Disclaimer: All images shown here are either owned by Apple or screenshots taken from Apple’s website.
Apple’s WWDC 2015 brought a lot of things into the table and one of them was iOS 9. iOS 9 is the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Unlike the last two updates which were major feature releases, this one’s more of an optimization release where they try their hardest to make the software more robust and have less bugs compared to the painstakingly bug-filled iOS 8. I actually think they need this update so that they won’t have any more problems moving forward. I also think that the reason why iOS 8 was a bit of a letdown in terms of user adoption is because of the size of the updates. Good thing iOS 9 has a lot of things going for it.
Here are 5 things I really like about iOS 9:
App Thinning
The image might intimidate you a bit because it seems like a developer-focused thing but actually this can impact users who own 8GB and 16GB iPhones and iPads. App Thinning is a concept that effectively lets users get more space out of their iPhones due to the minimal size of apps. This should help quell some problems with 16GB devices.
Smaller Updates
This one’s a doozy. They managed to cram in new features and optimisations with an update that will be 1/4 the size of the iOS 8. Again, this is mainly pointed at 16GB iOS devices which are still rampant around the world and I’ll bet that they’ll upgrade to iOS 9 right away. Hopefully they can continue to go smaller with the update size but you can only go so far when you add in new features.
Improved Search + Search API
Search is now vastly improved in iOS 9. Now you can search for things like sports scores, weather, and better view of contacts. Third-party apps can now plugin their data into the Search screen to provide relevant results. Search results from third-party apps include deep linking, so developers can provide custom interactions from the Search screen.
iPad’s New Powers!
The iPad’s run has been spectacular so far but is recently slumping because of smartphones really getting their growth spurts recently. Even the most recent iPhones have larger screens! iOS 9 provides a shot in the arm of the iPad to provide enhanced multitasking features such as this Split View you see there (which is only available on the iPad Air 2). There’s also Picture in Picture mode where developers of apps can enable video to appear as a popup item above the current app on the screen. One more multitasking feature is Slide Over where you can slide an app in from the right side of the screen. I’m sure that Twitter and Facebook will be part of those who’ll be utilizing this feature.
Device Support
iOS 9 supports ALL devices that currently run iOS 8. I was surprised that the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 were still supported after 4 years of existence! This should help in the longevity of iOS devices. Previously it was the iPhone 3GS that had the longest update life cycle.
There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t mention here so feel free to visit Apple’s iOS 9 preview site HERE.
iOS 9 is now available for developers through a Developer Preview. A Public Beta program is coming for the first time in an iOS major release this July. Go to beta.apple.com to sign up now.
Check out my WWDC 2015 page where I compiled my thoughts on all of the major announcements made during the Keynote.
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