iOS 9 Safari Relocates 'Find On Page' & 'Request Desktop Site' Buttons

iOS 9 has relocated a couple of features (or buttons), 'Find on Page' and 'Request Desktop Site', in Apple's web browser, Safari. These two buttons have been relocated to under the Share menu. To access this menu, tap the button with the arrow point up out of a square, in Safari.

Website in image: thosewhofromheavencame.spreadshirt.com

Find on Page allows you to search for any text on the current webpage you are on. This is handy for when you are searching for a certain word or phrase on a page with a lot of writing. Simply type in the word you are looking for, then you can use the arrows to switch between every usage of that word on the page.

Request Desktop Site is for when you just aren't happy with the mobile version of a website and want to see the 'proper' desktop version. Sometimes web sites do not display all the features or buttons on a mobile site, so this feature again makes it helpful to change to the main web version. 

Other buttons that you can access from this menu include; Add to Favorites, Add Bookmark, Add to Reading List, Add to Home Screen (which places an app icon shortcut to the webpage on your home screen), Copy, Print, and any other third party app buttons that are available.    

iOS 9: Siri Contacts, Apps & News Suggestions & How to Switch Them Off

New in iOS 9 is a new page on your home-screen. By swiping to the right, users now have a new Search, Siri contacts and app suggestions and recommended news.

With Spotlight Search, you can search for pretty much anything! Search can now scan through your whole iPhone, apps, and you can even search the web.

Siri Suggestions offers users shortcuts to contacts and apps that Siri thinks you may want to access at that time of the day. Siri looks for habits, so it can better assist you and become precognitive. For example if you open Facebook every morning around the same time, Siri may notice this and offer the Facebook app to you as a suggestion at that same time the next day.

Then there is News. Siri can also now suggest news articles that it thinks you'd like to read. Clicking a news article will open it up in the new iOS News app. In the News app, you can customize the content to the topics (and news sources) that you like to read about.

These new shortcuts like accessing apps, contacts, and even reading and catching up on the news may be more convenient for users, but I can see that maybe not everyone would like it. Suggestions for apps or contacts might be useful, but having news on your iPhone home screen can make your iPhone seem a little less personal. If you'd like to keep the news in the app, unfortunately you can't just switch off news. You have to either switch off all Siri Suggestions or leave them all on. If you switch off Siri Suggestions, the new page will still stay on your iPhone, however it will only contain Search.

If you don't like seeing news on the new Siri Suggestions page, you can switch it off, along with Siri Contacts and App suggestions by accessing:

1. Settings.
2. General.
3. Spotlight Search
4. And then switching off 'Siri Suggestions'.

Add Custom Vibrations To Your Alarms - New in iOS 9

New in iOS 9 is the ability to change to different vibration alerts to your Alarm clock. 

To add a vibration alert, tap to edit your alarm, then tap 'Sound', then 'Vibration'. 

There are a few different types of vibration alerts, including; the default 'Alert', 'Heartbeat', 'Quick', 'Rapid', 'S.O.S', 'Staccato', and 'Symphony'. 

You can also record and create your own custom vibration alert. 

New In iOS 9 - Quickly Delete Alarms By Swiping Across

A new feature added into iOS 9 is the ability to quickly delete alarms you have made.

Before it was a few taps, but now, you can simply delete Alarms by swiping across to the left then tapping "Delete".

How To Install a FREE Adblocker For Safari in iOS 9

AdBlock - Mobile By BETAFISH INC

You may think it's a little odd for a website that has advertisements on it to tell people how to install an ad-blocker - and it is. However, while I make sure to keep ads to a minimum and non-intrusive to the users experience, not everyone does. And I can completely understand why people would want to use an ad-blocker because of those sites that mistreat their users. 

Ads these days have become intrusive, with pop-ups, ads that take over a webpage, or even re-direct a webpage. Videos that auto-play over a website. There's companies tracking your web behavior to better target you with ads. There has also been many recent cases of malware being discovered in third-party-ads. So blocking ads has become more than just blocking those constant flashing annoying eye-sores and more about protecting your own security on the web. And until ad-companies can get control of the ads they serve and websites stop cramming ads in every possible spot they can - I totally agree that users have the right to block the ads, if they choose.

