Simpler Sharing in iOS 6  

Good piece by Lex Friedman at Macworld. He proposes an implementation of the Mac’s Services menu through iOS 6’s updated Action Sheet look.

Let’s use perennial Macworld favorite Instapaper for a quick example. Right now, if you want to save an article you come across in Mobile Safari on your iPhone for later reading in Instapaper, it’s kind of a hassle. First, you need to install the Instapaper bookmarklet on iOS, which is an annoying process—you can’t drag a bookmarklet to install it on iOS the way you can on your Mac.

Once it’s installed, you need to tap to access your bookmarks and then tap again on the Instapaper bookmarklet. If Instapaper could register as a service for that sharing sheet, however, it may make the process simpler. You wouldn’t need to deal with the hassle of installing a bookmarklet, and you could use an easier-to-access iOS function for saving articles to Instapaper.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to be the case. From what I hear, the new Action Sheet – while graphically more appealing and intuitive – still won’t allow developers to broadcast their apps as services to other apps. Developers will be able to add their custom buttons to an Action Sheet; but it looks like the long-awaited Services menu won’t come with iOS 6 either.