As we predicted in a recent article, Apple has released iOS 10.3 to the public before the end of March. If you haven’t upgraded your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to this version, we suggest you do so. But before you do that, you need to take a full backup of the data on your device.
You can either backup your data to iTunes or to iCloud, and we’ve shown you how to do that in this article.
Find My AirPods
Once you’re on iOS 10.3, there are some features that you’ll find really useful. The first of these is a much-discussed tool that was seen on the early preview builds of iOS 10.3, and it’s called Find My AirPods, which is based on a well-known utility – Find My iPhone. If you go to the Find My iPhone app, you should be able to see your AirPods as one of your device options.
New File System
Apple has finally changed its decades old file system, which was originally designed for floppy discs and hard discs for the older Mac systems. The file system, dubbed APFS, is not something you need to know about, but it’s something to be aware of. Why? Because you’ll suddenly find that your device has more space. That doesn’t mean iOS 10.3 deleted some of your data; it just means that memory usage and availability are calculated differently on the new system. It is also more memory-efficient, as well as being faster when you’re copying and pasting files.
More Detailed iCloud Storage Information
If you’re paying to store data on iCloud, you’ll find this feature very useful. iOS 10.3 gives you a full breakdown of what application is using how much memory and so on. Ideally, it should help you identify whether you’re paying money for stuff you don’t really need. An essential iPhone housekeeping tool, in short.
Weather Bug on Apple Maps
If you’re an Apple Maps user, you will now see a weather ‘bug’ appear wherever you are on the map. 3D Touch the bug to check the weather forecast for the week ahead. This feature is extremly useful if you’re going on a trip and you want to see what kind of weather to expect during your trip or at your destination.
Better Control and Visibility for Apple ID Profile
Right at the top of the settings menu, you’ll see a new profile section with details about all your accounts and devices in one place. It’s much better than the older way of hunting around for each device. You’ll still need to log into Find My iPhone to access those devices, but the layout for this is now in a much simpler format on iOS 10.3.
These are the most important features to know about on iOS 10.3. Now that this version is out, we’re pretty sure Apple will be releasing the first developer preview of iOS 11 – the next major update that’s going to see the light of day on the brand new iPhone Edition (iPhone 8) that’s coming out later this year. On iOS 11, we’ve already heard talk about improvements to Siri, but we won’t know anything for sure until the first beta drops to Apple developers.
As for iOS 10.3 you could see a lot of apps invoke a warning that says updates are not available, or that the app won’t work on future versions of iOS. Apple is gradually reducing support for 32-bit apps in favor of 64-bit apps, and we’ll see that as an ongoing change right through the public release of iOS 11 and possibly even beyond.
For now, enjoy the many features Apple has brought to iOS 10.3, and let’s wait expectantly to see what the Cupertino smartphone maker has in mind for the rest of 2017.
Thanks for reading our work! Please bookmark 1redDrop.com to keep tabs on the hottest, most happening tech and business news from around the world. On Apple News, please favorite the 1redDrop channel to get us in your news feed.
