News app
News app during the iOS 9 launch at WWDC in June. This pre-installed app is a news aggregator like Flipboard. The early reviews are mixed but the performance is expected to steadily improve as Apple adds more news feeds and fine tunes the algorithm to learn individual preferences. Currently, News app is available only in the US and there’s no telling when it will come to India, if at all.
Spotlight Suggestions
New spotlight screen on the left of your Home screen. While the Siri suggestions for contacts and apps are nice (which, by the way, keep changing according to how you use the phone), the screen is meant to showcase many more details. Spotlight suggestions are designed to include nearby places, news etc. but these functionalities are not available in India … yet.
Siri
You can enjoy the improvements in its accuracy and play around with some new commands, but, unfortunately, Indian Siri still doesn’t give restaurant or movie informations and reviews. In many countries, Siri also makes restaurant reservations for you.
Apple Pay
The only Apple Pay related change we can see is the rebranding of Passbook app to Wallet. In iOS 9, Apple Pay has become smarter and even shows map listing of vendors who accept Apple Pay. Let’s just hope Apple quickly ties up with Indian banks and we are finally able to start using one of the flagship features of our iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Maps
We are also aware that Google maps is by far the best option, especially in India. Still, we can’t stop wondering about the whole list of Apple Maps features we are missing out on, including Directions, Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Flyover, 3D Buildings in Navigation, Traffic, Business Reviews and Photos, Transit, Nearby, and Maps in Apple CarPlay.
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