Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for. We're announcing the winner of the FREE iPhone 5 from iMore.

Find out who won... after the break!

miabs1

Congratulations miabs1! We'll be in touch via email to get your information for the prize! To everyone else, thanks for entering! There is always a giveaway happening on iMore and more chances to win great free stuff! Come back often and enter everything!

Enter all the contests!

Here's the deal -- you follow iMore on your favorite social networks, and we give you awesome accessory prizes... EVERY MONTH!

We know our loyal readers already visit iMore.com daily, subscribe to our RSS feeds and get the iMore Podcast on iTunes, but we wanted to do something a little extra to reward our loyal fans and grow our audience in some of the off-iMore social networking and content sharing sites that iPhone owners hang out and visit.

It's easy! All you have to do is follow iMore on Youtube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook and as a thank you for doing so we're going to pick a lucky winner each month from among our iMore followers / subscribers / fans on each of these sites to win some great iPhone prizes! That's four winners each month - one picked at random from each site. All you need to do is click the links below to follow us on each site, and just keep following us! We'll pick our four winners on the last day of each month and announce them around the first day of the new month along with the prizes to be won for the new month. You can subscribe to all of Youtube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook to maximize your chances of winning.

This month we want to help you stay charged so you never miss a beat! See the list below for links to the sites and the prize you could win on each one.

• On Youtube - You could win Seidio SURFACE Plus Case!
• On Twitter - You could win a mophie Juice Pack Plus!
• On Google+ - You could win a mophie Juice Pack Air!
• On Facebook - You could win a Seidio Charging Vault Kit!

And don't forget to follow our sensational staff -- they often have extra accessories and apps so you never know when they'll surprise you with something special -- @imore, @reneritchie, @GeorgiaTiPb, @llofte, @iMuggle, @chrisoldroyd, @bla1ze, @_Miche11e_!

Youtube Bonus Entry!

The past couple of weeks have been mad with  and the new iPhone 5 both coming out. Rene and the rest of the team have been hard at work bringing you everything you need to know about the new updates, and even stuff you didn't know you needed to know! Beyond that you can find accessory reviews, game and app reviews, interviews, and so much more on the iMore Youtube channel. And that brings us to this week's bonus entry. Go subscribe to the iMore Youtube channel if you haven't already, and then watch some videos. Leave some comments on the videos, letting us know what you thought of the video or discussion about the subject of the video. That's it! Leave a constructive comment (meaning not "Here's a comment for an extra entry!") and you've got a bonus entry. Good luck!

Follow iMore and Win rules and regulations

Dave Wiskus and Lex Friedman were kind and foolish enough to invite me to join them on their Mule Radio podcast, Unprofessional. We were bound by law not to discuss iPhones or iPads, which meant we kept trying to discuss iPhone and iPads using thinly veiled analogies to martial arts, movies, TV shows, and comic books.

It's short, bitter, Bane-ish, profane, and totally unprofessional. Check it out.

Listen: Unprofessional #7: Bamf or Snikt

After what feels like an eternity since Angry Birds maker Rovio teased that they were working on a game that was from the pigs point of view, Bad Piggies is finally here. I wouldn't call it a "sequel" to Angry Birds, however, because it doesn't feature the birds at all. Instead, it's an entirely new game featuring only the pigs -- and it's awesome!

The objective of Bad Piggies is to help the pigs build modes of transportation to get them to the finish line. Each level also has the option of earning up to three stars, but unlike Angry Birds, these stars are not based off points and don't need to be earned in a single attempt. In fact, you usually can't earn all the star at once. Every level will give you one star for completing the level, another one for collecting the star icon, but the objective for the third star varies from level to level. For example, one level may have a time requirement, another may require that you not use a specific object in your machine, and another level may require you to get to the finish line without blowing up TNT. I'm a huge fan of this approach to earning stars because it fosters creativity since you usually have to change your vehicle's design to earn all the stars.

If you get stuck on a level and need help with designing your vehicle, you can purchase the Mechanic Pig and he'll build one for you. Although the Mechanic Pig's design won't necessarily earn all stars for you, he at least gets you started so that all you have to do is tweek the vehicle to help you get all three stars.

