After months of rumors, leaks and speculations, Apple officially announced the highly anticipated iOS 9 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Apple Vice President Craig Federighi made the announcement and confirmed that iOS 9 will be released this fall.
After the announcement, Federighi gave the audience a walkthrough on the upgrades and tweaks included in the iOS 9.
One of the features that will receive major upgrade is iOS' personal digital assistant Siri. According to BGR, the iOS 9 version of Siri is turbo-charged. Apple also added the new Proactive Assistant feature. The new feature will allow Siri to proactively give information, suggestions, as well as perform routine functions without the user giving all the necessary instructions.
In order to provide its users with additional layer of privacy, all the information used by Siri will be stored on the phone's local hard drive, which means that no information will be stored on Apple servers.
Another major announcement made by Apple is the integration of Apple Pay to iOS 9. According to The New York Times, Apple Pay will be accepted in more than one million shopping and store locations including the London Tube in the United Kingdom. Apple Pay will be released in the UK region in July.
Apple is also lowering the storage requirement for the iOS 9 in order to give more space for more user apps and other content that require storage space like photos and videos. Compared to the iOS 8 which required 4.6 gigabytes of storage space, iOS 9 will only require 1.3 gigabyte.
Apple added the battery saver feature in iOS 9. The feature is rumored to extend at least three hours of battery life when in use.
The revamped Apple Music service will debut on the upcoming iOS 9. Apple CEO Tim Cook described it as "the next chapter in music." The service will include a 24-hour radio station, Beats 1 and will be offered free for the first three months. Additionally, the service will be available in the OS X and Windows platform and will be released on the Android platform before the year ends.