Expert’s Rating
Best Prices Today: iOS 11
It seems like almost every year Apple crows that the latest iOS update is the keen one yet . Yes , when you incrementally add feature film and fix bugs , every new version is essentially safe than the previous one . ButiOS 11is more than that : This is a strong upgrade that dramatically transforms iPad productivity while offering a horde of young features that have the potential to make the world around us both safer and more entertaining than ever before .
The hype is justified . Io 11 is Apple ’s most challenging iOS update in some time .
Io 18is the latest translation and will inSeptember 2025be replaced with iOS 19 . iOS has come a tenacious path sinceolder edition of iOS(seeiOS 18 vs Io 17 ) . Find outwhich iPhones are compatible with iOS 18 in ouriOS compatibility checker . You candownload the iOS 18 betanow , but you will want to carefully considerwhether you should set up the iOS 18 betafirst .
The new setup feature of iOS 11 saves you time by transferring some data directly from one device to another.
iOS 11: Changes you can’t miss
The new setup feature of Io 11 saves you meter by transferring some datum like a shot from one machine to another .
The day you buy a new iPhone or iPad should be a metre of delight . Instead , it ’s ofttimes a frustrative usage in enter in watchword repeatedly while tap through a retentive series of doubtfulness about activating or deactivating legion iOS features . Apple ’s been bit by bit improving this process over the years , but it takes a big step onwards with the new automobile - setup features in iOS 11 .
In iOS 11 , you’re able to transfer primal features ( including setting , preferences , and your keychain passwords ) straight between devices by pointing your old iPhone ’s television camera at the new poser , which display a practice that allows the two devices to couple with each other wirelessly and begin transferring information . When all was said and done , I still ask to furbish up my iCloud stand-in and reload apps from the App Store , but the process was measurably politic than ever before . take over that everyone updates their old devices to iOS 11 before buying newfangled iPhones , this class ’s iPhone ascent should be much smoother for new earpiece buyer .
The new setup feature of iOS 11 saves you time by transferring some data directly from one device to another.
Control Center , the interface that permit you make fast changes to your iPhone with a agile swipe up from the bottom of the screen , is completely redesigned in iOS 11 . Gone is the old three - page user interface , substitute with a single page of image , button , and sliders . you could custom-make Control Center now — for example , to add a button to enable Low Power Mode or absent the button for HomeKit . Most of the buttons also provide extra feature if you 3D Touch them ( or knock and hold if you ’re not on a 3D - touch - capable twist ) .
The new Control Center ( right ) is customizable via the options app ( left ) .
It ’s a great rising slope . I especially have come to like the slider dominance for volume and light . Some features , such as switch audio output machine or turning on and off a HomeKit machine , are now a niggling less obvious , but once you get used to the new approach , they ’re not really harder to entree than they were in iOS 10 . ( I still do n’t understand why you ca n’t promptly shift Wi - Fi web from Control Center , though . )
The new Control Center (right) is customizable via the Settings app (left).
find out more about iOS 11 ’s Control Center
With iOS 11 , Apple has addressed one of my freehanded complaint with notifications on my curl screen and in Notification Center by bring them in to alignment with one another . With iOS 11 , the lock screen and Notification Center are merged together , with the current sentence , currently playing audio , and current and recent notifications , all scrollable . I used to “ mislay ” presentment after unlocking my phone , and they would n’t be visible in Notification Center , but that seems to be all fix now .
The App Store app is completely redesign , with a tumid feature area containing clause about apps , and a simplify app detail filmdom .
The App Store app is completely redesigned, with a large feature area containing articles about apps, and a simplified app detail screen.
Perhaps the most significant part of iOS as a platform is the App Store , so it ’s understandable that Apple has been reluctant to mess with success . But with iOS 11 , consider it messed : The App Store app has been completely redesigned . There ’s a novel optical look ( inherit from the iOS 10 pattern of Apple Music ) , with big banners and expectant , lifelike - fertile boxes . But more impressive is theeditorial commitment Apple is making , with full - on articles spotlighting the app and game of the day , as well as other featured items . In iOS 11 , the App Store is a richer , more playfulness experience — and , I suspect , a more efficient tool for selling us more apps .
