iOS 9 Making Things Easier

ByDon

I have been playing with the beta of iOS 9 for some time and I have already gotten so used to some of the new features that I no longer consider them new. But for most people these improvements will be a pleasant surprise. I definitely encourage you to download iOS 9 so you can check out some of them! Here are some of my favorites for the iPhone. We will cover the iPad and iOS 9 next week.

Multitasking – the App Switcher

You still double click the home button to access the App switcher but it has changed. The screens of open apps are shown in large size and you scroll right to left in order of most recently used. On the bottom of the screen you will see an improved Handoff indicator. It is a thin tab that you pull upwards to open the active Handoff screen.

Go Back to App

If you click on a Notification or a link from an email or Safari and it opens a new window for the new app you can now quickly go back to the previous app. The “go back” button will only be there for about a minute before it vanishes but if you just want to check something out you can quickly go back to where you were.

Folders for Photo App

iOS 9 has new folders or albums for selfies and screenshots within the Photos app. The Selfies folder is basically all the pictures taken with the front-facing camera while the screen shots folder log all the screen captures you do by holding down the home button and clicking the power button.

Low Power Mode

Running low on juice and no convenient charger? iOS 9 introduces Low Power Mode. This power saving mode switches off some of the battery-draining features such as visual effects, background app refresh, automatic downloads and email refresh. You can switch to Low Power Mode in the Battery screen of settings or once you reach about 10% you will be asked whether you want to go into Low Power Mode. Once you plug your phone in you it reverts to regular mode.

News App

Apple has introduced their News App which is pre-installed. You can customize it from their variety of feeds and subscribe to stories from a variety of sources. I have found that News is more useful to me than many of the other news apps that I have used so it has a prominent place on my home screen.

Searching

Swipe to the left from the home screen and you get to the search screen. Spotlight which uses Siri now can answer a wider variety of questions. It interprets your plain english typing. You can do currency conversions, look up sports scores, do simple math, etc right there. Even without typing you can see other listings. These are the “proactive” Siri suggestions where Apple tries contextually to find you some relevant information.

There is lots more to discover with iOS 9 and plenty that is “under the hood” to improve speed and performance. You are going to love it!

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  • Grace and I are having nightly “discussions” as we try to clean up the house for rental while we spend our winter in Key West. It is a battle between the need to “purge” and my proclivity to be a pack rat. It is a drawer a night and I just cannot throw away that Apple remote for a 1st generation Apple TV or the USB dial-up modem but Grace has a good point – when am I EVER going to use those?

    Lots of chores this weekend but I know I will sneak out on the bike for a bit as the weather is supposed to cooperate. Have a wonderful weekend and thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Dean, Mike, Scott_

  • Apple Knows Power Efficiency

    Long-time Kibbles readers might know that I’m kind of an electricity/power/engineering buff. I’ve written articles for Kibbles before about “*solar power*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb872/, batteries and other “*power generation*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles/kb870/ techniques. It’s easy to focus on power generation because it’s flashy, techy, and seems like the go-to place if you’re trying to use power that’s greener. We often forget about the less sexy side of the electricity use cycle: consumption.

    Fortunately, Apple hasn’t forgotten about the consumption side. When everyone else was drooling over the multitasking, Siri, and app improvements in iOS 9, I was combing over the notes about improved battery life (by 1 whole hour!) and low power modes. We all seem to have a good understanding and appreciation of power consumption on our battery-based devices because it means we can use them for longer without being interrupted for charging. That’s a good thing because with iOS 9 providing even more capability we’ll probably be using them for longer.

    What you may not know though is that Apple’s entire product line strives to be power efficient. One of the big selling points of the Macbook Air over the 13″ Macbook Pro for me was the lightness and extremely low power consumption. I hoped to be able to run and charge it using my small 50-watt PV power station. I can happily report that thanks to the efficiency and low power consumption, I am able to do that for most of the year.

    For you, dear Kibbles readers, I have taken to our showroom with a notepad and my “*Kill-a-Watt*”:http://www.p3international.com/products/p4400.html meter to report some other power consumption readings of various Apple devices that I don’t own personally.

