Q: I appreciated your recent article What’s New In iOS 6: iPad, iPhone + iPod touch Screenshots. I do have a question, however: A user asked in the comments about whether turn-by-turn directions will be available for the iPhone 4. Do you have an answer regarding this?
– Jeff
A: Unfortunately, it appears that actual spoken turn-by-turn directions will not be available on the iPhone 4 in iOS 6. From the footnotes on Apple’s iOS 6 Preview Page:
It appears that the new Maps app in iOS 6 will provide step-by-step directions between two locations, including a similar on-screen display of distances and turn information, however these will not be updated based on current location and will not include spoken navigation instructions; instead users will need to swipe to the left and right to move through each step along the route.
Note that it has been generally assumed that the turn-by-turn navigation feature is connected to Siri for the voice directions, however it’s interesting that Apple’s release notes indicate that turn-by-turn navigation will be available on the iPad 2, while Siri will only be available on the third-generation iPad released this year.
