iOS 11 has not enabled a system-wide Dark Mode as some have hoped it would, but it makes up for it by bringing out a new accessibility feature for inverting colors of the iOS user interface without reversing the colors of your content, like images, media and more.
iOS 11 provides a nifty new feature for sharing your Wi-Fi hotspot password with nearby devices, without having to type the password on another device. When a nearby device running iOS 11 attempts to connect to your password-protected Wi-Fi network through Settings → Wi-Fi, a new message informs the owner they can now request access to the network.
To request Wi-Fi network access, they simply hold their device near an unlocked iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac that's already connected to the network. A Wi-Fi sharing card pops up on the device already on the network, resembling the seamless AirPods pairing interface.
As first discovered by 9to5Mac, the device that has the network password automatically sends it to the nearby device over the air, allowing the receiving device to quickly and securely connect to your local wireless network.
This feature uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth proximity information.
The beauty of this method, as I mentioned earlier, is that it just works—the device requesting access to your Wi-Fi network never sees the actual network password.
macOS High Sierra will support this time-saving feature as well.
Speaking of which, iOS 11 includes automated first-time setup and account login features.
For instance, a feature called Automatic Setup lets you securely import most of the settings and data to your new iPhone or iPad by holding it near an iOS device or Mac you already own, using a process that's very similar to that of pairing an Apple Watch to a nearby iPhone.
iOS 11 is compatible with all 64-bit iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The software update will release as a free download to all customers this fall.
One of the most interesting changes in iOS 11 that hasn't been talked about at all during Monday's WWDC 2017 keynote is going to make a lot of you happy: the volume indicator on iOS 11 no longer obstructs the center of the screen obnoxiously.
As noted by users on Twitter, the redesigned slider only appears when playing video in fullscreen mode. In other words, the good ol' volume control centered on the screen isn't going anywhere, it's just that playing video in fullscreen mode replaces the standard volume control with an unobtrusive slider that sits in the top-right corner of the screen.
This is actually part of a bigger update for iOS 11's system video player.
The iOS 11 video player has controls for subtitles (including YouTube's auto-generated subtitles), AirPlay and more. Plus, it supports full keyboard control so you can control video playback with more than a dozen shortcuts via your physical wireless keyboard.
iOS 11's new minimalist volume slider does not appear in apps and on websites that implement their own custom video player. As an example, many video-streaming apps, including HBO NOW and Netflix, override the system video player and use a bespoke one.
Google's mobile YouTube app also recently updated its video player with a thin volume slider positioned unobtrusively at the very top of the currently playing video.
iOS 11 is compatible with all 64-bit iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The software update will release as a free download to all customers this fall.
The most common complaint about AirPods is their inability to change the currently playing song directly on the earphones, without invoking Siri. Well, YouTuber Appsolutely Tech has discovered that iOS 11 solves this customer pain point by adding the ability to skip forwards and backwards between tracks with a double tap.
On iOS 11, your AirPods settings include some handy new options for choosing a double-tap action separately for the left and right earbud.
TUTORIAL: Tips and tricks for using AirPods like a pro
You could, for example set your left AirPod to skip to the next track and your right AirPod to go to the next track. Or, you could leave Siri as the default action for one of your AirPods and set the other one to go to the next track when double-tapped.
Watch Appsolutely Tech's video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsQ9J1mwU78
Simply tap the “i” next to your AirPods in Settings → Bluetooth on your iOS 11 device.
You will see you can now set a different double-tap action for each of your AirPods:
Siri Play/Pause Next Track Previous Track OffIt's unclear if Apple might bring this new feature to iOS 10 via a future AirPods firmware update.
A completely redesigned Control Center is one of the hallmarks of iOS 11. Having ditched card-based layout spanning multiple pages, Control Center has adopted a single-page design. Control Center on iOS 11 is realized as a full-screen scrollable overlay, a design that has allowed Apple to put many more useful controls at your fingertips than ever before.
It is highly customizable, too: you get to choose what appears in your Control Center!
