iOS 11

Third-party app developers will for the first time get access to the NFC chip in the iPhone 7/Plus (and presumably this year’s iPhones) in iOS 11. To date, only Apple Pay has been allowed to use the near-field communications chip.

Apple’s WWDC keynote did give one hint that use of the chip was being extended beyond payment when it showed the Apple Watch syncing data with gym equipment, but a new developer document says that third-party apps will be able to use it too …

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Earlier this week, Apple officially unveiled iOS 11 with a host of new features. The update brings things such as a redesigned Control Center, an all-new App Store, and much more. As is the case every year, however, there were things that many users hoped for that ultimately didn’t make an appearance…

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[Update: Added details clarifying understood push/fetch behaviors.]

Gmail users rejoice as iOS 11 may have a solution for the long-standing push notification woes. No longer having to rely on a third-party app, users with Google email accounts should be able to jump back onto iOS’ native Mail app.

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Although watchOS 4 doesn’t drop support for any Apple Watch models, the new iOS 11 software update will not be available for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. This likely means Apple Watch users with either of those models will need to upgrade to a newer iPhone to update to watchOS 4.

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iOS 11 includes many automatic features regarding first-time setup and account login. This extends to WiFi networks too. If a friend comes over with an iPhone running iOS 11, you can automatically log them in to your WiFi in one tap.

The UI looks like the AirPods pairing process. When the WiFi password screen pops up on the new device, other nearby iOS devices that are already on the network will try to help …

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If you’re curious about whether or not you should run Apple’s brand new software betas, the answer is probably just wait for now. In short, iOS 11 and the other new betas are very beta which is to be expected for a major new pre-release.

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Apple has doubled the storage of its most expensive iCloud storage plan from 1 TB to 2 TB, retaining the same $9.99 per month price point. The old 1 TB plan is no longer available, so Apple still offers a total of three paid iCloud storage plans.

The company has also announced that multiple users will be able to share a single iCloud storage plan with Family Sharing in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra.

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As Apple warned users with iOS 10.3, iOS 11 officially drops support for 32-bit applications. Any 32-bit app will refuse to launch and instead show an alert pressuring the developer to release a 64-bit update. Older iPhones and iPads with 32-bit CPUs cannot update to iOS 11 at all.

Apple has also started the transition for macOS to drop 32-bit support. It will require new apps and updates submitted to the Mac App Store to support 64-bit apps in 2018 …

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Now that Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote is behind us, we can finally take a step back and recap everything Apple announced today. The event was packed full of new information relating to nearly everything Apple offers, so head below for easy access to information on it all.

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While not given stage time today during its main keynote, Apple is set to include a new Business Chat feature in iOS 11. As first noted by The Verge, Business Chat has shown up on Apple’s developer site, though without a whole lot of details. The feature will seemingly allow users to quickly message a business for customer support help, business hours, and more directly within Messages…

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When Apple’s AirPods initially launched, one of the most obvious complaints was limitations with the controls. Being stuck with a couple of double-tap commands wasn’t enough for most users. With iOS 11, users will gain the ability to adjust the AirPods’ double-tap action with new control options.

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Today at Apple’s WWDC 2017 the company announced the newest update to their mobile operating system, iOS 11. New update is now available to developers through the Apple Developer Center and will be available as a public beta later this month. As we begin to dive into the new operating system, let’s take a first look at what the update brings to the user experience.

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Apple has made the first betas of iOS 11, watchOS 4, tvOS 11, and macOS 10.13 available. The updates are available to registered to developers now via Apple’s online developer portal. Additionally, the Xcode 9 beta is now available as well.

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I wrote a feature request back in 2015 calling on Apple to give Siri access to third-party apps. Six months later, Apple gave me part of what I’d asked for in the form of limited Siri support for six app categories.

For iOS 10.0, the Siri API will only work with six kinds of application: ride booking (think Uber), messaging, Photo Search (find photos and videos in a particular app), payments (‘Send $100 to John with SquareCash’), VoIP Calling (e.g: Skype) and Workouts (for starting health and fitness activities).

We’re now hearing that Apple plans to announce that it is expanding Siri support to more app categories, and there’s one of these that’s right at the top of my wish-list …

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It seems the best place to find last-minute leaks is Apple itself. Earlier today, a listing for a new iOS 11 app, ‘ Files’, was found in the App Store. The Feedback app has also spilled the beans on another feature, confirming that Drag and Drop will be coming to the iPad with iOS 11.

‘Split View/Drag and Drop’ is listed as one of the available preset options that beta testers can use to report bugs. Obviously, this addition has been made a little prematurely as the company won’t be announcing iOS 11 officially until its keynote in about 8 hours from now.

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We’re less than 12 hours away from Apple’s WWDC keynote address and little by little, details regarding Apple’s plans are starting to emerge. This evening, a new placeholder listing has gone live on the App Store for a ‘Files’ application from Apple, hinting that the company might bring an expanded filesystem of sorts to iOS 11…

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We’re less than a week away from Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, which means we’re also less than a week away from seeing the next major iteration of iOS. Headed into the event, there is actually very little that we know about iOS 11 and what it will bring to iPhone and iPad users. Of course, that hasn’t stopped many people from speculating and offering their wish lists for iOS 11.

Read on as we highlight some of the best iOS 11 concepts and ideas to date…

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We’re a mere week and change before Apple announces its new iPad lineup with iOS 11 and we’re expecting some Pro features to really stand out. I’ve run down 5 things I’d love to see next week…

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A noteworthy change is headed to a mobile Safari browser near you. The inertia scrolling properties currently used within mobile Safari will be updated to be faster and more consistent with other apps, including Apple-made apps, in iOS.

Currently Safari features slower inertia scrolling properties, something that the browser has featured since its inception back in 2007. Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP), which seeks to speed up web page access times by providing a stripped down version of HTML, features different scroll inertia due to inconsistencies in the way Safari is currently designed.

In a future Safari update, its scrolling behavior will be changed to be more in line with scrolling performance throughout the rest of iOS, effectively reducing the rate of scroll deceleration.
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We’ve seen a few concepts imagining what iOS 11 could look like, but today the folks at MacStories have put together a video highlighting new features that could come to the iPad as part of the update. The incredibly well thought out concept imagines features such as system-wide drag and drop, a new Shelf feature, and much more…

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