Apple has today rolled out iOS 9.3, packing in a load of new features for iPhone and iPad users, including Night Shift for reduced eye strain, a Touch ID-secured version of Notes, additional 3D Touch Quick Actions and various improvements to existing first-party apps and services.
Apple has also built out specialized offerings for schools and enterprise with the upcoming iOS release. For example, the Classroom app and supporting ecosystem for iPad offers teachers and school administrators granular control over software distribution, per-student device management and remote monitoring.
The update also fixes a potentially critical security hole recently discovered by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
iOS 9.3 will also allow third-party apps to add music to a user’s iCloud Music Library.
What’s New in iOS 9.3:
Night Shift
- When enabled, Night Shift uses your iOS device’s clock and geolocation to determine when it’s sunset in your location, then it automatically shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum and may even help you get a better night’s sleep.
Notes improvements
- Protect notes that contain your most personal data with Touch ID or a passcode
- Sort notes alphabetically, by date created, or by date edited
- When sketching, quickly bring up a fresh canvas with a two finger swipe, or by tapping the New Sketch button
- A new checklist button at the bottom of every note makes it easier to create lists
- Show thumbnails instead of large images and attachments by long-pressing on any image or attachments in a note
- Choose whether photos and videos taken within Notes are stored only in Notes or also added to Photos
- Long-press on an Evernote Export file to import its contents into Notes
News improvements
- New Top Stories section in For You highlights the most important stories of the day
- Discover something great to read in Editors’ Picks, a selection of channels and topics handpicked by our Apple News editors
- Swipe left on stories in For You on iPhone to quickly share or save or swipe right for more options
- Play video stories right from For You  without opening the article
- Read stories and watch videos in landscape orientation on iPhone
- Change the text size in articles to make reading easier
Health improvements
- Related third-party apps for select data types such as weight, workouts and sleep are displayed in the health app
- Health dashboard adds support for move, exercise, and stand Activity data and goals from Apple Watch
- Easy access to Dashboard and Medical ID using 3D Touch Quick Actions form the Home screen
- Third-party apps now have access to Activity rings and summaries from Apple Watch through HealthKit
Apple Music improvements
- Add songs from the Apple Music catalog to playlists without having to add them to your library
- Watch music videos on iPad in full screen
- See what’s playing on Beats 1 directly from the Radio tab  without having to tune in
- Tap the name of the currently playing song in Now Play to go to the album
- See which songs are the most popular on albums in the Apple Music catalog
Photos improvements
- Extract the still image from a Live Photo by tapping Duplicate which will give you the option to duplicate the Live Photo, or just the still image
- Improved download performance of full size original photos or videos stored in iCloud Photo Library
- Share Live Photos between iOS and OS X through AirDrop and Messages
iBooks improvements
- Adds the ability for iBooks to store your PDFs in iCloud, making them available across all of your devices
- Adds support for downloading previously purchased audiobooks from the iBooks Store
- Adds the ability to share your audiobook purchases with any of your family members using Family Sharing
- New controls for reading Manga more comfortably with faster page turns and simple controls for enlarging text
- Adds Apple Pencil support to highlight and save your favorite passages for later
Education improvements
- Introduces a preview of Shared iPad that enables multiple students to use the same iPad at different times throughout the day
- Adds support for signing into iCloud with Managed Apple IDs
- Adds compatibility for the new Classroom app
- New configuration options to control the organization of apps on the Home Screen
- New controls to determine which apps to show or hide on the Home Screen
- Adds support for new restrictions for iCloud Photo Library or Apple Music
CarPlay improvements
- Apple Music members now have access to their For You and New content in CarPlay
- New Nearby screen in Maps to quickly find Gas, Parking, Restaurants, Coffee, and other driving essentials
- Siri speaks more concisely when reading aback and composing messages in CarPlay
- Equalized sound levels between different audio sources in CarPlay
Dolby Digital Plus
- Adds support for playing video encoded with Dolby Digital Plus audio streams with support for multichannel output using the Apple Lighting Digital AV Adapter
Hardware keyboard improvements and fixes
- Enables the use of arrow keys to navigate through lists in Spotlight, Mail and Safar
- Enables the use of space bar to scroll in Mail
- Improves performance when using the space bar to scroll in Safari
- Adds the ability to bring up the software keyboard from the Shortcut Bar when a hardware keyboard is connected
- Fixes an issue that could prevent unlocking an iPad using the hardware keyboard
- Fixes an issue that caused hardware keyboards to become unresponsive in captive login pages
- Fixes an issue that could cause the Message input field to disappear behind the Shortcut Bar when connected to a hardware keyabord
Other improvements
- Maps adds support for getting a highlighted view of destinations and stops for a specific transit line by tapping on it
- Maps now displays whether there are multiple transit line options for each route suggestion
- Wallet app adds the ability to view the app related toa card or paass in the Wallet app by tapping an icon on the card or pass
- Apple Pay adds support for signing up for store rewards programs with Apple Pay at point of sale terminal
- Podcasts adds support for fullscreen video playback
- Activity app adds a new Workout tab with monthly summaries of key metrics and ability to filter by workout type
- Move to iOS now offers app suggestions from the App Store based on apps installed on you Android device
- iCloud Storage adds proactive status information and in-app notifications to let you know before you run out of space
- Two-factor authentication is now available for all iCloud accounts
- Support for Spanish (Latin America) system language
- Siri support for Finnish (Finland), Hebrew (Israel), and Malay (Malaysia)
Enterprise bug fixes
- Resolves an issue that could prevent some VPP purchased apps from launching after being updated
- Adds iCloud backup support for device-assigned VPP apps
- Addresses an issue that could prevent certificates from installing correctly when updating configuration profiles
- Fixes an issue to prevent iBooks from emailing enterprise managed PDFs from unmanaged accounts
- Resolves an issue for some Exchange users that caused Calendar to send multiple responses to the same invitation
- Improves reliability for devices connecting to OS X Caching Server
Accessibility bug fixes
- Improves 3D Touch reliability with Switch Control Accessibility option
- Fixes an issue where VoiceOver interferes with speech after dictation
- Fixes an issue where VoiceOver users could not write a review on the App Store
- Resolves an issue where VoiceOver becomes unresponsive when receiving a phone call with a Bluetooth headset
- Fixes an issue where large text was unreadable in Reminders
Other bug fixes, performance and stability improvements
- Fixes an issue where manually changing the date to May 1970 or earlier could prevent your iOS device form turning on after a restart
- Fixes issues that could prevent some iCloud Backups from completing
- Fixes an issue for some users where Health data was incomplete after restoring from iCloud Backup
- Fixes an issue where an inaccurate battery percentage could be displayed
- Addresses an issue that prevented iMessage or FaceTime activation for some users
- Addresses an issue that enabled overriding restriction applied to cellular data toggle
- Fixes an issue that caused notification settings to appear in the Watch app for apps that were not installed on Apple Watch
- Improves reliability of using 3D Touch on the keyboard
- Improves stability of the Phone app when setting up voicemail
- Improves stability of the Mail app when your device is low on storage
- Improves stability in Mail while using Mail Drop to send large attachments
You can grab the update now as an over-the-air download directly on your iPhone or iPad, or through iTunes.
