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News discovers the reader’s interests as well as favored publications. It pulls content from established publishers, not just from random websites. After setting preferences, News presents the For You view — a feed similar to social media apps, but featuring news stories from major publications.
The For You screen is uncluttered, elegant and relevant. The photos and blurbs of news stories actually match, which isn’t the case with most web-based news aggregators. The news stories offer innovative layouts, with videos, animations and graphics that resize and move based on scrolling behavior. Swiping horizontally takes the reader to the next News story. This design aesthetic is becoming more common on the web. It is a standard feature of the iOS 9 News app.
The Explore screen enables users to fine-tune their interests and browse for specific topics.
Searches for News articles use machine learning algorithms, providing salient results. Results are presented on a unified screen with graphics and excerpts from each article. Search results and reading habits are not exported, warehoused and mined. News is designed to ensure privacy. Recommendations are based on information stored locally, not shared with third-party companies or even other Apple services. Apple has partnered with major publications to deliver free content, but they don’t hand over information about you.
iPad Keyboard Improved in iOS 9
If you have ever tried to actually work on an iPad, you probably know it leaves much to be desired. While it is possible to work on documents on an iPad, it is much easier to do this on a Mac. iOS 9 improves the user experience of the keyboard, making it easier to use an iPad for work. A new toolbar appears at the top of the keyboard, enabling easy access to the clipboard, formatting and media embedding.
Placing two fingers on the keyboard transforms it into a trackpad.
For those who use a keyboard accessory, iOS 9 offers new, enhanced functionality. Users can quickly display a cheat sheet with app-specific keyboard shortcuts.
There are even keyboard shortcuts for app switching and Spotlight.
This actually brings the iPad closer to offering an ergonomically friendly working environment. If you use an external keyboard and place your iPad at eye level, you can now operate many touch screen capabilities without straining your back and shoulders. It would have been even better if they integrated the Magic Trackpad.
iPad Offers Split Screen Multitasking in iOS 9
Split screen multitasking in iOS 9 brings the iPad even closer to being a viable office device. The new features offer different capabilities for different devices. The iPad Air 2 offers the richest split-screen functionality, however, most iPads offer some level of this feature. Apps must support multi-tasking, however this support is already enabled for apps that have embraced Apple’s dynamic layout technologies introduced in iOS 8.
There are two types of split screen multitasking in iOS 9 — slide over and split screen. Slide over multitasking is the simplest and most available method. The user slides out a new app panel from the right side of the screen, which is about the size of an iPhone screen. The new panel covers part of the old panel.
Tapping on the divider brings both apps into split view, which is only supported on the iPad Air 2.
Users can select different slide over apps by pulling down on the slide over panel. This displays a list of apps supporting the feature.
Simply tap on an app icon and it will open in the side panel. (continue…)