In addition to the 60 levels included, Bad Piggies also includes 4 very difficult "sandbox levels", 30 puzzles that can be unlocked by earning three stars on levels, and an extra-special, super-secret level that will be revealed after collecting all the skulls.

Bad Piggies is availalble as separate purchases for the iPhone and iPad, but unfortunately, the iPhone version doesn't support the iPhone 5's larger display, yet. Another big disappointment about Bad Piggies is that, just like Angry Birds, there is no iCloud sync available to keep your levels in sync between devices. This is such a terrible decision by Rovio because it actually discourages people from purchasing both versions.

The good

• Fun and addicting
• Different than Angry Birds
• 60 levels crammed with flying/driving/crashing fun
• 30 additional puzzles unlocked by three-starring levels
• 4 sandbox levels to stretch your creativity
• Ultra-special, ultra-secret, ultra-difficult sandbox level to unlock by collecting all the skulls!
• 33 objects to create the ultimate machine: motors, wings, fans, bottle rockets, umbrellas, balloons, and much more!
• Purchase the mechanic pig and he'll help you build your mode of transportation needed to complete the level Mechanic Pig

The bad

• No iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad
• iPhone version is not optimized for the iPhone 5

The bottom line

Rovio has done a great job with Bad PIggies and it was worth the wait. It's a completely different game from Angry Birds that is challenging, fun, and addicting.

$0.99 for iPhone - Download Now

$2.99 for iPad - Download now

Only hours following Apple CEO Tim Cook's open letter to customers regarding Maps on iOS 6, Apple has added a featured box in the App store for users to "find apps for your iPhone" that takes you to a section devoted to maps apps.

This is a very impressive and humble move by Apple. Apple is typically a rather arrogant company, so Tim Cook's letter and this new section of the App Store show a side of Apple that is willing to admit fault and do what's needed to improve their users' experience.

Apple has featured the following 13 map apps:

• MotionX GPS Drive - $0.99 - Download Now
• Waze social GPS traffic & gas - Free - Download Now
• MapQuest - Free - Download Now
• GPS by TeleNav - Free - Download Now
• Scout by Telenav - Free - Download Now
• Garmin U.S.A - $39.99 - Download Now
• Gokivo GPS Navigator - $0.99 - Download Now
• Navigon USA - $39.99 - Download Now
• CoPilot Live Premium HD - $12.99 - Download Now
• CoPilot GPS - Free - Download Now
• Bing - Free - Download Now
• Magellan RoadMate USA - $49.99 - Download Now
• AT&T Navigator - Free (with subscription) - Download Now

Source: MacRumors

iOS 6 removed the Google-powered Maps app that launched alongside the original iPhone in 2007 and replaced it with new Maps app and location services more fully under Apple's control. That's means iOS 6 got features like turn-by-turn navigation, vector-based maps, and Flyover, but lost features like built-in transit directions and StreetView. It also means the quality of the location data changed drastically for many users. While this was hardly unexpected, reaction has varied from "beautiful and perfectly usable" to "dreadful and a deal-breaker."

Recognizing that Apple's new location data, licensed from TomTom and others, seems to vary in quality considerably from place to place, with big, populous American cities tending to be much better than small, rural, international areas, iMore still wanted to put them to a test.

So I got in the car and drove for nearly 6 hours and did just that. Here are the results.

iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Interface & ease of use

Maps under iOS 6 isn't too much different than the design and feel of what users already had under iOS 5. Upon launching the app you'll be presented with a map of your current location. Along the top you've got a directions button, a search bar, and a link to your contacts so you can get directions to any address for any contact.

When it comes to viewing a map and customizing the views you'll see two buttons in the lower left hand corner. The first is to automatically find your current location. You can tap it twice to use the built in compass to see what direction you're facing. The next button labeled "3D" allows you to enable or disable a 3D rendering of the map on the screen.