For instance, you could opt for a pedestrian Control Center with a handful of the most commonly used shortcuts, like on iOS 10, or create a fully loaded Control Center that may contain as many as 18 additional toggles. Apple currently does not provide Control Center APIs, meaning third-party apps cannot ship their own Control Center toggles, for now.
iOS 11 Control Center highlights:
Control Center is more condensed You no longer have to swipe your way through multiple cards Everything is on a single, vertically scrollable page iOS 11 has eighteen additional toggles for Control Center You decide which toggles appear in your Control CenterLike before, Control Center is invoked by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.
A fully loaded Control Center on iOS 11.
As you can see for yourself, Control Center on iOS 11 is more condensed than before.
The refreshed design allows you to quickly toggle various settings on a single screen, no swiping between pages required whatsoever.
Additional toggles for Control Center can be added and re-ordered in Settings.
The entire Control Center can be scrolled vertically to reveal any controls that may not fit on a single page. To dismiss Control Center, swipe down or press the Home button.
To stop Control Center from appearing on your Lock screen for security reasons, slide the Control Center switch in Settings → Touch ID & Passcode to the OFF position. All in all, iOS 11's Control Center is completely different than it was before—and it's a change for the better.
To help you get quickly up to speed with everything Control Center on iOS 11 has to offer, we asked our prolific video editor Andrew O'Hara to put together a quick video walkthrough.
Watch his clip below, then read the rest of the article for additional information on other new features for Control Center on iOS 11.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGWjmt6UXJI
Subscribe to iDownloadBlog on YouTube
Many of Apple's own apps on iOS 11 include their own controls for Control Center.
Notes, for example, provides Control Center shortcuts for creating a new note, checklist, photo or sketch. Clock includes Control Center options for creating alarms and timers, and so forth.
Some of the most useful Control Center shortcuts let you quickly access iOS 11's new screen recording feature, set the Dynamic Text size, control your Apple TV without needing to launch Apple's Remote app and much, much more.
The following set of controls can be added to Control Center at any time:
Accessibility Shortcuts Alarm Apple TV Remote Calculator Camera Do Not Disturb While Driving Flashlight Guided Access Home Low Power Mode Magnifier Notes Screen Recording Stopwatch Text Size Timer Voice Memos WalletYou can add these toggles to, or remove them from Control Center at any time, in Settings. To rearrange the order in which they appear, drag their handles around.
Keep in mind that these expanded Control Center controls are in addition to the standard toggles, some of which now come with additional switches and options.
The non-removable Control Center items include:
Network—Airplane Mode, Cellular Data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop and Personal Hotspot. Now Playing—See what's playing, adjust playback volume, control speakers with multi-room support via AirPlay 2, scrub through your media, play or pause a song or go to the previous/next song. Brightness—Adjust the screen brightness, turn Night Shift on or off. Volume—Control your audio volume. Orientation Lock—Toggle Orientation Lock on or off. Night Shift—Toggle Night Shift on or off. AirPlay—Mirror the device's screen on your TV, select an AirPlay device.As mentioned, these controls are persistent and cannot be removed from Control Center.
Some of the built-in controls will be familiar to you, but many will not.
That said, you're wholeheartedly encouraged to try pressing each toggle with 3D Touch to reveal additional options. For instance, pressing the Network control with 3D Touch expands it so you can choose additional controls, like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop switches.
Similarly, pressing the Now Playing reveals the scrubber and the volume slider. Unfortunately, if your device lacks 3D Touch you won't be able to access any of the additional options for Control Center toggles that provide them.
Apple could tweak Control Center's design as we get closer to iOS 11's release this fall.
While we're not expecting drastic changes in subsequent iOS 11 betas, Apple would be wise to add the ability to drag the toggles inside Control Center to rearrange them.
Bottom line: even in its current form, Control Center is now way more useful than it's ever been.
Everyone will have a chance to appreciate iOS 11's condensed, highly customizable Control Center as soon as iOS 11 releases for public consumption this fall.
iOS 11 is compatible with all 64-bit iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices.
Share your thoughts on iOS 11's redesigned Control Center by posting a comment below.
Chances are you'll see a photo or video you like as you peruse various social networking apps on your iPhone from time to time, but not all services will let you save them to your device.
A new jailbreak tweak called Social Downloader by iOS developer Elias will grant you access to saving just about any image or video from various social networking apps.
Siri is the default voice-based assistant on iOS devices, and while some people like using her, others prefer to use different voice assistants because of the features they offer or their superior fluidity.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t let you choose the default voice assistant, but a new free jailbreak tweak called InstantAssistant by gilshahar7 can help quell the pain.
