What's new in iOS 9, what to expect from Android Marshmallow, what to avoid game designer - and other news of the week for a mobile developer

iOS 9, what's new?

September 16, iOS 9 became available for download. In the new version, many different interesting changes are waiting for us, here are some of them:

• Reduced installer size. If the upgrade to iOS 8 required 4.5 GB, then for the 9th version of the operating system you need only 1.3 GB;
• Multitasking appeared on the tablets. Now you can view two applications in two windows in parallel;
• Improved specifications such as speed and battery life. Last increased by as much as 1 hour;
• Siri has become smarter. She is no longer a toy, but a serious personal assistant. Well, let's give her one more chance;
• The functionality of notes has grown greatly. Now you can add photos, sketches and even checklists. There was integration with other applications;
  
• Facilitated the transition from Android to iOS.

More details about the changes can be found on the Apple website .

What did Apple do with browser ads?

* on the left is an example of loading a page without blocking content, on the right - with blocking
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The first news that in the upcoming version of iOS in the Safari browser will be able to block ads, has caused a serious stir. Thematic editions predicted a quick demise of browser advertising and advertisers existing only at its expense. The looming threat is even dubbed as Ad-mageddon (end of advertising). There was an Apple presentation on which the topic was not much touched, an update was released, and the passion subsided a bit. Let us try to figure out how ad blocking will actually work and to whom and by what it threatens.

It is about the possibility of blocking ads in the browser, this does not apply to applications. The blocker is a separate application that provides the browser with a list of rules for blocking elements of the loaded page. The list is maintained and updated by the developer. Extracting advertising content from the data significantly increases the download speed and reduces the power consumption of the device. You can see in this article how much loading is accelerated.

Forecasts suggest that blocking will grow in popularity, which means that the revenues of services and sites that exist due to advertising will fall. For them, such a scenario is offered, how to create your own application and fill it with advertising. Nobody has forbidden it yet. But how to be small services that are not able to master their own application, it is not clear. For them, innovation and hit.

Apparently, the real “Admageddon” will come not soon. The fact is that blockers are distributed for money, and the instruction on their activation is not so trivial for the average iPhone user. Therefore, one should not expect that mobile ad blocking will become much more popular than its desktop counterpart (it is installed by no more than 5% of users, according to December data), at least in the near future.

Google presentation set for September 29

Apple has reported on new products, but we are waiting for the announcement of innovations from Google on September 29 .

First of all, the company is waiting for the presentation of two new Nexus smartphones: one from Huawei and the other from LG. Presumably, they will be called Huawei Nexus 6P and LG Nexus 5X. Among the new hardware at the presentation, the company promised to show the second generation of the Chromecast media player.

Immediately after the presentation is expected to release a new Android OS 6.0 Marshmallow.

Unlike Apple, for Google the presentation is not a very familiar way to show a new product. Apparently this time we will have something more interesting than what is stated in the announcement.

7 deadly sins game designer

An interesting interpretation of the seven sins in relation to game design was suggested by Konstantin Sakhnov, head of mobile projects at Mail.Ru Group. It is a bit ironic, but overall very informative. Undoubtedly, it is worth reading to all those interested in game development, and not just game designers. Written very lucidly, I personally learned a couple of sins, I will go to fight with them.