Apple’s iOS 9 comes out Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET.
The new update adds a lot of new features and fixes some of the most annoying problems.
The Notes app, for instance, will have a much more useful layout. You can turn your notes into a checklist by adding bullet points and checking off items as you go. You can also take pictures from within the app or add existing ones, and there’s a new drawing feature so you can add sketches as well.
For those of you who are helpless without HopStop, you can stop worrying. iOS 9 includes a new transit feature that will take you step-by-step through public transportation.
Siri’s becoming much smarter, so you won’t have to hear it say “I don’t know what you mean by that” nearly as often. If you’re looking at a message or app and you ask it to “remind me about this later,” it’ll be able to deduct what “this” is. It will also be able to search a larger range of topics and come up with answers more quickly.
Your iPhone will become proactive and suggest certain things before you even ask for them. When you plug in your headphones, it’ll realize you might want to listen to an unfinished podcast from earlier; if you check the weather every morning, the app will become more readily accessible at that time.
With iOS 9, you’ll have a significantly longer battery life (cue sigh of relief). Following this update, updates will be much smaller and more convenient so you’ll be less likely to be told you don’t have enough space on your phone to download them.
For anyone with an older phone worried about how iOS 9 will run, the update will be compatible with iPhones 4S and up and should run smoothly on older models, unlike previous updates.