In the lower right hand corner you can tap on the page curl in order to customize view options even further. You've got three main map types which are standard, hybrid, and satellite. Standard will give you a drawn out view of maps with streets and other markings clearly labeled. Hybrid gives you an actual live view of what you're looking at along with street labels and other information. Satellite will leave out labels and only give you a live view.

At anytime during navigation you can choose the list icon in the bottom left to view all the directions along your route. Once you start a route it'll automatically activate voice navigation via Siri. You can close out of the app, lock your iPhone, play music, or go about whatever you were doing and Maps will still keep track of directions for you. You'll see your route on the Lock screen and any directions will be announced as they happen via Siri.

iOS 5 Maps is extremely similar when it comes to interface. You will however notice some features in iOS 5 Maps that are blatantly missing in iOS 6 maps such as transit and walking directions.

iOS 5 Maps has two main views and you can toggle between them along the bottom of the screen. They are search and directions. You can also choose the arrow icon in the lower left corner to locate yourself at any time. Under search you can type in the name of any place or city and see it on a map. You can also choose the blue Address Book button to access your contacts and choose a destination that way. If you know the address or place you need to get to, you can type in directions manually as well.

Similar to iOS 6 maps, tapping on the page curl in the bottom right will allow you to view traffic and switch between map view. iOS 5 Maps supports the same kind of maps iOS 6 maps does but adds the list option for list directions. You have this feature under iOS 6 maps as well but it's just moved to the main map view instead of being tucked inside the settings section.

If you're on iOS 6 and aren't happy with the updated Maps app, you still have the option of going to maps.google.com from your Safari browser, bookmarking it on your Home screen, and using that instead. While the interface is different, you'll get all the same map data that Google offered in the iOS 5 Maps app.

Along the top you've got the option to search for a destination, locate yourself, and more. The web version of Google Maps will also give you the option to choose between driving directions, transit info, walking directions, and bicycle routes.

After pulling up driving directions, maps.google.com will give you the different choices in routes to choose from just like iOS 6 Maps and iOS 5 maps do. Once you choose one you can immediately start. Google will track your location just like it would in the native Maps app but you'll have to make sure Safari stays running or you don't navigate away from the page by mistake.

After choosing a route you can view a list of instructions directly underneath it. Tapping the maps icon at the top will give you a map view of the route. In my experience, maps.google.com is much choppier via Safari than both iOS 5 and iOS 6 Maps. Sometimes pressing on a button via the web version wouldn't always work or didn't seem very self explanatory.

When it comes to user interface and ease of use, both Maps under iOS 6 and iOS 5 are easy to use and extremely alike design wise. The web version of Google Maps is choppy and doesn't seem to display data as quickly and efficiently as either iOS 6 Maps or iOS 5 Maps.

iOS Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Directions

When entering directions into iOS 6 Maps, iOS 5 Maps, and maps.google.com, most of the time, all three apps would present you with the same suggested routes. They also typically showed the same amount of travel time within minutes of each other.

iOS 6 Maps works very much like iOS 5 maps. Just search for a location and get driving or walking directions from your current location or manually type in a from and to address and iOS 6 Maps will give you directions. If there are several routes to choose from it'll show you a map view of each route. You can then tap each route and view the distance and time as well as a list view of the directions. Once you've found the route you'd like to take you can tap the Route button and you'll be on your way. Voice navigation will commence and you can close out of the maps app. Siri will then notify you when you've got a turn or other direction coming up. Anytime you want to view the directions you can tap the turn arrow in the upper left hand corner of iOS 6 Maps in order to view the directions from start to end.

One thing I did find interesting with iOS 6 Maps is that it doesn't always produce the same results each time. You can see above that when I searched for the same location on two separate iOS 6 Map apps on two different devices, the map data looks different on both. I wasn't able to figure out why that is and each time I searched for a location it would show different side streets than the last time I searched.

iOS 5 Maps works the same way iOS 6 maps does but is more robust. You can not only find driving and walking directions but information as well. Anyone who's ever been in a big city they're unfamiliar with knows how important transit directions can be. When you don't have a car, they're a pretty big deal.

