iOS

• iOS
• Apple News
• emoji
• iOS 9.1
• bullying

Apple supporting anti-bullying campaign with new eye emoji in iOS 9.1

Chance Miller Oct 22 2015 - 2:11 pm PT

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Apple yesterday released iOS 9.1 to the public with a handful of improvements, but the one that the general public was most excited about was new emoji. While most of the emoji additions were self-explantory, one piqued the interest of many users: an eye inside of a speech bubble. Wired and Jeremy Burge both now note, however, that this emoji is Apple’s way to show its support for a new anti-bullying campaign launched today by the Ad Council.

Called the “I Am A Witness” campaign, the movement hopes to give teenagers the courage they need to speak up whenever they see or experience bullying. The Ad Council hopes that Apple adding the emoji to iOS 9.1 will help raise awareness for its campaign and bullying in general.

The design of the emoji is actually the combination of two already existing emojis, the eye emoji and the left speech bubble. By creating the emoji from preexisting images, Apple was able to fast track the emoji’s addition to its keyboard.

“When we first asked about bringing this emoji to the official Apple keyboard, they told us it would take at least a year or two to get it through and approved under Unicode,” says Wittmark. The company found a way to fast-track it, she says, by combining two existing emoji.

In addition to Apple, companies including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google have expressed their support for the I Am A Witness anti-bullying campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V32xhSMhCXE

• Apps
• iOS
• iPhone
• Instagram
• App Store

Instagram takes on Apple’s Live Photos with new 1-second video loop app, Boomerang

Cam Bunton Oct 22 2015 - 7:43 am PT

2 Comments

Instagram is expanding its range of apps further today by introducing a new video-looping service to rival the likes of HTC Zoe and the iPhone’s baked-in Live Photos. Boomerang takes a quick burst of photos in-app, and then turns them in to a moving photo, or video, that loops forward and backward. Don’t call it a GIF though, it’s a Boomerang…
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• iOS
• iOS Devices
• How-to
• Touch ID
• iPhone 6s

PSA: Here’s how to keep seeing iPhone 6s Lock Screen notifications + wallpaper despite super-fast Touch ID

Jeremy Horwitz Oct 22 2015 - 6:42 am PT

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“Faster” is almost always “better” with new iPhones, but the iPhone 6s’s lightning-quick Touch ID fingerprint scanner has created a small new issue: if you touch the Home Button to look at your Lock Screen, you’ll see that it disappears within a split-second. At a minimum, this is visually jarring, but it also impacts historic iPhone functionality — users have been customizing their Lock Screens with photos (most recently, Live Photos) and checking the date/time there since the first iPhone launched in 2007, and it subsequently became an easy place to view notifications and activate the camera.

If you want to continue using the Lock Screen for any of these reasons, there are a couple of workarounds:

1. Start using the Sleep/Wake Button on the iPhone’s right side for all screen activations and deactivations. This is the easiest way to do a quick turn on and off of the display for notifications.
2. Go into the Settings app, select Touch ID & Passcode, and remove your most commonly used finger scan from the list of stored Fingerprints. This will let you continue to activate the screen using the Home Button’s Touch ID sensor, without immediately moving to the Home Screen.

The choice between 1 or 2 will come down to personal preference, the way you hold your iPhone, and how you use your iPhone when it’s docked or car-mounted. For example, if you want to quickly check notifications when your iPhone is car-mounted (and your car is stopped), you may find that the Sleep/Wake Button is out of reach or inconvenient to press inward, making the Home Button a better choice. Removing your index finger from the Touch ID list will let you naturally use one finger for screen and Home Button interactions.

More From This Author

Check out more of my editorials, How-To guides, and reviews for 9to5Mac here! I’ve covered a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users. I’ve recently discussed how to safely prepare and wipe your iPhone for resale or trade-in, and how to get the best iPhone trade-in price to help buy an iPhone 6s, amongst many other topics.

