So here are the 6 standout features of iOS 9:
1. Better Battery Life
Apple shocked fans by reducing the
battery capacity of both the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, but it claims the greater efficiency of iOS 9 will more than make up for this.
Perhaps more interesting, however, is Apple says iOS 9 will also make existing iPhones, iPads and iPod touches last longer and it gives the example of an iPhone 6 getting an hour of extra use from a charge. How this also translates to other iOS devices remains to be seen.
2. Power Saving Mode
iOS 9 isn’t just about general battery
improvements though, it also finally adds a power saving mode for times when you desperately need to conserve juice. Again Apple uses the example of an iPhone 6, and states this mode will give it an extra three hours of battery life.
On the flip side, what the company
hasn’t detailed yet is what sacrifices
enabling this mode will bring. The
obvious areas would be reduced
background processes (notably third
party app functionality), speed throttling and lower screen brightness – but only time will tell.
3. Increased Storage Space
Apple has been rightly criticised for
continuing to offer just 16GB of storage in its base iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus models, but the good news is more space will be freed up on them and all iOS devices with iOS 9.
Whereas previously the install footprint of iOS was approximately 4GB, iOS 9 will squeeze everything down to just 1.3GB – a 3.5x reduction. This will give users of
smaller capacity iOS devices in particular precious extra gigabytes and also makes future iOS upgrades (where download space is required) a lot easier.
4. Side-by-Side and Picture-In-Picture Multitasking
For years now customisations of Android (notably in Samsung’s TouchWiz) have offered these two features, but now Apple brings both into the fold with iOS 9.
The downside is that these features will be for iPads only – and only the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 4 and iPad Pro at that – which is a shame as I think it would’ve also been useful on the 5.5-inch iPhone 6S Plus. That said Apple is famous for gradually rolling out features across devices, so iPhone owners shouldn’t be too upset yet.
These are also joined by an improved app switcher with a new cards based interface. Somewhat similar to the vertical cards used in Android 5.0 Lollipop, Apple has adopted a horizontal scrolling action which also supports closing of multiple apps at the same time
using multiple fingers. It also integrates Handoff to quickly send emails, messages, websites, etc to other Apple devices.
5. Smarter Siri
Siri had been falling behind Microsoft ’s Cortana and Google’s Voice Search, but iOS 9 sees it come back swinging. There is now
greatly increased support for natural
language search and Apple has finally opened access up to third party app makers.
The two combined could be brilliant as developers find new and innovative ways of integrating voice control into their apps, and gaming in particular could be transformed.
6. Proactive Assistant
Another area where Apple is making
welcome catch up strides with iOS 9 is the new Proactive assistant, Apple’s answer to Android’s popular Google Now service.
Like Google Now, Proactive aggregates all the content on your device to proactively show you pertinent content before you
need it. This could include driving
directions based on your daily schedule or calendar entries, flight and tracking information based on emails and more.
Interestingly Apple is making a lot of
effort to stress that, unlike Google, it will not share your data (anonymously or otherwise) with its own servers or third parties – everything will stay on your
device.
1. Better Battery Life
Apple shocked fans by reducing the
battery capacity of both the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, but it claims the greater efficiency of iOS 9 will more than make up for this.
Perhaps more interesting, however, is Apple says iOS 9 will also make existing iPhones, iPads and iPod touches last longer and it gives the example of an iPhone 6 getting an hour of extra use from a charge. How this also translates to other iOS devices remains to be seen.
2. Power Saving Mode
iOS 9 isn’t just about general battery
improvements though, it also finally adds a power saving mode for times when you desperately need to conserve juice. Again Apple uses the example of an iPhone 6, and states this mode will give it an extra three hours of battery life.
On the flip side, what the company
hasn’t detailed yet is what sacrifices
enabling this mode will bring. The
obvious areas would be reduced
background processes (notably third
party app functionality), speed throttling and lower screen brightness – but only time will tell.
3. Increased Storage Space
Apple has been rightly criticised for
continuing to offer just 16GB of storage in its base iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus models, but the good news is more space will be freed up on them and all iOS devices with iOS 9.
Whereas previously the install footprint of iOS was approximately 4GB, iOS 9 will squeeze everything down to just 1.3GB – a 3.5x reduction. This will give users of
smaller capacity iOS devices in particular precious extra gigabytes and also makes future iOS upgrades (where download space is required) a lot easier.
4. Side-by-Side and Picture-In-Picture Multitasking
For years now customisations of Android (notably in Samsung’s TouchWiz) have offered these two features, but now Apple brings both into the fold with iOS 9.
The downside is that these features will be for iPads only – and only the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 4 and iPad Pro at that – which is a shame as I think it would’ve also been useful on the 5.5-inch iPhone 6S Plus. That said Apple is famous for gradually rolling out features across devices, so iPhone owners shouldn’t be too upset yet.
These are also joined by an improved app switcher with a new cards based interface. Somewhat similar to the vertical cards used in Android 5.0 Lollipop, Apple has adopted a horizontal scrolling action which also supports closing of multiple apps at the same time
using multiple fingers. It also integrates Handoff to quickly send emails, messages, websites, etc to other Apple devices.
5. Smarter Siri
Siri had been falling behind Microsoft ’s Cortana and Google’s Voice Search, but iOS 9 sees it come back swinging. There is now
greatly increased support for natural
language search and Apple has finally opened access up to third party app makers.
The two combined could be brilliant as developers find new and innovative ways of integrating voice control into their apps, and gaming in particular could be transformed.
6. Proactive Assistant
Another area where Apple is making
welcome catch up strides with iOS 9 is the new Proactive assistant, Apple’s answer to Android’s popular Google Now service.
Like Google Now, Proactive aggregates all the content on your device to proactively show you pertinent content before you
need it. This could include driving
directions based on your daily schedule or calendar entries, flight and tracking information based on emails and more.
Interestingly Apple is making a lot of
effort to stress that, unlike Google, it will not share your data (anonymously or otherwise) with its own servers or third parties – everything will stay on your
device.
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