Everything you need to know about iOS 9

Apple announced iOS 9 on Monday and here is everything you need to know about Apple’s newest mobile operating system.

News app on iOS 9

iOS 9 will come with a new native app and it’s called News. This will be a sort of RSS reader but with the magical Apple touch. The news comes from world renowned sources including New York Times, Wired, The Guardian, ESPN, Bon Apetit, BuzzFeed and more, which are formatted exclusively for the Apple News app and hence are beautiful, interactive and easy to use. You can add your interests and favourite sources too, and never miss a headline.

Notes app on iOS 9

The notes app got a major uplift in iOS 9. The keyboard will now show an extra row of icons within the Notes apps which can be used to format the text, copy, add photos and checklists.

Now you can add web links and maps directly to notes from Safari or Maps, using the share sheet and also add hand drawn doodles just like with actual notebooks. The iOS 9 Notes app also comes with powerful search and sort options, to let you easily find what you are looking for.

Maps app on iOS 9

The Maps app now supports Transit directions. So if you are not much of a driving guy and use a lot of public transport, Apple Maps now has specific sections showing train, subways and more. It even shows you the location of exits so that you needn’t roam round the huge building just to find a way in.

At launch, Transit Maps will be available for major cities in US, UK and China, and more places will gradually get added.

Nearby feature – “When you search in Maps, you’ll see a list of categories including Food, Drinks, Shopping, Fun, and more. And you can explore within each category to see what’s around you.”

Wallet app on iOS 9

The Passbook app has been modified and renamed as wallet because it can now replace your physical wallet. Wallet app supports credit cards for Apple Pay, reward cards, store credit cards, membership cards, passes, tickets and more.

Apple Pay is partnering with Square to bring Apple Pay available to small business owners as well. And whenever you are in a supported shop, Wallet brings up the correct card out so that you never miss a reward.

Spotlight in iOS 9

Spotlight search is now more powerful and is available to the left of home screen, like it used to be before iOS 7.

Whenever you bring it up, Spotlight automatically suggests you contacts, apps, news and places based on your routine habits, the time of the day and your upcoming meetings.
Apple also released an API for search, which means developers can now add spotlight compatibility which will let users search directly within the apps.

CarPlay in iOS 9

“If your car supports wireless connection to iPhone, you can use CarPlay without plugging in. CarPlay also plays audio messages, so you can hear from people in their own voices. If you use your car’s knobs to control CarPlay, you can now take full advantage of the way they tilt and spin to scroll through lists or pan around in Maps. And apps developed by car manufacturers are supported, too — so you can control more of your car’s features without ever leaving CarPlay.”

Multitasking on iPad

This is probably the best thing we saw yesterday but is available only on iPad Air 2.

Multitasking on iOS 9 comprises of three components.

Slide over: A quick swipe in from the right edge brings a small window view of another app, where you can jot something down, browse a link, respond to a mail etc. You can close this app, and switch over to another supported app.

Split-view : supported apps can be used in split screen view and used side by side with each having the size you need.

Picture in picture : This one lets you have a video frame running over the display. Whenever you go, that video or FaceTime keeps playing in a small box and can be hovered over to any edge. This can be closed at any point.

QuickType in iOS 9

This one is also huge and I believe it is available on both iPhone and iPad. Here you can use two fingers on the keyboard and use it as a trackpad to move the cursor, select text.
The iOS 9 keyboard also has an extra set of options besides the word suggestions which lets you easily cut, copy and paste your text. Apple has also added many shortcut keys to get things done when you have a physical keyboard connected.

Siri in iOS 9

Ask Siri to search through your photos and videos based on dates, locations, and album titles. For example, say “Show me photos from my trip to Aspen in January” and you’ll get exactly what you’re looking for.

Siri can remind you ‘about things you’re looking at in your apps — like Safari, Mail, and Notes — and want to follow up on later.

Other improvements in iOS 9

Battery: iOS 9 comes with one of the most demanded features – Low Power mode, which Apple claims to increase the battery life by 3 hours.

Small size: Also the size of the firmware has been greatly reduced from 4GB to 1GB which should be a huge relief to all the 8gb and 16GB owners

Other: Security, Performance improvements and Android Migration tool.

Devices compatible with iOS 9

All devices compatible with iOS 8 is also with iOS 9 and Apple claims to have smoothened the experience on older devices.

Availability of iOS 9

iOS 9 developer preview is already available to developers and Apple will do a public beta in July. iOS 9 will officially be available on all devices this fall.