The iPad in iOS 11 has improved multitasking, a dock for storing and launching commonly-used apps, support for dragging and dropping content between apps, and a Files app that manages files like on a Mac or Windows computer. Even cooler are productivity features like a document-scanner built into the Camera app and the ability to use the Apple Pencil to write on virtually any kind of document. With it, you can add handwritten notes to a document, convert written notes to text, draw on photos or maps, and more. AR isn’t built into any of the apps that come with iOS 11. Instead, the technology is part of the OS itself, meaning that developers can use it to create apps. So, expect to start seeing a lot of apps in the App Store that tout their ability to overlay digital objects and live data onto the real world. Good examples could include games like Pokemon Go or an app that lets you hold up your phone’s camera to a restaurant’s wine list to see real-time ratings for each wine from the app’s users. Just go to a Messages conversation and create a message that includes the amount of money you want to send. Authorize the transfer with Touch ID or Face ID and the money is withdrawn from your Apple Pay account and sent to your friend. The money is stored in an Apple Pay Cash account (also a new feature) for later use in purchases or deposits. Instead of streaming to a single device, AirPlay 2 can detect all AirPlay-compatible devices in your home or office and combine them into a single audio system. Wireless speaker maker Sonos offers a similar feature, but you have to buy its pricey hardware to get it. AirPlay 2 lets you stream music to any compatible device or to multiple devices simultaneously. With it, you could hold a party where every room has the same music playing or create a surround-sound experience in a room dedicated to music. In iOS 11, there are tons of subtle improvements to photography features. From new photo filters to improved skin-tone colors, still photos will look better than ever. Apple’s animated Live Photo technology is smarter, too. Live Photos can now run on endless loops, have a bounce (automatic reverse) effect added, or even capture long-exposure images. Apple is also introducing two new file formats with iOS 11 that should interest anyone who takes a lot of photos or videos and needs to conserve storage space. HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) and HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) will make images and videos up to 50% smaller with no reduction in quality. One of the smarter new features is Siri’s ability to translate from one language to another. Ask Siri in English how to speak a phrase in another language (Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are supported first) and it will translate for you. Siri’s voice is also improved. Now it sounds more like a person and less like a human/computer hybrid. With better phrasing and emphasis on words and phrases, interactions with Siri should feel more natural and easier to understand. With iOS 11, Control Center gets a brand new look and becomes much more powerful. First off, Control Center now supports 3D Touch, meaning that many more controls can be packed into a single icon. Even better, though, is that you can now customize the controls available in Control Center. You can remove the ones you never use, add in the ones that will make you more efficient, and let Control Center become a shortcut to all the features you need. This feature extends the idea for use while driving. With Do Not Disturb While Driving enabled, calls or texts that come in while you’re behind the wheel won’t light up the screen and tempt you to look. There are emergency override settings, but anything that reduces distracted driving and helps drivers focus on the road will bring major benefits. The new OS includes a feature called App Offloading. This lets you delete the app itself while saving data and settings from the app on your device. With it, you can save the things you wouldn’t be able to get back and then delete the app to free up space. Decide you want the app back later? Just redownload it from the App Store and all of your data and settings are waiting for you. There’s even a setting to automatically offload apps that you haven’t used recently to intelligently increase your available storage. That changes in iOS 11 thanks to a built-in feature for recording your device’s screen. This is great if you want to record and share a game session, but also super helpful if you develop apps, websites, or other digital content and want to share in-progress versions of your work. You can add a shortcut for the feature in the new Control Center and videos are saved in the new, smaller HEVC format to your Photos app. If another device running iOS 11 or higher tries to connect to your network, you’ll get a notification on your iOS device that this is happening. Tap the Send Password button and your Wi-Fi password will be automatically filled in on your friend’s device. Forget typing in long passwords. Now, getting visitors on your network is as simple as tapping a button. Simply put your old device into Automatic Setup mode and use the camera on the new device to capture the image being displayed on the old device. When it locks on, many of your personal settings, preferences, and iCloud Keychain passwords are automatically imported to the new device. This won’t transfer all of your data—photos, offline music, apps, and other content will still need to be moved separately—but it will make setting up and transitioning to new devices that much quicker. Not anymore. In iOS 11, iCloud Keychain now supports apps, too (developers will have to add it to their apps). Now, sign in to an app once and save the password. Then that login will be available to you on every other device signed in to your iCloud. It’s a small feature, but one that removes one of that little annoyance from life that we’ll be glad to see go. Beyond a new look, there are new features, too. These include daily tips, tutorials, and other content that will help you discover useful new apps and get more out of the apps you already use.
