iOS 9: An RSS Reader, Not Much More

iOS 9 has been talked about all year, and now it’s finally here. From the start, rumors were that this installment of Apple’s mobile operating system wouldn’t be packed with new features. It turns out those early rumors were accurate.

For the most part, iOS 9 is just a refined version of iOS 8. However, the refinements are not that easily noticed for the most part. If you take a stroll over to the music app, it remains a strange, hard-to-navigate mess.

One of the more obvious changes is the new font. iOS 9 sports an entirely new system font. The change is most noticeable when using the keyboard.

Most of the improvements probably go beyond what you can see. As the reports earlier this year made clear, iOS 9 was to be focused on improving stability and unity, not new features.

While there are a lot of changes in iOS 9, not all of them are really worth mentioning. I’ll just be talking about the ones that are what I consider important.

One really useful feature is the new battery saving mode. Though it may not be as effective as the battery saving mode on the Galaxy S6, it’s still a great feature. For those of you who are always running out of battery, this new tool is a lifesaver. To turn on the battery saving mode, go to Settings>Battery>Low Power Mode.

The big new feature of iOS 9 is News. The News app gathers news from outlets that sign up for the iCloud News Publisher program. It’s a nice rss reader, but it lacks any real improvements on the rss reader app model that companies like Feedly and Digg have already implemented for some time.

So, News may be a pretty good rss reader. In fact, it’s a really good one, but it’s nothing ground-breaking. Besides the new app, there’s really not that much that separates iOS 9 from iOS 8.

One change in iOS 9 is causing quite a stir. Publishers and writers the world over are angry with Apple for the new ad-blocking capability in iOS. This year alone, an estimated $10 billion in ad revenue is expected to be kept from publishers due to ad-blockers. That estimate was before the launch of iOS 9 with it’s ad-blocking friendly features.

 

[Photo via Apple]