All the Best, New Features in IOS 9.3
Apple iOS 9.3 is available today and introduces several cool new features, including F.lux-style screen temperature adjustments based on the time of day, password lock for notes, new shortcuts, and more. Apple rarely does anything major with its incremental updates, but this time it’s different.
[This post was originally published on January 15, 2016 and has been updated for today’s iOS release.]
Night Shift adds F.lux-like screen temperature control
Night Shift is perhaps the biggest new feature in iOS 9.3. The app warms up your display to reduce your exposure to blue light, decreasing blue light and increasing orange in the late afternoon, which is believed to improve your chances of sleeping . You can schedule this feature to turn on automatically at dusk, or set your own schedule. You’ll find the new feature under Settings> Display & Brightness or Control Center. Basically, this is F.lux for your iOS device , which users have been clamoring for ever since F.lux was released for jailbroken iPhones .
Notes gets password protected
You can now protect your Apple Notes with a password or Touch ID. To enable it, you need to go to Settings> Notes> Password Protection. From there, open the note in Notes, click the share icon, then Password Protect Notes. In the settings, you can now also choose to sort notes by editing date, creation date or title.
New 3D Touch shortcuts in standard applications
3D Touch has been added to many of Apple’s standard apps, most notably Settings, Health, and Compass, as shown above. Promotions are also getting a new search option, while the App Store is adding several new options. Each app has unique new shortcuts that should keep frequently used functions at your fingertips, so you don’t have to open the app.
News improves personal recommendations and adds gestures
The news has received some small additions in this update, including improved story curation (which means they’ll offer more or better stories that Apple thinks you’ll love), a new landscape reading mode, and new swipe gestures to save, share , like or dislike stories, and mute and block gestures for channels.
You can save regular versions of live photos
iOS 9.3 now makes it easy to duplicate photos in the Photos app, which is most useful for turning those beautiful live photos into regular ones that you can share. Select a live photo, tap the Share icon and select Duplicate. From here, you can select Duplicate As Still Photo to normalize it.
Wi-Fi Assist shows data usage numbers
The so-called Wi-Fi Assist feature , which has been criticized, is receiving a minor update in iOS 9.3. This feature automatically switches you to your cell phone data when your Wi-Fi is weak, consuming people’s data plans without even knowing it. While no data is showing for me, Gizmodo says that you will now see how much data this feature uses .
iCloud for iBooks syncs PDFs
iBooks is now a little less of a joke as you can finally sync PDFs and other previously unsupported file types from iCloud, not just books purchased from the Apple store. Welcome to the opportunity to enable this feature the first time you open iBooks after updating to iOS 9.3.
Health’s New Activities section recommends trying useful apps
If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, you now have a dedicated display on the main page of the Health app – one that shows your movement, exercise, and standing time. What’s more, if you dig deeper into any of the various sections of health data that the app tracks, you’ll see recommended apps for further tracking and analyzing that data.
IPad for Students Adds Cool App, Apple School Manager, and Apple ID Management Features
The iPad gets several new classroom features in iOS 9.3, including a feature that casual users have always dreamed of: switching user accounts . With the new learning features, students will have single sign-on with a new Apple ID for Special Education, which they can use on multiple iPads, along with a new cool teacher app to help students complete their lessons. It would have been nice if the account switched to regular Apple IDs, but this seems to be limited to school accounts for now.