iOS 8.1

Now that iOS 8.1 is out, with iOS 8.1 running on your iPhone, you can use your iPhone as a Instant Hotspot for your Mac (running Yosemite) and for your iPad or iPod Touch (also running iOS 8.1). This is one of the features of Continuity, which further integrates and connects your Mac and iOS devices. Continuity also includes Handoff, iPhone Cellular Calls, SMS Relay, and AirDrop.

When you are in an area with your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch that does not have Wi-Fi, they can connect to your phone’s personal hotspot when your iPhone is nearby. Now you do not even have to set up a personal hotspot on your iPhone and enter in the Wi-Fi Password for your personal hotspot. When you join the Wi-Fi network on your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch, the name of your phone will be listed automatically. All you have to do is join it. When you aren’t using your phone’s hotspot, your device will disconnect automatically to save battery life. Your device will remember the fact that you used your phone’s hotspot and the next time you want to go online when you do not have Wi-Fi, it automatically rejoins the hotspot.

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Now that iOS 8.1 is out, with iOS 8.1 running on your iPhone, you can set up SMS Relay. This is one of the features of Continuity, which further integrates and connects your Mac and iOS devices, running Yosemite and iOS 8.1. Continuity also includes Handoff, iPhone Cellular Calls, Instant Hotspot, and AirDrop.

With iMessage, when you are messaging people using Apple devices they appear in blue bubbles. Those messages sync onto all of your Apple devices so that way you can text someone from your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch. Previously, the people you texted in green bubbles were not using iMessage because they were not on Apple devices. Those conversations were not syncing over to your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch, which forced you to respond back to them only on your iPhone. Now with SMS Relay, your non-Apple using friends’ messages will sync to your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch while all connected to the same Wi-Fi Network, so you can respond from whichever device you prefer.

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It wasn’t too long ago when the Pangu jailbreak team took the scene by storm with it’s iOS 7.1.x jailbreak tool release. It was quite unexpected because no on had really heard of Pangu prior to the surprise. Turns out the team was very talented and they’re all set to reach another milestone…

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Apple has released iOS 8.1 and with that, we have Apple Pay support. This is Apple’s new mobile payment platform that takes advantage of the NFC capabilities of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This will allow you to make purchases in stores that support Apple Pay using supported cards from a growing list of banks. Setting up Apple Pay is very simple and we’ve put together a quick tutorial to walk you through the process…

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Update: Visit Apple.com/ApplePay for the latest information on where to use Apple Pay in stores, and featured Apple Pay apps for iPhone and iPad here.

With Apple Pay launching on Monday with iOS 8.1 for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared an update at today’s special event with additional retailers and iOS apps that will accept Apple Pay at launch or have committed to accept Apple Pay in the future. According to Apple’s microsite for Apple Pay, the company has added 16 additional retailers and venues with plans to accept Apple Pay at launch or in the future. In addition to those retailers and venues, Apple has added 12 additional apps that plan to accept Apple Pay starting on Monday or sometime after the launch date.
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During today’s Apple event, Apple SVP of Software Craig Federighi mentioned iOS 8.1 as well as a few changes coming with the software update to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. With iOS 8.1, Apple will introduce Apple Pay for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The update will also include the public beta of iCloud Photo Library for every user; currently, the feature has been available to limited users since iOS 8’s public launch. Finally, Apple says iOS 8.1 will bring back the Camera Roll for users following customer feedback.
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Apple has decided to disable one of the features of the Health application, specifically the blood glucose tracking capability, until it can issue a fix for issues reported by users in the UK and Australia, CNET reported tonight. The feature will apparently be removed through an incoming software update (perhaps iOS 8.1, or possibly 8.0.3) while the company prepares a patch to remedy the problem. Apple has also provided a longer explanation on its support website:

While it’s true that the HealthKit framework supports measurement standards for both the United States and abroad, a bug that exists in the current version prevents users from manually entering or viewing blood glucose levels using anything other than United States measurements (mg/dL, or milligrams per deciliter) within the actual Health application. The UK and Australian standard is the millimole per litre (mmol/L).

Apple issued a statement on the problem, saying…

An internal memo sent to Panera Bread employees and acquired by 9to5Mac has revealed that Apple will launch its mobile payment platform on Monday, October 20th. Panera Bread was listed as one of the initial launch partners for Apple Pay during its introduction last month.

An online training course for employees has been published that includes instructions for the VeriFone readers, including the Apple Pay functions. Stores that don’t have the appropriate hardware to support the technology will receive further information on the 20th about how the company plans to handle payments those locations.
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The launch of Apple Pay, Apple’s NFC and Touch ID-based mobile payment solution, is upon us. Apple has begun preparing for the launch by kicking off Apple Pay training programs for its own group of retail store employees and by working with retailers to prepare for the debut later this month. The training materials, shared by a reliable source, for the Apple Pay launch at Apple retail stores have also detailed some new specifics regarding the Apple Pay setup and transaction processes both on customer iPhones and in Apple retail stores…

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More investigation into the newest beat of iOS 8.1 has revealed that the operating system contains 3x versions of some iPad UI elements. Triple-size elements are used by the new iPhone 6 Plus to maintain “Retina” quality on the larger display, and this change could indicate that a larger or higher-resolution iPad could be coming with next week’s announcement.

