Apple Announces IOS 10 With Major Features And Redesigns

Apple Announces IOS 10 With Major Features And Redesigns

Apple disclosed iOS 10 at its annual developer conference. The tenth major iteration of the operating system for iPads and iPhones comes with a bunch of new features, some bigger and some small — Apple is releasing a public beta next month. “It is the biggest iOS release ever for our users,” said Craig Federighi. Here’s what’s new.

The first of which is a change in the overall user interface. From the lock screen to the Control Centre, Apple has changed the look to take advantage of things like 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

The design of iOS has gone on pretty constant since iOS 7 was announced a few years ago and Apple hasn't dramatically altered anything - but there are things like new widgets in the Today view.

Apple says it's "redesigned the experience of the lock screen". But before you get to that, there's a new feature that will mean a user will see more of the lock screen.

While 3D Touch was an attractive addition to iOS 9 with the iPhone 6S, it seems genuinely useful in iOS 10. From the lock screen, a user can press on the right side of the screen to unlock the camera quickly, or the left side to open up widgets. And when it comes to third-party apps, a user can use 3D Touch to do things like see live action from ESPN's app or track their car by pressing down on the Uber shortcut.

To start, the notification system, lock screen, and 3D Touch on apps have been redesigned. With the lock screen, a number of people complained that TouchID was too fast on the iPhone 6s, which made the lock screen only visible for maybe a few hundred milliseconds before it was flown off to something else. With iOS 10, the lock screen is automatically shown when motion sensors detect that we’ve raised the phone, similar to the Apple Watch. 

Notifications are also remarkably changed to be more actionable. On the lock screen, they no longer darken the background and it’s likely to view photos, videos, and do things like reply to messages and keep a conversation going within the notification rather than entering another application, which avoids costly context switches from a UI perspective. These notifications can be opened using 3D Touch although it wasn’t really made clear at the keynote how things would work for iOS devices without 3D Touch. 

Users of iMessage will keep informed to the app in iOS 10. Previews for media links and the large preview of emoji will make its way to the new iMessage. Keywords in the message will let a user know which words can be turned into emoji. Facebook style reactions will come to iMessage as well as handwritten messages. Digital Touch like the Apple Watch will come to iOS 10 on not just the Apple Watch as well as fullscreen effects for special occasions like New Years. Stickers will also make its way to iOS 10's iMessage.

A new Maps app design will make its way to iOS 10 as well. Plans will be presented to users based on time of day and typical travel habits. Maps will also zoom in when coming up to a turn and zoom back out when a long straightaway is coming up. Map extensions will permit third-party developers to use Apple's Maps improvements in their own apps. All of Maps' updates in iOS 10 will make its way to CarPlay.

For a photo, facial recognition will come to the default Photos app. iOS 10 devices will be able to identify faces and settings as well. Using artificial intelligence, Apple will piece together photos it accepts to be a part of the same "Memory." The company states this will all happen on a device--pictures and videos won't require touching the cloud to make use of these features.

As user estimated, Apple Music has had a major visual redesign - and to be fair, it looks good. It also acquires onscreen lyrics for some songs, although a user may have to wait for the lyrics for their favorite song to be added.

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The next feature is News - again with a somewhat new design. It also adds in breaking news notifications.

The eighth change includes Apple's HomeKit app - which will now originate in the place of a Home app preinstalled on our iPhone.

IOS 10 will be presented for public beta this summer, with a release in the fall. According to Apple it will support all iPhones as old as the iPhone 5, the iPad 4/Mini 2 and later, and the iPod Touch 6G.