Once you've chosen the type of directions you want, you can either locate yourself and choose a location from there or manually type in directions. Once you're done you can tap the Route button and just like with iOS 6 maps, you'll be given several routes to choose from. Tap one to choose it and you'll be given directions along the top of the screen.

Since iOS 5 Maps doesn't support voice navigation you'll only have the option to use regular navigation. Once you've completed a step you can tap the Next button to view the next step. When it comes to driving, voice navigation is definitely a better option and before iOS 6 Maps, there were several third party GPS apps that helped fill in the gap.

Even though you don't have voice navigation, iOS 5 Maps contain much more robust data when it comes to the actual maps you're viewing than that of iOS 6. If you're trying to obtain directions in a rural area, you may not see side streets or other kinds of data in the Maps app under iOS 6 that is present under iOS 5 using Google Maps. That will be a problem for many users.

If you're on iOS 6, maps.google.com makes a good fallback for when iOS 6 Maps isn't giving you the data you need. Since it pulls the same data as the iOS 5 Maps app, you'll get much better mapping data to work with. Again, it would be voice navigation or turn-by-turn directions but you'll see a much clearer picture and in some cases, better directions, than what you get with Maps on iOS 6.

When it comes to mapping data, Maps for iOS 5 and maps.google.com contain much more data and are a lot more reliable than Apple's own iOS 6 Maps app when it comes to rural areas. If you live in a well populated area, iOS 6 Maps will still give you the data that you need and get you from point A to point B without a hitch.

iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Turn-by-Turn navigation

iOS 6 Maps offers voice navigation and turn-by-turn direction. This is not a feature that is available through either iOS 5 Maps or maps.google.com. If you wanted voice navigation prior to iOS 6, you'd have to rely on a third party app to provide it. Considering some of them can get extremely high in price, it's nice to see Apple providing the feature natively.

Since iOS 6 was released as a beta back in June, I've been using voice navigation rather regularly and have to say I'm quite impressed with the Siri integration and how it works so seamlessly regardless what you're doing on your iPhone. You can run it in the background or view directions and a live map on the Lock screen. Whenever you're about to come up on a new direction, Siri will re-iterate the direction to you. If you've got music playing through your Music app, the music will simply fade out and Siri will provide the direction, then the music will fade back in.

When using turn-by-turn and voice navigation, you aren't typically starting at a map but rather relying on your iPhone to keep you updated and let you know where you're at. When it comes down to it, I've been impressed. I've never gotten myself into a situation where iOS 6 Maps led me in a wrong direction or didn't get me where I needed to go.

When testing locally in my home area that I know well, I did notice that sometimes iOS 6 Maps didn't make the fastest route the top suggestion but it still got me where I needed to go. In rare circumstances, the fastest route I knew wasn't always available but considering they typically involved side streets and directions that may be confusing for people that were not local to the area, I can see why iOS 6 Maps might not bring up a route like this. For users that don't know an area, main streets and fewer turns probably causes less confusion than a route that would have a lot of twists and turns. For simplicity's sake, I get it.

Considering iOS 5 Maps and maps.google.com don't offer turn-by-turn or voice navigation, iOS 6 Maps wins.

iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Street View vs Flyover

iOS 6 Maps comes with a new feature Apple is calling Flyover. The premise is that you can see an overhead view of an area on the map and use your fingers to pan in and out as well as rotate the map in a pretty amazing 3D view.

While the feature is pretty neat to look at, it doesn't have much application when it comes to real world use. Sure it's cool to use Flyover to view Chicago or other large cities around the world but besides being a cool feature to show off to your friends, you probably won't ever find yourself using it while driving.

Flyover is also only limited to certain areas right now and they're pretty limited. They currently only include large cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, London, New York City, and some other larger metropolitan areas. There are also times when Flyover shows some pretty wild inaccuracies, as you can see above. I don't remember the Eiffel Tower looking quite like that.

