It’s here, iOS 9 has been officially released to the public with some awesome new features. Here’s a rundown of the best new changes and improvements:
Apple News: A new app on iOS 9 that aggregates news from different sources just like Flipboard and Feedly. Unfortunately, the app will only be visible on your iPhone or iPad if your location is set to the United States for now (change location and reboot to get the app).
Battery life: Besides the all around improvements, a new low-power mode has been added that can turn off non-essential tasks to maximize battery life when running low.
Searchable Settings: Now you search for settings toggles from within the the settings menu.
Your Keyboard is also a trackpad (iPad only): You can now place two fingers on the keyboard and slide around the screen to move the cursor.
Picture-in-Picture Video Mode (iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, iPad Air and iPad Air 2 Only): In a nutshell, watch a video while doing something else at the same time.
Multitasking: Swipe left from the right edge to run a second app, such as Maps and Notes side by side.
Request Desktop Site: iOS 9 adds a new shortcut to request desktop versions of websites viewed on mobile. Hold the refresh button in the URL bar for two seconds and you’ll get a prompt that will allow you to request the desktop version.
Back button: iOS 9 now allows you to go back to the app you were previously using. Let’s say you click a link from an email that opens Safari, you’ll see a “back to mail” text on the top left corner of the screen to take you back to mail.
Image Markup: Now you can doodle images before sending them. Attach the photo to the email then long press on the image to get the “Markup” option.
Search & Proactive: One of the biggest and most anticipated new feature of iOS 9, which unfortunately isn’t fully working in the Middle East region (Places suggestions based on maps and location based tips not supported yet).
Proactive (swipe left from the home screen) provides information and suggestions based on its learning capabilities of the user’s habits, it also now houses the contacts shortcuts and most used apps shortcuts. Searching for content is now smarter as well, it can search within the apps itself for content.
Some other interesting features of iOS 9 include:
- Identifying unknown calls by linking them to emails which might have contained these numbers in the past.
- Identifying the country where an unknown call is originating from.
- iOS 9 will create a suggested calendar event when an email is received containing a reservation, flight date, etc..).
All around, iOS 9 is a welcomed upgrade that will definitely get more powerful with its learning skills. We just hope Apple opens up the region’s restricted features, like turn by turn navigation, wallet, Apple Pay, which all contribute to Proactive as well.
Have you tried these new features? have something to add? let us know in the comments section below.
