Apple adds night mode, secure notes, more in iOS 9.3
The next point release of Apple's mobile operating system is shaping up to be one of the most important yet, with a slew of new features that help users sleep, keep their sensitive data under wraps, and get a better overview of their health coming in iOS 9.3.
Headlining the surprisingly hefty release is Night Shift, an oft-requested feature that automatically shifts the color temperature of an iOS device display toward the warmer end of the spectrum as night progresses. In the morning, it automatically returns to normal.
Apps that perform a similar function -- such as f.lux -- have long been popular on the Mac, and users have clamored for the ability to use them on iOS devices.
The built-in Notes app has also been spruced up. Users can now encrypt individual notes with Touch ID or a custom password, while the full list can be sorted alphabetically or by date created or date modified.
Apple says the News app will be faster to update, and the For You section is now smarter and adds the ability to play embedded videos directly in the feed. The Health app now displays Apple Watch activity natively and features a slightly redesigned dashboard view.
CarPlay has also received some love, with enhanced Apple Music integration -- adding the New and For You sections -- alongside better point of interest search. Drivers will now have access to a "Nearby" function that quickly identifies gas stations, parking, restaurants, coffee shops, and other frequently-requested points of interest with a single tap.
Apple surprisingly revealed iOS 9.3 earlier Monday, even before releasing iOS 9.2.1 to the public.
Headlining the surprisingly hefty release is Night Shift, an oft-requested feature that automatically shifts the color temperature of an iOS device display toward the warmer end of the spectrum as night progresses. In the morning, it automatically returns to normal.
Apps that perform a similar function -- such as f.lux -- have long been popular on the Mac, and users have clamored for the ability to use them on iOS devices.
The built-in Notes app has also been spruced up. Users can now encrypt individual notes with Touch ID or a custom password, while the full list can be sorted alphabetically or by date created or date modified.
Apple says the News app will be faster to update, and the For You section is now smarter and adds the ability to play embedded videos directly in the feed. The Health app now displays Apple Watch activity natively and features a slightly redesigned dashboard view.
CarPlay has also received some love, with enhanced Apple Music integration -- adding the New and For You sections -- alongside better point of interest search. Drivers will now have access to a "Nearby" function that quickly identifies gas stations, parking, restaurants, coffee shops, and other frequently-requested points of interest with a single tap.
Apple surprisingly revealed iOS 9.3 earlier Monday, even before releasing iOS 9.2.1 to the public.
Comments
Both of these date back long before any of our great-grandparents were alive. I think we're stuck with the contradictions.
wait, what? id never heard of literally being used for figuratively until the recent wave of stupids. what data did you find to indicate otherwise?
At that that battle was lost long time ago, blue light is seen as cold (even if it is more energetic) while yellow lights are seen as warm.
This has to do how we see the world around us with our eyes, and not physics. People don't think blowtorch when they think of heat, they think of an open orangy flame.
Bluish colors are associated with winter, because that's what we see with our flawed eyes.
Warmth on earth rarely comes in a bluish color as seen by our eyes. With miss all that ultraviolet as things get hotter and hotter.
Things like this used to bother me a lot more than it does now. If you accept the fact that languages are not static and that they are constantly evolving, it becomes a little bit easier to stomach. But basically - if a large enough sampling of people misuse a word for a long enough period of time - our language will be updated so that their misuse actually becomes accepted use.
Contrary to what is insinuated in many article comments above, the societal terminology for color temperatures is not chosen arbitrarily, or for art reasons, and definately not for traditional or historical reasons. The artistic terminology follows from the societal language.
Here is an actual explanation for this situation…
Human language is formed out of associations, and the communication of these. An example of a common object that is warm is a wood fire, which is orange-red. A plate on the kitchen stove is also red when it's warm. Why then are the physicists saying that's cold? Actually they are not. What they are saying is that red light is emitted from colder objects than blue light. Remember, all objects emit light in a "window" of colors. Cold objects (yes, we are all thinking of the same definition of cold here) have their entire color window outside the visible colors, ie below red in the spectrum. When an object gets heated, this window will shift and enter the visible region from the red end of the spectrum. Hence, a fairly warm object glows red. As it gets even more heated, the color window will shift towards the orange, green and blue in the spectrum. If the object emits colors evenly across the entire visible spectrum it will appear white. Sometimes objects become so heated that they are white, but it doesn't happen very often in people's lives so it wont have a great influence on language. In even rarer situations, objects are heated som much that their color window is moving beyond the blue in the spectrum. Just before that, they will leave a visible tail of the color window in the blue. Hence, physicists are correct in claiming that this object is hotter than the red-glowing object. Most people don't even know about this last phenomenon however, so it will not be part of societal languages at all.
And then there are similar associations between to the color blue and things that are cold. Most of those associations are related to ice and snow which has a blue tint – especially if the blue sky is reflected in them (as mentioned by others above).
So you see, from a human language perspective that terminology is absolutely correct as well, because it follows the majority of shared associations among people as they are experienced. Unfortunately, we can't easily choose just one of these meanings. The reason, of course, is that we all come in contact with the "societal language" version first in our lives. And some individuals (cultures) never even get to the scientific explanation. We will have to cope with this particularly backward situation, just like we've done with quantum mechanics, relativity etc for a long time now. People's general believes are sometimes almost the opposite of what appears to be true, but it's stuck on that level because it takes too much time and effort to relearn. The scientific affect on redifining societal language seems to be on a plateau since a long time back. On the other hand, we export a lot of interesting new words from science and tech to society every year. So, I think we can bare with the not-so-techie people a while more. Don't you agree?
As far as the whole f.lux/night mode thing goes, I had been using the hack from reddit with triple click but had to turn it off because (a) it was too dark and (b) I was always inadvertently turning it on with my clumsy thumbs. If this works like f.lux on my Mac, I'll be one happy camper.
@maciekskontakt: Maybe take a photography class or two?
The Oxford English Dictionary was published as a sort of serials (think comic books, but far more boring) between 1884 and 1928, when its first full edition was finally published. It cited this usage in a 1903 serial that was later collected in the 1908 volume covering the letters L, M, and N. I do not believe that an earlier use in this context is known, but I would not be surprised if one existed. I don't have the full entry for the word "literally" in front of me. My memory is that it did not enter common use until the early 1700s, but I could be wrong about that.
The usage has been more-or-less continuous since 1769, as has the criticism that it is wrong. It is a fairly common introduction to the concept of prescriptivism versus descriptivism in linguistics. Prescriptivists say that there is a right way to use language, and using "literally" to mean figuratively is wrong. Descriptivists simply note that people use "literally" to mean figuratively. One of these is science, the other is not.
My point, though, is that the use of the word "literally" as an emphatic predates the United States of America. It is a very old usage.