Apple unveils iOS 9 at WWDC

It would be a software development conference without some software, so please be upstanding as we welcome iOS 9 to the world. One theme of this year’s update is to improve both the foundations of the operating system, like the performance and battery life. The other is to add several new “intelligent” features that tries to bring some of Google Now’s much-trumpeted smarts to Apple’s mobile devices. That means that Siri, at least on paper, will now be smart enough to predict the information that you’ll want before you start looking for it.

For instance, if you get a call but don’t know the number, iOS 9 will hunt through your emails should that information be stored somewhere that you’re not looking. The software will also be smart enough to predict your routine and offer up traffic alerts should there be an obstruction on your regular route. Should you only listen to audiobooks on your morning drive into work, the phone will pick up where you left off on your way home. It’s a similar situation at the gym, since when you plug in your headphones, your exercise playlist will be offered up.

Remember when Tim Cook said that privacy was a fundamental right? Apple is hoping to walk and chew gum at the same time by providing these intelligent features without the sort of data mining it accuses Google of. According to Craig Federighi, all of the processing for these new offerings takes place on the device and, should any information need to be handed off to Apple’s servers, it’ll be anonymized.

The executive then ran through some of the more exciting additions to a variety of built-in apps in iOS 9:

• Notes: Users can now share webpages straight into their notes, and can then annotate them with Galaxy Note-style doodles.
• Maps: Those long-rumored transit directions are live, letting you tap on a subway station and get the departure times for each train running on each line. In addition, the company has worked out the walking distances from the entrance to the platform in each station. There’s even “around me” style search for you to find your nearest bagel store or shoe outlet.

News

The company has also unveiled its own alternative to Flipboard called News that’s designed to aggregate the stories you want to read into an Apple-specific format. Okay, it’s just like Flipboard. Naturally, the outfit is boasting the benefits of its rich typography, and how it preserves embedded videos and photo galleries specific to each site. Should you wish to switch between a story, you can simply swipe right to see the next one, tap to zoom into images and play with interactive infographics. The first partners that have signed up including the New York Times, ESPN and Conde Nast to push several in-depth articles to your phone and tablet — although at this early stage, there’s no word on if you can add in your subscriptions to the system.

iPad

Remember the split-screen multitasking that you found on Samsung’s Android devices a few years back? Now, that same ability has come to iOS 9 in the form of Split View, which enables you to see two apps on the screen at the same time, but now those two apps can run concurrently. The company has also busted out a new task switcher that’ll let you watch video as a picture-in-picture window while you bitchily tweet about the action or handle your emails. Unfortunately, this feature is only for the most recent iPad Airs, so if you’re still clinging onto your third-generation Retina model, it’s probably time to upgrade.

Developing…

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Apple

Comments