Table of contents for Issue 109 in iPad & iPhone User

1. Photos recognises faces without being creepy Photos on iOS 10 is now a lot like Google Photos: using face, object and scene recognition, so you can search your camera by person, location or topic. However, Photos uses only machine learning to analyse the photos as they’re stored locally on your iPhone. Furthermore, it uses this technology to create ‘Memories’ by stitching related photos and videos together, and adding a soundtrack. 2. Voicemail upgrades in Phone In iOS 10, the iPhone also gets some much-needed upgrades in terms of a core functionality, the Phone app. Both of our favorite new features are voicemail-related. First we have the beta launch of Voicemail transcription that translates your audio voicemails into text. Second, via a CallKit, developers can create extensions to detect voicemail…

Apple Music has 15 million paying subscribers, which is nothing to sneeze at. But Apple’s Spotify competitor isn’t easy to use, so iOS 10 is bringing a complete redesign. It’s a totally new look, with giant cards, bigger and bolder fonts, and a clean white background that allows the album art to shine. The first tab when you open Apple Music in iOS 10 is your Library, which makes the most sense. Currently Apple Music buries your library of songs under My Music on the far right side, then further divides it into two sections, Library and Playlists. The categories are nonexistent, and it’s easier to search for something you have saved than to browse your own library. That’s about to change. The Apple Music library in iOS 10 is…

One year after launching the HomeKit framework for smart home devices, Apple is releasing a dedicated Home app to control them. The Home app in iOS 10 will provide quick access to all of the user’s smart lights, door locks, thermostats and more. Users will be able to launch custom ‘scenes’ (which group together multiple device actions into concepts such as ‘Good Morning’) with one tap, and view a master list of devices for individual control. Apple’s official Home app will support remote control smart home devices, provided the user has a third-generation Apple TV or newer. (The Apple…

The Apple Watch’s biggest problems are its apps, namely the time it takes for them to load, and the limited features developers are allowed to bake in. Apple is fixing these issues with a major overhaul to watchOS, coming this autumn as a free upgrade for all Apple Watch owners. During the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Apple previewed a slew of new features coming to watchOS 3. Here are the major changes that will breathe new life into your Apple Watch. First things first: faster apps Every Apple Watch owner knows the struggle of launching apps. By the time the app opens, you’ve given up and turned to your iPhone for help. Apple Watch apps will launch instantly in watchOS 3, and not just Apple’s native apps – third-party ones,…

Apple and Cisco Systems have fleshed out their plans to make iOS devices work better in enterprises and said the new capabilities will arrive in the autumn. Voice calls on Cisco’s Spark collaboration app will act like regular phone calls, IT departments will be able to give Cisco apps priority on iOS devices, and iPhone calls will run over corporate networks. These are some of the ways the two companies’ technologies will mesh in enterprises. Cisco announced the coming features on Monday after Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote. They’ll ship in a version of Cisco Spark updated for iOS 10. Apple also touched on the news at WWDC as one of very few enterprise announcements at the show. The partnership could help Apple gain a foothold in more enterprises and…

As creative director of advertising agency TWBA/Chiat/Day, Ken Segall crafted ads for NeXT Computer and then Apple. He helped create the iconic ‘Think Different’ campaign upon Steve Jobs’s return to Apple and gave the iMac its name when Jobs preferred a pretty terrible alternative. Segall spent 12 years working alongside Jobs, in the process picking up enough tips on running a successful business that he wrote two books behind Apple’s guiding principle: simplicity above all else. Segall’s first book, Insanely Simple, was about how Jobs simplified Apple across the board, from products to operations, and turned his floundering computer business from a sinking ship into the most profitable company in the world. The second, Think Simple, hits shelves on Tuesday and picks up where Insanely Simple left off. Segall found…

i Pads, contrary to some early comments, are great devices for creating media, but the device’s lack of non-proprietary ports and cables can make it a pain for writers, designers, artists and musicians to get their (potentially gigantic) creations off the tablet and over to collaborators and fans. The obvious method is email, but a large document is liable to overload the recipient’s inbox. In this article we’ll look at one method that allows you to easily send a very large document from an iPad over email, but without actually including the document itself in the email. Mail Drop In iOS 9, Apple added a new feature that’s exactly what we’re looking for. It’s called Mail Drop. Open the Mail app on your iPad and start composing a new email.…

