Apple iOS 9 Vs iOS 8: What's The Difference?

iOS 9 Proactive - image credit Apple
iOS 9 Proactive – image credit Apple
Touchdown!
Today Apple has officially unveiled iOS 9 and, despite a very similar appearance, the ninth edition of iOS comes jam packed with welcome changes from its troubled predecessor.
So let’s get straight to it and break down exactly where Apple has made the biggest changes from iOS 8 and the benefits they will bring to your iPhones and iPads:
Proactive Assistant
In recent years Apple has made a conscious attempt to reduce its reliance on Google and the highlight of iOS 9 illustrates this strategy once more.
Leaked late last week ‘Proactive’ is essentially Apple’s version of Google Now: an assistant which aggregates data across Siri, Contacts, Calendar, Passbook, and third-party apps to create contextually aware real-time information.
This ranges from map directions before a meeting (taking into account current traffic conditions), boarding passes ahead of a flight and automated calendar entries from emails and messages.
In addition (and in a break from Google Now) Proactive also recognises patterns in your daily schedule so, for example, if you run every morning listening to music when you connect your headphones in that time period Proactive will automatically open your music app. Proactive can be granular as well, differentiating what you listen to when running compared to the times you are usually driving (where it might typically be to podcasts or audiobooks).
Much like Google Now, Proactive will also open up this intelligence to third party apps but Apple stresses that none of your data leaves your phone – a clear dig at Google. Out the gate Proactive looks capable of competing head-on with the current version of Google Now, but not with the radically enhanced version previewed in Android M.
Siri is far more powerful in iOS 9 - Image credit Apple
Siri is far more powerful in iOS 9 – Image credit Apple
New Siri
In order to make the most of Proactive, Siri also needs to get a lot smarter in iOS 9- and it does.
In the new release Siri gains much wider support for natural language commands across all aspects of your phone. This means far more than just “Is it raining?” with examples given when searching camera photos like “Show me photos from Utah from last August “ or in contextually aware Note taking like “Remind me to get my coffee off the roof of the car when I get in” (possible if used in conjunction with Apple CarPlay).
Apple is also making a big deal of Siri’s greater accuracy, pointing to a 5% word recognition error rate. It will also open up further to third party apps with requests within Spotlight able to tie queries into specific apps, locations and searches.
Siri combines further with Spotlight results - Image credit Apple
Siri combines further with Spotlight results – Image credit Apple
Upgraded Spotlight
The result of Proactive and ‘super Siri’? A new Spotlight. In iOS 9 swiping left on the homescreen will bring a rich page of contextual data with links to common contacts, suggested apps, geo-sourced local information, calendar events and more.
Real time search gets a boost too with a wider array of questions answered as you type (think calculations, conversions, weather, etc). Spotlight will also integrate with third party apps, which creates almost endless possibilities.
Faster, Longer Lasting iPhones and iPads
While ‘new’ is welcome, the biggest cry from many users is simply for their devices to work faster and last longer… and in this respect iOS 9 is just what the doctor ordered.
As expected, iOS 9 is all about optimisation. Using the example of an iPhone 6 (no name drops for the heavily leaked iPhone 6S), Apple claims iOS 9 will add an extra hour of usage (aka ‘screen on’) time and a new power saver mode will add another three hours when enabled.
Apple didn’t delve into what features would be restricted in this low power state (or if the 3 hours was calculated based on a full charge), but it should help those looking to squeeze more juice out of their devices.
Read more – Apple iOS 8.3 Has 3 Great Secret Features
iPad Multitasking
This is potentially huge and something which can help bridge the gap in functionality between the PC and ‘post PC’ eras: Split View and Picture-in-Picture.
iPad split screen multitasking is a massive iOS breakthrough - Image credit Apple
iPad split screen multitasking is a massive iOS breakthrough – Image credit Apple
As the familiar names suggest, the former allows two concurrently running apps to be split into 50/50 or 70/30 proportions in landscape mode. The split is triggered by swiping from the right edge which produces a list of recent apps in the split. A selected app can then be ‘glanced’ (viewed and dismissed) or locked in place for dedicated multitasking. A divider between the apps can be dragged to toggle between 50/50 and 70/30 splits (‘Slide Over’).
As for picture-in-picture, this is exactly like what we’ve seen on TVs for years. When playing video you’ll be able to exit an app and keep the video window open, or even just its audio.
The combination of the two features means both productivity and slacking off potential will hit whole new levels. Sadly these levels will only be attained by some as a iPad Air 2 is required for the full functionality, while the iPad Air and iPad mini range will get support for just glanceable split screen apps and picture-in-picture. Other iPads are out of luck.
iOS 9 multitasking 'glances' - Image credit Apple
iOS 9 multitasking ‘glances’ – Image credit Apple
Interestingly Apple did say iPhones would be compatible with Multitasking, but didn’t elaborate. It would make sense for some of these features to come to the iPhone 6 Plus (and create a differentiator from the iPhone 6), though we await more information here.
As for compatible split screen apps, Apple states that any which use its ‘Auto Layout’ coding feature can easily be made compatible. For others, the race to add to tick this box will begin in earnest – I suspect
Better Apple Maps
Looking to shake off its unfashionable reputation, Apple says Apple Maps is now by far the most used mapping application on iOS (3.5x higher than “next leading mapping app”) and this should get a further bump as it was revealed iOS 9 will add much awaited transit directions.
In iOS 9 Apple Maps adds detailed public transport informaiton - Image credit Apple
In iOS 9 Apple Maps adds detailed public transport information – Image credit Apple
These will be limited to major US and Chinese cities initially, but do look worth the wait with a nice Google Maps differentiator being it recognises multiple exits at major airports and stations and plans your directions accordingly.
In a clever (and self serving) touch, Apple Maps will also now show whether any store, restaurant or bar supports Apple Pay in its search results.

forbes.

