Few days ago
apple has released its new update for iOS by releasing iOS 10. Here
are quick review for new feautures in iOS 10. Most of the new
feauters are in messages.
Once iOS 10 is
installed, you'll notice a couple of stark changes as soon as you
wake up your iOS device.
The first is the
lock screen. Since iPhone OS, Apple has
conditioned us to "Swipe to unlock," which would either
unlock the screen or bring up the passcode screen. On iOS 10, swipe
to unlock is dead and replaced by "Press home to unlock."
It took a few hours to retrain my brain, but the new unlock method,
especially coupled with Touch ID, actually feels faster.
Swiping from the right on the lock screen also launches the Camera
app. I also like this change a lot because I can now press the Power
button to wake the screen and swipe left to open the camera
or
press the Home button to wake the screen and swipe left. On iOS 9,
you swiped up to get to the camera and if you wanted to wake up your
phone by pressing the power button, you'd have to reach back down to
swipe the camera icon up.
Another front-and-center change I like is the new location of
"Today view;" swipe from the left on the lock or home
screen and you get instant access to all your widgets and Siri
suggestions.
Widgets are just easier to access in their own space than crammed
inside the Notification Center like it was on iOS 9 and earlier.
While still not as versatile as placing widgets on the home screen
itself like on Android, the better widget placement got me to
actually use widgets.
Both the Notification Center and Control Center got some tweaks.
Visually, the panels are now more like bubbly cards. Notifications
now show more information with support for photos, videos and live
updates right on the spot.
Redesigned
Control Center
Another subtle, but welcome change is
the addition of colors to the quick setting toggles in Control
Center; the colors make it easier to know when they're on or off.
Music playback controls, however, are now one card swipe from the
right.
For iPhone 6S, 6S Plus and SE users, there's a "Raise to
wake" feature that turns on the screen when you pick it up and
more advanced 3D Touch features like the ability to clear all
notifications with a harder press or add widgets through the Quick
Actions menu when you 3D Touch a supported app icon.
Messages on steroids
The App Store may be one of iOS's greatest gifts, but I would
argue iMessage is what is keeping people from even thinking about
defecting to Android. When all your friends are blue bubbles
(iMessage), you really don't want to be the odd green one
(non-iMessage), especially in group chats
Some of my favorites new things
include: Sending handwritten messages, drawing all over your photos,
Snapchat-style, before sending, sending fullscreen effects (balloons,
fireworks, lasers, etc.), sending messages that remain hidden with
"invisible ink" until the receiver swipes them open,
viewing previews of website links, easily sending GIFs, getting
predictive emoji (emoji shows up for words as you type so you don't
need to go searching for them, not to mention the boatload of new
emoji to pick from) and automatically replacing text with emoji.
Even features like
Digital Touch, cribbed from the Apple
Watch, which lets you send
sketches and
heartbeats to
people is more useful in iOS 10 than on the smaller smartwatch
screen.
There's also an icon for quicker access to the camera and Photos
app, a "Tapback" response which is a quick way to
acknowledge a specific message and stickers support from sticker
packs purchased from the new built-in Messages App Store.
Redesigned Apple Music
I gave Apple Music a real chance when it launched a year ago. As a
music service, it's clear Apple has put a lot of focus into securing
music exclusives like Frank Ocean's
Blond. Courting artists
and putting out an Android app has helped Apple Music rocket to 17
million subscribers. Spotify still has more with 30 million
subscribers, but Apple Music is off to an incredible start given it's
only a year old.
Mapped out
Apple Maps could not have been a bigger
disaster when it launched. Cook has never hidden the fact that they
really messed up.
Time, fortunately, forgives mistakes when you work and work at
fixing them. And Apple Maps on iOS 10 is a much improved experience
compared to previous versions. So much, in fact, I'm actually
considering switching from Google Maps to it.
The redesigned Maps app has a slew of new useful features such as
superior search, improved turn-by-turn navigation and more transit
support for more cities worldwide.
Overall, the lousy Maps app of past is now a well-thought-out app
that's also fast. And once apps like OpenTable and Uber and Lyft get
updated with Maps extension support, you'll be able to book
restaurant reservations and hail cars right from the app.
Digging up the past
On iOS 10, Apple's leveraging advanced computer vision to scan all
your photos and basically do the same thing with a new feature called
Memories. The idea is the same: To let the machine help you
rediscover old moments by sorting them based on people, places and
things.
It's neat and Apple says it retains your privacy by keeping all
the AI machine learning on the device itself instead of crunching it
through the cloud.
Deleting stock apps
This feature let you
delete unsed apps at onces.
Home
There's a new Home app that makes it easier to control your
HomeKit-enabled smart home gadgets in one place. Many have called it
the app Apple should have released alongside HomeKit since it's
essentially a central hub. In what would appear to be a more serious
attempt to get people interested in HomeKit and the smart home,
Apple's included a HomeKit panel with shortcuts located within
Control Center (two swipes to the left).
The app looks quite straightforward with the ability to create
controls for individual devices or grouped ones into rooms or
"scenes". If you own an Apple TV, you can remotely control
and automate your smart home based on the time, location, etc. And
all of Home's controls can be controlled with Siri.
Apple Pay on websites
Apple Pay is one of those magical technologies that always puts a
smile on many users face whenever they use it. It's the best way to
pay for things at Walgreens or Whole Foods and makes the checkout
process even faster within apps (especially when it comes to ordering
new Apple products like the iPhone 7).
Using iOS 10, online merchants can bake in Apple Pay as a secure
way to make purchasing just as fast and safe as within an app.
Phone
The Phone app has three new features. VoIP apps can tap into a new
API so that calls come through just like regular phone calls with
fullscreen contact pictures instead of just as ugly notifications.
There's a spam call identifier to help screen calls. And a voicemail
transcription service that's in beta, which works with most carriers
so long as they support visual voicemail.
Smarter context
Some of the other miscellaneous updates that users will easily
miss include recent suggestions in Spotlight for faster searching and
related "Look Up" hints for Spotlight search results in
Notes, Mail and Messages. Alright, cool.
Those are the cool
features in ios 10 and you can get them by updating to it choosing
among to methods updating via Internet by connecting to WiFi or by
using your computer via iTune. Next post I will make a detailed post
on how to update to IOS 10.
Feel free to share this
post with your friends by clicking or touching the share buttons.