Alongside the fresh new San Francisco font and the News app that replaces Newsstand, the biggest change to the iOS 9 home screen may be the arrival of Wallet, the rebranded name for the former built-in Passbook. However, the update isn't simply cosmetic: There are a few new features and improvements coming along for the ride, although some of them haven't been enabled quite yet. Let's take a quick look at what's new. (And for even more iOS 9 tips, click here.)

Welcome Discover

If you've been hanging onto a Discover-branded credit card in a physical wallet lamenting the fact that Apple Pay doesn't support this preferred payment method, your long, national nightmare comes to an end with the update to iOS 9.

But it gets even better: Not only can you now add Discover credit cards alongside Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, but cardholders will also be eligible to receive a 10 percent Cashback Bonus through the end of 2015 on up to $10,000 worth of in-store purchases. (Discover It Miles, Miles, and Escape cardholders earn an extra 10 miles per dollar on the same amount of purchases.)

Discover cards can be added to Wallet on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus devices as well as Apple Watch, and requires nothing more than a quick verification by text message, email, or phone call.

Store Credit Cards, Too

The iOS 9 Wallet app will also mark the arrival of retailer-specific credit cards to the Apple Pay fold, with Best Buy, BJ's Wholesale Club, JCPenney, and Kohl's already lined up to support the feature. Apple has yet to announce when store charge customers can add such cards, though — we tried while writing this article using our Best Buy card, but it came back ineligible.

Once available, adding a supported store-branded credit card is exactly the same as Visa, MasterCard, Amex, or Discover: Tap the plus sign in the upper right corner of the Wallet, then follow the on-screen instructions to snap a picture of your card and verify with the three-digit code on back (four on front for Amex); cards can be added to Apple Watch using the built-in app.

Easier Access

Although Apple Pay has always worked without unlocking your iPhone, accessing the cards stored in Passbook often required drilling down into the app itself or being near a supported retail location that would automatically offer to display a loyalty card via push notification.

iOS 9 makes things a bit easier on us all with a new shortcut: Just double-click on the Home button while your iPhone is locked, and up pops the Wallet app with your default payment card ready for action, and all of your other credit cards, store credit cards, and loyalty cards just a tap away.

Get Rewarded

Although the previous Passbook app was often convenient for adding certain types of rewards cards, it wasn't always clear who actually supported them. iOS 9 promises to expand the available options by receiving and redeeming rewards automatically whenever you use Apple Pay.

Already announced is support for Dunkin' Donuts DD Perks, Walgreens Balance Rewards and MyPanera, and Apple's official screenshots also tease My Coke Rewards, Kohl's Yes2You, Wegmans Food Markets, and Starbuck's, which previously offered a Passbook for gift card payments and racking up points.

As of this writing, however, this feature of Wallet has yet to be implemented.

More Retailers

Though not a new feature per se, there will be plenty of new retailers ready to accept Apple Pay on your iPhone or Apple Watch this year. Announced during the iOS 9 unveil back in June, Best Buy lit up support for the mobile payment service in its retail stores last week after accepting Apple Pay for in-app payments earlier this year.

Other retailers with upcoming support for Apple Pay include B&H Photo, Baskin Robbins, BevMo!, Big Lots!, JCPenney, Jonny Rockets, Kohl's, LEGO, Dunkin' Donuts, El Pollo Loco, Express, Forever 21, Levi's, Peet's Coffee, Trader Joe's, and White Castle.

Last but not least, scores of small retailers will soon be able to jump into the Apple Pay action, thanks to Square integration courtesy of new reader hardware. You can bet there will be plenty of additional retailers jumping on board Wallet and Apple Pay in the very near future as well.

iOS 9 is here, and even if it isn't as revolutionary as some of Apple's mobile operating systems, it does have plenty of new features - one of which is the News app. Replacing Newsstand, the News app is a Flipboard-style application that creates a personalized newsfeed just for you, based on your preferences and interests. Keep reading to learn how it works.