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Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Continue reading the main story Find out more Matthew Teller presents Sandhurst and the Sheikhs, a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4, on Wednesday 27 August 2014 at 11:00 BST It will be available on iPlayer shortly after broadcast Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh Saad, Emir of Kuwait, and Sheikh Hamad, Emir of Qatar. Sandhurst's links have continued from the time when Britain was the major colonial power in the Gulf. "One thing the British were excellent at was consolidating their rule through spectacle," says Habiba Hamid, former foreign policy strategist to the rulers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. "Pomp, ceremony, displays of military might, shock and awe - they all originate from the British military relationship." Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King Abdullah, Sultan Qaboos Sandhurst alumni: King Hamad of Bahrain, King Abdullah of Jordan and Sultan Qaboos of Oman It's a place where future leaders get to know each other, says Michael Stephens, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute, Qatar. And Sandhurst gives the UK influence in the Gulf. "The [UK] gets the kind of attention from Gulf policy elites that countries of our size, like France and others, don't get. It gives us the ability to punch above our weight. "You have people who've spent time in Britain, they have… connections to their mates, their teachers. Familiarity in politics is very beneficial in the Gulf context." "For British people who are drifting around the world, as I did as a soldier," says Brigadier Peter Sincock, former defence attache to Saudi Arabia, "you find people who were at Sandhurst and you have an immediate rapport. I think that's very helpful, for example, in the field of military sales." The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. "The Gulf monarchies have become important sources of capital," says Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of the Middle East/North Africa programme at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House. "So you see the tallest building in London being financed by the Qataris, you see UK infrastructure and oilfield development being financed by the UAE. There's a desire - it can even seem like a desperation - to keep them onside for trade reasons." British policy in the Gulf is primarily "mercantile", says Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, of the Baker Institute in Houston, Texas. Concerns over human rights and reform are secondary. The Shard at dusk The Shard was funded by Qatari investors In 2012 Sandhurst accepted a £15m donation from the UAE for a new accommodation block, named the Zayed Building after that country's founding ruler. 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Over the years donations like this have saved the UK taxpayer a considerable amount of money." But what happens when Sandhurst's friends become enemies? In 2001, then-prime minister Tony Blair visited Damascus, marking a warming of relations between the UK and Syria. Shortly after, in 2003, Sandhurst was training officers from the Syrian armed forces. Now, of course, Syria is an international pariah. Journalist Michael Cockerell has written about Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's time at the Army School of Education in Beaconsfield in 1966: "Three years [later], Gaddafi followed a tradition of foreign officers trained by the British Army. He made use of his newfound knowledge to seize political power in his own country." Ahmed Ali Sandhurst-trained Ahmed Ali was a key player in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi That tradition persists. In the 1990s Egyptian colonel Ahmed Ali attended Sandhurst. In 2013 he was one of the key figures in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, now rewarded by a post in President Sisi's inner circle of advisers. In the late 1990s there were moves by the British government under Tony Blair to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets. Major-General Arthur Denaro, Middle East adviser to the defence secretary and commandant at Sandhurst in the late 1990s, describes the idea as part of the "ethical foreign policy" advocated by the late Robin Cook, then-foreign secretary. Tony Blair and Robin Cook Tony Blair and Robin Cook at one point planned to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets The funeral of King Hussein in 1999 appears to have scuppered the plan. "Coming to that funeral were the heads of state of almost every country in the world - and our prime minister was there, Tony Blair," says Major-General Denaro. "He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?' The answer was because they went to Sandhurst." Today, Sandhurst has reportedly trained more officer cadets from the UAE than from any other country bar the UK. The May 2014 intake included 72 overseas cadets, around 40% of whom were from the Middle East. "In the future," says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, "people will look back at how much Britain messed up in the [Middle East] because they wanted to sell more Typhoon jets to Bahrain, rather than stand behind the values of human rights and democracy." "It's one thing saying we're inculcating benign values, but that's not happening," says Habiba Hamid. Sandhurst is "a relic of the colonial past. They're not [teaching] the civic values we ought to find in democratically elected leaders." line Who else went to Sandhurst? Princes William and Harry, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Katie Hopkins, Antony Beevor, James Blunt, Josh Lewsey, Devon Harris (From left to right) Princes William and Harry Sir Winston Churchill Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond (but did not complete training) Katie Hopkins, reality TV star Antony Beevor, historian James Blunt, singer-songwriter Josh Lewsey, World Cup-winning England rugby player Devon Harris, member of Jamaica's first bobsleigh team line Sandhurst says that "building international relations through military exchanges and education is a key pillar of the UK's international engagement strategy". Sandhurst may be marvellous for the UK, a country where the army is subservient to government, but it is also delivering militarily-trained officers to Middle Eastern monarchies where, often, armies seem to exist to defend not the nation but the ruling family.

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