Google has a service that is somewhat similar to Flyover called Street View. While it isn't an overhead view, it provides a street level view of areas. When it's available, you'll get an icon next to a location that shows a red circle with a person inside it. Tapping it in iOS 5 Maps will take you down to street level. From here you can move up and down streets and pan 360 degrees in any direction.

While the iOS 5 Maps app offers Street View, you don't currently have access to it from the maps.google.com site in mobile Safari.

Considering Google has had the better part of a decade to put together Street View, it'll be available in a lot more areas than Flyover. It's also a much more useful feature than Flyover when it comes to practical utility.

iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: The bottom line

Google had a tremendous head start over Apple when it comes to the mapping business (here's what Google Maps looked like on the PalmOS Treo 680 back in 2007 -- a year before the first iPhone was even released). That's obvious when comparing map data between iOS 6 Maps and iOS 5 Maps. Apple probably could have avoided a lot of the negative backlash over iOS 6 Maps if they better set expectations and perhaps released the new Maps with a beta bandaid the way they did Siri. But that's neither here nor there.

If you have an iPhone 5, you have no choice and iOS 6 maps will be your default location service. In my experience, when it comes to practical utility and using the voice navigation in iOS 6 Maps, I've always gotten where I need to go. The addition of turn-by-turn is a spectacular upgrade. The animations are nearly flawless and the out-of-app banners and Lock screen navigation are stellar. In my tests, if I made a wrong turn, iOS 6 Maps would automatically reroute me quickly and accurately. Outlet streets and side streets are not always clearly labeled like they are in iOS 5 Maps but I haven't found it to be something that caused me to lose my way.

The iOS 6 maps themselves are beautifully rendered and the vector illustrations are a huge improvement over iOS 5's bitmap tiles. Flyover is more of a novelty and not a feature that most people will use regularly for mapping, and while StreetView can be as well, seeing was a shop or location looks like at ground level is often more helpful than what it looks like from the clouds.

The loss of transit directions is incredibly inconvenient for those who use them daily. If you happen to have a great transit app in your area, it can mitigate the annoyance, but having to leave Maps for any reason can't be viewed as anything but a regression. Transit apps should be a value add, not a must have.

If you're in a heavily populated U.S. city and there's a great transit app in the App Store that covers your needs, iOS 6 Maps will probably be fine for you, and given the controversy you can be sure Apple is working day and night to make it better.

If you're in other parts of the country or the world where the iOS Map data is poor, maps.google.com and its more robust and reliable data set is a functional alternative and fallback. Web apps are never as good as native apps, but until Google stops enjoying themselves long enough to launch a real Google Maps app into the App Store, it's one of the few ways to complement iOS 6 maps.

If you have a previous iOS device, depend on Maps, and you're on the fence about updating you can stay on iOS 5.1 and keep using iOS 5 maps, but you're probably better off upgrading for a lot of other reasons and checking out third party navigation apps that are more robust than both iOS 5 Maps and iOS 6 Maps.

Rene reviews the iPhone 5, from the 4-inch screen to the Apple A6 processor to LTE to iOS 6 on the tall screen. It's everything you need to know about the iPhone 5 in one hour! This is the iMore show!

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Show notes

• iPhone 5 review
• iOS 6 review

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com or just leave us a comment below.

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including the iMore show, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring this week's show. Your one-stop-shop for everything iPhone and iPad, including cables, cases, chargers, Bluetooth and much more, check out store.imore.com.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has posted an open letter to customers on Apple.com concerning iOS 6 Maps. iOS 6 Maps, which replaced the original, Google-powered iOS Maps app with one that drew data from TomTom and others, but which was more wholly owned, controlled, and realized by Apple, has been the subject of controversy since launch due to the quality of data in many areas.

In the open letter, Cook apologizes for the current state of iOS 6 maps, and even goes so far as to recommend competing products from the App Store and the web. He also assures iOS 6 users that Apple will be working "non-stop" to make iOS 6 Maps live up to Apple's standards. (If you want to help Apple improve it, you can submit corrections using the built-in tools.)

