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New iOS 9 Features Hinted Only at WWDC

WWDC iOS 9
It was clear during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco that Apple wants to make the iPad more enterprise-friendly with multitasking improvements as well as text management. The upshot, Apple is pitching the iPad as more of a laptop replacement.

The big question is whether the iOS 9, the latest version of its mobile operating system, will set the stage for an iPad Pro designed for the enterprise. Another question: what new tweaks and improvements will be waiting for users when iOS 9 finally ships?

According to Apple, the iPad Air 2 will get all of the new features - including split screen view, picture in picture as well as the text management. Multitasking has been something trumpeted by Samsung in its tablets for years. However, iOS 9's overall focus will be on creating a sturdier operating system that can work on all possible devices.

Let's take a look at the 2015 version, which angled largely around the benefits developers will notice, and see what Apple has been working on for the past year.

Flyover and Walkthrough
Apple discussed new Maps features like like public transit directions, but potentially, there's an even richer experience users can expect when iOS 9 ships this fall. Certain cities already have a "flyover" view that give an automated, bird's-eye view of a city's landscape, but broadening that feature — not to mention looking inside certain buildings and structures — would be a flashy and potentially useful update.

Search Extensibility
Senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi briefly touched on the fact that search flexibility is going to allow searches in iOS to utilize data deep within an app, and even launch into the hierarchy of a given app to act upon the search results. It's one way Apple wants to combat Google Now with what it calls a "proactive assistant". There's a tremendous amount of potential here and over the coming week, developers will no doubt hear more about how to take advantage of it.

Third-Party Notifications and Notification Actions
Third-party notifications for iOS have existed for quite some time, but they have continued to lag behind the rich feature set offered by Android. And that lack of granularity for many third-party notifications is amplified with the Apple Watch. Apple has plenty of room for improvement on both of these fronts, and any additional functionality will be most welcome.

Object-Oriented Contacts
In iOS 9, the operating system will be able to cross-reference data from various sources when you receive a call. That means it can do things like suggest who may be calling you when an unknown number dials your phone. An object-oriented Contact app will allow greater interoperability between the operating system — and therefore other iOS apps and services — than the current version.

App Thinning
On stage, Apple touted that iOS 9's new architecture allows the update to be delivered in a much smaller download than previous versions. The thinning of actual apps could also be a huge boon for those with limited storage space on their devices. It will likely allow developers to build their app packages with just the essential code and libraries needed to guarantee functionality. That would remove some of the legacy cruft that could fatten up an otherwise economically coded app.
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