Round up: The best free Steam games 2016

The best free PC games on Steam

The best free-to-play games on Steam

There's a tiny problem with PC gaming: once you've emptied your bank account on graphics cards, SSDs and luxurious 4K screens, it's likely you won't have much left in the way of funds for the games themselves. But never fear. Valve's excellent distribution platform, Steam, is packed with free gems to keep you entertained until pay day.

We've selected five of the best in arbitrary genres, with additional recommendations if our favourites have piqued your interest. You can always head over to the Steam store (store.steampowered.com) and check out the 'free to play' category for more. Or save a few pennies to invest in one of the bargains contained in the regular Steam sales. Happy playing!

Best free clicker game: Clicker Heroes

Got some free time on your hands? Let's do something about that...

Cookie Clicker has a lot to answer for. The utterly pointless web game that sucked almost as much productivity from the world's workers as Google's infamous Pac-Man doodle has spawned so many imitators that 'clicker' is now basically a genre of its own.

Clicker Heroes leads the way by hitting all the right notes: it's initially about clicking silly monsters to kill them, and like its inspiration it doesn't stay that way for long. Once you've bought and upgraded enough of its autoclicking heroes to the point where you're able to ascend (restart), you get additional powers, upgrade choices, a trip down the rabbit hole of mathematical min-maxing, and you're off to do it all again.

That doesn't sound like fun because, frankly, it isn't. What it is is compelling. Something to run on your second screen while you work. Clicker Heroes' repeated push sees you plough through its levels feeling noticeably stronger and tougher each time, and actually interacting with it is always completely optional. Yes, it stretches the definition of 'game', but it'll keep you involved for longer than many AAA titles.

See also: AdVenture Capitalist, Crusaders of the Lost Idols

Best free FPS: Team Fortress 2

The shooter that launched a whole genre, still growing after nine years

Game of the moment Overwatch would probably still be a twinkle in its developer's eye if Valve's Team Fortress 2 hadn't so excellently laid the groundwork for role-based multiplayer shooters. Forget the fact that it's now nearing its ninth birthday: TF2 remains a brilliant game, entirely free to get into with a thriving community and continued support to this day.

You start by picking your role: the monstrous sandwich-fan Heavy; the slightly sinister Medic; the cheeky bat-wielding Scout; the… you get the idea. Then you join a team and complete a goal – usually capturing territory or escorting a thing, hindering or destroying your opposition as you go. TF2's charm comes from its sense of humour, clever level design and frantic, tactical first-person shooting – it tends to be a lot more fun than many of its po-faced rivals.

Yes, certain content is trapped behind moderate paywalls, and you'll probably end up getting over-involved in making microtransactions for hats and other character upgrades. But we don't see TF2 going away any time soon, and we certainly don't see any reason not to give it a try.

See also: Warface, Dirty Bomb

Best free MOBA: Dota 2

A click-fest that's as serious or casual as you want it to be

How could we not pick Dota 2 for this spot? Valve's own Multiplayer Online Battle Arena consistently tops the charts of Steam's most played games, and you can get involved without paying a penny. That is as long as you're okay with sticking with a rotating roster of selectable characters and the sort of steep learning curve that's made it a multi-million-dollar e-sport. Oh, and the community. Put a step wrong and you'll hear about it.

On the surface, though, Dota isn't a difficult game to play. There's a whole lot to master – grasping the intricacies of individual characters' powers, for instance – but actually playing it is a case of joining one of two teams of five, heading into one of its many maps, picking one of (usually) three lanes and clicking like crazy.

There's no doubt that climbing the ladder of Dota can be a terribly long-winded and harrowing experience, but playing casually, especially if you're with the right friends, is just brilliant.

See also: Smite, BattleSouls

Best free MMO: WildStar

A superb free, fun alternative to World of Warcraft

Like many massively multiplayer games, WildStar began as a pay-to-play experience and, as user numbers diminished, dropped to free-to-play with microtransactions. That's the worrying news. The reality is much happier: WildStar didn't lose numbers because it was rubbish, but because that's what happens to MMOs in general. It's actually rather good, a riotously enjoyable comic sci-fi experience that's packed with charm, and those microtransactions are as optional as they come: everything in the cash shop can be earned through playing the game.

