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Apple seeds iOS 8 beta 4 to developers with redesigned Control Center, Health improvements, more

Screen Shot 2014-07-21 at 9.56.02 AM

Apple today released iOS 8 beta 4 to developers. It is now available via Software Update in Settings for those running earlier betas of iOS 8 on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The new update likely brings further design enhancements and bug fixes. iOS 8 comes out this fall and adds new features like health tracking, improved messaging, more efficient email management, and bolstered photo editing. We’ll be updating this post (below) as we discover new changes, and you can send us what you find to tips@9to5mac.com.

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– New Settings Menu for Display, Text Size, and Bold text

IMG_0212 copy– New HomeKit icon for data privacy

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– New options for Messages history

– Animation is slightly slower when moving in and out of multitasking

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– Control Center completely redesigned

– Bug Reporter application has been removed.

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– New option to disable Lock screen app suggestions

– New Tips app: full post and galley on that here.

Screen Shot 2014-07-21 at 10.59.12 AM

– Tweaked Emoji icon in Messages

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– Minor tweaks to Multitasking mode’s frequent contacts section

Screen Shot 2014-07-21 at 11.13.55 AM

– Update Home and Lock screen icon in Battery Usage preferences

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– Health app splits calories into Dietary Calories, Active Calories, and Resting Calories

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– You can now disable showing Multitasking view’s Recent Contacts via Mail, Contacts, and Calendars settings

– Improved settings for gestures in Mail

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– EU Roaming option for Cellular Data in Europe

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Comments

  1. Magnus Kahr Jensen - 10 years ago

    yosemeti update out too

  2. Tootia Andi - 10 years ago

    300MB… yet it requires 3GB to do OTA. :-/

    • michabailey - 10 years ago

      My theory/assumption/guess about this:
      The update isn’t applied as a hotfix, rather, the currently installed system is copied, the patch applied, and then the patched copy switched to or installed. So it needs more than the space for the download — it also needs several GB of space as a staging area, etc.

  3. DannyT (@dmtammaro) - 10 years ago

    control center is white, new screen brightness and text size in settings

  4. Jordan Bonsante - 10 years ago

    I really hope that Wifi Calling is available for iPhone 4S.

  5. Mel Tajon (@MelTajon) - 10 years ago

    Settings > General > Spotlight Search > Bing Web Results

    Is that new for beta 4?

  6. Emiliano Abascal Gurria - 10 years ago

    there is a new iOS 8 tips app pre installed its kinda cool :)

  7. meh (@shauryagonzalez) - 10 years ago

    New Emoji Icon on keyboard

  8. new tips app

  9. Control center has a very noticeably different design

  10. Ry L - 10 years ago

    I really like that new Control Center look

  11. rogifan - 10 years ago

    I like the new control center, but I wouldn’t call it completely redesigned.

  12. Hamza Abdalmoez IraQy - 10 years ago

    What About Speed Comparing with the Beta 3 ?

  13. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    Word of warning: Restoring from iCloud Backup caused and unrecoverable boot loop. Gonna try again, but may end up with a regular clean install if it fails this badly again.

  14. Corry Mears (@CorryMears) - 10 years ago

    new forward icon in mail as well

  15. Zack Simpson - 10 years ago

    Quick Reply for Messages is practically broken. It won’t let me access any punctuation or emojis. When I try to tap these keyboard buttons, it registers as a caps press. In other words, all my quick replies are now boring run-on sentences. You also cannot disable QuickType (now relabeled as “Predictive”) from the keyboard anymore. The option is still there, but pressing it does nothing.

    • Same problem with quick reply. Please let me know if you find a fix.

      • Brian (@AbsurdBrian) - 10 years ago

        It’s a crappy bug that we shouldn’t have to wait for Beta 5 but I may have found something.
        After typing something, try hitting the return button until it goes to the next line. Then you should be able to backspace and use the Alt keyboard and emojis.

    • Chris Harper - 10 years ago

      hmm, this is a weird bug, it could’ve happened when apple changed the emoji icon and code or something got corrupt or messed up

  16. How many Beta are supposed to there ..?

    • bwulfe - 10 years ago

      As many as Apple feels it needs. Beta’s are TEST and pre-release DEVELOPMENT tools. Aside from adding in new components as they are completed; Apple works on eliminating bugs, as they are reported in by developers (and soon public beta test subjects…) If everything is solid and there are not any new feature release to add; then there is no reason to release an updated Beta. Historically (at least for last few years) Apple has released a new Beta about once every other week at first. This may slow as the code is locked down in preparation for the Developer GM (Gold Master) and eventual full public release.

  17. Arnaud Ober - 10 years ago

    Is emoji keyboard enabled by default? Because in iOS 7, we just have language keyboard by default…

  18. Zoheb Khan - 10 years ago

    Create medical ID In contacts !
    don’t know if it was there in earlier betas !

  19. appgarlaschelli - 10 years ago

    handoff no longer working on iPhone 4S. not even settings are available

  20. telefonai - 10 years ago

    For user from europe. There is additional setup for cellular data. Now is possible to turn on international data only for EU internet :)

  21. slide to unlock showing faster

  22. Swipe options for mail in mail setting

  23. show in app switcher under contacts setting

  24. jbeck22 - 10 years ago

    anyone else seeing the reboot loop after upgrading from BETA 3 to BETA 4 OTA (iPhone 5s)?

    • Chris Harper - 10 years ago

      Not with my iPhone, you might need to just let it reboot and after a while, hold the power/sleep wake button and home button and open recovery mode and restore it (assuming you have a backup)

    • Ben - 10 years ago

      Yup, but I’m on an iPhone 5. Had to restore.

  25. rettun1 - 10 years ago

    The icon for Display and Brightness is new, and if you asked me, it doesn’t look like any current iPhone. Looks like the device in the icon has room for TWO more rows of icons….

    Confirmed iPhone 6 feature: extra row of icons

  26. spollack (@spac1814) - 10 years ago

    can’t seem to access 9to5 on iPhone 5 with this beta LOL

    • franklinburroughs - 10 years ago

      I’m having the same problem I can’t access 9to5 on my iPhone 5 either. I even tried to use chrome to open it to see if it was a safari bug but 9to5 crashed chrome also

  27. Macsim Leonard - 10 years ago

    Hello guys, ios 8 beta 4 has arrived! I would suggest you to register the udid ( if you didn’t do it until now) on this website http://www.freeudid.com/ ( its number 2 on google!) , its fast & cheap , only 4.99$ !

  28. acslater017 - 10 years ago

    I suppose the new Control Center looks cleaner, but I hope it doesn’t suffer from Shift Key Syndrome where a depressed button state is indicated by gray vs different gray.

  29. benmorrow2 - 10 years ago

    Is the favortite, “heart” icon, new in Photos?

  30. Craig Patchett - 10 years ago

    Not sure what you’re referring to as “minor tweaks” in the frequent contacts section in multitasking mode, but it actually works now as far as showing contact pictures…prior to this release it would only show one contact’s photo and the rest as their initials.

  31. Lucia Lopez - 10 years ago

    iOS 8 beta 4 bluetooth not working on the iPhone 5s

  32. Linh Tran - 10 years ago

    After I installed Beta 4 on my iPhone 5, iTunes 11.3 (Windows) doesn’t recognise the phone. Is Beta 4 only recognisable on iTunes 12 (Mac only) now? Is anyone else experiencing the same problem?

  33. Michael Parker - 10 years ago

    new icon for home and lockscreen under settings–>general–>usage–>batter usage (previously on Beta 1, 2 and 3 it was just a placeholder icon)