facebook
twitter
google+
Features
Apple’s made a TON of improvements in the latest iOS release
Michael Grothaus
14:50, 17 Dec 2015
Between 2014 and 2015 we've seen an ongoing trend in mobile device manufacturers broadening their portfolios; wearables, convertibles, fitness devices, connected home devices, and even variations on existing products, such as tablets. This has been as big a deal for Apple as anyone else, and the firm has launched quite a diverse range of new hardware in this period; we've seen the Apple Watch, new and revamped iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus handsets, talk of a revived iPhone "C", and the larger iPad Pro tablet. Apple's also extended its crossover features between its mobile iOS and desktop OS X, and there have been numerous updates and tweaks with OS X El Capitan.
To be sure, Apple has had a busy year. And just like 2014, the company has also had a VERY profitable year as well, shifting record numbers of iPhones — some 15+ million in the first week. Apple also made a strong entry to the wearable space with its Apple Watch, though it looks as if the next version — the Apple Watch 2 — could be with us inside Q1.
And Apple has been very busy this week too. First it released a new Smart Battery Case (that, truthfully, is kinda ugly). But then it started dropping a ton of software updates too, including OS X 10.11.2, tvOS 9.1, watchOS 2.1, and, of course iOS 9.2. It’s iOS 9.2 that has the most significant improvements, however. It’s fixed a ton of bugs and also introduced a number of subtle UI changes and feature tweaks.
But first here is primer on what happened inside iOS 9.1:
Live Photos now intelligently senses when you raise or lower your iPhone, so that Live Photos will automatically not record these movements
Over 150 new emoji characters with full support for Unicode 7.0 and 8.0 emojis
New features and compatibility updates for upcoming Apple products, notably the new Apple TV and the iPad Pro.
A Closer Look At What iOS 9.1
Some. But don’t expect them to be as profound as those found in iOS 9.0. The most obvious new feature for iOS 9.1 will be support for Unicode 8. What does that mean? Well, you emoji fans are about to get a host of new emojis to text people with. The updates include sports emojis including golf, skiing, ice skating, archery, weightlifting, volleyball, and levitating (I know, not a real sport). You’ll also get a ton of new weather emojis including rain, thunder, clouds, snowmen, and more. Then there’s new animals like the lion and unicorn. But it doesn’t stop there! New smilies include upside-down face, money-mouth face, nerd, rolling eyes, hug, and thinker. There’s new food too, including hotdog, taco, popcorn, cheese wedge, and more. And if that weren’t enough you can now give people the bird with the middle finger emoji.
So it’s just new emojis? Lame.
Well, not exactly. New emojis are the most noticeable feature, but iOS 9.1 will pack a ton of under the hood enhancements improving stability and speed and–most importantly offer support for the new iPad Pro. That support will include support for the new Apple Pencil stylus and the Apple Smart Keyboard cover.
As you’ll note those are two of the major new accessories Apple unveiled this month. They’re limited to the iPad Pro, which won’t ship until November–but they are a big step for Apple as it’s a sign from the company that they are starting to admit that maybe Microsoft got something right with the Microsoft Surface tablet/hybrid.
Siri gets smarter, too.
This feature is really cool. In the Settings app in iOS 9.1 developers have found a new setting that lets you give voice examples to Siri. This means you can train Siri to recognize your voice. Why is this important? Because in iOS 9 the “Hey, Siri” feature can work even when your iPhone isn’t plugged into power. This means lots of people will begin using “Hey, Siri” more often. That could be a problem, however, if your iPhone hears someone else say “Hey, Siri” and thinks you want it to do something.
With iOS 9.1 Siri will be able to learn your voice, so it will know when you-and not someone else–is using the “Hey, Siri” feature. PhoneArena has also discovered that this new voice recognition feature of Siri will be spotlighted during the setup of an iOS device, suggesting Apple thinks this feature is very important:
“Based on a look of the iOS 9.1 setup screen, Siri will apparently be able to discern between the voice belonging to an owner of a particular iPhone, and voices belonging to everyone else. While setting up the "Hey Siri" phrase that will activate the virtual assistant hands-free, the screen says that the setup process will ‘help Siri recognize your voice.’”
And NOW For A Look at iOS 9.2
Though iOS 9.2 is the second major release of iOS 9, it’s actually the fourth update to iOS 9 in total when you consider the smaller bug fix releases of iOS 9.0.1 and iOS 9.0.2, along with iOS 9.1. So just what's new under the hood in iOS 9.2? Here’s everything you need to know:
Safari View Controller now works with third-party app extensions
I know the name “Safari View Controller” makes non-devs want to stop reading at this point, but this is actually a HUGE improvement for everyday users. Safari View Controller is what allows those slide-up Safari windows to show within apps. For example, Safari View Controller is what appears when you click a link in your Twitter feed in the Twitter app. Without Safari View Controller you’d need to exit third-party apps and open the regular Safari app each time you tapped on a link.
What’s previously sucked about Safari View Controller is that though it enabled you to view web pages inside third-party apps, it never allowed access to third-party app extensions. That’s all changed in iOS 9.2. Now, for example, you can open a weblink in Safari View Controller in the Twitter app and when you click the Share button you’ll have access to all the third-party app extensions, such as—my favorite—Instapaper, which in this case, means I no longer have to force the weblink to open in Safari to use the Instapaper extension.
Safari View Controller has also added the ability to long-tap on the Reload button to reload a web page’s content without enabling existing content blockers you have active on your iPhone. Additionally Safari View Controller now also supports edge-swiping to dismiss Safari windows and the ability to manually request a desktop site instead of the mobile site.
USB Camera Adapter support for iPhones
Before iOS 9.2, only iPads could use Apple’s USB Camera Adapter accessory for importing pictures from digital cameras and SD cards. Now the iPhone 5 or above can use the USB Camera Adapter to import photos from external devices.
iBooks support peek and pop for 3D Touch
A really nice addition of iBooks fans is that iOS 9.2 now include peek and pop support. Previously iBooks only offer Quick Actions support for the 3D Touch display on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. But now inside of a book you can peek and pop into pages from the table of contents, notes and bookmarks, or search results. It’s an awesome addition for browsing through books.
Mail Drop support
With OS X 10.11 Apple introduced Mail Drop, which allow iCloud users to attach documents up to 5GB in size to emails. The attachments would be uploaded in the background and automatically downloaded on the receiver’s end without the need to actually send the attachment with the email. This functionality is now available on iPads and iPhones thanks to iOS 9.2.
Top Stories for News
The News app is a new pre-installed app introduced originally in iOS 9.0. It’s an aggregator of news stories from myriad sources across the web. Users can tell News what subjects or publications they are interested in and News will go out and fetch the relevant content for them and display it in the app. With iOS 9.2 News has added a brand new category called “Top Stories” that will show users the top current stories in the world. What’s interesting is that this feature isn’t compiled by an algorithm; it’s actually put together and updated twice a day by Apple News’ human editorial staff.
Arabic support for Siri
If you speak Arabic, Siri now supports spoken and written commands.
Apple Music get less annoying
The one area in iOS 9 that received the most small tweaks in the iOS 9.2 update is Apple Music. You can now add a song to a new playlist you create on your iOS device instead of only having the option to add it to an existing playlist. In another tweak, playlists are now ordered based on the last time they were edited, so your playlists with the most recently added new songs will show up first. The Music app also now has better icons to show which songs have actually been downloaded onto your device and which still reside only in the cloud.
facebook
twitter
google+
Devices
Apple
Apple iOS 9