iOS

4,959 'iOS' stories August 2010 - August 2014

The world’s most advanced mobile operating system

iOS is Apple’s mobile operating system that runs on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 13.

In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone and iPhone OS. During the event, Jobs referred to the operating system as OS X because it shared a similar Unix core compared to the Mac. When Apple launched the iPhone SDK a year later, they officially changed the name to iPhone OS.

In the summer of 2008, Apple added the App Store to iPhone OS with version 2.0, and this set the stage for the “app economy” that we still enjoy to this day.

Version 3.0 was released in 2009, and it included copy/paste, MMS support, Spotlight, mobile tethering, and push notifications for 3rd party apps.

In version 4, Apple finally renamed iPhone OS to iOS (with the iPad sharing the same software). The major features were multitasking and FaceTime.

iOS 5.0 introduced Notification Center, iMessage, Siri, and iCloud.

iOS 6.0 removes Google Maps in favor of Apple Maps and added the Passbook app (now known as Wallet).

Version 7.0 brought a dramatic redesign of iOS with a new font, flatter icons, a and new Photos app. The redesign was led by Jony Ive.

Version iOS 8.0, Apple finally allowed third-party keyboards and the ability to share files from different apps.

Version 9.0 included Apple Maps, an overhauled Notes app, and multitasking for iPad.

Version 10.0 included an SDK for Siri, Maps, and iMessages.

Version 11.0 included a new iPad Dock, Customizable Control center, drag and drop on iPad, and the Files app with third-party integration.

Version 12.0 added Screen Time features for managing your time on devices, the Shortcuts app, ARKit 2.0, and Memoji.

iOS 13 added Dark Mode, swipe-style typing, a redesigned share sheet, made app downloads 50% smaller, 2x faster app launch speed, Memoji Stickers and Memoji Makeup, HomeKit-enabled routers and HomeKit Secure Video, a new “Sign in with Apple” option for logging into third-party services, all-new Apple Maps, and much more.

Compatible Devices with iOS 13

iPhone 11
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone XS
iPhone XS Max
iPhone XR
iPhone X
iPhone 8
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone 7
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s Plus
iPhone SE
iPod touch (7th generation)

Apple runs limited-time sale on 20 popular ‘Amazing Productivity Apps’ for iOS

9to5 Staff Aug 7 2014 - 7:58 pm PT

9 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

A lot of our favorite apps are on sale in this special promotion. Scanner Pro, Fantastical, Launch Center Pro, Clear, Notability, PDF Expert and many more are at or near all time low prices. Too early for back to school?

Full list of Apps and markdowns follows:
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1Password for iOS goes on sale as developer confirms iOS 8 update will be free for current users

Mike Beasley Aug 7 2014 - 2:13 pm PT

11 Comments

AgileBits, the team behind the 1Password security app that we’ve reviewed in the past, announced on in a company blog post that the upcoming iOS 8 update for the software will be free for all owners of the current version of the app.

The update, which is expected to debut around iOS 8’s launch this fall, is currently in a semi-public beta and takes advantage of new features in the operating system like Safari extensions, Touch ID, and more. If you don’t already own the current version of the iOS app, you can grab it at the steeply-discounted price of $9.99. The Mac version is also on sale for $34.99 (Reg. $50).

Apple seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 build 13F12 to developers

Mark Gurman Aug 7 2014 - 10:18 am PT

4 Comments

Apple today has provided developers with the second beta of the upcoming OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 release. The new build number is 13F12 and it is available on the Mac Developer Center and in Software Update in the Mac App Store for those running the earlier build. Apple asks developers to focus testing on USB, USB Smart Cards, Safari, Graphics, and Thunderbolt.

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United Airlines adds passport scanning for international flights to mobile app

Ben Lovejoy Aug 7 2014 - 4:52 am PT

2 Comments

The immigration authorities of most countries require airlines to check the passports of their passengers before they are allowed to fly, so if you are making your first international flight with an airline, you have to queue up at check-in instead of downloading your own boarding pass at home. United Airlines is aiming to end this by adding the ability to scan and verify your passport using its mobile app, then head straight to Departures at the airport.

Once you’ve scanned your passport with your iPhone’s camera, the app sends the details to credentials management company Jumio Inc, who verify that your passport is valid which then allows you to download your boarding pass.

If your passport is already registered with United from a previous international flight, you don’t need to scan it again, it is verified automatically.

The bad news is that the system can’t yet verify visas, so if you need a visa for the country you’re visiting, you’ll still need to check-in the old-fashioned way.

You can download the free United Airlines app from iTunes.

