iOS 10.3 users will now see much change, but there’s a sea shift in the background.
Apple’s iOS 10.3 has just started rolling out and while there’s not much that meets the eye, the company is actually shifting its file system for iPhone and iPad users. From iOS 10.3 onwards, these devices will use the Apple File System (APFS), which was announced at the WWDC conference in 2016. The new file system is meant for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV.
So, you can expect those other devices to move sometime soon, although the Mac may take more time than others. Till now, Apple had been using the Hierarchical File System (HFS), which had originally been designed for Macs, which had floppy and hard disks. However, current generation devices run on solid state drives.
Further, the new file system is built keeping encryption in mind, while it has other features as well. APFS is meant to provide low latency and improve read/write speeds on Apple’s devices. Whether the same happens will be seen once the update rolls out to all users, but it’s a pretty big change, that you probably won’t even feel.