The 20 biggest changes coming to your iPhone and iPad

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Reuters

Apple's big new software updates for iPhones and iPads is coming Wednesday. It's called iOS 9, and it'll be available as a free download.

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There's a lot that's new in iOS 9, from some serious Siri upgrades to a few brand new default apps. We've combed through the update to find the biggest changes that you need to know.

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Upgrading to iOS 9 requires much less storage than last year's iOS 8 update.

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Monica Manalo, Business Insider

Lots of people complained about not having enough storage to install last year's iOS 8 update. A class action lawsuit was even filed against Apple over the issue.

Luckily, Apple has drastically reduced the amount of physical storage needed to download iOS 9 this year. You'll only need about 1GB of free space to install iOS 9 vs. the more than 4GB required last year.

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Siri has been supercharged with smarter suggestions and more specific searching abilities.

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Apple

Besides a refreshed design, Apple focused heavily on improving Siri's brain this year. The digital assistant knows more about your camera roll, so if you tell it to "Show me photos from Utah last August," and you'll see the photos you took when you were there.

If you're looking at a webpage in Safari, you can tell Siri to "Remind me about this tomorrow morning." Siri will create a reminder and automatically include the link.

Siri also integrates with movie sites like Vevo, Vimeo, and YouTube for searches. If you ask it for movie times, Siri will show you a list with nearby theaters and reviews from the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. For restaurant recommendations, Siri pulls data from Yelp reviews. It can also look up sport scores.

You can even ask Siri to download apps from the App Store and podcasts from Apple's Podcasts app.

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The Notes app now supports formatted text, allows you to make checklists, add photos and video, and even lets you draw with your finger.

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Apple's Notes app got a huge upgrade in iOS 9

Apple's iCloud Drive has its own app now.

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iCloud Drive is basically a folder of files you have stored online. You have to enable it in the iCloud section of the Settings app.

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Passbook, one of those default apps you never use, has been renamed to Wallet. And it might actually become useful now.

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Apple

Apple is letting brands like Walgreens and Panera support their store rewards programs alongside Apple Pay, so you'll be able to add digital rewards cards next to your credit cards in the Wallet app.

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Apple Maps does public transit directions now, but only in 9 cities and parts of China.

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Apple is taking on Google with its own public transit directions in the default Maps app, but the service currently only works in Baltimore, Chicago, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington DC, and parts of China.

Maps can also shows different business categories you might be interested in near you, like food, drinks, and shopping.

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The default Mail app is more powerful.

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Apple's Mail app is better at handling attachments. You can attach files from iCloud Drive, send up to 15 photos instead of only 5, and annotate attachments with your finger.

Mail can also look for phone numbers in your inbox and suggest a name for caller ID if you haven't added it to your contacts yet. The app will learn from who you email and suggest addresses based on your subject line. Event invitations in your inbox can automatically be added to your calendar as well.

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The Apple News app learns from what stories you like to read.

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Apple

Many publishers already display their articles in Apple News with interactive, well-designed layouts.

The app has a "For You" section that learns from what you like and shows you more content based on your reading habits.

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It's easier to navigate through photos in your camera roll.

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When you open a photo or video in iOS 9's Photos app, a new row of thumbnails at the bottom of the screen lets you quickly jump around.

Contact photos are shown in the Messages app even if you don't have an iPhone 6 Plus.

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The feature was previously limited to the iPhone 6 Plus, but now it's also available on the smaller iPhone 6.

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There's a new app switcher interface when you double tap the home button.

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It's less cluttered.

You can quickly go back to the last app you were using with this convenient "Back to" shortcut in the top left of the screen.

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The shift key finally isn't confusing to use.

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Pressing it will make the entire keyboard uppercase.

You can create a passcode with up to six digits.

iOS 9 will require a six digit passcode combination
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The security measure makes your iPhone much harder to hack, but it's also a little annoying to have to enter more digits. You can always just use the Touch ID fingerprint scanner to unlock your device, too.

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Low Power Mode will add up to three hours of additional battery life.

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The feature shuts down more battery intensive parts of the iPhone to conserve battery life. It prevents apps from updating in the background and also dims the screen. A notification will ask you if you want to enable Low Power Mode whenever your iPhone dips below 20%. Since you won't get the most out of your phone, you should only use Low Power Mode when you're going to be away from your charger for a long time.

You can search for whatever you need to find in the Settings app.

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There's a new way to use apps on the iPad called Slide Over.

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Apple

It allows you to use an app without actually leaving the one you're in. Swipe left from the right side of the iPad's screen to open a drawer of recent apps to choose from.

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You can play a video from a tiny window while using another app on the iPad.

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Apple

If you're using FaceTime or watching a any kind of video, press the home button and the video will shrink down to a small window in the corner of the display.

This feature and Slide Over only work on the iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 2, 3, or 4, according to Apple.

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On the iPad Pro, latest iPad Air, and latest iPad mini, you can use two apps side by side.

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Apple is finally letting iPad users truly multitask. You can copy and paste information between apps. Unfortunately, Split View is only available on the newest iPad models.

The iPad's keyboard is more useful.

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Apple

There are some basic formatting options, like cut, copy, and paste. If you drag two fingers across the keyboard, it also acts like a trackpad for selecting chunks of text.

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