Learn more about the new feeling of the App Store
The first time you hop in a auto with an iPhone running Io 11 , you ’ll be prompted to turn on Do Not Disturb When drive , a variant on Do Not Disturb that senses you ’re in a fomite ( either via sensors or by plug in to a machine via Bluetooth ) and disenable all but the most important alert . In this mode , app notification are block , as are sound shout and text from all but the people you choose . you could set up the iPhone to auto - reply to certain people you specify , who can then wear out through the text block if it ’s urgent . ( If you ’re in the passenger derriere , you may unlock your phone and turn this feature of speech off with one tap . )
This is a with child feature of speech that ’s bound to save lives and prevent traffic accidents . It ’s so well-fixed to be distracted while driving , specially by the avalanche of push telling that our apps send to us on a regular basis . The allowances for call and textual matter overrides are helpful , so I can live that my kinsperson can extend to me when I ’m motor even if I ’d choose not to be bother by anyone else . While Apple could ’ve add many more context for this feature , I ’m glad that it keep on thing round-eyed . You ca n’t set apps to break through , for example , and I think that ’s Apple ’s message thatnoapp notification is deserving creating a distracted equipment driver .
con more about Maps and Do Not Disturb While Driving
iOS 11: Subtle changes
Some iOS 11 change are a little more subtle . The Apple News app is more personalized in iOS 11 , with reinforcement for a “ glare topic . ” If you frequently hold your iPhone in one hired man , there ’s a new one - handed keyboard layout that crowd all the keys to the unexpended or correct side of the screen , so your fingers can attain every paint — even on the emoji keyboard . ( You bring it up by solicit and holding on the emoji / keyboard button ; to give to a normal keyboard , just tap the arrow at the magnanimous empty arena . ) This is an especially nice feature on the large iPhone Plus models .
Learn more about the one - handed and QuickType keyboard
you may trigger off the one - handed keyboard ( right ) via a Modern element at the bottom of the keyboard picker ( left ) .
You can activate the one-handed keyboard (right) via a new element at the bottom of the keyboard picker (left).
Apple has add a bunch of features to Io 11 that are n’t especially new , even on iOS — but now that they ’re integrate into the core apps that come with iOS , they ’ll in all probability find a wider hearing than did before . tone now has a written document - scanner mode that will automatically detect the edges of a spell of paper held in front of your gadget ’s tv camera and use those edges to intelligently crop and adjust the image so that it looks more or less like you scan it on a flatbed image scanner . Notes also now includes OCR ( optic character identification ) technology , so when you scan or hand - write text ( rather than typing it on a keyboard ) , your equipment will figure out that text and make it searchable . The Maps app is supply lane counseling , which is a welcome addition — but also one that Google has offered in Google Maps for some time .
Learn more about :
A few more of the subtle change :
Apps like PCalc (left) and Carrot Weather (right) have been updated to include AR features. Other AR applications both silly and useful will fill iOS devices this fall.
iOS 11: Changes that will take time
Most iOS feature arrive fully form , but there ’s a whole family of features that wo n’t turn over their potential for a little while , because they swear on outside app or hardware developers to affirm them .
ARKit , Apple ’s fabric for augmented reality apps — apps that can take a live persona catch by your gadget ’s camera and then place virtual objects into that space and expose the mixed upshot on the projection screen — has the voltage to be huge . This evenfall we ’ll be deluge with AR apps , most bad , some brain - blowingly undecomposed . There ’s vast potency here , but we ’ll require to see how app developer respond to this new engineering science over the next few months .
Apps like PCalc ( impart ) and Carrot Weather ( right ) have been updated to include AR feature . Other AR program both silly and useful will make full iOS devices this gloam .
The iOS 11 Files app is a file browser for iCloud Drive and other cloud services.
likewise , the raw Files app look corking . It ’s fundamentally an update of the honest-to-goodness iCloud Drive app that has boom its view . It ’s a full - mature file web browser , so if you ’d like to manage files on your iOS gimmick , you could . ( If you do n’t want to , you do n’t need to ! Unlike Finder , which is at the centre of the Mac experience , Files is an app like any other , and if you never spread it , you ’ll essentially never see it . ) Third - party apps can hook into Files , which mean that every potential cloud - storage service you may think of — Dropbox , Box , Google Drive , OneDrive , even SFTP and SMB servers — should be able-bodied to hook into Files and seem as a equal to iCloud and local storage . This will be a bountiful pile for professionals who need to put in and manage file in the swarm — but I ’m set aside judgment until I see which players the right way suffer it , and how well it works in practice .
The iOS 11 Files app is a single file web internet browser for iCloud Drive and other cloud services .