Foursquare’s location discovery-focused app overhaul now available

Zac Hall Aug 6 2014 - 8:39 am PT

2 Comments

Earlier this year Foursquare announced its plans to split check-ins and social features from location discovery and reviewing features from its mobile apps. Swarm, the new app focused on check-ins, launched earlier this year in May while Foursquare gave its users some time to become familiar with having two apps for two different purposes.
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Apple says it has created or supported 629,000 jobs in Europe, including 500k from the ‘app economy’

Benjamin Mayo Aug 6 2014 - 4:49 am PT

8 Comments

Apple is today touting a lot of new stats regarding Apple’s contribution to European economies. The company has done similar things for the United States, in the past. For Europe, Apple claims to have created or supported 629,000 jobs across Europe, with over 500,000 of those representing the ‘app economy’. Apple says this number is made up of employees whose jobs can be directly attributed to the App Store. Out of $20 billion in worldwide developer earnings, $6.5 billion has gone to European developers.

In 2014, Apple estimates the ‘app economy’ will add $86 billion to worldwide GDP this year. Aside from the App Store, Apple employees 16,000 Europeans directly and indirectly supports a total of 132,000 jobs elsewhere. The company has also calculated that 116,000 European jobs have been created at other companies as a result of Apple’s growth.

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Latest sketchy iPhone 6 battery rumor claims capacity jump over earlier ‘test battery’

Ben Lovejoy Aug 6 2014 - 3:59 am PT

6 Comments

A claimed iPhone 6 battery with a capacity of 1810mAh was a ‘test unit,’ claims a Chinese news analyst cited by GforGames, while the real thing “might” have a capacity of 2100mAh.

According to her supply-chain sources, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 might actually sport a larger 2,100 mAh battery as opposed to a 1,810 mAh unit. Reportedly, the 1,810 mAh battery we’ve seen in the aforementioned leaked picture is as real as it can be, but according to Sung Chang Xu’s sources, these units have been used solely for testing purposes.

It should be noted that GforGames specializes in quoting every Chinese source going, and even the source doesn’t appear too confident in this case, so we’re not putting much stock in it.

The battery-life of the iPhone 6 is an interesting question. Assuming the many leaked case parts are real, the phone will be significantly slimmer than existing models, and it’s likely that this will be achieved in large part by a thinner battery. The larger, higher-res screen will also use more power.

However, the larger form factor of the phone will allow the battery to be both longer and wider, and it’s also likely that Apple will further improve the power efficiency of the phone. If I were to guess, I’d say that Apple will aim to cancel out these effects in order to match the battery-life of the iPhone 5s in the 4.7-inch model, but there’s still room to hope for an improvement.

Samsung’s SoC profits down as Apple chooses TSMC for A8, although rumor says it will produce processors for iPhone 7

Benjamin Mayo Aug 5 2014 - 5:01 am PT

5 Comments

Samsung has been having some issues lately, reporting falling profits in the most recent quarter. Although most of this is due to shrinking growth in phone sales, where Apple continues to dominate in terms of profit share, Apple has also affected Samsung’s income from its microprocessor production business. With TSMC having exclusivity over Apple’s A8 production, to be used in the upcoming iPhone 6, Samsung’s outlook for ‘logic chips’ is also gloomy, as The Wall Street Journal highlights in a new report.

Samsung executives admitted on a recent conference call that the outlook isn’t so bright for this business.

“Sales and profitability from System LSI (logic chip business) worsened as demand from main customers continued to decline,” Robert Yi, Samsung’s head of investor relations said last week. His comments confirmed, albeit indirectly, how Apple’s gradual shift away from Samsung as a customer of microprocessors was eating into its profits.

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Adobe developing Aperture to Lightroom migration tool, releases step-by-step transition guide

Mark Gurman Aug 4 2014 - 11:38 am PT

11 Comments

Approximately a month after Apple announced it is discontinuing Aperture and iPhoto in favor of the new Photos app on OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, Adobe is today taking advantage of the Apple shift with a couple of key announcements. First, Adobe has published a new website detailing the advantages of Lightroom over Aperture. More importantly, Adobe has released a comprehensive, step-by-step transition guide for moving from Aperture to Lightroom. The guide also includes some answers to frequently asked questions.

It can be accessed here. Adobe has also announced that it working on software to bring a more automated transition experience:

At Adobe, we’re working on a migration tool to help you bring your photos into Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® from Aperture, but if you’re eager to switch before the tool is ready, this guide can help ease your transition. We recognize that this migration may be a challenging process and offer the following resources and methodology to help get you up to speed with Lightroom and provide a road map for successfully migrating your photos.

The first challenge is that the terminology, layout, and controls of the two applications are different. It’s a good idea to start processing photos in Lightroom and become familiar with it before you migrate your photos from Aperture. You can do so by taking some new photos, importing them into Lightroom, and then using Lightroom.

