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:

Some features may not be available in all countries or all areas. Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation will be available only on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later. Cellular data charges may apply.

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.

 

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Jesse Hollington was a Senior Editor at iLounge. He's written about Apple technology for nearly a decade and had been covering the industry since the early days of iLounge. In his role at iLounge, he provided daily news coverage, wrote and edited features and reviews, and was responsible for the overall quality of the site's content.