Perhaps the best thing about WildStar is its very real sense of community, bolstered by a super-neat building system which allows you to construct your own custom homestead. Or perhaps the best thing is the combat, fluid and skilful and just plain fun as it is. Or perhaps the best thing is the 2,000 hours of gameplay to lose yourself in. Or the fact that it almost feels like the early days of World of Warcraft. Or any number of other things.

Although its comic-book style might not sit too comfortably in the predominantly-fantasy world of MMOs, and your guild is probably going to need some convincing to move if you're already ensconced in one of its competitors, WildStar is worth your time.

See also: Marvel Heroes 2016, Ragnarok Online

Best free card game: Card Hunter

Take tactical gameplay from the tabletop to your desktop

Card gaming and tabletop gaming go hand in hand, but the means to gather a group of willing players around an actual dining table is not always within our grasp. Card Hunter doesn't offer quite the same experience as stocking up on sticky drinks and dusty crisps for a real get-together, but some might say it's better: a blend of humour, single-player progression, solid PVP and immense depth cradled in a cardboard shell, with no risk of smelly or obnoxious guests.

The tactical board-based combat is highly reminiscent of D&D and, while bits of it are virtually off-limits if you don't invest at least a bit of cash to grab appropriately meaty equipment, the initial few hours are highly enjoyable. By the time you're through that early burst, you may be in the mood to chuck in some currency anyway.

See also: HEX: Shards Of Fate, Ortus Regni

from blogger-2 http://ift.tt/29fio0T
via IFTTT

Microsoft's final Windows 10 nagware gets up close and personal

With its final reminder to try and persuade Windows 7/8.1 hold-outs to make use of their free upgrade to Windows 10 – an offer that expires at the end of this month – Microsoft has gone full-screen with its nag prompt.

Previously, the 'Get Windows 10' (GWX) nag pop-up has been limited to a small dialog box, albeit one that has appeared with annoying frequency and has been burdened by some controversial issues (for example, depending on their exact Windows Update settings, some folks have had the upgrade pushed through without being asked).

The new nag screen has the potential to annoy folks further, given that it isn't just a small box, but rather the reminder takes over your entire screen – albeit with an apology for interrupting your computer usage.

Sorry to interrupt…

The full-screen white text message, on a dark purple background, states: "Sorry to interrupt, but this is important. Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends July 29."

The blurb underneath reminds the user that Microsoft recommends upgrading to its newest OS, and that you can easily rollback to your old operating system if you decide that Windows 10 doesn't work for you within the first month.

Of course, it's theoretically easy to rollback – as ever with these sort of processes, your actual mileage may vary and there's no guarantee you won't encounter technical hitches when downgrading (or indeed upgrading to Windows 10 in the first place, depending on exactly what apps or hardware you're running and potential compatibility or driver issues).

The new nag screen offers you the option of upgrading now, or being reminded later, but at least in this final month of the freebie upgrade offer, Microsoft has also introduced a choice which states 'do not notify me again'. Click this and you won't get another reminder (that's an ability many users have been asking for all year).

One thing's for sure – all this GWX controversy will soon be over when the end of July rolls around.

Via: Express.co.uk

• Also check out: Should you upgrade to Windows 10?

from blogger-2 http://ift.tt/29qSM4O
via IFTTT

Round up: The best free Windows Media Player alternatives 2016

Download the best free media players

The best free media players

After 25 years of development, you might think Windows Media Player should have the power to handle all your video and audio needs. And yet, as you've probably noticed, it's still extremely limited, and won't even play some common file types without downloading extra components.

Downloading an alternative media player can put an end to file compatibility woes; the best packages support just about every format, and some can even convert them to something more widely used.

Problems with the video or audio file itself? Good media players can help there too, offering equalizers, compressors, color adjustments, video sharpening and a host of other tricks to improve playback.

If you like to customise every element of a program then you'll love a tool like VLC - our top pick - which supports multiple interfaces and allows you to configure all of them, right down to the finest detail, without becoming cumbersome to use.

1. VLC Media Player

Flexible, customizable and entirely free - the best media player around

VLC Media Player is a classic media player that plays from every source (files, discs, stream, webcams and other devices) and is entirely free. No ads, no spyware, no catches at all.