Now, there are many ad-blockers in the App Store that are charging a fee. I don't necessarily like this. Yes, a developer should in some cases get compensation for their work - however when it's getting money for something that prevent hard working websites gaining money - I disagree with. If you're going to block ads - don't pay for an app and make a developer rich.  

So which ad-blocker should you install? One of the most popular ad-blockers that you may of heard of is AdBlock Plus, they will be releasing a free content blocker for Safari, however at the time of this post being written - there app is still pending in the App Store. But, if you use them on your desktop - you may want to wait for their app to use on iOS.

Adblock Plus By Eyeo

*Update (September 30th): Adblock Plus By Eyeo [iTunes Link] is now available for iOS devices. Both, AdBlock and Adblock Plus are good ad-blockers. It's up to you on which to use.

A note about Adblock Plus - they by default, do not hide all ads - they allow what they call 'Acceptable Ads'. This can be switched off in the ABP app settings: Settings -> Acceptable Ads.

Another great ad-blocker that has over 50 million downloads is; AdBlock. They also have a free Content Blocker for Safari, and their app is ready to be downloaded! 

The first step in blocking ads in Safari on your iPhone or iPad in iOS 9 is downloading a Content Blocker. A Content Blocker is an app with a list of content that you don't want Safari to load. Apple claims that Content Blockers, "cannot send any information about what was blocked back to the app." But they can control what is blocked. I at the moment recommend the app AdBlock - Mobile By BETAFISH INC. 

How To Install A Content Blocker: 

Once you have downloaded the app, open the iOS Settings app. Then tap Safari. Scroll down to and tap 'Content Blockers'. There will be three content blockers for AdBlock, an Ad Blocking, a Privacy Shield and something about International languages. Switch them all 'on'. If you installed AdBlock Plus, there will only be one option to switch on. And that's all! Open Safari, view a webpage and there should not be any ads!

AdBlock Mobile uses the EasyList and EasyPrivacy lists for its ad-blocking sources. Unfortunately, at least at the moment, you cannot White List a site (which is choosing a site to allow ads on). And there is no easy way to switch AdBlock off in Safari if a page doesn't load properly, you'd have to go back to Settings. Other than these set backs - enjoy not seeing ads. But I will warn you - once you block them - it's pretty hard to go back to an internet with ads! :)

New in iOS 9: Zoom In Videos, Take Photo While Recording & Change Frame Rate

A new feature added in iOS 9 is the ability to zoom in on videos! Now with any video that you have recorded into your Camera Roll, you can zoom in simply by using 'pinch and zoom'. You can also pan around in the zoomed in video. 

Another new feature added in iOS 9 is the ability to take a photo while recording video. As you are recording a video you'll see another White button on the screen. Tap the white capture button to take a photo while filming. The photo taken isn't as good as a photo that is taken in the normal photo mode, but the resolution is 2720x1532, which is higher than the 1080p of the HD video.

Also new in iOS 9 for your camera - higher HD frame rate. There is a new option to enable 60 frames per second HD video recording, a bump up from the 30fps in iOS 8. Changing the frame rate to 60fps will give you much nicer and smoother motion in your videos. You'll need to enable this in Settings. Go to: Settings > Photo & Camera > under 'Camera' heading, "Record Video" > and select "1080p HD at 60 fps" for the best quality (unless you have a iPhone 6s, then '4K' for the highest picture quality). Remember, higher quality means that it'll use up more space on your iOS device.  

New In iOS 9: Wi-Fi Assist

With all the new changes and features in iOS 9, we have a new topic on Apps-Reviewed called; 'New in iOS 9'. This post is about the new feature: Wi-Fi Assist:

A new feature has been added in iOS 9 called 'Wi-Fi Assist'. This feature automatically uses cellular data when Wi-Fi signal is poor.

You can switch this feature off or on, by going to:

Settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Assist