• Apps & Updates
• iOS
• iPad
• Apple Watch
• iPhone
• Apple News

Sprint enables iPhone Wi-Fi Calling for all with today’s iOS 9.1 release

Jordan Kahn Oct 21 2015 - 1:37 pm PT

6 Comments

Alongside the release of iOS 9.1 today, Sprint announced that the update officially enables access to the iPhone’s Wi-Fi calling feature for all of its users. That means Sprint users will join T-Mobile and AT&T customers in the US in being able to take advantage of the feature that offers Wi-Fi-assisted voice calling for poor coverage areas and the ability to accept calls on other Apple devices including iPods, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch.

Following today’s release of iOS 9.1, iPhone customers on Sprint will gain access to Apple’s enhanced Wi-Fi calling feature… “Customers already enjoy seamlessly responding to texts and email from a variety of great Apple devices,” said David Owens, senior vice president, Product Development at Sprint. “Now they can bring that flexibility to the primary phone number their friends, family and colleagues know best. This great feature puts the power of device choice in our customers’ hands.”

Sprint customers will have to update their iPhones to iOS 9.1, released earlier today, make sure Wi-Fi Calling is enabled in the iPhone’s Settings, and sign into the same Apple ID and iCloud account across devices.

Apple’s iOS 9.1 release includes enhancements to its Live Photos feature, over 150 new emoji, refreshed wallpapers, and the usual fixes and improvements for a long list of other features and bugs. We have the full rundown here.

• iOS
• iPhone
• Apple News
• Siri
• 3D

Apple takes Siri ‘Back to the Future’ with movie-themed responses

Jordan Kahn Oct 21 2015 - 10:06 am PT

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Not to be left out on ‘Back to the Future Day‘, Apple too is joining in on the Internet’s celebrations for reaching the day, October 21, 2015, in which fictional character Marty McFly time travelled to in 1989’s “Back to the Future Part II”. What better way to officially celebrate being in the future than to have our pocket-sized electronic assistant updated with a few witty remarks related to the occasion.

Here’s a sampling of the Back to the Future related responses from Siri:

While some of the predictions about what the world would look like in 2015 actually came true— video chat, 3D movies, hoverboards, for example— I’m not holding my breath for the Chicago Cubs winning the 2015 World Series as the film depicted, although it’s still a possibility.

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iOS
• app
• New Release
• Guitar Hero Live

Guitar Hero Live lands on iOS with a new mobile instrument bundle

Trevor Daugherty Oct 20 2015 - 10:31 am PT

1 Comment

From 9to5Toys.com:

Guitar Hero Live has hit iOS today in what is being billed as essentially a full-on port of the console game. The highly-anticipated virtual band title also launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this morning. Activision has opted for an in-app purchase model for this title. The iOS version is available for free to download, but only includes two songs. If you’re after the full catalog, you’ll have to purchase the full game or grab the new iOS bundle that includes a guitar controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev66m8Obosw

It’ll take a $49.99 in-app purchase to secure all the songs available on Guitar Hero Live for iOS. The guitar bundle can be had for $99.99 at T-Mobile (or with monthly financing, if that’s your thing). It includes a six-button Bluetooth LE guitar, strap and everything needed to redeem your music within the app.

The new Guitar Hero Live for iOS comes with single and multiplayer modes. There are over 200 songs available today, all of which are playable via touch controls or the add-on guitar. Guitar Hero Live’s add-on hardware is compatible with Lightning-capable iOS devices.

Be sure to head over to 9to5Toys for the latest iOS deals and freebies each day.

Source: Touch Arcade

• AAPL Company
• iOS
• Apple TV
• iOS Devices
• Wallpaper

Watch the new Apple TV’s beautiful HD aerial screensavers ahead of release later this month

Benjamin Mayo Oct 19 2015 - 11:54 am PT

5 Comments

The Apple TV is supposedly set to ship sometime in October although 9to5Mac has already reported that many orders will likely slip to November. While everyone waits to be able to get their hands on Apple’s new set-top box, I found a way to watch all of the brand new Apple TV aerial video screensavers right now, before the box is actually available. Visit my blog to see them all — there’s currently 34 videos in total on the random rotation.