It's all very easy to use. Double-click just about any file and it'll play immediately, with all the core controls where you'd expect them to be.

Browsing the menus reveals all kinds of additional goodies that you won't find in Microsoft's player: special effects that enhance your audio and video files, custom bookmarks to save and recall your favorite playback moments, and even a module to batch convert media files into a more convenient format.

VLC Media Player is supremely configurable, too. The interface can be entirely redesigned with a host of optional skins (iPhone, PSP, OS X, Nintendo, QuickTime, Winamp, even Star Trek's fictional operating system LCARS), and experts can dig into low level details like video processing options, or customising any of the 100+ hotkeys.

VLC Media Player is also a available as a portable app to run from a USB stick.

There really is something here for everyone, which makes VLC our favorite free alternative to Windows Media Player. Read on to discover four more of the best media players, and why they're worth your consideration. What's your player of choice? Let us know in the comments below.

2. AIMP

A dedicated audio player for managing and controlling your music

All the top media players have a capable set of audio features, but opt for a specialist music player like AIMP and you'll get much, much more.

With support for over 30 audio formats and a host of internet radio streams, you'll be able to play just about anything, and the 32-bit audio processing and output support delivers the best possible quality for your system.

AIMP's configurable sound engine gives you great audio control. There's an 18-band equalizer, an array of effects (including reverb, flanger, chorus, pitch, tempo, echo, speed, bass, enhancer and voice remover), normalization, and support for DSP plug-ins (a format originally designed for Winamp). With so many features, it's closer to an audio editor than a simple media player.

AIMP's powerful media management tools also make it easy to keep your songs in order, with smart playlist tools and a tag editor that's better than some stand-alone equivalents.

Throw in a pile of extras including internet stream capture, audio conversion and a scheduler that enables you to use the program as an alarm clock, and you've got a truly remarkable player. All this functionality might seem intimidating, but spend an hour exploring and you'll begin to feel at home.

3. foobar2000

An intuitive audio player with plug-in support for extra features

Free and feature-packed, foobar2000 is a likeable audio player - simpler and more straightforward than AIMP, but still with plenty of music-playing power.

The configurable interface is a major plus. Launch the program and it presents you with a range of layouts, colors and playlist formats. Click an option and the interface updates immediately to show you the results.

Basic operations are straightforward, with just about everything working as you would expect. Point the program at your music folder and it'll build your library automatically. Then you can drag and drop files to play them, open individual files or folders, view tags and audio information, manage playlists and more.

Right-clicking various objects in foobar2000 reveals many more advanced features, including an 18-band equalizer, DSP plug-in support, automatic freedb-based file tagging, a file format converter, possible fixes for broken MP3s, and lots of low-level configurability for those who need it.

4. GOM Player

A very capable media player, but watch out for the adware

GOM Player might not make a the best first impression. You need to watch for adware during setup (clear the relevant checkboxes to avoid it), and more ads are displayed in the player window when you open the program.

Explore the interface, though, and GOM Player begins to get interesting. As well as the usual playback buttons, there are quick controls to apply video and audio effects, change playback speed, tweak subtitles, take screenshots, create and manage playlists, make the player window transparent, keep it always on top, and more.

More unusual (but very welcome) features include the ability to open YouTube URLs and play 360-degree VR videos. A well-designed interface walks you through most of this. Click buttons, explore, and you'll be familiar with the basics in a few minutes.

There are also lots of expert-level power; the 'Playback' right-click menu helps you set up bookmarks, looping, voice adjustment, repeat points, frame skipping and more.

5. PotPlayer

A great player that sadly hides some of its impressive features

After a quick, easy and adware-free installation, PotPlayer opens with a simple, stripped-back interface. Drag and drop a file in just almost any format (there's even 3D video support) and playback starts immediately.

It's just as easy to play entire folders, DVDs or Blu-rays (discs or files), FTP/ WebDAV/ HTTP links, and input from webcams and other devices.

You can save whatever you're viewing as a Favorite and bookmark the best scenes, making it simple to recall them later.

Potplayer gives you remarkably granular control over your media. The Video menu alone has options to sharpen, de-noise, rotate or tweak picture levels, resize, rotate or crop, adjust brightness, contrast, hue and saturation, configure 3D playback, capture and record video, and much, much more.