Apple began buying map-releated companies in 2009. Earlier this year, iMore learned Apple planned to remove as much of Google from the core of iOS as possible, including at the location data level. It later became known that Apple and Google had been feuding for some time over features, branding, and data usage in the original maps app.

Interestingly, in a poll of iMore readers conducted last night, more than 50 percent reported a positive outlook on maps. Back before iOS 6 Maps was even announced, iMore reported on the realities of Apple's the upcoming Maps product, trying to set realistic expectations. That report now seems to have been largely accurate.

Due to the nature and importance of the problems with iOS 6 Maps, mainstream news organizations have been reporting on it throughout the last week. When that happens, Apple typically knows they have to issue a statement and take back control of the story. Previous open letters have included the iPhone 4 "antennagate", the lack of Flash plugin support in iOS, the health of Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, and the use of DRM (digital rights management) on iTunes music. In other words, It's a BIG DEAL and a very public sign that Apple is taking a situation very seriously.

Google is expected to release a version of their popular Maps product into the iOS App Store eventually, although they're playing it coy at this point. The deeper problem Apple still has to address is -- how could Apple let this happen? How could Apple release a product that could reasonably be seen to have this consequence, without internally identifying and pre-emptively addressing it at either of their two announcement events, WWDC or the iPhone 5 event, and how could they let the story run away from them for a over a week before responding? This isn't a case of measuring a response to an unforeseeable situation twice and cutting it loose to the press and public once. This is a case of risk assessment and mitigation gone wrong, and of brand currency expended.

Apple doesn't only have to fix maps, they have to fix the process that resulted in Tim Cook having to write this letter.

Source: Apple.com

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook Apple's CEO

Apple today launched the new iPhone 5 in 22 additional countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. That brings the total to 30 + Hong Kong, and represents one of Apple most aggressive launch schedules in history.

If you picked up an iPhone 5 in one of those countries today, let us know about your experience -- about the pre-order process or standing in line, and most of all about how you like your new iPhone 5.

Then check out these links to get up to speed as fast as possible:

If you haven't gotten your knew iPhone 5 yet, but you're thinking about it, check out our:

• Complete iPhone 5 buyers guide

ABC news set up a sting at various main stream airports by leaving behind a total of ten iPads to see what happens to them when they get into the hands of TSA officers. The sting was setup after reports of 100's of thefts by TSA officers from airports around the country. Thankfully nine of the iPads were returned to their owners as the TSA officers followed agency guidelines and immediately contacted the owners and returned them. Unfortunately one of the iPads was not returned and the TSA officer from Orlando airport decided to take it home.

The iPad was last seen on video in the hands of TSA officer Andy Ramirez and then it went on a thirty mile journey which was tracked using the iPads location services. ABC news waited for two weeks before turning up at the home of Ramirez who denied having the iPad at first. ABC news activated the audible tone to assist in finding a lost iPhone and iPad using the Find my iPad app and then he produced the iPad in question and turned it over claiming that his wife had picked it up at the airport.

"I'm so embarrassed," he told ABC News. "My wife says she got the iPad and brought it home," he said. Moments later, his wife appeared at the door to say she had found it and "no told my husband." Asked how that was possible given that ABC News tape showed him handling the iPad at the security checkpoint, Ramirez shut the door and has not responded to questions since.

The TSA has since parted company with Ramirez claiming it has a zero-tolerance policy for theft from passengers. It has already terminated the employment of 381 officers over the last nine years and eleven so far this year too.

Source: ABC News

I joked today that Passbook was this year's Newsstand. I meant that on several levels. First, it's an app that people seem to be struggling to use. Second, it's an app that depends on being fed content that's out of Apple's control. Third, because of those two factors, it's an app that could have done with some better hand-holding and partnership placements at launch.

Rewind. Passbook was introduced, along with the rest of iOS 6, at WWDC 2012 in June. Apple Senior Vice President of iOS, Scott Forstall explained it as "the simplest way to get all of our passes in one place" -- a single, easily accessible repository for all the gift cards, coupons, tickets, and other assorted passes that were previously scattered among a myriad, less easily accessible apps. He explained it as the solution to a well defined usability problem.

