AppleInsider Staff
This week's launch of iOS 9 brings a slew of small but important new features for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. They include an all-new app for viewing iCloud Drive content, support for more complex six-digit passcodes, and a series of tweaks and improvements.
iCloud Drive app
Apple has broken out iCloud storage into its own app with iOS 9, complete with a folder interface and granular file browsing options.
As seen above, the iCloud Drive app serves as a quick access portal to iPhone and iPad users' cloud-based storage. From here folders, files and other data can be sorted, deleted, downloaded for viewing and sent to Share Sheets. Search is restricted to filenames.
6-digit passcode
Building on existing encryption and personal data protection protocols like Activation Lock, two-factor authentication and iCloud encryption, iOS 9 takes things a step further with six-digit passcode support.
Since the inception of iPhone, users have been able to lock their device with a four-digit PIN code or alphanumeric password. More recent advances like Touch ID and onboard secure enclave technology offered even better protection, but brute force attacks are still an outside threat.
Six-digit passcodes can still be thwarted, of course, but adding those two extra digits make cracking the code exponentially more difficult.
Low Power Mode
Seen in the screenshot below, the new low power mode lets iPhone power users conserve juice when their battery is running low. This is especially helpful as Apple tries to strike a balance between thin iPhone designs and consumer demand for powerful, more capable portables.
When in low power mode, email pushes are deactivated, background app processes and downloads disabled and UI motion and brightness reduced. In some cases, data connection speeds are also throttled.
The familiar battery icon in the top right corner turns yellow when low power mode is active.
Shift button fix
Since Apple switched to a "flat" iOS design, users have constantly complained that it's difficult to determine when the soft keyboard's shift key is active. When the shift key is depressed in iOS 9, keyboard characters switch from upper to lower case, or vice versa, meaning users no longer have to decipher the confusing white-on-gray and black-on-white visual cues.
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
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Wesley Hilliard
95 Comments
So how exactly does Proactive work? If everything is local to the device and nothing is tied to your Apple ID is it possible for this to have cross device support? And what happens when you upgrade your device? Does all that learning have to be redone? I'm a little perplexed as to why Apple is so opposed to having this in the Cloud. Are we not supposed to trust that iCloud is private and secure?
So how exactly does Proactive work? If everything is local to the device and nothing is tied to your Apple ID is it possible for this to have cross device support? And what happens when you upgrade your device? Does all that learning have to be redone? I'm a little perplexed as to why Apple is so opposed to having this in the Cloud. Are we not supposed to trust that iCloud is private and secure?
A few days ago you were bitching about iAds and how those compromise privacy. Now, you're bitching about the opposite. Which is it?
If you use "Low Power Mode" animated wallpapers will be disabled?
Are there ANY enabled???
[quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/186654/first-look-ios-9s-icloud-drive-app-6-digit-passcode-shift-button-fix-and-more#post_2733089"]So how exactly does Proactive work? If everything is local to the device and nothing is tied to your Apple ID is it possible for this to have cross device support? And what happens when you upgrade your device? Does all that learning have to be redone? I'm a little perplexed as to why Apple is so opposed to having this in the Cloud. Are we not supposed to trust that iCloud is private and secure?[/quote] I'd assume it works the same as iCloud Keychain, which IIRC only stores data on-device. Yet it still synchs: data is passed to your other devices, without being stored by Apple. So if you upgrade your ONLY Apple device, and get rid of the old one before synching the new one, I suppose you might have to start over. But most people won't get rid of their old phone until they have a new one. As to why it's better not to track you on Apple's (or anyone's) servers: that way there's nothing there to be abused, sold, stolen, hacked, cracked, or illegally collected by the government, and no future change of policy or technology can compromise that. In short, it's one more very strong level of protection, and that's always a good thing. And it's a level Google can't offer, because their income depends on having your data centrally stored and ready to mine. The confusion will lessen in the weeks ahead as details emerge.
I'm glad for the keyboard character case shifting, I've always felt that was a surprising omission by Apple. It was one advantage Android had over iOS. The introduction of the iCloud app seems to be Apple reverting to how cloud storage was handled with Mobile Me. It's amazing how many companies are offering storage.