A look at iOS 10 and some features I will definitely use

Readers of this blog will know that I recently featured a clever little device that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter, has 2 USB ports, and can store the location of where you park your car.

• Now THIS is a device I think we might ALL need!

Well, today I discovered that Apple has now rendered my nifty little device almost redundant with one of the new features of iOS 10.

My iPhone can now tell me where I parked my car - even without that additional device that I purchased!  I can ask Siri 'Where is my car?'.  How good is that!

This is just one of the features that I have found noteworthy in iOS 10.  

Below are some others that I will definitely make use of - and I am sure there will be more to come, as I play with iOS 10 more and more.   iTandCoffee Club members can tap/click on 'More Details›' for some of the items below to find out more about the feature.  (If you are not yet a member, find out more about The iTandCoffee Club here.)

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Notes

• I can share Notes like our family's grocery shopping list with other members of the family (very handy when there are others in the family who might be popping to the supermarket and can grab whatever is needed).   More details›

Lock screen, Notification Centre and Spotlight Search

• It is no longer necessary to press a button to 'wake up' the your iPhone.  Just raise it, and the screen will 'wake up'.
• Slide to unlock is gone - you now just press the Home Button instead (something that has confused many who are new to iOS 10).
• Notification Centre and Spotlight Search have had major overhauls, with fancier looking 'widgets'.  ("What are widgets?", I hear you ask!).  More details›

Photos and Camera

• There is a built-in feature to draw and write on Photos when in edit mode.  More details›
• A 'live photo' can be converted to a 'still photo'. 
• It is easier to get straight to your Camera app from the Lock Screen.   More details›​
• Photos can recognise faces and create albums for different people.  Handy for showing off photos of the family - not sure yet if it works for the cat and dog!  I have already created albums for each of the members of my family!   I'll cover this in a handy hint some time in future.

Storage management/ Home Screens

• Standard apps can now be removed if you don't need them - something that those of you with 16GB devices will really appreciate.   (How do you remove apps? Just get those apps jiggling (by holding your finger on any app until they start to jiggle), then hit the 'x' on those you don't want.   Press the Home Button again to stop the jiggling.)

Mail, Messages and Keyboard/Typing

• The predictive text bar can make 'contextual predictions' as you type (I know, this needs explaining!).  More details›
• You can quickly view just your 'unread' emails from your Mail Inbox.  More details›
• Messages has had some major surgery - with all sorts of cute messaging tools for those (most of whom are much younger than me!) who want to send more than just typed sentences - obviously trying to keep up with the likes of Snapchat.  I do like being able to scribble a message!.  More details›

Safari

• On newer iPads, you can now look at two web pages side-by-side in Safari - handy on my iPad Pro!  More details›
• There is also a quick way to close all tabs in one hit. More details›

Other

• If you have an iPhone 6S or 7 (including 'Plus' versions), you will also have a lot of new functionality provided by Force Touch.  More details›
• The Music app has also had a major overhaul, and appears easier to understand (although I haven't used it much yet, so will need to report back later on this one).

​There are also lots of little changes in various places (see here for more details of the below changes) -

• The use of the word Bin instead of Rubbish or Trash in the Mail app.
• In Settings Mail, Contacts and Calendars is now split into separate options. 
• Also in Settings, Siri has come out of the General settings and into the main set of options.   
• In Photos, the word Edit has been replaced with a symbol.  More details›

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Is it time to install iOS 10 yet?

For the majority of iTandCoffee clients and subscribers, there is nothing really 'life-changing' in iOS 10 make it worth rushing in and getting.

It has been pretty stable, although I have had a few apps' crash since the upgrade.  This may just be that those apps have not been fully updated to go with iOS 10.  Fortunately, the 'crashes' have just been an annoyance and I have not been prevented from doing what I need to do.  

I am, however, a little concerned about poor battery performance since upgrade to iOS 10.  This may just mean that I need to turn certain features off, but time will tell.  I know that others have reported similar issues.  As an example, this weekend I went from 18% battery to zero in a matter of seconds, while I was taking photos.  Very frustrating.

If you can bear to wait, I would suggest holding fire for a bit longer - for at least a week or two - perhaps waiting for iOS 10.0.1 to arrive and settle in. You might save yourself from multiple updates, should Apple release one or more changes over the next few weeks.

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Join our October Free Friday to learn about 'What's New' in iOS 10

Join us at iTandCoffee (Glen Iris, Melbourne) in October for a FREE one-hour session where we will go through the major changes that have been released as part of iOS 10.

To be part of free sessions like this, you must be a member of The iTandCoffee Club.  It is only $30 per year.   Find out more here›

Club members who can't attend the members-only Free Fridays will still be able to view a video recording of the session at any time later, in The Clubhouse menu option on this website (under the iTandCoffee Club main menu option).

Find out more about Free Fridays here›