Apple has described iOS10 as “our biggest release yet”. Beyond the publicity value of this statement, is it a correct one to make?

Apple’s iOS10 update for iPhone and iPad will be launched in September, probably coinciding with the launch of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. However, it is already available as a beta version for developers and the public.

The beta version is indicative of the major changes that the iOS10 will herald, starting from the lockscreen – after almost a decade, the slide to unlock is gone and will now be replaced with a simple instruction, saying ‘press home to open’.

Other changes include the notifications, which have now been broken up in bubbles and use 3D touch to show hidden menu actions. Instead of clearing notifications by swiping them away one by one, iOS10 will allow you to clear all notifications through the ‘x’ icon.

Siri also gets an update. Statistics show that Siri gets two billion requests a week – with the iOS10 updates, it will probably get more, especially because opening Siri to third-party developers will enrich its functionality. Apple also says that, thanks to intense API, Siri will also be able to do so much more in a smarter way.

Apple plans to rival Google Photos with a revamped way of organising photos. Apart from being able to create albums based on face recognition, iOS10 will also do the same for objects and scenes through advanced computer vision. Apple has also fixed the inability of Apple Maps to scroll ahead on a route – iOS10 will allow you to pan and zoom around the map.

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