The new Photos app for OS X launches in early 2015, but despite Apple’s claims of significant functionality, a look at what Apple has shown about the app reveals that the functionality mostly mirrors what iOS 8 will gain in September. Adobe has also previously detailed some future Lightroom plans in order to appease professional photo editors.

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New Apple TV beta brings refreshed look with iOS-like icons and thinner text (Gallery)

Mark Gurman Aug 4 2014 - 11:13 am PT

38 Comments

In addition to issuing updates to the iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite betas, Apple has released a new beta version of the Apple TV software. While earlier Apple TV betas did not bring more than new Family Sharing and iCloud Photos support, today’s update brings a refined look to the Apple TV Home screen. Taking cues from iOS and OS X, the new update brings completely redesigned icons to the Apple set-top-box and a new thinner font first introduced last year with iOS 7. A couple more images of the new interface are below:

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Apple releases OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 5 with Safari improvements, UI changes

Mark Gurman Aug 4 2014 - 10:05 am PT

32 Comments

Apple this morning has released OS X 10.10 Yosemite Developer Preview 5. The new update brings various performance improvements and bug fixes. The previous Developer Preview brought some minor user-interface enhancements and significant speed improvements. Apple also released iOS 8 beta 5. We’ll be updating this post live with new discoveries as they are made. You can send us what you find to tips@9to5mac.com. You can find what’s new in this developer preview, below:

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Apple releases iOS 8 beta 5 to developers with Health enhancements, UI tweaks

Mark Gurman Aug 4 2014 - 9:58 am PT

59 Comments

As expected, Apple has released iOS 8 beta 5 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to developers this morning. This update, like the past betas, includes various performance and bug fixes. The previous beta brought various minor user-interface touch-ups and a new Tips app to iOS 8. We’ll be updating this post as new discoveries are made in iOS 8 beta, and you can send us what you find to tips@9to5mac.com. You can find what’s new in beta 5, below:

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iOS global usage falls behind Android for the first time

Stephen Hall Aug 4 2014 - 6:28 am PT

30 Comments

For the first time, overall usage of iOS as an operating system has fallen behind its main competitor from over in Mountain View. While it’s well known that the majority market share in terms of install base has long been held by Android, this is one figure in which iOS has been top dog for quite some time. But at least according to research from Net Applications, that’s no longer the case. More people now use Android, too.
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NFL Now app coming to Apple TV this month

Mark Gurman Aug 4 2014 - 6:13 am PT

6 Comments

The NFL will be launching a new NFL Now service later this month, and it will be coming to the Apple TV with a dedicated application, according to an image of the app in testing taken by an NFL employee. NFL Now was introduced in January, and it is a personalized NFL content application with on-demand highlights, extensive archives, and news broadcasts. Here’s the NFL’s official list of content coming to the NFL Now app:

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Original BioShock game coming to iPhone and iPad soon

Benjamin Mayo Aug 4 2014 - 5:35 am PT

4 Comments

2K games has announced that it is bringing the original 2007 BioShock game to iPhone and iPad later this summer, via Engadget. Graphics have been toned down significantly from the original Xbox title, but the game will no doubt offer plenty of nostalgia for fans of the series.

“BioShock delivers a true triple-A first-person shooter game experience on the iOS platform, by sending players on an underwater adventure to explore the submerged Art Deco city of Rapture, fighting deranged survivors of a failed objectivist utopia and genetically modifying their own DNA to gain superhuman powers.”

Although pricing and other specifics is not yet known, Engadget says that the developer 2K games wants a ‘premium game’ to carry a ‘premium price’, seemingly in the $10 to $30 range. Although visuals are substantially behind-the-curve of modern iOS games, the game will at least support MFI Game Controllers for more tactile interaction. BioShock will launch in the coming months, for iPad 4 and later, iPhone 5 and later.

Make OS X Yosemite’s dark mode turn on automatically with this neat utility

Benjamin Mayo Aug 4 2014 - 4:39 am PT

25 Comments

Although OS X Yosemite is still a few months out from public release, the public beta and developer seeds means the OS is already seeing wide adoption — hence, apps for Yosemite are already starting to surface. In fact, the unreleased OS already makes up 18% of Mac users on 9to5Mac, already the second most popular version of OS X.

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HP and designer Michael Bastian team up to produce an iOS-compatible smartwatch with a traditional look

Mark Hearn Aug 1 2014 - 1:30 pm PT

5 Comments

The great smartwatch boom is starting to consume electronic makers and HP is not exempt. The company is partnering with designer Michael Bastian to produce its own next-gen timepiece. Hewlett-Packard’s timekeeper won’t be dedicated to a single mobile platform and will instead serve as a companion device for Android and iOS smartphones similar to how Pebble watches work.
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Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers to also lead iTunes Radio at Apple, according to report

Benjamin Mayo Aug 1 2014 - 12:20 pm PT

6 Comments

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Ian Rogers, the head of Beats Music, will now also lead iTunes Radio following the Apple acquisition. Apple wants to increase collaboration between both Beats Music and iTunes Radio by having both streaming services led by Rogers. Up to now, iTunes Radio has been headed by Jeff Robin’s team, best known for creating the software that became iTunes.

