Apple makes a tiny change in iOS which will make your iPhone faster

Noticed your iPhone running a little more smoothly this morning, and with some extra storage space?

This shouldn’t be a surprise as new software makes a smartphone run like the wind

But that is not the only reason why the iPhone is now quicker and smoother, according to Apple engineer Renaud Lienhart.

 while the official blurb for the update in settings mentions only its new features, the biggest tweak has happened under the hood out of sight.

In addition to the ability to now find lost AirPods through the Find My iPhone app, iOS 10.3 brings along a new file system for iOS devices known as the Apple File System, making it more of an overhaul than it seems (as is evident in the longer updating time - you've been warned).
The new Apple File System (APFS) replaces the 19-year-old HFS+ system, which was geriatric in terms of tech years.


While this won't make any visible changes to your iOS experience, it should smoothen out the interface and add a little extra storage space at the same time.

It also adds a level of encryption to the iPhone to keep your data more secure as well as reportedly hundreds of other security tweaks. This is timely, in light of the recent WikiLeaks dump that exposed weaknesses in smartphones and other devices that made them vulnerable to hacking by the CIA. 

Also new in iOS 10.3: The ability for developers to respond to reviews in the App Store as well as providing some tweaks for Siri and CarPlay.

The MacOS update – the smaller of the two releases – will come as a blessing for night owls.

Called "Night Shift," the headlining feature in the MacOS 10.12.4 update brings over the helpful feature found on iOS devices since last year's iOS 9.3. When enabled, your Mac will automatically turn down the amount of blue light the screen emits.

Blue light has been found to be stimulating to the eyes, according to a Chicago-area ocular research centre, making it harder for people to fall asleep after staring at screens so late at night. By limiting the amount of blue light, your Mac will look a bit more yellow at these later hours but it should also make it easier to fall asleep once you are done using your computer.

You can enable Night Shift in your Mac's System Preferences section. Once there, head to the Displays tab and you should see the Night Shift option. As with the iPhone's version of this feature, you can set up a schedule for your Mac to automatically turn Night Shift on or off. You can even set it to automatically turn on at sunset and turn off at sunrise.


Both updates are available as free downloads. Those with iOS devices can get the update by going to Settings, General and then Software Update. Mac users can find it by opening up the Mac App Store and heading to the Updates tab in the upper right.

users are advised to do an iCloud backup before updating their devices, especially for iOS systems, wherein there is a new file system update. iPhone and iPad users need to go to the Settings app to start the update, the Mac users should check the Mac App store and Apple Watch users should check on the Watch app on their iOS devices for the said update.