Like the new Apple Pay UI that was recently uncovered in this beta, the new assets were discovered by Hamza Sood and posted to Twitter:

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It’s happening: Apple has just announced a keynote address for Thursday, October 16th to take place at the Town Hall auditorium on its Infinite Loop Campus in Cupertino, California. Invitations to select members of the media and special guests indicate that the event will, as always, begin at 10 AM Pacific time/1 PM Eastern Time. News of the October 16th date broke last week. We’ll be providing full, live coverage on 9to5Mac.com of the event’s proceedings. Here’s everything we’re expecting Apple to discuss at the event:

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Just in case there hadn’t already been enough evidence of Apple Pay support coming to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the iOS 8.1 update, the second beta of the operating system, which was released earlier today, contains the setup screen for the system. The change isn’t visible to most users right now, but Hamad Sood been able to make it appear:

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Apple today released iOS 8.1 beta 2 to developers via an OTA update as well as through its developer center. The second beta version of iOS 8.1 follows just over a week after the release of iOS 8.1 beta 1 to developers which brought minimal changes. We’ll update with any noticeable changes from the previous beta, and email tips@9to5Mac.com if you spot anything. What’s new:
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Chinese site Feng is reporting that Taiwanese media is saying that Apple wants to launch the smartwatch sometime in February. Most recently, The Information said Apple would be “lucky” to release the Apple Watch by Valentine’s Day. Officially, Apple has only quoted ‘early 2015’ as a launch window for the Apple Watch.

According to the report, Apple is supply constrained by the sapphire output of GTAT, which will mean the Apple Watch will hit in limited quantities. However, it is important to note that the low-end Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport, does not use sapphire at all, which will make that model easier to source. The higher end versions, Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition are the SKU’s that will be impacted by sapphire shortages.

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When iOS 8.0 launched, it shipped without support for SMS Forwarding, one of the many “Continuity” features that were demonstrated to work between iOS devices and Macs running OS X Yosemite. The reason for this was fairly simple: there was no need to include the feature if Yosemite was not yet available to the public.

Earlier this week Apple delivered the first beta version of iOS 8.1 to developers. Aside from a few design tweaks, not a whole lot of changes were visible, though there were references and initial support for Apple Pay, indicating that this would be the update to enable that feature. Now it seems the update will also activate the SMS Forwarding function.

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According to newly surfaced screenshots of a modified version of the recently released iOS 8.1 beta, it appears that the upcoming iPad line will have some amount of Apple Pay capability and a Touch ID sensor to match. Additionally, screenshots of a hidden Passbook settings page have surfaced showing what it might look like when adding a credit card for use with Apple Pay.

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Starting with iOS 5 in 2011, Apple has released a major new iOS version each fall and a notable follow-up update early in the following year. For example, iOS 6 launched in September 2012 and was updated to iOS 6.1 in January, and iOS 7, which was launched in September 2013, was updated to iOS 7.1 with CarPlay and interface improvements in March 2014. But starting with the recently released iOS 8, it appears that Apple has a different development schedule for 2015 and perhaps beyond. According to sources, Apple is already hard at work on three major follow-up versions to iOS 8: iOS 8.1, iOS 8.2, and iOS 8.3.

iOS 8.2 visits to 9to5Mac

We’ve confirmed that these major new versions are in development via two means. First, a developer of a major hardware-connected iOS application has shared with us their analytics, and this data indicates that all three versions are in testing by Apple employees in or around Cupertino, California. Second, and much closer to home, our own Google Analytics for 9to5Mac.com show that iOS users are visiting our website via iOS 8.1, iOS 8.2, and iOS 8.3 devices. iOS 8.1 hits to 9to5Mac.com started appearing even months before iOS 8.0 launched, but 8.2 and 8.3 visits only started picking up following iOS 8’s release in mid-September.

iOS 8.3 visits to 9to5Mac

While Apple works on several iOS features and enhancements over the course of several years, it typically only begins wholly testing major new releases close to the ship dates of the preceding release. Apple working on three significant follow-ups to iOS 8 is a shift from the usual development cycle, one which would normally indicate Apple to be working on just iOS 8.1 as well as iOS 9.0. It’s possible that iOS 9 is also in the works, and of course Apple is always working on nominal bug fix (x.x.1 or .2 or .3) updates, but the fact that 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 are all in simultaneous development raises some interesting possibilities:

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Apple may be planning to give the next version of the Mac OS X operating system, 10.10, a larger presence than iOS 8 at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, according to sources with knowledge of the plans. Because OS X 10.10 will feature an end-to-end redesign, not dissimilar from the scope of the changes to the iPhone and iPad operating system with iOS 7 last year, Apple wants to heavily promote the new system to developers. Apple has also been allocating iOS user interface resources to OS X teams in order to finish up the new OS X design in time for WWDC, and 10.10 development is said to be “steaming forward…”

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