The Journal says that Rogers’ leadership will increase ‘cohesion’ between the services, which currently offer a lot of app in their end-user experiences. It is still unclear whether Apple has plans to consolidate the brands.

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Wikipedia app re-launches on App Store ahead of iOS 8 integration

Mark Gurman Jul 31 2014 - 12:44 pm PT

2 Comments

The popular online service Wikipedia has re-launched its iOS app with a new native version that features editing and an offline mode. The free app has some unique features other than browsing through Wikipedia entires, as Wikipedia tells us:

Fastest way to get into the content. Other highly-rated unofficial free iOS apps have hurdles to access the content. Either downloading some content, or just simply not being able to dive right in to it. That doesn’t happen with the official app.
You can edit with this app, unlike other unofficial apps. And you can do it logged out, if you choose.
Wikipedia Zero for developing and emerging countries. If you’re on one of the participating operators, you can use Wikipedia free of data charges.

Wikipedia also shared some other important features:

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Windows Phone browser resorts to masquerading as iOS Safari to fix website issues

Benjamin Mayo Jul 31 2014 - 11:56 am PT

14 Comments

In a rather amusing change, Microsoft has decided to make their Windows Phone user-agent identify as Apple’s iPhone Safari browser. Essentially, browser communicate with webpages using a special identifier to tell the servers what kind of browser they are using. This is how websites distinguish between desktop and mobile versions of sites. However, because Microsoft’s browser is so insignificant in terms of market share, most websites simply ignore their specific user-agent entirely, and serve unoptimised desktop pages.

As a result, in Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft will fake its user agent as iPhone Safari, so that webpages return mobile friendly copies to Windows Phone users. The tables have certainly turned from a decade ago, when developers would go out of their way to support Internet Explorer’s non-standard way of doing things.

1Password debuts extension for third party apps on iOS 8

Zac Hall Jul 30 2014 - 12:27 pm PT

11 Comments

http://vimeo.com/102142106

The popular password and security management app 1Password has already previewed its iOS 8 extension and Touch ID support for unlocking and accessing its content outside of its iOS app, and today AgileBits has announced its 1Password app extension for third party apps as you can see in the video above.
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AeroPress Timer app completely revamped to help you make the perfect cup of coffee

Ben Lovejoy Jul 30 2014 - 5:15 am PT

2 Comments

The freemium companion app to the amazing and popular $25 Aeropress Coffee and Espresso Maker has been completely redesigned, with new gesture-based navigation, brewing tips, a timer that tells you exactly when to add water, two-cup recipes and the ability to share recipes and photos on Twitter and Facebook.

AeroPress Timer is the perfect companion for the AeroPress. AeroPress Timer allows you to explore the versatility of the AeroPress with a catalog of carefully curated recipes.

[Version 2.0.1 introduces a] completely redesigned interface. We started from scratch with every screen and made AeroPress Timer more functional and beautiful.

We moved to a completely gesture-based navigation. We feel this is best way to navigate through AeroPress Timer. Who needs back buttons?

The app itself is free, with a choice of two in-app purchases, each priced at $1.99. The Championship Pack includes nine selected recipes from the 2014 AeroPress World Championship, and the Roaster Pack a further seven recipes “from some of the world’s best roasters.”

The revamped app is available on iTunes.

Mid-2014 Mac mini listed on Apple Support page, but no 2014 Mac mini in sight

Benjamin Mayo Jul 29 2014 - 12:21 pm PT

39 Comments

Apple seems to have inadvertently referenced a new model of Mac mini on an Apple Support page. The page was last modified yesterday, presumably to include information on the new MacBook Pro’s but instead lists “Mac mini (Mid 2014)” as a supported machine. There is a possibility that this is simply a human error on Apple’s part, of course, confusing the MacBook Pro and the Mac mini updates. There haven’t really been rumors of a new Mac mini being in the works, but due to the relative unimportance of the product in the Mac lineup, it is not of the question for it to have slid under the radar.

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Beats Music iOS app updated w/ customizable recommendations, Sentence history, verified badges, more

Jordan Kahn Jul 28 2014 - 11:37 am PT

5 Comments

Just as news hit this morning that the European Commission approved Apple’s acquisition of Beats, the Beats Music iOS app just received an update with a number of notable new features.
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