It's been said before that the next major version of Apple's mobile operating system will be a Snow Leopard style upgrade in that it won't focus as much on new features as it would on optimizing code base for stability, performance and quality.
In a new report, 9to5Mac details what lies ahead for both iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, not just in terms of speed and stability, but also regarding both operating systems' stronger security and a few new end-user facing features.
In addition to Bluetooth, the Apple Watch also relies on Wi-Fi to communicate with its paired iPhone. In fact, the device can provide a number of useful features over Wi-Fi when iPhone isn't in Bluetooth range such as Messages, Siri and more.
It also automatically connects to known Wi-Fi networks that your iPhone, while connected to the Apple Watch over Bluetooth, has connected to before.
However, the Apple Watch won't connect to a 5GHz Wi-Fi network, even if its paired iPhone has previously connected to it, as first noted by French blog iGen.fr.
Slice Intelligence, an opt-in service that scans receipts of two million online shoppers' inboxes, estimated Friday that Apple Watch sales have cooled off and currently stand at or below 30,000 daily units in the United States, following the launch day spike that saw an estimated 1.5 million U.S. pre-orders of the wrist-worn device.
As noted by Quartz tech editor Dan Former, that suggests that Apple Watch orders fell sharply after the first day and haven’t grown since.
Apple's rumored television services hinges on the company's ability to sign complex agreements that would permit it to include live programming from local stations, Re/code reported Friday.
Persuading broadcasters to back Apple's $30-40 per month service with local news and sports content has proven a much tougher nut to crack than originally thought, mostly due to complicated local broadcasting market structure, meaning the service is likely to be delayed.
“Industry executives familiar with Apple’s plans say the company wants to provide customers in cities around the U.S. with programming from their local broadcast stations,” author Peter Kafka wrote.
In addition to fixing performance issues and a number of problems related to the accuracy of fitness tracking, the first software update for the Apple Watch seem to have introduced an unintended bug.
The affected owners have flocked to Apple Support Communities and MacRumors' forums to report that the device is now capturing their heart rate readings less frequently than before after updating to Watch OS 1.0.1.
Apple says the device's heart rate sensor should capture heart rates every ten minutes throughout the day — even more frequently during workouts — but there are now noticeably larger gaps of time between data, some as long as an hour or more.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a new Apple patent application on Thursday entitled "Spatially interactive computing device." The filing describes an advanced display system that can output both 2D and 3D images at the same time, without the need for specialized glasses.
More specifically, the display uses multiple layers to provide differing output to a viewer’s left and right eyes, as well as adaptive eye-tracking courtesy of a built-in image sensor. These technologies allow the display to produce 3D images to one user, or multiple images to different users, simultaneously.
Apple has just named “Magnetized” its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to download the abstract physics puzzler for both iPhone and iPad for free—an awesome savings of $2.99.
In Magnetized, you are tasked with navigating a moving ball through a series of neon mazes using magnetic control points. It sounds simple at first, but the mazes get increasingly difficult, forcing you to try and master momentum and direction.
Photoshop maker Adobe said today it will be pulling Photoshop Touch apps for the iPhone and iPad from the App Store and other mobile platforms next Thursday, May 28. At the same time the company gave a sneak peek of its forthcoming new retouching solution for mobile, Rigel, which should be available later this year.
Adobe said it will sharpen focus on Creative Cloud mobile apps like Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Comp CC, Adobe Shape CC, Adobe Brush CC and Adobe Color CC.
In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple has begun highlighting apps with specialized accessibility features. The curated section features apps such as Instapaper, which offers text-to-speech, and Workflow, which can automate complex tasks, and is featured on the front page of the App Store.
Apple has long been praised for the accessibility features in iOS. Grammy Award-winning artist, who has been blind for most of his life, famously took time out of a concert to thank Steve Jobs and company for their work, saying "there’s nothing on the iPhone or the iPad that you can do, that I can’t do."
Apple is developing not one, but two new twelve-inch iPad models, codenamed “J98” and “J99”. Also, the firm's doubled down on advancing productivity aspects of iOS with a much-needed dual-app multitasking mode and support for multiple users in iOS 9, a report Thursday by 9to5Mac alleged.
The same publication originally claimed side-by-side multitasking would debut in iOS 8 with the iPad Air back in 2014 so take today's story with a grain of salt.
“Sources now say that Apple plans to show off the side-by-side feature for iOS 9 using currently available iPad models,” the article states.
Split-screen multitasking should be formally announced at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month, with multi-user support reportedly slated to arrive later this year alongside new iPads.
Music identification app Shazam now lets you scan QR Codes thanks to the latest update with camera support.
Now any image that contains QR codes or the Shazam camera logo can be scanned within the app to unlock additional content, interactive experiences, special offers and other embedded content.
Asphalt 8: Airborne, Gameloft's free-to-play arcade racing title for the iPhone and iPad, today received a major content update in the App Store. The game has gained a number of new cars, tracks and loads of other improvements, amongst them support for the Apple Watch and a widget for the iOS Notification Center.
Asphalt 8 was first to support Metal, Apple's new graphics framework in iOS 8 that makes graphics intensive games run smoother with more effects. Now Gameloft provides the latest Asphalt update as a 64-bit application that should run even faster on iPhones and iPads powered by Apple's A7 chip or newer.