New images claiming to show the iPhone 6 in space grey appeared on Sunday, adding fuel to the fire ahead of Apple's expected announcement in the coming weeks. The authenticity of the images hasn't been verified, so take them with a grain of salt, but the claimed iPhone 6 shown gels nicely with leaks over the past year and are fun to look at nonetheless.
It's no secret that I've dipped my toes into the Android waters a time or two during my tenure at iDB, but I always end up hugging my iOS devices in the end. Android has some great ideas, but, at least for me, the experience is still not cohesive enough to warrant a switch.
One of the big takeaways from my last Android experience was how much I loved having third-party keyboards. I've ranted about this in the past on an episode of Let's Talk iOS. It doesn't make sense that we treat software keyboards just like we do a standard desktop keyboard.
We type on each key individually on a desktop keyboard because we have to, but the glass surface of a touch-screen tablet or phone doesn't have this restriction. Why are we still typing in such an antiquated way? It's slower, prone to mistakes, and doesn't take advantage of the software. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of iOS, and one of the key reasons that I had a hard time letting go of my Samsung Galaxy S5.
You can only imagine my excitement when Apple revealed that it would be allowing third-party keyboard access in iOS 8. This, not widgets, not extensions, was by far the most exciting thing to me about iOS 8. It's something I've been longing for since I saw how much better it is to type, or should I say swipe, using third-party keyboards.
Yesterday, I got the chance to go hands-on with TouchPal—one of the very first third-party keyboards for iOS 8. Watch, as I show you how to enable and use a third-party keyboard in iOS 8.
Apple just updated the Tips app that is present in iOS 8, explaining users how to quickly access their favorite contacts. The update, which happened over the air, is the first such update to the Tips app since it was introduced in iOS 8 beta 4.
Apple just updated several of its applications for both iOS and OS X with the usual "stability improvements and bug fixes", but after looking into it more closely, it seems there is more to the updates than the changelog shows, with apparent iCloud compatibility improvements.
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have all been updated for both iOS and OS X, while iMovie has only been updated for OS X so far. All updates show as "stability improvements and bug fixes," except iMovie for Mac, which "includes iCloud compatiblity improvements for iMovie Theater."
If these update look benign on the surface, it seems they do improve iCloud compatibility...
Yesterday's release of OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 6 with an additional five gorgeous wallpapers and a bunch of refinements has left many eagle-eyed watchers scratching their head over the fact that the assumed iOS 8 Beta 6 wouldn't materialize.
Indeed, fast-forward nearly twenty-four hours later and Beta 6 is still nowhere to be seen. Such an anticlimactic turn of events probably means that iOS 8 Beta 5, which was released a fortnight ago, is the final beta build seeded to developers ahead of the so-called Gold Mater release...
My favorite iPhone photography application, Camera+ by a developer called Tap tap tap, has received a few very nice additions ahead of an upcoming iOS 8 update.
Camera+ 5.2, a free update for existing users, contains several bug fixes while introducing a new adjustment to the Vignette effect, improvements to the Soft Focus and Film Grain effects and the Clarity Pro feature and more.
Oh, and this version has fixed broken Flickr sharing stemming from a recent change to the way third-party apps like Camera+ access Yahoo's photo-sharing service...
Apple has boosted its Affiliate Program that enables website owners to earn commissions on qualifying iTunes sales. Now, the iPhone maker is inviting developers to join the party.
According to an email communique the Cupertino company sent out to the registered iOS developers, makers of iPhone and iPad applications can now earn commissions, too, by promoting paid music, apps, books and other items via iTunes, App Store, iBooks and the Mac App Store affiliate links provided within their apps through the iOS Store Kit Share Sheet.
Jump past the fold for the full reveal...
Apple is working on bringing its new iOS 8 tool for developers called HealthKit to medical professionals in the United States. Eagle-eyed readers will remember that back at WWDC in June, Apple and the Mayo Clinic demoed the first HealthKit-driven app.
Reuters is now reporting that the Cupertino company has been discussing HealthKit integration with a number of US healthcare professionals, including renowned hospitals like Mount Sinai, Cleveland Clinic, John Hopkins and Allscripts...
The vast majority of Apple bloggers who grab screenshots of iPhone and iPad applications don't seem to be ashamed by the low or no cellular signal strength showing right in their status bar, or incomplete Wi-Fi or - worse of all - low battery.
And who could blame them?
Touching up the images to have the status bar show full cellular/Wi-Fi signal and 100 percent battery takes time and a great deal of effort to get it right.
I've seen folks like MacStories editor Federico Viticci obsess over the issue and even write scripts and devise complex workflows in order to correct the messed up status bar on their iOS screenshots. Having been constantly pressed for time, I'm not that particular about my screenshots.
Luckily, QuickTime in Yosemite includes a nifty little feature which automatically cleans up the status bar when capturing an iOS device's screen, so your screencasts look professional...
Coming two weeks after the last iOS beta, which contained several visual tweaks and changes to Settings.app, Apple has released iOS 8 beta 5 build 12A4345d to developers. Besides the usual mix of bug fixes and improvements, there are likely to be multiple UI tweaks and other noticeable changes. Apple has more details in beta 5's release notes.
We're currently installing the beta and will be updating this post with any changes we find. If you find any changes from the previous beta, be sure to email us at tips@idownloadblog.com or leave a comment below, preferably with a screenshot of the modification...
As correctly estimated, Apple today unleashed new iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite betas to its registered iOS and Mac developers. While our team is combing through release notes and updating a running list of changes, please send us your very own submissions to tips@iDownloadBlog.com (do include screenshots as well).
In the meantime, additional updates have surfaced on Apple's Dev Center, including matching new betas of the upcoming Apple TV software featuring a brand spanking new user interface, updated Xcode developer tools and more.
Read on for the full reveal...
The folks over at AgileBits are all over the new developer tools Apple introduced in iOS 8. Last month they previewed Touch ID support for their popular 1Password app, and today they posted a video showing off a new app extension feature.
Among the many new features announced for iOS 8 is one called app extensions, which allows developers to make some functions of their apps available in other apps via Share Sheets. And 1Password will take advantage of this in a big way...