Today, Tuesday September 19, Apple has officially released iOS 11 to the public. First revealed at Apples WWDC back in June, the new iOS includes quite a few new features and updates like a completely overhauled App Store, a new version of Siri, looping Live Photos, and a new “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature.
Jump over the break to check what what’s notably new in iOS 11….
App Store – Apple has completely revamped its App Store for the first time in 9 years, making it even easier for users to discover new apps and games.
The new look comes with a few new tabs at the bottom of the screen, including a “Today” tab, a selection of highlights from the App Store that will change daily and will also include in-depth features and interviews with developers, new releases tips and how-to guides.
Apple also improved the Search feature in the App Store allowing users to search by name, category, developer or topic.
Siri – in iOS 11, Apple has used machine learning to create more natural voices for both the male and female versions of Siri.
This was achieved by adjusting intonation, pitch, emphasis and tempo while speaking.
The personal assistant was also updated to better understand context and to offer results that it thinks the user will be interested in.
A new Interface now offers suggestions based on personal use of apps such as Mail, Safari, Messages or News.
Siri in iOS 11 also comes with a new translation capability that will allow you to quickly translate words and phrases into Italian, Spanish, French, German or Chinese with more options coming with future updates.
Maps – 
Maps in iOS 11 also received a major upgrade, with detailed floor plans for shopping malls and airports right from within the app.
You will be able to see detailed maps of major airports and shopping centers around the world. Find out which restaurants are past security at the airport or which stores are on level three of the mall.
At first Maps will cover a small selection of cities and airports with more added in future updates.
Do Not Disturb While Driving – Do Not Disturb function was also updated in iOS 11. Apple has introduced a “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature to ensure drives stay focused on the road.
The feature allows the iPhone to sense when you might be driving and help keep you from being distracted by calls, text messages, and notifications.
People trying to message you can automatically be notified that you’re driving.
Photos – Live Photos was also updated, with new Loop, Bounce and Long Exposure effects that allows you to create continuous video loops, similar to Instagram’s Boomerang.
Photos app will now also create “memory movies” from collections of photos on your iOS device.
And, of course, in iOS 11 Apple has introduced a new technology called High Efficiency Image File Format that reduces the file size of every photo you take so your photos take up less space on your iOS device.
Messages – in iOS 11, Apple integrated Apple Pay into Messages app, allowing users to make and receive payments with friends and family instantly.
You can get paid and send money from right within Messages, or tell Siri to send a payment using the credit or debit cards stored in Wallet.
When a payment is received, it will be stored in your new Apple Pay Cash account. From there you can send them to someone else, make a purchase using Apple Pay in stores, apps or the web or transfer the money from Apple Pay Cash to your bank account.
Sounds good? Yeah, but of course there’s a catch…
Person-to-person payments and Apple Pay Cash will launch only in the US this autumn. Apple didn’t announce plans to launch it in more locations. Maybe in future updates.
Animojis & FaceID – iOS 11 also comes with a couple of features that are specific to the new iPhone X.
One of those features is FaceID, Apple’s new authentication technology that replaces TouchID on the new device, and can verify the user’s identity by scanning his/her face.
The other iPhone X-specific feature that comes with iOS 11 is support for Animoji. Apple’s new 3D, live rendered emoji that can track your facial expressions and create animated emoji to use in Messages.
Because that’s why you pay a small fortune for an anniversary device. To animate fucking emojis with your ugly mug. Forget the fast charger or wireless charger. You can always buy that later. Let’s all pay super premium to fucking animate emojis. Take my money NOW!
Augmented Reality – Pokemon Go was a huge hit last year. But it was soon replaced by a piece of wood, a string and a ball. Nevertheless, AR plays a huge part in iOS 11.
With iOS 11, Apple is introducing a new platform to developers so they can bring AR experiences to the iPhone and iPad.
Basically, at first you will see a bunch of games that take advantage of AR, some apps that will probably be useful for about 5 minutes, and then AR will be as exciting as the TouchBar on the MacBook Pro.
AR is nothing new on the iPhone. It doesn’t need the 2017 iPhone X or iOS 11. We had devs bringing or at least toying with the idea of AR on the iPhone in 2009.
Like Robotvision – where you could use AR to search for for nearby locations, restaurants, points of interest.
Oh you want to get social? Check out this TwittAround app concept from 2009. It was showing you nearby recent tweets overlaid on top of the horizon using GPS, the compass and accelerometers.
How about using AR to find your way to the nearest subway in NYC? There was an app just like that in 2009. It was called Nearest Subway.
Yeah AR was huge in 2009. Thats almost 9 years ago. And all it took was iPhone OS 3.0 and an iPhone 3GS.
In 2012 MagicPlan was released for free in the App Store. The app was using the camera on the iPhone or iPad to measure rooms and generate accurate floor plans in just a few minutes.
Want more AR blast from the past? Check out the archives here.
iOS 11 is now available for download and it is supported by iPhone 5s and above, iPad mini 2 and above, and iPhone Touch 6th generation.
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