Apple has released iOS 9
to the public after months of beta testing.
The new OS from Apple brings a host of new
features (like
Apple Music), tips and
tricks. We've worked our way through the operating system to try and bring you
as many of the features as possible to allow you to get as much out of the
latest software on your
phone without having to
upgrade to the iPhone 6 or
iPhone 6 Plus.
Many of these tips are from
iOS
8, but we've included all the new gems from iOS 9 that you might not know
about yet. We'll be keeping an eye on things as new updates roll out, and if
you've got any tips of your own that we've not covered, please feel free to add
them to the comments below.
New iOS 9 tips and tricks
New App Switcher: When your
phone is awake and past
the lock screen, and you double tap on the home button, iOS will kick up an
app-switching interface so that you can toggle between apps, exit apps,
etc.Your apps will now appear as apps in a card stack that you can scroll
through from left to right.
You can identify each card in the stack based on the app
icon and name above it. To close an app, you still swipe up on the card. Now,
however, you can also swipe multiple cards at the same time, using multiple
fingers. Handoff options appear at the the bottom of the app switcher.
New Spotlight Search view: Spotlight has returned to
the left of the main home screen, with a built-in, Siri-powered Proactive
assistant. Spotlight is also accessible as a pull down from any home screen. In
the new Spotlight view,
Apple has added your
recent contacts, apps and location-based suggestions, and your Apple News
feed.
Better still, Apple has opened Spotlight to
third-party developers, meaning you'll soon be able to get Spotlight search
results from, for instance, Netflix, Facebook, Google Calendar, etc. You'll
also immediately notice that the new Spotlight view works with proactive Siri,
which lets you tap a mic symbol to audibly search as well as get suggestions
based on your preferences and how you use your
phone each day.
Disable Proactive Assistant: If you don't want Siri to
suggest apps, people, locations, and more when you use the new Spotlight
Search, you can always disable Siri Suggestions (in Settings>General).
Remove apps from Spotlight Search: The new Spotlight
can
surface content from all
your apps, but you can control which apps it can peek into just by going to
Settings>General>Spotlight Search. From there, you can toggle on/off
exactly which apps you want to include in Spotlight search results.
Tell Siri to remember what you see on screen: Siri can
set reminders. You know this. But now she can also remind you about whatever is
displayed on your device screen - whether it be a website or
note. Just say "Siri,
remind me about this," and she'll scan the page and add relevant details
to your Reminders app.
Ask Siri to fetch a photo for you: Siri can now search
your photos based on their information and criteria. Ask her to find a specific
photo from 14 July 2015, for instance, and she'll do just that. Amazeballs.
Shut up Siri: Sometimes Siri is just useful when she
isn't speaking. Thankfully, a new setting called Voice Feedback
(Settings>General>Siri) lets you decide when she can use her voice. You
can toggle the setting to always on, hands-free only (which works only when
using "Hey Siri" or connected to a
Bluetoothdevice), or a new
ring switch option (which stops Siri from speaking when your ringer is switch
is on silent).
Disable contacts found in Mail: If you don't want Siri
and Spotlight to suggest unknown contacts from Mail, such as people you haven't
added to your address book but still appear in suggestions, go to
Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars. From there, toggle off the Contacts
Found In Mail option.
Add an email attachment in Mail: You've always been
able to insert photos and videos into emails, as well as use the Share button
to email stuff from apps, but iOS 9 has finally added a simple Add Attachment
option when you double-tap or long press to see additional options. Just tap it
to browse and attach anything that's stored in your iCloud Drive.
Delete all your emails in Mail: There is a new Trash
All button in Apple's Mail app. Finally. Just hit the edit button and then
Trash All to clear out your Inbox with a single tap. Brilliant.
Find on Page in Safari: To Find text in a Safari page,
you previously had to tap the address bar, then type a word, then scroll down
to the bottom of the address bar to see select the instances in which that word
appeared on your page. Now, you can hit the Share button on a page to see a
Find on Page option (it surfaces a pop-up over the
keyboard).
Disable frequently-visited sites in Safari: Safari
displays icons of your most visited websites every time you open a new page. It
lets you delete individual ones by tapping and holding on them, but now you can
turn them off entirely by going to Settings>Safari. From there, turn off
Frequently Visited Sites.
