iOS 6 to get Do Not Disturb for notifications, Safari tab syncing, VIP mail recipients

iOS 6, the next major release of Apple’s mobile operating system slated for unveiling at the WWDC keynote next Monday, will likely bring a few new features already present in the latest build of OS X Mountain Lion.

My personal favorite: The new Do Not Disturb mode in Notification Center that should at least help alleviate that iMessage alert conundrum…

Mark Gurman over at 9to5Mac relays what trusted sources told him, that iOS 6 will include iCloud Tabs support, Mail VIPs and a handy Notification Center enhancement.

As for the Do Not Disturb option, Gurman explains:

Sources say, that while the option is present directly in the Mountain Lion Notification Center, the Do Not Disturb toggle is stationed like the Airplane Mode button in settings.

The mockup below depicts this toggle.

iCloud Tabs, as the name suggests, will automatically synchronize open tabs across iOS devices and Macs, accessible via the iCloud Tabs button hidden behind the Bookmarks toolbar on an iOS 6 device.

When the iCloud Tabs button is clicked on an iOS 6 device (or Mac), all the tabs opened on each device are simply shown in a synchronized list. From here, users can quickly pickup individual tabs that they were working on across their Apple devices.

Here’s the new iCloud Tabs button in desktop Safari.


Screenshot via MacRumors

Mail VIPs is a new feature Apple announced in OS X Mountain Lion that works in a manner similar to Gmail’s Priority Inbox in that it automatically collects your important email messages.

Mountain Lion’s implementation checks incoming email against a dedicated list of VIP recipients (for example, your boss and co-workers, family members and so forth).

VIPs assigned to iCloud accounts will sync with iCloud across iOS 6 iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and OS X Mountain Lion Macs.

Given how Apple’s been working to make the next versions of its mobile and desktop operating systems work coherently, I think we’re likely to see those capabilities in iOS 6.

I really like this feature parity. It’s not aimed at us geeks, granted, but imagine

iOS 6 will allegedly enable Siri on the iPad 3 and Siri support in third-party apps, also bringing out system-wide Facebook integration while carrying over certain new features from OS X Mountain Lion. Major enhancements to stock apps are to be expected across the board, including breathtaking 3D view in the revamped Maps app that uses Apple’s own tiles.

What do you think of Do Not Disturb, iCloud Tabs and VIP mail recipients in iOS 6?