Apple releases iOS 9.2: Should you update?
iPhone users, take note: Apple has released its latest software update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The new version, iOS 9.2, includes a number of bug fixes and improvements that some people might find more useful than others.
Several of the enhanced features relate to Apple Music, the company's answer to Spotify, Pandora and other services for streaming music. Apple says iOS 9.2 includes the following updates for Apple Music:
- You can now create a new playlist when adding a song to a playlist
- Your most recently changed playlist is now listed at the top when adding songs to playlists
- Download albums or playlists from your iCloud Music Library by tapping the iCloud download button
- See which songs have been downloaded with the new download indicator next to each song in My Music and Playlists
- See works, composers, and performers while browsing Classical music in the Apple Music catalog
Users will also notice some changes in the way iOS 9.2 displays News and iBooks:
- A new Top Stories section in News so you can stay up to date with the most important news of the day (available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia)
- iBooks now supports 3D Touch to peek and pop pages from the table of contents, your notes and bookmarks, or from search results inside a book
- iBooks now supports listening to an audiobook while you browse your library, read other books, or explore the iBooks Store
Apple's website lists a long litany of other changes to fix bugs and other issues that arose with the mobile operating system after iOS 9 was first introduced in September:
- Mail Drop in Mail for sending large attachments
- iPhone support for the USB Camera Adapter to import photos and videos
- Improved stability of Safari
- Improved stability of Podcasts
- Fixing an issue that caused mail attachments to be inaccessible for some users with POP email accounts
- Resolving an issue for some users that caused attachments to overlap text in mail
- Fixing an issue where Live Photos could have turned off after restoring from a previous iCloud backup
- Addressing an issue that could cause search in Contacts to display no results
- Resolving an issue that could have prevented Calendar from displaying all seven days in week view
- Fixing an issue where Camera screen on iPad could be black when attempting to capture video
- Addressing an issue that could cause instability in the Activity app when viewing the day of Daylight Savings Time transition
- Fixing an issue that could prevent data from appearing in Health
- Fixing an issue that could prevent Wallet updates and Lock screen alerts from displaying
- Addressing an issue where updating iOS could prevent an alarm from going off
- Fixing an issue where some users were unable to login to Find my iPhone
- Fixing an issue that prevented some manual iCloud Backups from completing
- Addressing an issue where using the iPad keyboard could unintentionally trigger text selection mode
- Improved keyboard responsiveness when using Quick Reply
- Improved punctuation input on the 10-key Chinese (Pinyin & Stroke) keyboards with new expanded view of punctuation symbols and better predictions
- Fixing an issue on Cyrillic keyboards where caps lock would be enabled when typing in URL or email fields
- Siri support for Arabic (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates)
- Accessibility improvements
- Fixing issues with VoiceOver when using Camera face detection
- Adding support for VoiceOver to wake up the screen
- Adding support for VoiceOver to invoke app switcher with 3D Touch gesture
- Fixing an issue with Guided Access when trying to end phone calls
- Improved functionality for Switch Control users when using 3D Touch
- Fixing an issue with speech rate of Speak Screen
To update your device, go to "Settings," click on "General," and select "Software Update."
CNET reports Apple also released smaller updates to the Apple Watch, new Apple TV and Mac OS X operating system. The Apple Watch update, called watchOS 2.0, includes improved language support and bug fixes. It can be downloaded now in the Apple Watch app from your connect iPhone.
For Apple TV users, the update can be found in the Settings channel. Called tvOS 9.1, it adds support for Apple's Remote app, which lets you use your iPhone or iPad to control Apple TV and input data.
The OS X 10.11.2 update for Mac laptop and desktop computers improves stability, compatibility and security. It is available now in the Mac App Store.