A Week With iOS 9

It has been almost a week since Apple released iOS 9 to the public. According to Apple, so far iOS 9 has had the fastest adoption rate for any Apple release ever, that is due to the fact that more than 50% of its devices are already running on iOS 9 in just a week after release.

I immediately upgraded to iOS 9 on my iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2 and here are some interesting features I have discovered so far from almost a week's use.

1. Easy access to the iCloud drive. iCloud drive is Apple's own cloud storage solution, competing with the likes of DropBox, Box and Google Drive. In previous iOS versions with iCloud, there was no easy way to access files you stored in iCloud drive and the only way to access the files was through the apps which created them. With iOS 9, Apple has made it very convenient to access and store files in iCloud, it now has an iCloud Drive Icon which gives you all the access needed to mange your files. You can now organize your files in iCloud by moving them around in folders, to edit a particular file, you just need to click on the share icon on the upper right hand of the screen and open the required app.

By default, the iCloud Drive icon is not displayed in the home screen, to enable this, just go to Settings --> iCloud --> iCloud Drive --> Show on Home Screen and set this to On.

2. You can now go back to an App. iOS 9 has a tiny back button on the upper left of the screen in most if not all apps, tapping that will return you to the app you previously used. For example tapping on a link in an email will open Safari and in Safari, there is a back to Mail button. This makes it more efficient than double-pressing the Home button and switching back to Mail.

3. Low Power Mode. When using Low Power Mode, iOS 9 temporarily reduces the power consumption of the device until you can charge your device, according to some articles, the battery life can be extended up to another 3 hours when in Low Power Mode. When this is on, mail fetch, background app refresh, automatic downloads and some visual effects are reduced or turned off.

4. Battery Usage. You can now see the specific percentage of battery usage a particular app uses. Tapping on the app shows how long the apps were running and running in the background.

5. Calendar. The updated Calendar app now shows you events like flights or restaurant reservations found in Mail. Calendar also uses Apple Maps to look up locations and traffic conditions to tell you when it's time to leave.

6. Caller ID Suggestion. If an unknown caller is calling you, Siri checks if the number can be found in email signatures and suggests who the caller might be.

7. Apple News. The Apple News app is Apple's answer to Flipboard, this news app customizes news feeds from different sources according to your preference whether it be sports, finance or entertainment. Apple News has different groupings, For You which groups news articles according to what you have selected in Favorites, Favorites are the news sources you have selected, while Explore lets you browse through other news sources still based on your selections in Favorites.

Articles in Apple News are customized according to the device you are using, either iPad or iPhone. You can also save articles offline for reading later and you can save in iCloud so you can access your saved articles in any iCloud compatible device.

Note: The Apple News app is currently only available in the United States, if you want to try out the News app, you can go to Settings --> General --> Language & Region and set your Region to United States, this will show the Apple News icon in your home screen.

8. More Powerful Notes App. The new Notes App is now made more powerful, you can now capture maps, photos and more. You can draw using just your finger and easily locate added photos, maps and more in the attachments browser. Because of the added features in Notes, you will need to upgrade your notes the first time you open the App to conform with the new Notes format.

Easily turn your lists into checklists by just selecting all the text and tapping on the checklist icon.

Since your notes have been updated to the new format, your other devices which you use to access notes should have atleast iOS9 and OS X El Kapitan on Macs.

9. Search for words within Safari. Safari now comes with a new search capability, where you just tap on the share icon on the bottom of the screen in Safari and choose Find on Page.

10. Picture in Picture for iPad. With the picture in picture feature in the iPad, while watching a video or doing Facetime, pressing the home button will scale down the video to a corner of your screen and the video continues to play. You can open a second app like Mail and reply to a message while watching a video.

11. Split View for iPad. Split view for iPad brings multitasking to the next level, you can have to apps running side by side, this is specially useful when doing research, while browsing on Safari, you can be writing an article in Notes.