This fall, Apple will be
releasing the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 9. Unlike iOS 7
or 8, which introduced massive revisions to how the platform looked and worked
under the hood, iOS 9 is a subtler update. Still, it does have a number of new
features for the iPhone and iPad that should make the platform easier and more
efficient to use.
It’s been available for
developers to test for some time now, but if you're daring, Apple just released
a public beta that anyone can install. Apple's beta software isn’t like the
some of the other beta software you may have used in that it’s usually a “true”
beta that still has bugs and crashes that can seriously keep you from relying
on it from day to day. The company warns against installing it on your main
device, and you should heed that advice. We've gone ahead and bit the bullet
and installed it on an iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2. Unsurprisingly, there are
a number of rough edges and wonky areas that Apple will likely clean up by the
time this reaches final release in the fall. There are also a bunch of
incompatibilities with third-party apps that haven't yet been updated to
support the new platform. But overall, there’s a lot to like, even in these
early stages. Here are our early impressions.
Look
and feel
Visually, iOS 9 doesn't look much different than iOS 8, and an
untrained eye will have difficulty telling them apart at first. Apple has
largely been tweaking and refining the look of iOS since version 7’s major
revamp two years ago, and iOS 9 does include some small changes. The most
notable one is the system-wide use of Apple’s own San Francisco font, which
replaces the Helvetica Neue it used before. San Francisco first debuted on the
Apple Watch this year, and it’s a clean, readable font that works well at a
variety of sizes. Most people probably won’t be able to spot the difference
between Helvetica Neue and San Francisco, but it is pleasant to look at.
Other minor (or major, depending on who you ask) updates include
proper casing in the virtual keyboard to denote lowercase or capital letters, a
toolbar for Bluetooth keyboards that adds word prediction and quick cut / copy
/ paste tools, and a cascading cards system for recent apps. The new cascading
cards system replaces the app thumbnails that scrolled left-to-right with a
stacked layout that's oriented right-to-left. It works nicely on the iPad,
which has a lot of screen space to work with, but on the smaller display of the
iPhone, we prefer iOS 8’s more static system that also offers quick access to
recently used contacts. Apple could add back the quick-access contacts in later
revisions of iOS 9, but for now, they aren’t there. Mostly, the new system adds
visual flair without much added functionality.
VISUALLY,
THE DIFFERENCES IN IOS 9 ARE LARGELY MINOR
The last big change is to the search screen, which you can
access with a swipe left from your first home screen or swiping down from
any screen. When you swipe left into it, Apple gives you a bunch of app
suggestions, local points of interest, and favorite contacts. It’s also the
starting point for Apple’s new intelligence features, which we’ll get into more
below.
Proactive
& Intelligence
On your iPhone, the biggest changes in iOS 9 revolve around
Siri. The interface has been tweaked slightly to match Siri on Apple Watch, as
mentioned above. Apple’s personal assistant will now analyze what’s on your iOS
device (calendars, contacts, email) and your habits (i.e. apps you open at
certain times of day) and make suggestions whenever you swipe to the left of
your home screen. Siri will offer up the contacts and apps she thinks you’re
looking for, along with quick links for nearby restaurants, movie theaters,
shopping centers, and gas stations.
SIRI
IS SMARTER
Beneath those two sections, the search screen also provides the
latest news based on your location and what’s trending in the headlines. Search
is getting smarter in general. Start typing, and it’ll quickly pull up sports
scores, the weather, or iCloud documents. We haven’t used iOS 9 nearly long
enough to judge how a more "proactive" Siri compares to Google’s
extremely smart Google Now, however. For privacy reasons, Apple’s solution
focuses only what’s on your device, whereas Google pulls from its hugely
popular web services to surface relevant data.
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