This power does bring some complexity, but most of the advanced features are kept out of the way. Learn the bits you need, like pressing [W] or [E] to increase/ decrease brightness, and you can forget about everything else.

from blogger-2 http://ift.tt/1U5QuHe
via IFTTT

Updated: iOS 9 features - updated for iOS 9.3

iOS 9: iOS 9.3, Siri, design and Apple Maps

• Update: iOS 9 has updated to iOS 9.3, with the current version, iOS 9.3.2 with the iOS 9.3.3 beta coming any day. It's the last stopgap before iOS 10, which launches in public beta form later this month with even more changes.

iOS 9 released back in September of last year and it was instantly better than iOS 8, thanks to new features that make the iPhone and iPad software easier to use.

Siri is smarter, Apple Maps has transit directions and the notifications drop-down menu is now sorted chronologically (and, thus, logically). Best of all, every device that works with iOS 8 works with iOS 9.

It improved even further in March with the rollout of iOS 9.3. The new software rolled out alongside the smaller iPad Pro 9.7 and even tinier 4-inch iPhone SE. iOS 9.3.3 is the latest version in that release.

iPads benefit the most from this current operating system update. New iPad multitasking functionality, especially for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro, finally fulfills the tablet's promise of productivity on the go.

While iOS 9 and even iOS 9.3.3 lack key Android N features, there's a lot to like about it on the iPad and phones like iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. It's enough to tide us over until iOS 10.

• Check out our collection of guides on how to use iOS 9

iOS 9.3 update and iOS 9.4 possibilities

iOS 9.3 is Apple's first major mid-cycle update with exciting new features to highlight, so you'll actually really want to upgrade to the newest software version. It's now up to iOS 9.3.2 in final build form and iOS 9.3.3 beta, both with minor tweaks.

The iOS 9.3 update contrasts with what we've seen before: iOS 9.1 added new emojis, iOS 9.2 tweaked Apple Music and Apple News and iOS 9.2.1 just fixed bugs. Nothing exciting. iOS 9.3 is different.

Specifically, the new software debuts Night Shift, which automatically tints your iPhone and iPad with warmer colors. Bright blue light can keep you up at night, studies have shown.

Night Shift uses the time and geolocation to determine the sunset and the display returns to normal in the morning. It's a feature we've seen from third-party apps like f.lux on Mac, but a first directly from Apple.

• Interested? Here's how to download iOS 9.3 right now

Educators wielding iPads can dive into a new classroom app and multi-student login. Passing an iPad around the class can let students save their work to individual profiles and pick up where they left off.

Beyond that, Notes can be locked behind Touch ID for additional security, and the Apple News and Apple Health apps have been tweaked with minor design and content changes.

Specifically for the US, Verizon customers without a strong signal can now switch on Wi-Fi calling, just in case the usually reliable carrier doesn't have a good signal while you're in the range of a router.

iOS 9.3.1, iOS 9.3.2 and iOS 9.3.3 all took care of behind-the-scenes issues with iOS 9.3. One front-facing feature change to the latest software is the ability to run Night Shift and Low-Power mode at the same time.

That said, I don't expect there to be an iOS 9.4, as iOS 10 is already in beta. However, if Apple finds more to change about its iPhone and iPad software between now and September, iOS 9.4 could be a quick fix.

iOS 9.1

The first small update Apple brought to its mobile operating system was iOS 9.1. Its headline feature? 150 new emoji, brought about through its support of Unicode 8, so you can more easily express the fact that you're painting your nails or playing at detective.

The update also added a trio of new wallpapers, but the most significant additions are the least visible ones, as iOS 9.1 fixes a number of bugs, improves general stability and boosts the performance of multitasking, the Calendar, Game Center and Mail.

iOS 9 1970 glitch

Don't reset your iPhone date back to January 1, 1970. Doing so can brick your iPhone upon resetting it, requiring a visit to the Apple Store for some major surgery.

It's an iOS glitch affects all newer iPhones running iOS 9, and it's thought to happen because the phone recognizes this date as a negative time value. Plus, Apple didn't even exist back then, so you've sent it back in time before it even existed.

The ripple in the space-time continuum affects phones and tablets running a 64-bit chip such as the Apple's A7, A8, A8X, A9 and A9X processors.