Customizing the News

When you fire up News for the first time you'll be asked to pick your favorite publications from a lengthy list. There's much more than what you can see initially; keep sliding up to see more publications. There's a lot here - everything from Sports Illustrated to Good Housekeeping to USA Today - so you should be able to find something you're interested in. But don't worry about making the perfect selections; you can always make changes later. After you've picked a few publications (or a whole bunch of them) you'll have the option to get personalized news sent straight to your inbox.

To continue personalizing your News experience, you should visit the Explore tab (at the bottom of the screen in the middle) next. Here you can pick more suggested channels: specific publications or topics (sports, politics, entertainment, etc.) that will pull in stories from a variety of sources. Tap on a topic to check it out, or hit the plus button to add it to your personalized feed. In addition, you can delve in further by scrolling down to the browse section, which lets you narrow your focus by picking from even more specific publications and topics. If you still can't find what you're looking for, click on the search tab to try to track down exactly what you want.

All the topics and publications you've chosen to add to your feed will appear under the Favorites tab. If you decide you're no longer interested in certain content, tap the Edit button in the upper-right corner, then hit the X that appears on each channel to remove it from your feed.

Using Your News Feed

Now that you've tailored your feed with the topics that interest you, you're ready to start reading. Go to the For You tab to see all the pertainent content compiled into an attractive, personalized, magazine-style list.

If you have the Show Story Previews option on in Settings > News, then you'll usually be taken to a shortened version of the story when you click on a headline. Sometimes you may be required to click through to the site to get the entire story. (If the Show Story Previews option is off, you may be taken straight to the content provider's site.) Also, when reading stories in preview mode, you'll often see a box with a subject below the headline. Tap it to be taken to more stories about the same type of subject.

When browsing the headlines in the For You feed, you can press down on any story for a second to be provided with Share Story, Save or Like options. Icons for these same options can be found at the bottom of a page while reading a story. As you'd expect, Share Story lets you send a story link to yourself or others in a variety of ways, Like adds an easily identifiable heart icon to the story, and Save bookmarks a story so you can check it out later; you'll find it in the Saved tab at the bottom-right of the screen. From the Saved tab, you can also check your history in case you want to go back to a story you previously read.

And if you're wondering what happened to all your old magazines that were in the new-defunct Newsstand app, worry not — any magazines you subscribe to exist as their own apps and have been relocated to a Newsstand folder on your home screen.

Got an Apple, Mac, or iOS tech question? We have the answer. This time we have a reader whose custom-made iPhone ringtone library has seemingly disappeared. But that doesn't mean those tones are gone for good! Here are the steps you can take to track them down on your Mac, then restore them to your iPhone.

Question

I had a library of homemade iPhone ringtones on my Mac that disappeared during the last OS X software upgrade. All my friends and family members had a ringtone assigned to them. I knew exactly who was calling me without having to look at the phone. About 5 months ago I exported my iTunes library to my Desktop: File > Library > Export Library. Is there a way to isolate the ringtone files and restore them to iTunes? Or would it be better to just do a complete restore? Also, is it possible to backup the ringtones to a CD to prevent this from happening again?

Answer

Ack! That's never fun when files go missing after a software update. Furthermore, Export Library doesn't actually backup your iTunes media files — it contains metadata such as your playlists and ratings.

Fortunately, you might still have some options available. Your best bet would be to access an actual backup that you made through Time Machine or other means, but even if you don't have one of those, the ringtone files could still be on your computer even if iTunes isn't showing them. A Finder search can help you track down the missing files since all ringtones end in a ".m4r" extension. Hit Command + F to begin a search; type "m4r" in the search field, then, when the result completions appear, you'll see "Kind: Ringtone." Select this type.

By performing this search, you should be able to find your missing files if they're backed up anywhere on your Mac. Once you have them, simply drag and drop those ringtone files onto the iTunes icon in the Dock, and they will be re-imported. Once re-imported, they can be synced over to your iPhone and re-assigned to the contacts.

In regards to backing up to a CD, yes, ringtones can be put on a CD (or other type of storage media) just like any other files. Simply insert a blank CD into your Mac, then burn the ringtone files to it for safekeeping. For further information on how to burn files to a disc on a Mac, here are Apple's instructions on the matter.

Got an Apple tech question? Email [email protected].