Friday, April 7, 2017

iOS 11 release date, news and rumors

Update: The iOS 11 release date is expected to be in September, but the official features are historically unveiled in the summer at Apple's WWDC 2017 keynote. That's happening on June 5 in San Jose. Plus there's a rumor Siri may learn your habits.

Apple's iOS 11 update marks the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, and it's poised to grace a completely redesigned iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

The iOS 11 release date therefore has tremendous hype surrounding it, and we should see the first iOS 11 features this summer in beta form.

Apple's still busy refining iOS 10 with the most recent iOS 10.3 update, but we're already looking forward to the iOS 11 Developer Preview at WWDC 2017.

Here's all the iOS 11 news and rumors that we've found, along with features that we hope are at the top of Apple’s priorities list.

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? The next version of iOS
  • When is it out? Likely June 5 announcement and September launch
  • What will it cost? Nothing!

iOS 11 release date

The official iOS 11 release date is likely mid-September, along with an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, according to Apple's scheduling history.

However, we expect to see iOS 11 unveiled at WWDC  on June 5, 2017 at Apple's big keynote in San Jose. That's when we believe Apple will preview the first iOS features.

Just don't expect iOS 11 to be finished by then. With betas (including a public one) there are several iterations over the course of three months.

Again, this is all based on past iOS releases rather than any news or rumors, but there’s no reason to think Apple will change its rock-solid schedule.

iOS 11 news and rumors

The main rumor for iOS 11 is we'll see a new version of Siri that can learn your habits and change how it treats you depending on what you've done in the past.

It should mean that Siri will be even faster at answering your questions as it can anticipate how you'd act. The source that revealed this hasn't been verified, but there are also some patents from Apple that suggest this is where the latest iPhone software will head.

One thing we’re expecting to see soon from iOS is a ‘Dark Mode’, which would make backgrounds black, so you don’t strain your eyes when using an iOS device at night or in other dim environments.

The real question is whether Dark Mode will arrive with iOS 11, or as part of an iOS 10 update, as resources for the feature have already been found within iOS 10, so it’s probably something that Apple plans to add imminently.

Of course, there’s already a Night Shift mode, but that’s a bit different, as it reduces the amount of blue light rather than making the display darker.

Apple is also said to be working on a new video sharing and editing app, similar to Snapchat. Supposedly this would include filters and the ability to draw on videos, and it may launch as a standalone app, rather than as an update to the camera app.

This wouldn’t necessarily be a part of iOS 11, but Apple is supposedly shooting for a 2017 launch, so it’s possible.

Apple is also apparently working on enhanced social features, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg.

The company's tipped to make sharing and connectivity with contacts a system-wide feature as well, and may consolidate communications, so you can see all your SMS messages, emails and social network interactions with a given person on a single screen.

What we want to see

We don’t know much about iOS 11 yet, but we know what we want from it. Check out our wish list below and let us know if there’s anything you really want to see.

1. Customizable Control Center 

Control Center is a handy shortcut to a number of toggles, but it’s not customizable, meaning that for certain options, such as music controls, you must swipe to the second tab – an annoying extra step for anyone who listens to a lot of music on their device.

Worse, some actions, such as GPS, don’t have Control Center toggles at all, so we’d like to see the ability to customize both what options are displayed and which tab they appear on.

2. Always-on display 

Samsung impressed us with the always-on display of phones like the Galaxy S7 – giving you a constant clock and a window onto your notifications, and we’d like to see a similar option built into iOS 11.

Raise to wake makes it quicker than ever to view the lock screen, but if we just want to check the time we'd rather not have to even raise the phone, and an always-on display would be a solution.

3. Home screen widgets

Apple’s lock screen widgets are handy, and help stop the home screen getting too cluttered, but we’d still like the option to put widgets on our home screens.

It’s not just about having quick access to apps and information, but also about customizing devices to make them our own, whether that means having a big custom clock and weather forecast on our main home screen, an overview of upcoming calendar events, or whatever else.

4. Smarter Siri

Siri is getting better all the time, but there’s still room for improvement, especially as in many ways Google Assistant has it beat.

We’d especially like to see improvements to Siri’s context awareness – so for example reliably being able to answer follow-up questions without you having to clarify the subject again.

5. Grouped notifications

Everyone likes to be loved, and there's nothing better than your WhatsApp blowing up - until that is, you take a gander at your lock screen or notification bar. 

Currently, iOS seems unable to group messages from the same contact, or message group, together, giving you an almost never-ending stream of notifications. 

Come on Apple, give us "19 new messages from 2 chats" and the ability to expand to see more if we so desire. Pleeaassssseeeeee.

6. Clear all background apps

Being able to hop quickly between different apps is handy, but sometimes we like to clean up the multi-tasking panel and start fresh. Thing is, on iOS 10 that involves swiping each individual app to close it.

For iOS 11 we'd love to have a "clear all" option, allowing us to shut all the background apps with a simple tap of an icon.

7. Easy video resolution changes

iOS is often thought of as simple and intuitive, and for the most part it is, but glaring usability issues sometimes emerge, and one of those is the inability to change video resolution from the camera app.

Instead you have to dig down into the main settings screen, which takes time, isn’t intuitive at all and could leave some users unaware that it’s even an option.

This should be an easy fix, so hopefully with iOS 11 Apple will add a video resolution toggle to the camera app itself.

8. Improved Mail app

Apple's Mail app got a bit of love in the iOS 10 upgrade, but the new look isn't overly slick. Scrolling through an email conversation feels clunky, and rival apps such as Gmail feel better put together overall.

In iOS 11 we'd like to see a cleaner, slicker and more user friendly Mail app, and if Apple wants to take a few pointers from Google's Gmail offering we won't complain.

  • After a new tablet? The iPad Pro 2 could be coming soon


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