Everything from the new iPad Pro, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus to the older iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and iPhone 5S. For once, iPhone 5 users are smiling.

iOS 9 compatibility and download size

iOS 9 isn't about a fresh coat of paint like iOS 7 was, it's about rust-proofing glitchy software that launched alongside iOS 8 in 2014. Everything is designed to run smoother, especially with the update to iOS 9.3.3, and it does.

There are fewer app crashes and hard restarts required compared to when iOS 8 first came out. I've experienced no white screen of death problems so far, just occasional design flaws.

Even better, iOS 9 works with devices as old as iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Apple didn't axe any old phones or tablets from its compatibility list in the transition to the new operating system. It is, however, removing them from the compatibility list in the iOS 10 update. So long, 30-pin-dock devices.

It was also a relief to see that this free update is a 1.4GB file and doesn't require the 4.7GB of free space to install on your tiny, 16GB devices.

Siri and search

The most obvious iOS 9 change involves Siri and spotlight search. Sliding to the left-most menu reveals a robust list of "Siri Suggestions," filled with your most recent contacts and apps.

It provides quick access to your four most recent contacts and four most recent apps. There's a "show more" and "show less" toggle to increase that to the eight most recent. Sadly, you can't unpin and disallow certain apps from showing up before your parents see you're on Tinder.

Apple Maps gets some attention here, too. "Nearby" shortcuts are a fast way of finding Parking, Restaurants, Gas Stations and even Desserts, which all link to a Yelp review-filled Maps menu. In true Apple fashion, there's no customization or option to re-sort which shortcuts come first.

iOS 9 concludes this Siri-run search menu with news snippets from sources like the New York Times and CNN. Strangely, there are four headlines, but if you hit the rather stingy "Show More" text, it reveals a total of five. A glitch to be solved in the future, perhaps?

The news presentation here isn't as flashy as Samsung's Flipboard-based menu, which is also the leftmost Android menu on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Apple saves the magazine-style stories for its new iOS 9 News app.

Holding down the iPhone or iPad home button to issue normal Siri commands leads to smarter answers. I randomly asked "Bring up photos from May 28, 2015" and Siri immediately opened the pictures I took at Google IO on that date.

I still find Google Now to be more advanced overall, but this same phrase on an Android just leads to my Samsung Galaxy S6 Active opening up random web results. That... doesn't really help, Google. Apple is catching up and boasts that Siri is 40% faster and 40% more accurate. It shows.

Notifications, recent and photo scrubbing

Smaller iOS 9 menu changes (which are also present in iOS 9.3) have solved big pet peeves I've had with iOS 8, one of which I felt Apple should just steal from Android.

Notifications are now sorted chronologically instead of illogically grouped by app. This was always a problem when I accidentally put my finger on the Touch ID home button, forever sending all time-sorted lockscreen notifications into the app-sorted notifications menu. Now they all reside in the swipe-down-from-the-top menu once the phone is open.

Apple re-stylized its Recent menu, which is the one you see when double pressing in the Home button. It now sports a larger Cover Flow format, rather than its former zoomed out look.

The more important change to the Recent menu is that there's a shortcut icon tucked away at the bottom for Continuity (an app open your nearby Mac, iPad, etc) and location-based apps (if you're at a store like Starbucks and have the app installed).

Previously, these icons were stuck on bottom left corner of the lockscreen, which meant locking your phone just to press the wake button again to access the lock screen shortcut. Now it's available in two spots, whether or not your phone is in a locked state.

Finally, flipping through the default Photos app is less of a hazard, because there's a mini slideshow at the the bottom of the app. It's the fastest way to scrub through photos and reduces the chance you'll bring up that embarrassing picture while showing someone other photos.

Apple Maps

iOS 9 is the company's big push to improve Apple Maps, and it does just that... to some extent. Namely, this comes through with long-overdue public transit directions.

Routes for buses, trains, subways and even ferries are here, and I put it to the test on the New York City subway while navigating Manhattan. I survived this Apple Maps expedition without booting up Google Maps.

Besides New York City, transit directions are available in Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto and Washington D.C. About 300 cities in China, including Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai, are also getting the transit treatment.

