Better mobile experience for users

Apple officially took off the wraps on their latest mobile operating system, iOS 9 today during their annual World Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. iOS 9 features new improvements that further improves performance on a multitude of devices as well as extend the battery life of said products. Apple says that products powered with iOS 9 gets an additional 3 hours of useful battery life – your iPhone may just be able to get to the end of the day without dying on you.

 

Split-screen multitasking for iPad

Apple is also introducing a couple of new features that Android users would probably recognize. iPad users will now be able to do split-screen multitasking, which is great for multitaskers. The Notes app allows users to share web pages straight to the app, and users can further annotate them to include important information.

Better news and maps

Apple also introduced a new News app that replaces Newsstand and allows users to customize their experience depending on their preferences, much like Flipboard. Apple’s Map app has been updated with transit directions which include departure times and walking distances for each entrance and exit for each station. Obviously the map update is meant for only a few key cities and countries and doesn’t apply here in the Philippines as of yet.

A more powerful virtual assistant

Probably the biggest update is to its virtual assistant, Siri. Siri has been upgraded by Apple to be able to learn contextual clues about your schedule and location, which allows the virtual assistant to become proactive, rather than reactive. During the on-stage demo, Siri was able to make a reminder based on a text message mentioning the user to pick something up later. Siri’s also smart enough to know to continue things you were doing before. If you were listening to an audiobook or a new album, for example, and had to hop into your car (that your phone connects to) Siri will automatically show you that audiobook or album. Connecting your headphones to your phone will show you the music app. If someone you don’t know calls you, Siri will try to find who that person is by hunting through your text messages and emails.

Just like Google Now, Siri is now contextual, and will offer suggestions and actions depending on what you’re doing on your phone. Invites received can be directly scheduled on your calendar, among other things.

iOS 9 is going on public beta this July, with the full release coming in the fall, which is around October.