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote was packed with announcements, from all the features coming in iOS 10 to a new iPad coding app for beginners (Swift Playgrounds). Here’s everything you need to know. iOS 10 iOS 10 includes major upgrades to iMessage, Photos, Siri, Maps, and Apple Music, and a new Home app to control all of your HomeKit devices. Check out all the announcements here. The iOS 10 developer beta is available now, with a public beta coming in July. Anyone can sign up to test the public beta for free, though beta software can be annoying and bug-ridden. Check out the beta sign-up details here. iOS 10 launches publicly in September. macOS Sierra Goodbye, OS X. Hello, macOS. The next-generation Mac operating system has a new name, macOS…

It was a developers conference, after all, so during Apple’s WWDC 2016 keynote, Tim Cook called special attention to Swift Playgrounds, a free new app for beginners who want to create iOS apps using Swift, Apple’s programming language. Swift Playgrounds features lessons to help beginners learn coding concepts such as creating functions, issuing commands, loops, and more. Apple will release new challenges, so coders can continue to learn new skills as they progress. Apple says that teachers can use Xcode to create their own content for Swift Playgrounds. The interactive, intuitive interface has support for Apple’s Multi-Touch iPad interface. It has a coding keyboard with a shortcuts bar, and you can swipe across a key to type Swift-specific characters. There’s also a pop-over keypad for numbers, a colour picker, and…

The 2016 Apple Design Awards were announced at WWDC, with prizes going to apps that “set a benchmark for excellence” in “usability, excellence in design, excellence in innovation, and excellence in technology adoption”. Here are the winners. Student winner Linum Linum, (free, iPhone) by Joaquin Vila, is a puzzle game. Your goal is to move Lines, placing Land Nodes on the Landing Points in the fewest moves possible. The app was praised for its smart implementation of touch and simplicity of design. Student winner Dividr Dividr, (free, iPhone) created by students at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is a “simple and compelling” 2D arcade game where you race through the course avoiding blocks and picking up coins. Your goal? Survive as long as possible. Frame.io Frame.io (free, iPhone) is a…

With Jason Cipriani’s apps, you’ll be able to tackle any task These apps can help you get some serious work done without a computer. Whether you’re on a business trip and forced to connect to random Wi-Fi networks, or you’re spending the day at a local coffee shop for a change of scenery, you can remain productive while keeping your data safe and secure. Protect your data Something we hardly think about when we’re at home or in the office is someone snooping on our Wi-Fi traffic, looking for bits and pieces of personal information as we go about our daily tasks. But when you’re using public Wi-Fi networks, you should constantly think about just that scenario. You’ve probably used one without even thinking twice about it – I know…

Your Apple ID is used for multiple different purposes, from accessing the App Store to download your favourite apps to connecting with your contacts through iMessage. No matter what you use your Apple ID for, you might have two separate accounts which you use for different purposes. In this guide we go over how to sign into a different Apple ID on iPad. Grab your account details Before signing out of your current account, you should make sure that you’ve got the right account details for your other Apple ID account. iTunes, iBooks, and the App Store To change accounts, go into Settings > iTunes & App Store. At the top of the menu you’ll see your email address, tap on it and you’ll be presented with several options, one…

Kids love iPads and iPhones. They’re a great way to keep children entertained during the summer holidays, with thousands of apps available for them to enjoy, including games, books and educational apps. (For more on that, see our roundup of the Best iOS apps for kids.) However, you need to make sure that any device you hand over to your kids is child-friendly, with parental controls in place to prevent them accessing inappropriate content. And don’t forget the potential financial pitfalls. There have been a few high-profile incidents where parents were faced with huge App Store bills after their kids unwittingly downloaded apps and in-app purchases, so it’s worth taking precautions to ensure that your children aren’t able to do the same. Here we walk you through all the precautions…

Aptly enough, iOS 10 has 10 major features, including sweeping new upgrades to Messages, a much more intelligent Siri, and a Memories feature in Photos that recognizes objects, people, and even locations. Introduced during Apple’s WWDC keynote, iOS 10 also makes the iPhone sublimely integrated with third-party apps. Developers can now design apps to directly enhance Messages, Siri, Maps, and Notifications. There’s also better integration for VoIP calling and a brand-new Home app. Apple’s most noticeable update comes to Messages, which the company said is the most frequently used app on iOS. In addition to opening up the iMessage platform to third-party developers, Messages in iOS 10 has gone through a major ‘emojification’. Emoji sent by themselves are three times bigger, and with iOS 10 it’s easy to simply tap-and-replace…

