What’s new in iOS 11? Hands-on with 100+ features [Video]

We’ve been playing with iOS 11 for the last 12 hours or so, and have been able to experience a plethora of the new features offered by the release. As you might expect, iOS 11 is quite buggy at this stage, but it’s a truly promising release that’s littered with so many new features that it’s hard to keep count of them all.

In this hands-on video walkthrough, we showcase over 100 of the new items found in iOS 11. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, so stay tuned for more hands-on coverage in the days and weeks to come. more…

Poll: Do the new features in iOS 11 make the iPad a more convincing laptop replacement?

Apple has for some time now been touting the iPad as a PC replacement device for many people. Steve Jobs way back in 2010 used the cars and trucks analogy, arguing that while some would always need the power of a Mac, many would be able to do everything they needed on an iPad.

Tim Cook suggested that day had arrived in 2015, asking ‘why would you buy a PC any more’ – before clarifying that he meant Windows PCs, not Macs. He also said that when he travels, he takes only an iPhone and an iPad Pro, not a Mac. An ad campaign last year further promoted the idea of an iPad as a fully-fledged computer.

Several new features in iOS 11 were clearly aimed at making an iPad more of a Mac substitute …

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How to switch between list view and honeycomb app grid on Apple Watch with watchOS 4

With watchOS 4, Apple is offering an alternative to the honeycomb screen used to display your Apple Watch apps. The honeycomb view lays out the circular watch app icons in a hexagonal grid with a focus on the middle of the display, and a miniature clock in the center.

The honeycomb design is not universally beloved but it has been the only option for Apple Watch users to date. With watchOS 4, Apple is adding list mode which sorts apps into an alphabetical scrolling view. Here’s how to enable it …

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Apple opening up (some) access to the iPhone’s NFC chip in iOS 11

Third-party app developers will for the first time get access to the NFC chip in the iPhone 7/Plus (and presumably this year’s iPhones) in iOS 11. To date, only Apple Pay has been allowed to use the near-field communications chip.

Apple’s WWDC keynote did give one hint that use of the chip was being extended beyond payment when it showed the Apple Watch syncing data with gym equipment, but a new developer document says that third-party apps will be able to use it too …

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Phil Schiller & Craig Federighi join John Gruber to talk iMac Pro, the Mac App Store’s future, & more

As has become standard, Apple executives Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller sat down with John Gruber on his podcast “The Talk Show” this evening following Apple’s WWDC keynote. During the interview, Schiller and Federighi dove deeper into some of the news from yesterday’s jam packed keynote, which Schiller quipped was 3 and a half hours long at first draft…

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