How to Save Battery Life in iOS 9 With Low Power Mode

One frequent complaint of smartphone users is the limited amount of battery life our tech devices have. With the constant trend toward making devices thinner and lighter, battery life is a key tradeoff to be considered, and some users find their devices not lasting as long as they’d prefer.

For those pushing their devices to the limit, Apple has added a new feature to iOS 9 that is designed to help you conserve those last few drops of juice when you wont be able to charge your iPhone anytime soon. The new feature is known as Low Power Mode, and it can increase your battery life up to three hours but at the expense of some functions of your device. It is only available on iPhone devices running iOS 9.

Enabling Low Power Mode only takes a few steps.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Select Battery from the menu list.
3. Toggle Low Power Mode to the On position.
4. The battery icon will turn yellow to indicate that you are using Low Power Mode.

Low Power Mode reduces your iPhone’s performance and cuts out some background activities. For example, mail must be fetched manually, background app refresh is disabled, and motion and brightness are reduced.

Benchmarks have shown the iPhone’s CPU performance with Low Power Mode on is significantly reduced in an effort to save on power consumption, so while simple tasks may continue to work just fine on an iPhone in Low Power Mode, more demanding ones may become sluggish.

You don’t have to keep Low Power Mode on all of the time; you can manually shut it off whenever you want. However, the general impression of users has been that the real-world slowdown is not so severe that you can’t continue to use your iPhone.

With iOS 9, you will receive a prompt when your iOS device goes below 20 percent of its battery power left. The popup will allow you to quickly toggle Low Power Mode on so you can still use your device for only the most necessary of functions until you are able to recharge it.

This feature might be familiar to Apple Watch owners, as Power Reserve is a somewhat similar feature designed to allow the wrist-worn device to continue functioning as a basic watch as the battery drains toward zero by cutting off all other functions of the device.

Low Power Mode is a nice addition to iOS 9 for improving the performance of your iPhone’s battery.

Apple Releases First OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan Public Beta

Apple today seeded the first beta of OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan to public beta testers, just days after first releasing the beta to developers and roughly a week and a half before OS X El Capitan will be released to the public on September 30.

The new beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

The first beta of OS X 10.11.1 introduced support for Unicode 8 and new emoji like taco, burrito, cheese wedge, hot dog, middle finger, and unicorn head. The emoji are also included in iOS 9.1, which is also in testing.

Beyond new emoji, there have been no other outward-facing changes discovered, suggesting OS X 10.11.1 is a minor update that will bring bug fixes and performance enhancements. According to Apple’s release notes, the beta offers stability, compatibility, and security improvements.

No Walk-in iPhone 6s Sales at Apple Stores in 4 U.S. States, China, Japan, and Hong Kong

While Apple has ended launch-day pre-orders and in-store reservations for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the company is suggesting that those customers still intent on purchasing one on launch day visit an Apple retail store Friday for a chance at scoring some of the remaining launch-day stock at those locations. But for customers in four U.S. states, China, Japan, and Hong Kong, these walk-in sales are not an option, notes The Oregonian.

The disclosure was made in a footnote on Apple’s press release this morning making a final announcement about Friday’s launch plans and reporting record adoption of iOS 9: “iPhone is available by reservation only in China, Hong Kong, Japan and US stores in tax-free states.”

The four U.S. states with Apple retail stores that are affected by this policy include Oregon, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Alaska. Montana is the fifth U.S. state without a statewide sales tax, but Apple does not have any retail stores located in the state.

The reason behind the ban on walk-in sales in these states is likely their attractiveness to scalpers.

Because Apple limits the number of unlocked phones, the brokers – sometimes called “sharks” – recruit homeless people and the elderly to wait in line and buy phones on their behalf. The phenomenon lasted for months outside Apple’s downtown Portland Apple Store after last year’s September launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

While sharks patrol Apple stores all over the country, they are especially visible in Portland. That may be because Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax, so sharks operating here can add several percentage points to their profits by getting their phones.

Hong Kong has long been a popular location for iPhone scalpers to operate as they attempt to move gray-market phones into China, but with China having taken on increased importance for Apple and in fact being included in the first wave of iPhone 6s launches, both countries are likely in Apple’s crosshairs this time around as it hopes to limit those snapping up limited supplies of the new devices to resell for significant profits.