View a
desktop version of any
website:
Apple let you request a
desktopversion of a site when
in Safari on iOS 8, but with iOS 9, it has added the option to the Share menu.
You can also tap and hold the reload button in the address bar of Safari to
load the Request Desktop Site option at the bottom of your screen.
Change the look of Safari Reader: Safari's Reader has a
new button within the address bar. It has options for changing the look and
feel of Reader. You can change fonts, font sizes, colour themes, etc.
Transit directions in Maps: In select cities,
Apple now offers a new
Transit view, with lines and stations for subways, buses, trains, and ferries.
So, when you plan a route, you'll see the whole trip laid out with transit
information. You can even ask Siri for transit directions. And with the new
Nearby feature, you can also get ideas for places to shop, eat, etc.
Sketch in Notes: The Notes app has been overhauled. It
now lets you add checklists, photos, maps, web links, and even sketches that
you can draw with your finger. Every
note has an option above
the
keyboard that has new
menu tools. Tap it to create a list, add a photo, change the formatting, and
doodle. And of course, thanks to iCloud, changes to your notes will be updated
across all your devices and on
iCloud.com.
You can even organise your notes into folders.
Save attachments to Notes: The system-wide Share button
has added support for Notes. So, when in Safari, for instance, tap the Share
button to save attachments, such as a link or document, to a new or existing
note. There's also an Attachments
browser in Notes that organises attachments in a single view (tap the grid icon
in the lower-left corner).
Setup
Apple News: Apple's
News app has arrived (in the US at least). It's basically a reading experience
that combines the visual look of a magazine with the immediacy of digital
media. You can follow news from over a million topics, fetch news based on your
interest, and pull articles from your favourite sites and sources - including
Pocket-lint.
When you open News for the first time, you'll be asked to
select your topics and news sources. From there, the app will load, and you'll
see a stationary menu bar running along the bottom of every screen within the
app. It houses tabs for the following screens: For You, Favourties, Explore,
Search, and Saved.
Setup Wallet, not Passbook: Newsstand became News, and
Passbook has become Wallet. You can add cards using the same method still, such
as boarding passes, tickets and
gift cards, but it's also home to your
Apple Pay credit, debit,
and store cards, as well as upcoming rewards cards from stores like Walgreens.
Select an Apple Pay payment card: When paying
with Apple Pay, you can now quickly choose which card you want to use
just by double-clicking the home button while on the lock screen. It'll bring
up all your cards on your
iPhone.
Go back to apps: When you open a link or tap a
notification while using an app, you'll be brought to a new app in order to
view the information in full detail. Now however you'll also see a new
"Back to..." button at the top left of the just-opened app, giving
you the opportunity to tap it and instantly go back the app you were using.
Track your reproductive health: The Health app has
finally added a Reproductive Health tab, with options for basal body
temperature, cervical mucus quality, menstruation and ovulation, and more.
Delete an alarm: Apple's swipe-to-delete gesture no
works in the Clock app. To delete an alarm before, you had to tap the edit
button and delete from there, but now all you have to do is swipe on the alarm
itself.
Hide photos from Moments, Collections, and Years: If
there's a photo you don't want people to easily see in your main library,
select the photo (or photos), then tap the Share button, and select the Hide
button at the bottom to hide it completely (though it will still be visible in
All Photos and the album it's in).
More smart albums: With iOS 8, Panoramas and Bursts
were automatically sorted into folders. And
Apple is continuing this
smart album trend with iOS 9. It has added separate folders for Selfies and
Screenshots. In our experience, the Screenshots folder tends to always get it
right, while the Selfies is hit or miss.
Easily select photos: You've always had to tap
individual thumbnails in the Photos app to select multiple photos at once, but
now, you can simply swipe your finger over a string of thumbails to select
photos. They'll all get blue checkmarks and can be shared, moved, or deleted.
Change Slow-Mo speed: Newer
iPhones allow you to
record in Slow-Mo mode. You could always change the frames per second, though
Apple recently moved
that options to Settings>Photos & Camera>Record Slo-mo.
