iOS 6 is the sixth major release of iOS, released on September 19, 2012, two days before the iPhone 5. It is remembered for a swap that went wrong: Apple removed Google's mapping data and the built-in YouTube app, replacing Maps with its own service — whose melting bridges, misplaced towns, and unreliable directions became an instant public embarrassment, drew a formal apology from Tim Cook that recommended competitors' apps, and precipitated iOS chief Scott Forstall's departure from Apple.

Beneath the fiasco sat a solid release: turn-by-turn navigation and Flyover (where Maps worked), Passbook — the ticket-and-card wallet that later grew into Apple Wallet and the substrate for Apple Pay — Do Not Disturb, FaceTime over cellular, and Facebook system integration.

Apple Maps with vector cartography, turn-by-turn, and 3D Flyover; Passbook; Do Not Disturb schedules; phone-call decline options (reply with message, remind me later); FaceTime over cellular; shared Photo Streams; Panorama capture; Safari iCloud Tabs and offline Reading List; a redesigned App Store; and Guided Access for accessibility. Siri expanded to sports, restaurants, movies, and app launching, and came to the iPad. The YouTube app left the system (Google shipped a replacement on the App Store within weeks).

iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2 and later, and iPod touch 4th/5th generations — the original iPad's exclusion after just two years drew more protest than any phone cut. 6.1.6 in 2014 closed out the 3GS's four-and-a-half-year software run.

The Maps launch became the tech industry's canonical case study in shipping infrastructure before it's ready — and in accountability: the Cook apology and Forstall exit reset Apple's executive culture and handed design authority to Jony Ive, which made iOS 6's glossy skeuomorphism the style's last stand before iOS 7. Passbook, the release's quiet passenger, became Wallet — arguably the most-used app Apple ships. And Apple Maps itself, rebuilt over a decade, outlived the joke.