Apple Car Development Speeds Up, 2019 Launch Date Targeted

Apple is speeding up development on its electric car project, reports The Wall Street Journal, giving it a “committed project” label and targeting 2019 as a prospective shipping date. To facilitate a faster launch, Apple will be greatly expanding the number of people working on the car.

The go-ahead came after the company spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California. Leaders of the project, code-named Titan , have been given permission to triple the 600-person team, the people familiar with the matter said.

Apple has already been aggressively hiring for its car project, poaching employees from companies like Ford, General Motors, Tesla, Volkswagen, and more. Many of its recent hires have expertise in connected and autonomous vehicle systems.

The BMW i3, which Apple reportedly considered using as a base for the Apple Car
Though there have been indications suggesting Apple is exploring autonomous vehicles as part of its car project, The Wall Street Journal‘s sources say the first car Apple releases will not be driverless, with that functionality perhaps coming at a later date.

There have been also other signs pointing towards expanded work on the car project. In May, Apple began looking into secure facilities in the Bay Area where a prototype could be tested, reportedly meeting up with officials at GoMentum Station, a secure test facility for connected and autonomous vehicles. Apple also met with DMV officials in August to discuss California’s autonomous vehicle regulations.

It remains unclear if Apple will develop its “Apple Car” from the ground up or if it will team up with an existing auto manufacturer. Rumors have suggested Apple has held discussions with BMW over a potential partnership that would see the BMW i3 used as the basis for the Apple Car, but those talks have reportedly not progressed into a deal.

The Wall Street Journal warns that Apple’s 2019 target date might not be the date in which Apple will actually ship the car, instead suggesting it could point towards the date that engineers confirm the main features of the product. It’s also possible that given the scope of the project there could be delays, with “people familiar with the project” expressing skepticism that 2019 is a reasonable target date.

In an interview with Stephen Colbert last week, Tim Cook was asked about the car project, but he unsurprisingly avoided the question with a vague statement. “We look at a number of things along the way, and we decide to really put our energies on a few of those,” he said.

Apple releases watchOS 2 to put apps directly on your wrist

It’s arriving a few days later than originally anticipated, but the first big Apple Watch software upgrade is here. As we heard during the big iPhone event a couple of weeks ago, watchOS 2 lets third-party developers create apps that run directly on the device itself, without relying on a connected phone. That means they have access to sensors embedded within the Watch itself, and they should be faster and easier to interact with. Some have compared this change to the introduction of the App Store on iOS in 2008, but we’ll have to see what developers use it for first. Other changes include new customizable Watch faces with Photo, Photo Album and Time-Lapse, plus upgraded Apple Pay and Siri integration. It also has Activation Lock, so if someone steals your Watch they can’t just reset it or easily access your data. One thing you’ll still need your iPhone for is to actually get the update — owners can check Software Update under the Watch app to start the download now.

Source: Apple

Apple Files Trademark Application for HomeKit ‘Home’ Icon

There have been rumors Apple has a dedicated HomeKit app in the works that would give users a central location to control all of their HomeKit devices, but thus far, the Cupertino company has kept quiet on whether such an app exists. More evidence pointing towards the existence of a possible HomeKit app surfaced today, however, in the form of a trademark application filed through a known shell company, iGuide Media.

As noted by French site Consomac [Google Translate], iGuide Media filed a priority trademark for an icon that appears to correspond to a HomeKit “Home” app on March 12, 2015 in Jamaica, and has now filed again in the United States on September 14. The trademark applies to a long list of electronics and home products, including thermostats, smoke detectors, window shades, garage door openers, and more.

iGuide Media is a shell company that has filed trademarks on Apple’s behalf in the past, ahead of the 2010 launch of the original iPad.

The icon is depicted in the trademark application as an H with a roof on it to form a house, with the icon placed on an orange background. It is similar in color to the HomeKit icons on Apple’s own website, but the design is decidedly different.

Apple’s release plans for a HomeKit app are unclear. It is not known if the company intends to launch a HomeKit app for public use in the future, or if the icon in today’s trademark filing corresponds to a dedicated app. It could also be an icon simply intended to represent HomeKit going forward, in developer documentation and on product packaging.