The current set of videos includes scenes from Hawaii, London, China, New York City and San Francisco. Most locations have several different videos as well as shots for night and day — the Apple TV will pick the right one for the user’s local time. The slow pan over the Great Wall China is particularly stunning.

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• Apps
• iOS
• iPhone
• Facebook
• Facebook iOS app

High battery usage by iOS Facebook app may be due to background audio usage; company promising a fix

Ben Lovejoy Oct 17 2015 - 4:10 am PT

7 Comments

Facebook has told Gizmodo that it is working on a fix after complaints that its iOS app is continuing to account for high battery usage even when the app is supposed to be sleeping.

We’re looking into this and hope to have a fix in place soon.

The company responded after a Medium post by product developer Matt Galligan, who noted that the app was continuing to draw significant amounts of power despite having background app refresh disabled. Others  then chipped in on the issue, prompting Facebook’s response.

It had been suggested that the high battery drain might be due to the Facebook app continuing to use Location Services in the background, but the company told Motherboard‘s Jordan Pearson that this is not the case.

A Facebook spokesperson emailed over the weekend to say that the battery drain issue “is not caused by improper background location collection,” and that the team continues to investigate the issue. “We are not collecting background location on iOS unless Location Access is set to Always on your device and you have enabled Location History in the Facebook app.”

Federico Viticci over at MacStories noted that the app had been showing high levels of background audio usage, even with background app refresh off, linking to others who had spotted the same thing.

On my girlfriend’s iPhone, for instance, iOS 9 reports 5 hours of on-screen usage for the last 7 days, and another 11 hours of background audio usage with Background App Refresh turned off.

My guess is that Facebook is hijacking audio sessions on iOS by keeping silent audio in the background whenever a video plays in the app.

Facebook has not commented, beyond its confirmation that Location Services are not the culprit. The company recently updated the app to support 3D Touch Quick Actions for status updates and photos on the iPhone 6s/Plus.

Screengrab: MacObserver

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iOS
• Minecraft
• New Release
• Minecraft: Story Mode

Minecraft: Story Mode launches on iOS with a new multi-episode campaign mode

Trevor Daugherty Oct 15 2015 - 11:16 am PT

1 Comment

From 9to5Toys.com:

After enjoying one of the most successful multi-platform runs in recent memory, Minecraft is back again with its newly released Story Mode title on iOS and Android, as well as other platforms. This new rendition, from Telltale Games, builds on the success of the original title by bringing campaign-style play to the mix.

Jesse, the main character, adventures through the Overworld in the first episode The Order of the Stone. For the first time, Minecraft gamers will experience dialogue and have choices that effect the outcome of each episode. The voice-overs are handled by a number of celebrities including Patton Oswald, Ashley Johnson, Scott Porter and others. There are a total of five sections to the game, which can be purchased at a 25% discount through the app.

Minecraft: Story Mode is available today in iOS and Android app stores for $4.99.

Description:

THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME IN THE WORLD OF MINECRAFT

***Save over 25% on additional episodes in Minecraft: Story Mode by purchasing the Multi-Pack [Episodes 2-5] via in-app***

In this five part episodic series, you’ll embark on a perilous adventure across the Overworld, through the Nether, to the End, and beyond. You and your friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect; slayers of the Ender Dragon. While at EnderCon in hopes of meeting Gabriel the Warrior, you and your friends discover that something is wrong… something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and you must set out on a quest to find The Order of the Stone if you are to save your world from oblivion.

• Created by award-winning adventure game powerhouse Telltale Games, in partnership with Minecraft creators, Mojang

• Featuring the voices of Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D), Brian Posehn (The Sarah Silverman Program, Mission Hill), Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us, Tales from the Borderlands), Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights, X-Men), Martha Plimpton (The Goonies, Raising Hope), Dave Fennoy (The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series, Batman: Arkham Knight), Corey Feldman (The Goonies, Stand by Me), Billy West (Futurama, Adventure Time), and Paul Reubens (Tron: Uprising, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse)

• You will drive the story through the decisions you make: what you say to people (and how you say it), and what you choose to do in moments of thrilling action will make this YOUR story