In his subsequent demo, Forstall showed Passbook pre-populated with content from several well known brands, including Apple, Starbucks, Target, United, MLB, and the W Hotel. Forstall also showed gate updates, Lock screen notifications, and shredding passes when they were no longer needed. He did not, to the best of my recollection, show the process of acquiring a pass or actually using it.

Immediately after the WWDC keynote, I spoke to other members of the media and their reaction, like mine, was optimistic and positive. The QR codes that would serve as the bridge between the passes and the retailers seemed antiquated, of course, but many of us simply assumed they were a placeholder or stepping stone towards what would eventually be a more elegant mobile transaction-based solution.

As the iPhone 5 event approached, many people, myself included, began speculating about what else we might see. Apple typically has a couple of unique demoes at the iPhone events, which often coincide with iPhone TV commercials that follow. Passbook seemed like a good candidate. It seemed like something Apple could really show off. A couple of key partnership announcements, like a Starbucks or Target, and a demo of a pass being purchased and used seemed perfectly possible. Passbook, some of us thought, could even be a candidate for this year's Santa-themed iPhone ad, following up the FaceTime and Siri ads from previous years. Santa buying some last minute toys with Passbook powered gift certificates -- what could be better than that?

Instead, at the iPhone 5 event, we got a re-demo of Passbook from WWDC. No partner announcements. No transactional demos. Admittedly, a lot of the apps that could potentially feed Passbook were and remain dismal -- little more than websites in thin app wrappers with inexcusable interfaces and frustrating transactional experiences. And scanning a code is positively, primitively, unsexy ( especially compared to what other platforms are doing with rapid, touch-and-go data exchange technologies like NFC). Not the stuff of great iPhone event demos.

There was also nothing like FireMonkey and Real Racing 3, however, nothing where Apple brought some hip, marquee retailers to Cupertino -- those who did have great looking apps and existing pass systems -- and gave them some special attention, and helped them make something truly brilliant to show off at the event.

Still, developers, including major retailers who already had apps in the app store, or had websites or even marketing mail that could deliver Passbook passes, had had from June until the iOS 6 release date of September 21 to work with the various betas and get something amazing ready. After all, while big ships turn slowly, they still turn, and 3 months is a fair amount of turning time to create a way to push resource files, a bit of JSON, and existing scan codes.

And if three months really wasn't enough time to get app development done, scanners installed, and staff up to speed to support Passbook passes, Apple themselves just happen to be a hip, marquee retailer with an existing pass system (Apple Store Gift Cards), a great looking app, and the ability to scan codes. Forstall even showed an Apple Store gift card off during the Passbook demos. So I held to hope.

Then iOS 6 was released, and Passbook immediately got off to a rocky start. First, the Passbook app started users off with an empty shelf (or in this case, wallet) experience. Sure, Music.app starts off empty of music, but digital music is an old, established, understood paradigm and, since the Store button was integrated, an easy one to engage.

iBooks on the other hand, which is a more recent addition, cleverly started off with a free Winnie the Pooh book. It created a comfortable path of entry for users. Immediately upon launching it iBooks, it gave users something recognizable, something they could play with, something they could use to learn about the iBooks experience. It de-stressed the process and brought users quickly up to speed on the feature set. "Hey, here's something you can play with and if you like, here's how to get much more!" is inherently a better usability, after all, than "hey, here's a big empty thing that you can go figure out how to get stuff for and then figure out how to us!"

Passbook presented itself like Newsstand -- empty but for directions to the App Store. And worse, for some users, the App Store portion took hours if not days to start working following the release of iOS 6. Like it or not, first impressions matter, which is why Apple is usually so purposeful and so clever about nailing them. Users will try something new once, twice, maybe a few times, and if it doesn't work, or if it's confusing, they'll soon stop trying and give up on it.

As much as people take issue with Apple's controlling nature, they complain even more when things don't work, and often the things that don't work are the things outside Apple's control. When the iPhone launched, and for many years thereafter, it was bad carrier service in the U.S. Last year it was old media empires that were ploddingly slow and technologically inept when it came to producing Newsstand content to begin with -- and that was after Apple and Fox held a special event to show off The Daily as a launch title.

