iOS

Apple has released the second iOS 11.3 public beta loaded with new features for iPhone and iPad. Apple originally previewed several new features prior to the first developer beta:

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As promised, Apple has included a new screen in the iOS 11.3 beta 2 settings called Battery Health (Beta) available on all iPhones since iPhone 6. This view includes information about the maximum capacity of the battery in the device, and describes whether the battery has degraded to the point where it can no longer offer peak performance.

All devices upgrading to iOS 11.3 start with performance management disabled. It will be enabled by the system when the device first experiences an unexpected shutdown. However, users can go into Settings -> Battery -> Battery Health and disable it. See how (as well as all the different states) after the break …

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The second beta of iOS 11.3, released earlier today, includes the new battery health screen where users will be able to see whether their devices are being affected by poor battery health, but that’s not the only new thing in this release.

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We’ve been discovering quite a bit by digging into the first iOS 11.3 beta, released last week. We learned that parents will be able to approve purchases using Face ID and that the Apple Books overhaul is in fact happening, and now evidence has emerged showing Apple has a new single sign-on like service for the web in development…

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Apple is continuing to promote the iPhone X’s camera capabilities with a new short film, Three Minutes, posted today on the company’s Singapore YouTube channel. An accompanying behind-the-scenes tutorial page has been launched on Apple’s Chinese website.

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After years of requests from users, Nintendo today officially announced that a mobile version of Mario Kart is under development. While specifics remain unclear, the company says the game will be released sometime in the next 13 months…

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Apple this evening has stopped signing three previous versions of iOS following the release of iOS 11.2.5 last week. Specifically, the company has stopped signing iOS 11.2, iOS 11.2.1, and iOS 11.2.2 for all devices…

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There was a big furore in October when the community discovered that the redesigned Calculator app in iOS 11.0 had a semi-serious bug; people noticed that if you typed 1 + 2 + 3 quickly, it would give the incorrect answer. The real problem here was that the fade animation on the operand buttons (+, – etc) would block user interaction until it completed. This meant that if you typed quickly, the second press of the + button when typing 1 + 2 + 3 would be ignored, but really this happened with any combination of inputs that pressed the operands quickly.

In iOS 11.2, Apple ‘fixed’ this issue. They removed the animation altogether making state changes instantaneous. It quelled complaints, but obviously was not what was originally designed. In iOS 11.3, Apple will rollout the true fix – the animations are back, and do not block user interaction. Video below …

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Following a round of updates for its suite of Mac applications earlier this month, Microsoft today has announced updates for Office on iOS. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and One Drive are all gaining new features, including drag and drop support and more.

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Today’s news about Apple putting new features on the back burner for iOS 12 means that the company will finally be focusing on polishing up its mobile operating system. After years of interface inconsistencies and frame rate issues, iOS may be getting some much-needed attention on the finer details.

While frame rate issues have gone unnoticed by many, prominent YouTuber and entrepreneur Chris Pirillo has been documenting his findings over the years with a public list of issues. The most jarring and obvious frame rate issue is when invoking Siri and trying to access Control Center. This is an example of an “unlikely situation, so Apple didn’t check,” which some feel has been Apple’s software mantra with iOS 7 and beyond.

While it’s good to hear about Apple shifting focus to zero in on refinements, I would argue these sort of issues should have never should have shipped to begin with.

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[Update: Bloomberg adds additional details including iOS & macOS cross platform apps still on track, new parental features are coming, tvOS and watchOS won’t be affected, and more.]

Axios is reporting that Craig Federighi instructed the software division to put aside some major iOS projects in order to focus on performance and reliability issues for iOS 12. The publication says a refresh of the Home screen and other features have been shelved to dedicate more resources to bug fixing, smaller tweaks and platform finesse.

There will be some new features in iOS 12 including augmented reality improvements, health features and improved parental controls, reports Axios. Bigger changes, including a refresh of the Home screen, have been delayed to next year.

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As promised yesterday, Apple has released the first iOS 11.3 public beta loaded with new features for iPhone and iPad. Apple previewed several new features yesterday prior to the first developer beta:

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Earlier today, a report by Bloomberg mentioned that Apple is working on big changes for the Books app (previously called iBooks) and the Apple Books Store.

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Apple today released iOS 11.3 to developers with features such as AirPlay 2, ARKit 1.5, and more. Since then, we’ve rounded up a few other smaller changes. One such change comes with the authentication process for purchases via the iPhone X…

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Earlier today, Apple released the first developer betas of iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, including new features such as additional Animoji, Business Chat for iMessage, and more. Hidden in both iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, however, is support for AirPlay 2.

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Apple announced in a press release earlier today several new features to come with iOS 11.3, including new Animoji and health records in the Health app.

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As promised earlier today, Apple has released the first iOS 11.3 developer beta loaded with new features for iPhone and iPad. A free public beta version will be available in the future.

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Apple today previewed iOS 11.3 with a whole host of new features, including a new set of Animoji, an ARKit update, and the ability to view personal health records directly in the Health app. iOS 11.3 will be available to customers in the spring. A developer beta of iOS 11.3 will be released today.

iOS 11.3 will also include the aforementioned battery health statistics features. Users will be able to disable the throttling in Settings → Battery, but may see more unexpected shutdowns in exchange for full performance.

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Apple has officially release iOS 11.2.5 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The release build version is 15D60. The update primarily adds support for HomePod ahead of its release next month, but includes a few other goodies as well.

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