Free software upgrade will extend iPhone battery life by up to three hours, Apple says

Apple has dropped a strong hint that it’s working on an iPad with a larger display.

At its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, the company previewed iOS 9, the next upgrade to the software that runs iPhones and iPads.

A key element of iOS 9 is a new split screen mode that will only work on the iPad Air 2 (which is notable in itself because previous iOS upgrades have been fully functional on all iPads, perhaps contributing to a fall-off in sales).

The new split screen view lets you see two iPad apps side by side, work with either or both, and copy and paste content from one to the other.

There will also be a new “side over" view that lets you select and drag a secondary app on to the screen, atop the primary in a 30-70 split, without dismissing the latter. Certain Android tablets from Samsung have had a split view for a while now. This is the first time Apple has seriously addressed multi-tasking apps. It should help an iPad to feel more like a PC (or indeed a Microsoft Surface tablet).

Analysts see the split view option as a sign larger iPads are on the way.

Extended battery life
Other signature features of iOS 9 include:

• a new low-power mode option for iPhone that Apple says will extend battery life by up to three hours by scaling down screen brightness, not constantly polling for new email, and automatically turning off the screen if your iPhone senses its face is down. My iPhone 6 Plus lasts about half a day with intensive use. So, if it does what it says on the tin, iOS 9 will take its battery life from poor to so-so (not to pick on Apple, poor battery life is the bane of all smartphones);
• new power-saving measures will mean simply installing iOS 9 on any iPhone 6 or 6 Plus will extend battery life by one hour, Apple says (so with the low-power mode on as well you could eek out four hours extra in total);
• faster and smoother performance;
• new features for Siri, including the ability to offer directions based on an invitation, and search via voice for photos. The "more intelligent" Siri will be able to, for example, prompt you it's time to leave for an appointment and (to use Apple's demo example) remind you earlier if traffic is bad. It looks as if Apple is trying to keep up with the Joneses, or at least Google Now in the Android camp (the idea behind Google Now is that while Google dominates search, people are spending less and less time in search engines and more in apps. Google can get around this by proactively serving up information it anticipates people might want to search for); and
• support for an Apple Pay-compatible card reader. That sounds great for small businesses in the US. In New Zealand, there are no plans on the immediate horizon to introduce Apple Pay.

iOS 9 will be available as a free upgrade in September.