    Coming in at the very lowest end are the iPhones and iPads. My iPad Air (first generation) charges effortlessly with my power station. The iPads use a 10-watt plug which basically means it’ll deliver up to 10 watts to the device (5 volts at 2 amps DC in the case of USB powered tablets). The AC to DC conversion is very efficient and can be virtually discounted from calculations. A 10-watt charger will never draw more than a little over 10 watts from the wall.

    Next up we have the new 12″ Macbook. For what is effectively a full desktop machine (it runs the full latest version of OS X, not iOS) the Macbook is extremely stingy with its power consumption. Fully charged and idling, it consumes only 6 watts. When active it spikes consumption to somewhere in the 8-20 watt range. Powered by a 29-watt USB-C adapter, it’ll never draw more than that from the wall. Maximum draw will be during charging.

    After the Macbook, we step to my realm with the 11″ and 13″ Macbook Airs. The 13″ consumes only 8 watts at idle. Since I use my Air with my power system, I calculate run times based off a 1-2 amp draw on my battery. With a 42-amp hour battery, that’s a long run time. The 11″ air will consume slightly less, but the only difference is in the screen size and power required to light it as all the hardware is the same. Macbook Airs come with 45-watt chargers, and so will not consume more than that. Maximum draw will again be during charging.

    The amazing thing though is that even when you move to the 13″ and 15″ Macbook Pros, power consumption is still remarkably low. I read the 15″ Macbook Pro at 18 watts during idle and around 30 watts during activity. The 13″ Macbook Pro was the same at about 30 watts during activity, but came in slightly lower at 12 watts while idling. Again, the hardware is the same, so the only difference is in power required to light a bigger screen. Macbook Pros come with either a 60 or 85-watt charger, and once again, they will not consume more than that from the wall. Maximum draw will be during charging.

    I wasn’t able to test Apple’s non-portables, but I know for a fact (we use them in our server room) that Mac minis are about as good on power as Macbook Airs. They use similar hardware. The latest Mac minis can park themselves comfortably down in the 10 watt range if they’re not doing too much work.

    A very new addition to my home tech collection is a 3rd generation Apple TV (yes, I know, why didn’t I just wait for the new one?). Actually, I got it because I liked the price and because it has optical audio output. With the new Apple TV, I’d need to split the audio signal from the HDMI somehow. Anyway one of the first things I did was test the power consumption of the Apple TV. 1-2 watts at the wall. That’s it. So basically I just leave it plugged into my PV power strip and plan to only ever power it using my generated solar power.

    I hope you’ve enjoyed this very brief rundown of power efficiency and consumption among Apple’s devices. Even if you don’t generate your own power like I do, choosing a power efficient device can mean a lot of cost savings in electricity bills, especially if you use the device a lot. For a detailed environment report for each Apple device, visit “*Apple’s Environment Reports page.*”:http://www.apple.com/environment/reports/

  • _Dear Friends,_

    It is a heat wave! Temps have been soaring into the high 80s during the day and cool at night making for a perfect end for the last few days of summer. I went to a big get together at the home of Ben Cohen from that ice cream company for the VBSR Terry Ehrich award ceremony honoring Duane Peterson from SunCommon, the largest solar energy company in the state. It was a beautiful evening with some very interesting and engaged business leaders in Vermont. I was fortunate to win this award back in 2011 and many of the other award winners were present as we inducted Duane into our small club. VBSR is celebrating our 25th anniversary this year so it was also a big celebration of our continued commitment to the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit.

    It was a beautiful night and the event was outside. That is always tricky this time of the year. I remember several years ago that we held a Small Dog Electronics party outside on Labor Day. We had hired a great local singer and band and had great food. Unfortunately, it was like 20 degrees and rainy outside so the party was a bit of a dud. But we were rewarded with a warm night and a beautiful sunset for the VBSR event.

    iOS 9 was released this week and all of the new features for your iPhone or iPad are ready for your free downloading pleasure. If you tried to download right when the update was released you might have encountered some problems due to clogged servers with millions trying to download the same file simultaneously. By today, however, the update is fast.

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is a six-pack of our famous Chill Pill mobile speakers. These compact “transformer” speakers produce big sound in a small package and have a built-in rechargeable battery. Normally, these sell for $29.99 each but for this week only for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get 2 black, 2 white and 2 Red Chill Pill Speakers for the cost of one! “*That’s right $29.99 gets you a six-pack of Chill Pills!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001955/special-chill-pill-six-pack-for-only-29-99