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iOS 9.1 Improves Live Photos

Alongside the 10.11.1 update to El Capitan and watchOS 2.0.1, Apple has updated iOS to version 9.1, making only two feature changes. First, for those iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users taking Live Photos, iOS now senses when you raise or lower your iPhone and avoids recording those movements. That’s a useful change, since many Live Photos were bookended by inadvertent movements.

Second, as with El Capitan’s update, iOS 9.1 includes 150 new emoji characters, including additional foods, different family units, more faces, new animals, more sports equipment, various weather icons, and more. You can finally convey that you’re nonplussed about your archery match being postponed due to heavy fog, all without having to think of any of those pesky words. Emoji junkies can find a roundup of the new images at Tech Insider.

After those two changes, iOS 9.1 focuses on stability, resolving unspecified problems in CarPlay, Music, Photos, Safari, and Search, and on performance, reportedly improving responsiveness in the multitasking user interface. Other bugs fixed could:

  • Cause Calendar to freeze in Month view
  • Prevent Game Center from launching
  • Inappropriately zoom content in some apps
  • Cause incorrect message counts for POP accounts
  • Prevent users from removing recent contacts from new email or messages
  • Fail to display some messages in Mail searches
  • Display a spurious gray bar in the body of audio messages
  • Cause activation errors on some cellular carriers
  • Prevent some apps from updating via the App Store

Security updates are included as well, with 24 vulnerabilities blocked.

At 246 MB for an iPhone 6, iOS 9.1 is probably most easily installed directly on the device via Settings > General > Software Update, although it should also work fine if installed via iTunes.

If you’re using one of the just-released iPhone 6s models and are taking Live Photos, you’ll want to install iOS 9.1 sooner rather than later. Otherwise, wait a few days and see what’s said about it online as the early adopters report on what they’re seeing. We haven’t experienced any notable problems on our test devices.

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