Does it fix everything? No. The problem with Apple Maps wasn't just its lack of transit directions or too-often wrong routes, it was the fact that the app's design just couldn't compete with Google Maps. That's still the case.

Google is busy adding ridiculously minute details, like chalking out your vacation dates to the map overtop of your hotel. Apple's cumbersome app won't let you finger ahead to see the next directions. It just springs you back into place. I can go from Los Angeles to London on Google Maps while in the middle of turn-by-turn directions if I wanted to. With Apple Maps, I can't look ahead one block.

While I appreciate its new Nearby feature that lets you discover stops along the way, Apple Maps' foundation is a little too flawed for me to give up on Google Maps just yet. It doesn't matter if Siri insists on opening up Maps whenever I ask for direction by voice.

iOS 9: Multitasking, keyboard and Notes

iOS 9 is very much an iPad-focused update, with several of the most exciting new features only available on Apple's 7.9-inch, 9.7-inch and 12.9 tablets.

Multitasking

True multitasking finally has come to the newer Retina-class slates: the iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 3 and iPad mini 2. The newer iPad Pro 12.9 and iPad Pro 9.7 make even better use of this feature out of the gate. Multitasking may help Apple's sluggish tablet sales among enterprise users.

Slide Out opens a second app from the left, working a lot like the drag-from-the-bottom Command Center gesture, and gives it about a third of the screen. That's been enough space to check my email while already surfing the web, or to respond to iMessages while in the middle of writing a certain iOS 9 review in a Google Doc.

While the main portion of the iPad screen can consist of any app, the one-third panel is limited to Apple's app suite of 19 apps. I get it. It's clearly because the apps here are tweaked ever so slightly to fit the abnormal layout, but it's still disappointing.

I should also note that while Mail, Reminders, Notes and Photos are useful in this Slide Out view, it's hard to understand why Apple's 19 multitasking apps includes Tips and Feedback. (Actually, scratch that, I may use that last one right now.)

Picture-in-Picture is another multitasking mode, one that's focused on continuing to allow you to play videos and stream FaceTime calls while still using the tablet.

It puts the video in the corner of the home screen as soon as you hit the home button, and the small window can be resized and dragged around while you work in other apps. This works fine for all videos playing in Safari, just don't expect it to work in the native YouTube app.

Split View is the closest thing there is to computer-grade multitasking on a tablet running iOS 9 or iOS 9.3, and it's only available on the iPad Air 2, iPad Pro 9.7 and iPad Pro 12.9. It converts the small Slide Out panel into two apps running side by side with equal space. Both are active, with full multitouch support.

All three multitasking modes give the iPad a much-needed productivity boost and they right the wrongs of Apple's "multitasking" iOS 4 announcement, which ended up being apps kind-of, sort-of running in the background.

All of this is limited to the iPad. As much as you may want it on a phone in exchange for lugging around that 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone 6S Plus, there's no such multitasking in the iOS 9 update for Apple's phablets.

New keyboard

The iPad takes the lead here, too, but there are still important changes that makes the iPhone's QuickType keyboard even better in iOS 9 and iOS 9.3.

First, it's easier to tell the difference between capital letters and non-capital letters, thanks to the new San Francisco font type. I no longer have to look at the shift key to try to determine whether it's on or off.

Second, Apple turned off the pop up animation for every key press. You can still turn it on in the settings menu by following Settings> General > Keyboards and checking off "Character Preview." However, I found it much less of a distraction without it on.

The iPad gets the most out of the keyboard changes with new shortcuts that flank the suggestion word bar at the top. They depend on the app, but I found cut, copy and paste almost always appear on the left, and sometimes undo and redo, too. Bold, italics, underline and attachment shortcuts hog the right side of the bar and are sometimes joined by up and down arrows.

Previously, this was unused space, and now it's put to good use. I really wanted iOS 9 to add right and left arrow keys in this space, but Apple went in another direction. It made the entire keyboard a trackpad whenever two fingers touch down on the display.

It turns off the keyboard and lets you move the cursor all around without your finger having to be over the top of it (read: in the way of it). This works especially well when trying to highlight text right before hitting that copy and paste shortcut.

Notes

Notes has never been the most compelling app, but Apple's iOS 9 update makes it less of an Evernote-afterthought with a few new tricks.

