Since August 2012, I have owned at least one Apple device. Or two. Or three. I can say that in that time, update releases have been pretty run-of-the-mill.
Bug fixes, optimisations, minor updates. Meh.
However, if the developer beta released a few days ago is any indication, this time, Apple has chosen to introduce actual features. The kinds of features that belong with a major release, say, iOS 10. Here are the three I find most interesting:
1.You’ll be able to lock your personal notes
When iOS 9.3 is rolled out to the public, users will be able to protect individual notes that contain personal data, like financial details, medical information, website login details, etc. with either a password, or with Touch ID. I wonder how this will affect the hundreds of 3rd party apps that provide…well…the exact same service: privacy.
Oh, and I wish Apple allowed us lock entire apps, instead.
2. Night shift
“A lot of waking hours went into thinking about sleep”
LOL. So, viewing bright blue light in the evening can mess with your body clock, making it difficult to get any sleep. Night Shift uses your device’s clock and geolocation to determine when it’s sunset in your location. It then shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum, making it easier on your eyes. In the morning, the display gets returned to regular settings.
Now this is all great, except for one little thing. Mac users will no doubt be familiar with a 3rd party app called f.lux, which does…well…the exact same thing. This Mac app had an iOS version which was shut down by Apple late last year.
Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away.
3. Multiple user accounts for iPad for education
Yesterday, we announced that in iOS 9.3, Apple has included a long requested feature: multiple user accounts (christened Intelligent Caching). A student can login with either a 4-digit pin, or facial recognition, on any iPad, and they can pick up where they left off on a different one. It’s currently available to just iPads bought for education, but from all indications, we’ll see a full rollout sooner, rather than later.
Others
- Starting in iOS 9.3, you can pair multiple watches to one iPhone. I’m struggling to find a possible use case for this feature (I don’t own an Apple Watch), but here it is.
- CarPlay now includes “For You” recommendations from Apple Music. Meh.
