Spotlight

Customize Spotlight features to your liking with PersonalSpotlight [jailbreak]

iOS 9 came with a totally new Spotlight experience for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, but there still remains a lot that could be changed to better suit individual users' needs.

Thanks to the jailbreak community, however, customization is never really a problem.

A new free jailbreak tweak called PersonalSpotlight is now available that gives users the ability to personalize their Spotlight experience in a way that better suits them, and we'll show you how the tweak works as we go hands-on in this review.

Spotlight Suggestions expand to seven new countries, including India and Hong Kong

Spotlight Suggestions, a feature that recommends content from the Internet when searching with Spotlight on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 9.0+ or a Mac running OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later, has expanded to seven additional markets: Hong Kong, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.

Counting these regions, Spotlight Suggestions are now available in a total of 26 major markets around the world, listed on Apple's iOS Feature Availability webpage.

Tip: using emojis in iOS Spotlight Search

iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users can use emoji as search terms in Spotlight Search to some rather interesting effects. It's unclear when this feature was added or activated.

That being said, bringing up iOS's built-in Emoji keyboard to type an emoji in Spotlight's search field will produce matching results related to the character's meaning, as highlighted by Cult of Mac.

Spotlight Suggestions hit Denmark, Norway and Sweden, new Flyover and Transit data on Maps

Another day, another content expansion for Apple Maps. Less than 24 hours after bringing TrainLink and bus routes to commuters in New South Wales, Australia, Apple's mapping service has expanded its footprint with new three-dimensional Flyover content for Akron, Ohio and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Apple's also brought Spotlight Suggestions to the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac customers in Europe's Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Last but not least, traffic information on Maps has gone live in Thailand, bringing the total number of markets where this feature is available to 34 countries, as per Apple's iOS 9 Feature Availability webpage.

Universal search on Apple TV has gained support for finding CBS shows

Apple continues to add more content sources to the universal search capability of the fourth-generation Apple TV. Last week, for example, it added Starz content to the Apple TV's universal search.

And now, owners of the set-top box who installed CBS's tvOS application can take advantage of Siri to find such CBS shows as “Big Bang Theory”, “NCIS“, “Supergirl” and others, just by using their voice. Apple's support document was updated yesterday to reflect the addition of CBS to the universal search lineup for the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Explore the world of Wikipedia in revamped iOS app with 3D Touch, Explore feed and more

Wikipedia, the world's encyclopedia and knowledge base, has never had an attractive mobile app. That changes today with a major refresh to its app in the App Store permitting users to explore Wikipedia content tailored to their interests via an all-new Explore feed.

Navigations has been greatly simplified with new touch-friendly ways to discover content, 3D Touch support, Spotlight Search integration and more.

The app was obviously designed with the theme of exploration in mind.

“We all know Wikipedia as a quick fact-checking resource, but the new app is designed to make exploring knowledge on Wikipedia a journey,” developers told me via email.

Apple TV universal search expands to FOX NOW, FXNOW and Nat Geo TV

According to an Apple support document which was updated yesterday, the universal search feature on the fourth-generation Apple TV will now surface video content provided by FOX NOW, FXNOW and Nat Geo TV channels.

Users who install these apps on their set-top box can press the Siri Remote's microphone button and say things such as “Watch Life Below Zero” and land on the page that now includes that show by the National Geographic channel, in addition to other content sources.

This tweak displays Siri suggestions in all iOS Spotlight interfaces

Starting in iOS 9, Apple introduced Siri Suggestions in the updated Spotlight interface, which is accessed to the left of the first Home screen page.

Interestingly, despite the new Spotlight interface, Apple kept the original Spotlight interface that you can access by pulling down from the top of the screen, and as you might imagine, it doesn't have all the new bells and whistles the new Spotlight interface does.

A new jailbreak tweak called NearbyNews is now available in Cydia's BigBoss repository for $0.99 that will let you bring these features to the original Spotlight interface in iOS 9.

How to disable suggested places for Siri and Spotlight Search on iPhone and iPad

Suggested places in iPhone Spotlight Search

Siri and Spotlight Search are way more useful in iOS with suggestions that update results as you type. In addition to relevant apps and people, proactive suggestions also include nearby places such as restaurants, gas stations, retail stores, and other points of interest.

Should you find place suggestions unappealing and potentially impacting your privacy, you can turn them off with just a few taps.

In this post, you will learn how to disable suggested locations in Siri and Spotlight Search on your iPhone or iPad.

AnySpot for iOS 9: Search Spotlight from anywhere on your jailbroken iPhone

Unless you happen to have a physical Bluetooth keyboard attached to your iPhone or iPad, you cannot invoke Spotlight on iOS 9 unless you happen to be on the Home screen. AnySpot for iOS 9 aims to change this.

AnySpot lets you assign an Activator gesture to Spotlight so that you can access the search interface from anywhere on your iPhone or iPad, even if you happen to be within an app. If you want Spotlight search to work closer to how it works on the Mac, allowing you to access it from anywhere, then you should consider using AnySpot.