I was able to add checklist icons for a quick and simple to-do list and include photos thanks to a new attachment icon in the shortcut bar. Maps and URLs can be included, too, but the need for these two tools isn't as pressing in such a "jot something down" app.

Right next to the little camera attachment icon is a squiggly line, which of course means I could draw a sketch by using my finger. It's complete with different pen sizes and colors.

iOS 9's enhanced Notes app isn't enough to drop my subscription to the more feature-packed and easily searchable Evernote, but it's an important step forward for Apple's ecosystem loyalists.

Apple News, Wallet and Verdict

Apple is giving two of its existing pre-installed apps a complete overhaul and a name change in iOS 9, and both are improvements over the old way of doing things.

Newsstand has been revamped as Apple News, or just News, and it gives us a free, magazine-styled layout. Passbook has become Wallet, and expands instead of changes the idea behind it.

Apple News

Really, you should get all of your news straight from TechRadar, but if you need to learn about other events happening in the world, Apple has a News app within iOS 9 and iOS 9.3, available in the US, UK and Australia.

It's a slick-looking news aggregator, but, truthfully, it's not the most ground-breaking app design because it does exactly what Flipboard does: lays out RSS content in a magazine-style format.

It collects stories from publications and topics I favorite, then does its best to deliver a rich newsfeed I actually care about. It has two things going for it over traditional Safari browsing: it's fast and it keeps my personalized data separate from my Apple ID.

Wallet

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users have been waving their phones in front of NFC stations to pay for stuff in the US since October 2014, and as of 2015, they've been doing it throughout the UK, Canada and Australia. In 2016, China, Singapore and Spain received Apple Pay.

iOS 9 further expands Apple Pay by adding gift and loyalty cards, therefore the app that contains it, Passbook, is being renamed Wallet. Goodbye, cumbersome QR codes that few retailers even used.

Only, these loyalty cards haven't been widely implemented at stores. The first retailer, Kohl's, just turned on its rewards system through Apple Pay in May, eight months after iOS 9 launched.

Other retailers like Whole Foods, Walgreens and JCPenney are promising to launch Wallet-integrated app updates "soon." Our loyalty is running out for this overdue feature.

The Wallet new app comes with a handy trick: double pressing in the home button on a locked iPhone (but not an iPad) and it brings up the Apple Pay menu.

It's so tempting to hide the Wallet app in a folder. There's no reason to keep it on the home screen until you really need it. But it's nice to have quick access to it the few, precise times you actually do need to pull something out of your "Wallet."

With loyalty cards launching, shortcuts like this are going to become even more important. I just wish Apple devised a way to access a flight boarding pass when my iPhone screen isn't locked.

I have to lock my always-in-use device in an airport line, then press the lock button again to wake it in order to access the lockscreen notification. Apple Watch does it correctly with a shortcut that always rests in the notification dropdown right before a flight. iOS 10 changes promise to improve this.

Verdict

iOS 9 is well worth downloading. The keyboard is easier to use, Siri suggestions make menu navigation faster, notifications are rightly sorted by time and, on the iPad, there's actual multitasking.

Not everything that's new is perfect or worthwhile. Apple Maps still needs a lot of design work, Apple News is a clone and the same old Apple ecosystem problems persist. You still can't delete useless pre-installed apps (and now we know why) and Siri still loves opening Safari and Maps, even if you're loyal to Chrome and Gmail.

Even with all of the iPad advancements, you won't find multiple accounts like you would on Android, and good luck switching to Google's operating system. Apple makes it tough to leave iMessages, as group conversations fall apart when you switch to those ugly green bubbles your Apple-loving friends hate.

• Here's how to download iOS 9.3 on your iPhone or iPad right now

That said, iOS 9 is an incremental advancement over iOS 8, which is exactly what Google has done in the transition from Android 5.0 Lollipop to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Much of it is behind the scenes.

But we're already seeing the positive effects of the update, and it's got even smoother and more robust with the launch of iOS 9.3. With mid-cycle features like Nift Shift tiding us over to iOS 10, it should be enough to rival Android N in the coming weeks.

• Here's our in-depth Apple Watch review

from blogger-2 http://ift.tt/1X2vyoJ
via IFTTT