Change video resolution: Go to the bottom of Camera
within Settings and you'll see a new Record Video option that lets you change
the quality of your recoded videos to either 720p HD at 30 fps, 1080p at 30
fps, or 1080p at 60 fps.
Zoom in during video playback: In iOS 9, you can now
pinch to zoom in on a video just like you would a photo.
Exit photo preview: When browsing your pictures in the
Photos app, you can enlarge a photo in the grid to see it full screen, but now,
you can also easily swipe down on preview to toss it away and return to the
grid.
Create a fancy slideshow: Apple's Photos app has a
slideshow feature, but the controls have been expanded and moved from Settings.
Now, when you initiate a slideshow from the Share menu, you'll see a new
Options button in the corner that'll let you change the theme, music, speed,
and transitions.
Search in Settings: The Settings app is full of
switches. With iOS 9, you no longer have to remember where they are, because
the Settings app now has a search field at the top. Use it to find the switches
you need.
Easily switch LTE when Wi-Fi is weak: Imagine you're
connected to the Wi-Fi in your house, then you go outside to mow the lawn, and
while doing that, you check your email but can't get any messages to load. It's
because you're still connected to your home's Wi-Fi - and the signal is too
weak. A new feature called Wi-Fi Assist will change all that by allowing your
iPhone to fall back to
cellular data when Wi-Fi is poor. You'll see it at the bottom of
Settings>Cellular.
Enable Low-Power Mode: The new Low Power Mode
(Settings>Battery) lets you reduce power consumption. The feature disables
or reduces background app refresh, auto-downloads, mail fetch, and more (when
enabled). You can turn it on at any point, or you are prompted to turn it on at
the 20 and 10 per cent notification markers.
Find battery guzzling apps: Apple now specifically
tells you which apps are using the most juice. Go to Settings > Battery and
then scroll down to the new section that gives you a detailed look at all your
battery-guzzling apps.
Disable
keyboard capitalisation: It
may seem like a small change, but thekeyboard has been updated to reflect
capitalisation. Until iOS 9, whether you touched the shift key or not, all the
letters on the
keyboard were
capitalised. Now, the keyboard shows the letters in lowercase when
shift is off. But if you don't want this, you can disable it by going to Settings
>Accessibility>Keyboard and toggling off the Show Lowercase Keys option.
Disable
keyboard animations: Apple's keyboard has
a pop-up character animation that serves as feedback when you tap the keys.
Now, for the first time, you can shut it off
(Settings>General>Keyboard>Character Preview).
Disable Shake to Undo: Apple has had an undo gesture
that lets you shake your phone to undo your last action (or shake
again to redo it). But if you hate this option, you can now disable it by going
to Settings>General>Accessibility. From there, toggle off Shake to Undo.
Simples.
Use a six-digit passcode:
Apple has always given
you the chance to set a four-digit passcode, but now it offers a six-number
option, meaning hackers now have a 1 in 1 million chance of cracking it, rather
than 1 in 10,000. Just go to Settings>Touch ID & Passcode>Change
Passcode, and then select Passcode Options.
View notifications based on when they arrived: Under a
new Sort Order tab in Settings>Notifications, you can switch your
notifications between Recent and Manual. The latter setting will bring up
another option called Group By App. When enabled, it groups your notifications
in the Notification Center by app. When disabled, you'll get a running list of
your notifications as they arrive. Handy, right?
Change how your screen responds to taps: A new section
under Accessibility in Settings lets you change how your screen responds to
taps. You can tell your
iPhone to ignore
repeated touches. You can also increase the duration of taps before recognised,
and much more.
Check your battery via the Battery widget: The Notification
Center has a new widget under the Today view, that'll let you see the battery
life remaining in your iPhone and Apple Watch. If you don't
like this widget, tap the Edit button at the bottom of the screen and then tap
the delete button.
Add iCloud Drive to home screen: iCloud Drive can let
you easily transfer and sync files between your devices, and now you can
directly access it on your iOS device. Go to Settings>iCloud>iCloud
Drive, and then you'll see a "Show on Home Screen" toggle that you
can switch on.
source: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/131012-ios-9-tips-and-tricks-see-what-your-iphone-and-ipad-can-do-now
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