Apple

Apple News gets simpler design, subscriptions and more in iOS 10

Among the new things Apple announced 10 today is a redesigned News application. This is a standalone news aggregation app, first introduced in iOS 9 last summer, and it's getting some significant improvements in the upcoming iOS 10 update.

These start with what Apple is calling an "all-new design." In the 'For You' tab, your stories are now broken up into clear sections like Top Stories, Trending—which shows you the top stories right now, and topics you follow, like cars or sports.

Watch the WWDC 2016 keynote now

Folks who missed Apple’s WWDC keynote this morning, or would just like to watch it again, will be happy to hear that Apple has posted the full video online for your streaming pleasure. Obviously you can read everything you need to know about today’s event right here on iDB, but if you have the time, the video is worth watching.

Watch cool new iOS 10 Messages features in a video Apple ran during WWDC keynote

A supercharged Messages is definitely my killer app in iOS 10. Not only does it catch up to other messaging apps with perks like downloadable stickers, it actually leapfrogs them with cool new stuff such as full screen animations, chat bubbles that animate in specific ways to better convey your emotions, support for sketching and the Apple Watch's Digital Touch feature and what not.

In fact, Messages in iOS 10 is so jam-packed with improvements that Apple ran a cool video during the keynote showing them off.

You can delete stock Apple apps in iOS 10

Several stock iOS apps turned up in the App Store this morning, inciting speculation that you will soon be allowed to delete them. Apple didn't mention anything about this during the keynote, but after installing the initial iOS 10 beta, we can confirm that many stock apps are deletable in Wiggle mode.

These apps include Calendar, Weather, Maps, Videos, Notes, Reminders, Stocks, iTunes Store, Home, FaceTime and others that currently come pre-installed on iOS devices, and are not eligible to be deleted or even hidden. We're guessing important apps like Phone and Messages are still mandatory.

Apple’s PR website refreshed with a new, mobile-friendly Newsroom

After finishing watching Apple's media presentations, my first port of call is the official Apple PR website, which has all the press releases, official press shots, executive biographies and other product and company-related material from the official source. The Apple PR website itself is rather unimpressive, with some spartan design. This morning, a message popped up when I was reading through the iOS 10 press releases, offering a mobile optimized version of the new Apple Newsroom, which looks great.

iOS 10 device compatibility list

Apple today during the WWDC 2016 keynote at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco announced next major versions of its four main operating systems—iOS, tvOS, watchOS and macOS—that power its iOS devices, set-top boxes, watches and computers.

iOS 10, the tenth major revision of iOS, is now official, but will it work on your existing hardware? Not if you're still on the iPhone 4s or want to run iOS 10 on the original iPad mini or iPads older than the iPad 4.

iOS 10 available for public beta testers this July

Apple today showed us what's new for iOS 10 during its keynote presentation this morning, including things like an awesome new Messages app with animated chat bubbles and downloadable stickers, camera effects and other extensions, voicemail transcriptions, a new Home app, a revamped Apple Music, a smarter Maps, Photos with facial recognition, Siri in your apps, a revamped Lock screen and more. And you, my friend, will be able to check all these goodies out next month.

Swift Playgrounds: Apple’s new iPad app to teach you how to code

In wrapping up Apple's WWDC keynote this morning, Tim Cook announced a new iPad app called Swift Playgrounds for teaching people how to code. Cook specifically says "the best way to teach everyone to code," but it definitely looks like it was built with kids in mind.

The app looks a lot like other learn-to-code apps (Hopscotch!), but it's cool that Apple is using its scale to get such a tool into the hands of more people. The company says the app "combines the powerful Swift programming language and the powerful capabilities of iPad."

iOS 10 will be available this fall as a free upgrade

A developer preview of iOS 10 will be released to members of the Apple Developer Program following the WWDC 2016 keynote this morning at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. According to Apple, iOS 10 will release for everyone this fall for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, likely ahead of the iPhone 7 introduction.

Messages app updated in iOS 10 with new emoji features, Bubble effects and more

Also getting a big update in iOS 10 is the Messages app. New features include inline rich links, which open YouTube videos, images and other types of media—videos now play right within the app!—a built-in Camera viewfinder, and some great emoji improvements.

These improvements include 3x bigger emoji images within your messages, so you can see the icons in greater detail, and predictive emoji. Apple calls this "emojifiable." So the Messages app in iOS 10 can essentially guess emoji images for the words you tap on.

Say hello to a brand new iOS 10 stock app: Home

There's a new stock app in iOS 10 that most people will probably want to get rid of: Home. Home is the missing link in Apple's strategy for the connected home, which now supports even more categories of HomeKit-compatible devices like smart cameras and door locks. It's not just a new Home screen app: Home is built right into Control Center and it also works from the Lock screen of your iPhone.