Passbook didn't even have that. No Winnie the Pooh. No pre-populated Apple Store pass. No comfortable path of entry.

I've now used Passbook several times, and successfully so. I downloaded the Cineplex Mobile app and have used it to buy a few movie tickets. It is, as I feared, a website in a thin app wrapper with an inexcusable interface and frustrating transactional experience. Ugly and imprecisely, I've been able to purchase tickets using my Paypal account and get passes generated and loaded into Passbook. From then on, from the moment Passbook and Apple took over, the experience has been great. I've been alerted. I've been updated. I've been able to shred.

Everything has worked fantastically well -- as well as Scott Forstall showed off at WWDC 2012 and again at the iPhone 5 event. But when I've had to have the Passbook passes scanned at the movie theater and get the actual tickets (because the passes aren't the actual tickets, they're the thing you use to get the ticket...(?!)), it's been unsexy, and its been a part of the process entirely outside of Apple's control.

With Newsstand, Apple didn't go the iTunes or iBooks route, didn't establish a specific format and present the content is a consistent manner. They outsourced to publishers, and the experience suffered. With Passbook, Apple didn't offer the iTunes transaction system, didn't establish a specific process in a consistent manner. They outsourced to retailers, and the experience suffered.

When I joked that Passbook was this year's Newsstand, a bunch of people immediately replied that at least they could hide Passbook in a folder, unlike like Newsstand (which is a folder). That's not the sentiment you want to hear.

If Apple had gone with the Winnie the Pooh model from iBooks, they could have pre-populated Passbook with an Apple Store card. Some have suggested including a nominal amount of credit on it, since it would be returned to the Apple Store anyway. But even absent an existing balance, it could have been used to show how Passbook works, how money could be added to the card using a great app like the Apple Store app, and a great transactional service like iTunes. It could have provided users with an excellent first Passbook experience and excellent first impression. Even if other Passbook feeder apps were abysmal, that experience would have balanced the scales.

A year later, I'm still waiting for Newsstand to get better. Or, preferably, for Apple to Ping it and replace it with "iNews". I'm not sure if I'm waiting for Passbook to be replaced with a more consistent, more controlled "iWallet". I expect it to eventually, though not immediately. Right now I'm waiting and hoping for Passbook to get better. Matt Brian of The Next Web has shown how Apple is promoting Passbook using iAd, which may help, and Matthew Panzarino, also of The Next Web has shown how Apple is pushing Passbook passes from OS X Safari to iOS. Those are good steps.

Siri, which was announced as a beta, struggled with uptime and reliability at launch, but Apple has stuck with it, improved it, and extended it. That's not surprising, because natural language interface is a hugely important part of the future. Mobile transaction payments are just as important, so it won't be surprising if Apple sticks with Passbook, improves it, and extends it as well.

Apple just needs to do it quickly and compellingly enough that iPhone users don't stick Passbook in a folder and forget about it.

So iOS 6 has been out for over a week now, and that means everyone has had a chance to test out the new iOS 6 Maps apps for over a week. So what do you think of it? Is it the best Maps app ever? Is it okay with a few rough edges? Is it bad but you hope it gets better? Or is it a totally mapping disaster?

Back before Apple even announced the new Maps app at WWDC 2012, Rene wrote a post on what to expect in terms of both potential features and problems. And I dare say it's turned out to be pretty accurate. Do you think people were expecting too much? Or do you think Apple failed to deliver too much? Should Apple have done a better job warning users that there might be growing pains?

Apple can make beautiful map tiles and fancy flyover views all they want, but if the core map data isn't accurate, it's a big problem. If it's accurate in some places and terrible in others, that's still a big problem. Especially since Google doesn't seem likely to have a Google Maps app ready for the App Store any time soon, and the Google Maps mobile website is a stop-gap at best.

I know you've got an opinion on this one, so vote up top and tell me how you really feel in the comments!