Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET With the release of Watch OS 2 — here’s how to update to the new operating system version — Apple is adding new features and capabilities to its Apple Watch. One of those additions is the option to create custom watch face backgrounds out of photos stored on the user’s iPhone. …

Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET When Apple launched “Hey Siri” with iOS 8, you could wake your iOS device with the simple command as long as your iOS device was connected to power. The feature, as useful as it is, had a big problem: It wasn’t loyal to only your voice; anyone within earshot could give the command and interact with …

Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET Content blockers are a hot topic. If you’re unfamiliar, the crux of it is this: Apple now lets developers create apps that can block ads, amongst other things, in mobile Safari. Content blockers can also block images, fonts, ad-tracking tools and videos from loading as you browse in Safari. There’s already a healthy number of content …

Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET After preparing, then updating your iPad to iOS 9, you’ll quickly discover a lot of new features. New multitasking features enable a new slide-over mode, where you can peek at, and use, an app on the edge of your screen. Then there’s split-view, which allows you to run two apps at the same time. You can …

Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET One of Apple’s headlining features in iOS 9 is the brand-new Notes app. Instead of offering a straightforward, no-frills note-taking experience where only text entry is allowed, as has long been the case, iOS 9’s Notes app is capable of storing nearly any type of content. Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET The first time you launch the …

Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET Three years after Apple broke away from bundling Google Maps into iOS, its replacement, Apple Maps, is finally getting proper public transit directions. Users were forced to rely on third-party apps such as Citymappper or Google Maps in order to get around. The added functionality is part of Apple’s iOS 9 update for iPhone, iPad and …

Enlarge Image James Martin/CNET Apple first announced iOS 9, the mobile operating system that runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad lineups. The update refines Apple’s vision of a mobile computing experience, adding features such as running two apps at the same time on the iPad or markup features for signing documents in the Mail app. The list of …

Enlarge Image Jason Cipriani/CNET First we covered slide-over, now let’s check out split-view. Both are features that give the iPad some much needed oomph in terms of doing more than consuming content. Whereas slide-over let you briefly interact with an app and then hide it, split-view allows you to use two apps alongside one another at the same time. Currently, …

In iOS 9, Apple has added a minor tweak that’s aimed at improving the security on your iOS device. Instead of defaulting to let users select a four-digit passcode to unlock a device, Apple will now ask users for a six-digit code. The extra two numbers are meant to make it even harder for a would be hacker to force …

Since its inception, iOS devices have used a single home button navigating between apps. Click once to get back to the home screen, double-click to multitask. Case in point: Say you were in the Messages app and a Facebook notification required your attention. Tapping on the notification would result in the Facebook app launching, and nothing more. If you wanted …