One of the few things Apple made mention to in our Keynote is iOS 9.3, the latest and greatest iOS update bringing a few new behind the scenes bug and security fixes as well as new features. If you own an iPhone, iPad or iPod—assuming they are all relatively new, all you have to do is make your way to the Settings app, navigate to General, and you should find iOS 9.3 ready for you to download and install.
Hands down, the biggest new feature of iOS 9.3 is Night Shift; a setting that changes the colors of the screen at night to ultimately help you sleep better. Researchers believe that blue light admitted by LED screens halts the production of melatonin, which is the hormones that tells our brains to sleep. If you switch the blue tones to red, orange, yellow or just a warmer color in general, it's said to be easier to the eyes and allow your body to fall asleep naturally. Since Night Shift is built into iOS 9.3, you won't necessarily need other apps to help you sleep better. However, Flux is the most popular third-party Night Shift-esque app. But you need to have a jailbroken iPhone to take advantage of it which is kind of a bummer. So it's nice to see this feature built straight into iOS 9.3.
The News app has been further improved to provide stories based off your interests. So in theory, you should find more stories the app thinks you will like to read. It also received software updates to help it perform faster. You can now also watch videos straight from the feed as well. I think it's the little things that add to the overall experience. Personally, it makes me a little bit apprehensive to use an app that caters news based off what I like to read as I like to get an unbiased range of news. But I might be a little bit too far down the rabbit hole at this point.
What's also neat with iOS 9.3 is that you can password protect your notes. You may know Apple has been in a feud with the FBI regarding encryption and the privacy of their users. If you don't know about it, where have you been? Go google it. Well, Apple wants to make your notes even more secure by allowing you to password protect them. Touch ID will also allow you to lock or unlock notes as well, which is kind of nice.
You know that Health app that you use all the time because you're so active and it's the best Health app on the market, you'll be happy to know that the Health app has been updated. Apple will now highlight third party apps you can connect to the wellness dashboard to keep tabs on your workouts, weight and your sleep quality. You'll also be able to see various movement data it collects from the health apps on your Apple Watch too. So pretty revolutionary stuff.
If you own an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you'll find some new 3D Touch shortcuts for the weather, settings, health, app store, iTunes store and compass apps. You can now duplicate photos in the photos app if you want to edit one copy and keep the original as a backup. Siri now supports Hebrew, Finnish and Malay languages. Some other features include changes to CarPlay, you can now browse suggested songs and artists in Apple Music before you leave for a trip. And while you're out and about, there's a nearby feature that uses maps to find food, fuel and various other services.
The Classroom app can help teachers deliver lesson plans and check their students' progress throughout the year. Students can also share an iPad and sign with different accounts to ultimately personalize what they see. Apple is also introducing Apple IDs for education that are created and managed by school administrators.
With that last one, those are all the main features found in iOS 9.3.