Gadgetory

it's once again September which means that a new version of iOS is headed to millions of iPhones iPads and iPod Touches around the world this time its iOS 9 and it brings a familiar look with a handful of new features iOS 9 is not radically different from iOS 8 or even iOS 7 but it includes some forward-looking things that can really change the platform in the future let's start with how iOS 9 looks frankly there's not much different here there's a new font it's apples homegrown San Francisco which debuted on the Apple watch and it's also coming to the Mac and a new recent app switcher when you double click the home button I don't really love the font though it has grown on me but the app switcher is slower and more annoying to use than the one at replace other visual changes include notifications sorted by date instead of app which makes it much easier to clear in bulk and a back button that lets you quickly bounce back to the app you were just using it's great but I wish Apple spent some more time actually designing the button as it is now it covers up your signal bars and it's just a tiny line of text as opposed to an icon or something more noticeable Apple says our battery life and performance improvements in iOS 9 but recent iPhones haven't really ever felt slow and I haven't noticed much of a difference on my iPhone 6 same with battery life I haven't noticed a significant increase in my usage whether I utilize the new power saver mode or not but it's a new addition to Siri where we can really see the future of the platform in iOS 9 Siri is bestowed with a bunch of new capabilities including better voice recognition and smarter voice searches it also for the first time attempts to be a dynamic assistant that predicts the information you'll need next before you ask for it that might be providing an alert for traffic information to your next meeting or showing you your most contacted friends or most used apps when you swipe left from the home screen that new series screen also provides quick shortcuts to searches and maps and headlines from the new news app to get the most of any of these new features you really have to use Apple's native apps such as mail or calendar and you also have to rethink how you're using your iPhone instead of swiping through pages of apps tapping to open a folder or opening an app and then finding what you're looking for within that app it can be easier to rely on Siri and Apple's predictions to find what you're looking for much quicker serious advances are nice but they don't feel quite like the future yet the ways I've been using the new platform I haven't really changed how I use apps or in get the device I still mostly use Siri to set my alarm for the next morning and since I prefer third-party apps such as Microsoft Outlook to apples mail or calendar I don't see the smart predictions all that often but I can't see where the next iteration on this idea perhaps integration of series new intelligence with third-party apps could change how I use my iPhone over on the iPad there are more significant changes if you happen to have a fairly new iPad at least the iPad is finally getting true multitasking features in iOS 9 including running two apps side by side in a split screen there's also a picture and picture option for watching video while doing something else and a feature that lets you temporarily slide one app over another to quickly check something before getting back to the task at hand only the iPad air 2 and newer can take advantage of the split-screen features while older iPads can you slide over a picture and picture and new keyboard controls to make it easier to input and edit text right now only Apple's own apps work with the new multitasking features but I expect the third-party apps will quickly be updated to support them Apple is also updated and added a bunch of apps in iOS 9 notes is more powerful and maps finally has transit directions for example both are actually good but not as full featured as competitors like Evernote or Google Maps passbook dot renamed to wallet for whatever that's worth and the biggest new app is news news is customisable fast and stable but it feels a little like it's reinventing the RSS wheel we'll have to see how much support both Apple and publishers put behind it before we can really judge how good it is let's face it you're going to update to iOS 9 it's a fine operating system that's fast reliable and stable it's iterative like most of Apple's software updates when you look closely in the corners of it you can see the groundwork for apples vision of the future of personal computing where computers know what we want before we do it's not quite there yet but eventually that groundwork will become a skyscraper and iOS 9 is that first brick