Sep 21, 2015

Whats new in iOS 9

What's New in iOS 9

iOS 9 was released to the public on September 17th. Among battery and performance enhancements, iOS9 includes some new built-in apps, better iPad multitasking, and improved Siri. Apple claims that iOS9 increases battery life by 1 hour. The iOS9 update is also a considerably smaller file size at 1.3GB compared to iOS8 at a whopping 4.58GB.

The Apple News app. Photo - Apple

New Built in Apps

iOS 9 includes a new Apple app called "News". The News app is a very thoughtfully laid out news aggregrator. Articles are pulled from many different sources and chosen based on what you like to read. For publishers, Apple has created a new Apple News format enabling unique and immersive editorial layouts within the News app. The Notes app got a pretty nice update as well. You can now share content from Safari, Maps and lots of other apps directly to Notes through the share button. You can add photos, sketches and checklists now too.

Transit in Apple Maps. Photo - Apple

Maps Update

Apple Maps has been updated with public transportation routes and maps. This enables easier navigation in cities where subways buses, trains, and ferries are the norm. The new Transit feature also includes schedules for public transportation. The Transit feature is available in most major US cities where Public transit is ubiquitous and will be rolling out to more soon.

The new Apple Wallet. Photo - Apple

Wallet

"Passbook" is now "Wallet". Not really much to say there. "Passbook" didnt really make sense once Apple Pay came along, so I guess Wallet is better.

The new iCloud Drive. Photo - Apple

iCloud Drive

The new iCloud Drive is built into iOS 9. iCloud Drive allows you to access files you save to iCloud whether from your iPhone, iPad or Mac. This is obviously a first attempt at trying to replace DropBox but I think it has a long ways to go before it can compete. Its very convenient, but DropBox just has more features for me.

Improved MultiTasking for iPad. Photo - Apple

iPad Multitasking

One of the biggest new features of iOS 9 is definitely the improved productivity on iPad. iOS9 for iPad includes SplitView, Slide Over and Picture in Picture. Slide Over allows you to open a second app over to the side without leaving the one you're in. This is great for quickly responding to messages or jotting something down in the new Notes app. With Split View you can have two apps open and active at the same time. You can control how much space each app uses by dragging the black bar between the two apps. Picture in Picture allows you to have a small video or FaceTime window in the corner of your ipad while you work in a different app. Just don't do that when you're mom's trying to FaceTime you, she raised you and she deserves your attention!

QuickType in iOS 9. Photo - Apple

iPad QuickType

QuickType for iPad adds some cool new functionality to virtual and blutooth keyboards. You can now put two fingers over the screen for super easy text selection and cursor placement. A built-in Shortcut Bar allows quick access to the most commonly used commands such as bold, copy & paste, and undo. When connected to your iPad via blutooth keyboard you can now use common keyboard shortcuts like switching between apps or bringing up search.

Siri in iOS 9. Photo - Apple

Improved Siri

Siri now searches a much wider range of topics to give improved answers. It understands you more accurately and is snappier with results. Siri reminders are a lot better now. You can ask Siri to "remind me about this when I get in the car". Siri also knows the context of what you were looking at, so you can say "Remind me about this later" and whether you are looking at an email, a note, or a webpage, siri knows from the context and will remind you with a link to get back to what you were doing.

Proactivity

Based on the apps you commonly use and when you use them, iOS 9 will give you intelligent suggestions for what to do next with a little app icon in the left hand corner of your lock screen and on the new search screen. If you normally listen to podcasts in the car, then the podcast app will show up. If you normally listen to Music at the gym, the music app will show up. It takes a couple of days for it to learn your schedule, but when the right app shows up at the right time, its pretty cool

Security

The default security passcode for Touch ID enabled devices is now six digits instead of four. You can go back to four if you want to, but six digits increases the number of possible passcodes from 10,000 to one million. iOS 9 and OSX El capitan now include built-in support for two-factor authentication. Any time you sign in from a new device or browser you'll be prompted for a verification code. This code will automatically be displayed on your other Apple devices.