Apple’s WWDC 2016 keynote showed off some new apps for iOS 10, but then revealed that some familiar apps, including Stocks, Calendar and Mail, would be available in the App Store. The full list is: •  Stocks• Weather• Mail• Notes • Maps• Voice Memos• Watch• Music• FaceTime• Calendar• Contacts• Videos• iTunes Store• Compass• Tips• Calculator Of course, those are already on your iPhone – they’re on every iPhone – so right now the ‘Get’ button is greyed out. But according to Apple, in iOS 10 you’ll be able to delete them, and then reinstall them from the store if you want to use them again. Not every app will be deletable. If you remove the Contacts app, for example, your contacts will still show up in the Phone app. But the iPad doesn’t have the Phone app, so you can’t delete the Contacts app from…

The updated version of iCloud Drive will automatically store your Mac’s older documents in the cloud, Apple officials announced at WWDC, making room on your hard drive for new and recently used files. The iCloud update will offer an ‘optimised storage’ feature that also automatically dumps trash, cleans up old caches, and removes other redundant data to help preserve storage on your Mac; a demo of the feature showed it taking a computer with 20GB of free space and increasing that to 150GB of free space. iCloud will also make it possible for users to share items on their Mac desktops to other Macs, as well as to their iPhones. Users have already stored more than 10 billion documents on iCloud.…

Apple revealed a lot of new features from iOS 10 and macOS Sierra at WWDC. The final versions of each OS won’t be available until the autumn, and developers are the only people who can try out them out right now. But in July, Apple will release betas of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra to the general public. If you’re game for running a beta operating system, you can get your hands on the software by joining the Apple Beta Software Program. You can download iOS 10 today by signing up for a developer account. To do so, go to tinyurl.com/z74txer.…

Intel has missed out on the iPhone party until now, ceding big business to other chip makers in the process. But that could be about to change. Apple will use modems from Intel in some models of its next smartphone, replacing chips from Qualcomm, according a recent Bloomberg report. An Intel modem will go into iPhones for the AT&T Wireless network in the US and in some international versions, the report says. If true, it would be a big win for Intel, especially after its decision to cancel its upcoming Atom chips for phones. Intel has kept its modem business alive, in part because it hopes to capitalize on the upcoming move to 5G networks. Chips from Qualcomm will still be used in iPhones for the Verizon Wireless network and…

i Tunes 12.4 is out, and there are lots of questions about the major and minor changes to this version of the app. In this week’s column, I discuss one question about a podcast view that has been removed from iTunes. I also look at a question about backups, and explain how I got my iPad Pro to load my iCloud Music Library library. Where are my recent podcasts? Q: There used to be a Recent Updates section for podcasts in iTunes. I could browse it and see which podcast episodes had been updated recently. Is this gone in the latest version of iTunes? A: In the past, if you were viewing My Podcasts, there was a Recent Updates entry at the top of the podcasts column, and you could…

Games for your iPhone and iPad can be pretty hefty. By the time a media-rich title’s done expanding after download, it can easily munch 1GB or more of your storage space. Buy enough games and sooner or later your iOS device will be full — and because you can’t expand its storage, you’ll have to delete something to add anything new. An added complication on iOS comes from the system deleting an app’s settings and data when the app itself is removed. This means if you’ve spent many months working your way through a game and you delete it, your progress will vanish in an instant. This tutorial provides methods for stopping that happening in the majority of cases. Check your storage Make sure you really need to delete a…

i Pads, contrary to some early comments, are great devices for creating media, but the device’s lack of non-proprietary ports and cables can make it a pain for writers, designers, artists and musicians to get their (potentially gigantic) creations off the tablet and over to collaborators and fans. The obvious method is email, but a large document is liable to overload the recipient’s inbox. Apple’s relationship with Not Apple has always been a little bit tricky. In the darker days, the company needed the support of outside developers in order to keep the lights on and build the popularity of its products and platforms. In the sunnier days after Steve Jobs’s return, Apple flexed its muscles more, and looked upon outside companies a little less favourably. I always got the…