[The opinions expressed in this post are those of the article author.]
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ios> iOS
<http://observer.theguardian.com/> The Observer
Twelve ways to have a better iOS 10 life
The latest version of Apple's operating system for mobile devices brings a
host of new features - not all of them immediately obvious. Here's our pick
of the best
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/02/ios10-top-tips-new-featu
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Apple's latest version of its mobile operating system has a number of useful
new features. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
<https://www.theguardian.com/profile/darien-graham-smith> Darien
Graham-Smith
<http://twitter.com/DarienGS> @DarienGS
Sunday 2 October 2016 09.45 BST
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1 Improved touch controls
Several buttons now have "3D touch": they respond to the force used (iPhone
6S or newer devices). A hard press on the timer icon pops up shortcuts to
common timer lengths, while the torch icon lets you choose brightness and
the camera icon lets you jump to video or selfie mode. Several apps have
also gained new touch gestures: in Photos, you can now tap and drag to
select multiple images, while the email app now lets you swipe down while
composing a message to save it as a draft. To return to a saved draft, hold
your finger down on the compose button.
2 Better Apple maps
Apple's map application is getting smarter - it knows when you're driving
and in iOS 10 it automatically drops a pin whenever you leave your vehicle,
so you can easily find your way back, even in an unfamiliar neighbourhood.
On a smaller scale, the Find my
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/iphone> iPhone app can now help you
locate a mislaid Apple Watch. You can make it play a loud sound to reveal
its location - or put it into "lost mode", which displays a message of your
choosing, so that anyone who finds it can get hold of you. If you fear it
has gone for good, you can remotely lock or wipe it.
3 Voice notification of important calls
When a call comes in, Siri, Apple's speech-recognition assistant, can now
announce who's calling, so you know right away whether to pick up. You can
enable this at Settings > Phone > Announce Calls. In the interests of
privacy, you can choose to use this feature only when using Bluetooth
(wireless) headphones or speakers, rather than having all callers' names
read out. You can also now specify individual callers who should always get
through, even if your phone's in "do not disturb" mode (previously you could
do this only for groups of contacts). To set this up, open a contact and
select Edit > Ringtone or Edit > Text tone, then turn on the Emergency
Bypass switch.
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iOS 10's Photos app now groups pictures into people and places.
4 Find people and places in the photo app
Open Photos and you'll see new folders entitled "people" and "places",
grouping pictures according to who is in them and where they were taken. The
process of identifying faces is automatic and it happens on your phone
(rather than in the cloud) to protect your privacy. To make the most of it,
however, you'll need to tell your iPhone who the people it's detected are -
simply tap on a picture and start entering names to identify your subjects.
With this done you can also search for images by person. You can also
identify everyday objects: try a search for "car" or "tree", for example.
5 Inline video in the web browser
Before, the Safari web browser for iOS would open videos embedded into web
pages in a full-screen view. Now you can watch them in their proper context
on the page, just as you would on the desktop. Simply tap to start the
video, then tap the resize icon in the bottom-right of the frame (or pinch
your fingers together to zoom out). On the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 or
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ipad> iPad Mini 4, you can also now
view two websites side by side: to enable this feature, hold down the new
tab button at the top right of the window and you'll see the option to "open
split view".
6 New Siri features
Siri has a few new tricks in <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ios>
iOS 10. "Take a selfie" is one: Siri won't actually activate the shutter,
but he - or she if you've chosen the female voice - will open the camera app
in selfie mode, ready for your close-up. Siri can also now be used to
control third-party apps, such as WhatsApp. To enable this feature, go to
Settings > Siri > App Support and enable WhatsApp: you'll now be able to
tell Siri to make calls and send messages. Uber is there too, so Siri can
book you a car, and other apps are likely to add support in the near future.
7 iMessage gets a major upgrade
iMessage is loaded with new features. There's a shortcut directly to the
camera, so you can easily send photos and selfies, and if you hold down the
send button you'll see a variety of new visual effects: you can send a
birthday message surrounded by balloons or a private chat in "invisible ink"
that's only visible when the recipient swipes over it with a finger. If
that's not enough, iMessage now has its own app store, selling sticker
packs, games and tools for finding and sharing online information. Just open
iMessage and tap the new app store icon next to the message box.
8 Redesigned notifications
On the iPhone 6S or newer devices, iOS 10 automatically wakes up the screen
to show your notifications as soon as you pick up the phone. What's more,
notifications have become interactive: a hard press lets you reply to an
incoming message without having to unlock the phone and open the app. If
you're worried that this feature might be open to abuse, you can disable it
by going to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode and turning off "Reply with
Message". You can also dismiss all notifications with a hard press on the
close icon; on devices without 3D touch, swipe left on the notification for
options.
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The Messages app has been redesigned to offer more expression options with
the iOS 10 software update.
9 New calendar app features
If your phone supports 3D touch, you don't have to open the calendar app to
see what's coming up: a hard press on its icon will show you your next
appointment. Inside the app, you might notice some events that you don't
recall adding; iOS 10 now automatically schedules events detailed in
incoming emails or messages. If this results in a deluge of irrelevant
events clogging up your calendar, you can turn it off at Settings > Calendar
Events Found in Apps. A final change to the calendar is simple butwelcome: you can now reschedule events by simply tapping and dragging them
