Apple for the day

Patrick Lucas Austin has a LifeHacker article about iOS11:

In iOS 11, you might find yourself tapping and touching apps to find out what new features lay hidden just beneath the force-sensitive surface. If you’re one who likes to start fresh whenever you get a new OS upgrade on your device, you’re probably going to spend some time arranging apps on the homescreen to your liking. On earlier versions of iOS, organizing apps was a slow and time-consuming process. iOS 11, however, brings with it a simple and welcome change that makes rearranging your apps a little easier.
In the past, you were able to organize and rearrange the apps on your iOS device using two methods: the device itself, and iTunes. iTunes offered more control in terms of app organizing, and let you select multiple apps at a time to drag and drop at your leisure, whereas previous versions of iOS only allowed for app arrangement one at a time. Needless to say, it took a while.
Now, since iTunes’ removal of both the iOS App Store and its more granular app rearrangement feature, your only way to move those tiny squares around is on the iOS device itself. Dragging them one by one isn’t a great way to deal with pages and pages of apps, and only makes it more likely for me to throw my hands in the air and resign to swiping right every time I want to open Facebook Messenger. iOS 11’s new method of handling apps finally takes advantage of the multitouch display and lets you manipulate multiple apps at once with two fingers, an idea that should’ve been in place since the day they added folders (and frankly, it should’ve been a feature in the first iPhone but whatever, at least it’s here now). 

Here’s how to do it:Long-press your app of choice until you enter app edit mode, where you can move or delete apps by pressing the X icon.
With your finger still on the first app, move it around until its X icon disappears.
With your finger still on the first app, use another finger to select other apps you’d like to move, automatically stacking them.
To create a folder, drag the stack of apps over another app icon until it creates a new folder.
Yeah, it’s a bit awkward (especially the whole “keeping your finger on the screen” part) but don’t knock it until you try it. Dragging and releasing your cadre of icons on an empty section of your screen will arrange them from last selected to first selected, meaning the last app you pick will nab the first open spot.
If you’re aiming to put your new stack of apps into a folder, it helps to create one beforehand. You can drag the stack of apps over another app so iOS creates a folder, but if you decide to move your finger at all the new folder will disappear, and you’ll be left with the same stack of apps, no doubt thanks to some bug in the newly released operating system.

Rico says he'll reserve judgement until he's tried it.