dream. Zero issues, and the data usage was minimal (total of .105 Gb after a week and a half of normal use plus navigation).

The only thing I would add now would be speed limit and your current speed.

Sounds like it worked out very well for you.

One thing that I wish that the new maps had with iOS 6 is the ability while navigating to possibly say the name "Siri" so you don't have to go up to your iPhone and actually hold the home button down to ask Siri to reroute to somewhere else.

This would make it much safer on the road so I can basically totally speak to Siri and not have to actually hold the home button down to activate her.

 

[alexander25]

The only thing I would add now would be speed limit and your current speed.

exactly what for? your car tells you that, and the GPS chip is highly unreliable for this.

good luck using it in court,

"your honor, i was going the speed limit, THAT'S WHAT MY IPHONE SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

 

[terminatorp]

exactly what for? your car tells you that, and the GPS chip is highly unreliable for this.

good luck using it in court,

"your honor, i was going the speed limit, THAT'S WHAT MY IPHONE SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

lol

It's a cool thing to have though. This sounds silly, but I do have this HUD app on my iPhone that makes it look like my dashboard's got a digital speedometer on the windshield at night. (by putting the iPhone by the windshield, the light from the iPhone reflects off the glass). Don't use it that much though...it's just for kicks.

 

[Mobster1983]

Okay, if this is true, I will be thrilled, thrilled, thrilled! I really like the Navigon app, but using it for long drive makes my iPhone 4 so hot that the screen actually dims.

I'll be getting the next iPhone on launch day, so that would probably help quite a bit, but if they can do something on the software end as well, that will be even better.

My iPhone did get pretty hot, but even after 2-3 strait hours of navigating, it wasn't hot enough to force it to shut down or dim the screen.