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Apple’s new operating system for iPhones and iPads is about to land on your phone.
Update: iOS 10 has landed – follow our latest coverage here and find out how to download it
iOS 10 will be pushed out to all of Apple’s phones and tablets on Tuesday evening. And it will bring with it a host of new features that might make even old phones feel new – important, when the iPhone 7 is coming out the same week.
Apple first unveiled iOS 10 at an event in June. There, it showed off how it had changed the lock screen and home screen to provide more information; allowed Siri to integrate with other apps; added artificial intelligence to Photos, the keyboard and many different apps; and more.
Show all 10 1 /10The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 New lock screen This might be the first thing you notice, and it’s probably the most significant change to your daily routine. The old slide-to-unlock lock screen is gone; in its place is one you press the home button to unlock. You can try that out in practice just by locking your phone and waking it up. All you really need to know is that you press the home button to do everything, but if you’d like to find out more you can read our full write-up
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Huge changes to Messages You can try these out straight away, though not all of them will work with people who haven’t yet upgraded to iOS 10 themselves. The first things to have a go with are Apple’s own improvements to the app. You can find those by clicking the little arrow that’s appeared next to the field where you write messages – which will bring up options for sending drawings, heartbeats or pictures. But by far the biggest change is the introduction of apps to Messages. You get on that by clicking the little icon that looks like the App Store – in there, you’ll find a host of different apps including ones for finding gifs and others for sending people money
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Useful notifications Notifications have got much more rich (and also much bigger). Now, when they pop up on your lock screen you can hard or long press to interact with them, and if apps are properly made for iOS 10 then you’ll even be able to see a mini version of them as you do. The best app to try this out with at the moment is the Messages app, when someone sends you a text. But integration should be coming to most apps soon, when you’ll get a proper chance to try them all out
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Useful 3D Touch And that same theme runs into the home screen, when you’re on it. If you hard press on an app icon with 3D Touch, you’ll get a mini version of it that you can interact with. That means that you can see who you’ve got emails from, for instance, or click to on Music to start some of your recently played albums. Each of those things can be added as a widget to the lock screen, making them even quicker to view
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Apple Maps redesign Apple’s controversial but hugely improved mapping has received perhaps the biggest renovation in iOS 10. The design is very different, and as are the features that are included. It now gives you the opportunity to have your routes change as you move along, and to zoom in and out while you’r eon your journey. And it’ll let you schedule stop-offs, finding coffee or petrol while you’re on your journey. But the biggest change is just how you find where you’re going. Using the search bar at the bottom will bring up a range of suggestions – including things pulled out of your mail and other apps, which the phone thinks that you’re likely to be heading to
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Apple Music redesign When Apple Music came out last year, it was interesting and exciting but also a little confusing. Thankfully that’s been scrapped this year – and in its place comes a far easier to use design. Gone are the different confusing sections like "New" and "Connect", with their features being folded into other parts of the app. In its place is an app that is like the rest of iOS 10 – slightly less packed with information, but with that information far more organised
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Deleting apps There’s never been a finally more heartfelt and true than this one: You can finally delete the stock apps that you don’t use from your home screen. So, for example, you can get rid of the Stocks app that you never use to check how the markets are doing; you can get rid of the Tips app that you never use to see how to use your phone. It’s done as you’d expect to delete it. Just tap and hold on the relevant app and click the cross in the corner. Some of the apps aren’t actually deleted, but all of them can be recovered through the App Store all the same. Just search for the app that you want to get back and it’ll look like you’re downloading it, but actually it’ll just appear back on your phone
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Changes to Photos Photos has become far more clever, using artificial intelligence to search out the things you want to find. So now, for example, you can search for Tree and see all the trees you’ve photographed; you can tell it who people are and have it find pictures of them; and it’ll arrange special automatic memories of nice days out you’ve had. You can try all those by heading into the Photos app. Initially it might be less full than you’d expect, because the calculations have to be done on your phone; they’ll be done overnight on the first day you plug it in
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Cleverer Siri Apple is finally letting other apps have Siri talk to them, and them talk back. So you can ask for a ride to somewhere, for instance, and Siri will be able to ask Uber for a car; or you can ask to send someone money and it’ll sort that out for you. Apps are just being updated to make this work correctly, but you should be able to try it out in apps like Uber from the beginning
The 10 biggest changes in iOS 10 Better keyboard This might not be the kind of thing that you’d want to try out straight away. But it’s the sort of thing that will gradually improve your life, quietly and slowly – which is actually a great representative for how iOS 10 feels. The new keyboard can read your messages, so that it knows what people are asking. And it can then raid information to give up what people are asking for, quickly. So, for instance, if someone asks for your email, it’ll just pop up in the suggestions box. No typing for you – you’ll be able to send it straight away
It didn’t say then when the new operating system would be arriving. But it announced at the iPhone event last week that it would land on 13 September.
Apple’s updates tend to drop at the same time around the world – about 6pm UK time. Sometimes they might be slightly delayed, but it will certainly launch before the end of the day on Tuesday.
More likely to get in the way of actually downloading it is the huge pressure that always hits Apple’s servers as soon as it comes out. Because there is such a huge amount of interest, and the download is so large, it can often take a long time to actually arrive – so if you’re not in a huge rush it might be worth waiting for a few hours, or until the next day.
Downloading the update is done by heading to the Settings app and clicking on General. There, you’ll find the “Update” button – pressing on that sets the ball rolling and everything from there should be obvious.
5 things we learned from Apple event It’s always worth making sure that your phone is backed up either to iCloud or to your computer before you update, in case anything goes wrong during the setup.
Click here to pre-order the iPhone 7 Plus from Vodafone
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