Finally , there ’s AirPlay 2 , Apple ’s latest iteration of its twist - to - gadget medium cyclosis communications protocol . The proof in AirPlay 2 ’s quality will be in how well it interacts with ironware , both from Apple and from other manufacturers . Only then will we know if AirPlay is a boon or a bust .
The iOS 11 multitasking view on an iPad, complete with a new Dock (bottom) and the redesigned Control Center (right).
iOS 11: Changes for iPad
Some of the most dramatic changes in iOS 11 are limited to the iPad . It ’s been two years since the last iOS update to have prominent iPad - only features , and this year Apple has fine-tune many of the multitasking feature article introduced in iOS 9 . This update also brings numerous other iPad - focused characteristic , whether you ’re an Apple Pencil substance abuser or someone who lean to focus on the software keyboard .
The iOS 11 multitasking purview on an iPad , pure with a novel Dock ( bottom ) and the redesign Control Center ( right ) .
Everyone who uses iOS 11 will notice that the Dock at the bottom of the home screen has been redesign ( and the name labels on apps removed ) , but on the iPad the Dock ( not Control Center ) is approachable by swiping up from the bottom of the sieve . This enable riotous switching between apps , but also provides a pallet of app icons that can be dragged out into the iPad port to make multitasking duet . hale an icon out of the Dock to the right hand or left of the screen , and you ’ll see a preview of Split View multitasking . permit go and the second app opens aright next to the one you ’re running . ( sweep an app into a more central area or onto the border between two existing apps will place it into Slide Over rather than Split View . While apps in Slide Over bear more or less as they did in iOS 9 and 10 , they now appear as a floating windowpane rather than an sheathing that comes in from the right side . )
Two apps side by side in iOS 11, with the Dock swiped up at bottom and the Files app providing quick access to recent files.
Two apps side by side in iOS 11 , with the Dock swiped up at bottom and the Files app ply quick access to late files .
It ’s a carefully cogitate out organization that pass water multitasking more approachable and tactual . Apps that are in a distich outride together until you unlink them , allow you to produce several pairs of apps and flip among them . While Apple could ’ve built the organisation with more coarseness of mastery ( and perhaps that will be an pick someday ) , I remember iOS 11 strikes the right balance when it comes to multitasking . The one major drawback is that if an appisn’tin your Dock , it ’s much operose to append it to multitasking . ( If you ’re using a ironware keyboard , you may do a Spotlight search and drag the app icon out of the lookup results , but that does n’t work if you do n’t have a keyboard attached . )
iOS 11 lets you drop behind and cut down item between apps — but only on the iPad .
iOS 11 lets you drag and drop items between apps—but only on the iPad.
Io 11 brings true drag - and - drop functionality to the program for the first fourth dimension . For iPhone users , this feature film is throttle to draw data around within an app . But on the iPad , you could puff data point between apps . It ’s a great feature , though apps have to be updated to really take reward of it . This feature really surpasses my expectations , because not only can you scuff items between on - projection screen apps , you’re able to actually start dragging information and then apply the multitasking view to move to a different app , then drop it there . That ’s a multi - finger motion that ’s a short complicated to execute , but it feels natural — and it opens every unmarried app on your iPad to dragging and dropping . It ’s another immense boost for iPad productiveness .
There are a few other great changes that iPad exploiter will love . you could now localize distinction to open automatically when you solicit on the lock cover with an Apple Pencil , which essentially become your iPad into an on - requirement notepad . And on the 9.7 - inch and 10.5 - column inch iPads , the new QuickType keyboard lets you type a 2d graphic symbol by intercept with a slight down swipe . Once you get used to it , it pee-pee typing symbols and numbers far more fluid than when you had to toggle to a different keyboard , tap a key , and then switch back to the standard hardening of letters .
Bottom line
If you ’re an iPad drug user , download iOS 11 right away . It ’s a immense update that wee major advance to the two - year - erstwhile multitasking feature article , and drag - and - drop and single file have the voltage to metamorphose iPad productivity .
If you ’re an iPhone user — well , who are we kidding , you ’re almost sure as shooting going to elevate to iOS 11 , too . And you ’ll be correct to do so . This is a great collecting of raw features , Apple ’s well iOS upgrade in years . The new , customizable Control Center is a winner . Do Not Disturb While drive will make the roads safer . And ARKit threaten to quetch off a revolution in augmented - realism applications . This is all bang-up stuff .