Whenever you search for stuff using Spotlight on your iPhone, a history of what you’ve searched for is kept just below the Siri app suggestions.
If you’re concerned about the privacy of your web search history via Spotlight, then you might want to download a new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Spotlight No Suggest by iOS developer ichitaso.
Apple spent a lot of time demoing iOS 11 at the WWDC 2017 keynote, but in the interest of time, they were only able to show off some of the top features rather than everything that's new.
In this piece, we'll outline a number of new features that Apple didn't get a chance to show you at the keynote.
iOS 11 included many new features and enhancements, big and small alike.
For example, a revamped storage-management section became available in Settings. Speaking of which, users can appreciate another new feature that allows them to optionally have their device automatically uninstall apps that haven't been used in a while.
If you venture to Settings → iTunes & App Store, you'll notice a new toggle at the bottom of the screen, labeled Offload Unused Apps. Setting that switch to the ON position shall prompt iOS to delete rarely used apps from your device in order to make more room for your photos, videos, documents and so forth.
iOS uses Siri intelligence to determine your usage of apps.
The feature's description notes that documents and data belonging to uninstalled apps will be kept on your device in case the app is reinstalled. “Reinstalling the app will place back your data, if the app is still available in the App Store,” notes Apple.
This feature is disabled by default.
Rightfully so, if I may add. Had Apple enabled it by default, novice users would've been stunned discovering iOS had deleted their apps for seemingly no apparent reason.
Apple's stock Podcasts app has undergone some visual changes in iOS 11. Functionally, a few things have moved around and some new features have been added.
For example, the Unplayed, My Podcasts, Featured, Top Charts and Search tabs lined up alongside the bottom of the interface have been replaced with a new and simpler tab layout: Listen Now, Library, Browse and Search.
Our resident video editor Andrew O'Hara has put together a quick video for you guys to see for yourselves Apple's new design for the Podcasts app on iOS 11.
Watch Andrew's video right below, then meet us in comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFsAlcnlmSo
Subscribe to iDownloadBlog on YouTube
The Listen Now tab combines podcasts you're subscribed to (previously in the My Podcasts tab), recently played episodes (previously in the Unplayed tab) and shows other people like.
Under the new Library tab, you can easily browse all of the audio and video shows you're subscribed to, as well as individual podcast episodes, ones that have been download to the device and the recently updated episodes of any shows you're following.
The Browse tab is your storefront to the Podcasts section on iTunes.
There, you can swipe through featured podcasts Apple's editors highlight at the top, access the full Featured section, see charts-topping audio and video shows, access the list of major podcast providers and browse all podcasts by category.
The Search tab now lets you choose between searching across podcasts in your library or all shows on iTunes. As evidenced by the screenshots, the redesigned app has adopted a bold font with much bolder headings and other visual cues borrowed from Apple Music on iOS 10.
Another feature iOS 11's Podcasts app has borrowed from Apple Music is a completely revamped mini-player that can be now pressed with 3D Touch to access quick shortcuts pertaining to the currently playing episode.
Other tidbits worth mentioning include larger artwork and other visual tweaks to match the look and feel of other apps inside of iOS 11, as shown on the screenshot top of post. The official Podcasts widget has remained unchanged.
For those wondering, Apple still does not provide Podcasts for Apple Watch.
How do you like these Podcasts app changes on iOS 11?
Let us know by posting a comment below.
Apple had a pretty big day at yesterday's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, revealing a bunch of new or updated products and technologies that have set the stage for other important hardware announcements this fall.
If you didn't have the time to sit through the entire keynote talk and are wondering about the big takeaways, our video editor Andrew O'Hara has put together a short five-minute video highlighting the top six announcements Apple made during the WWDC 2017 keynote.
Andrew's main topics of interest include:
tvOS 11 with Amazon's Prime video-streaming app coming to Apple TV watchOS 11 with all the major improvements for workouts, notifications and more macOS High Sierra and core technologies aimed at AR/VR content creation iOS 11 with all of the improvements for your iPhone and iPad iPad Pro and iMac Pro changes and enhancements HomePod, Apple's high-end Siri-enabled speaker with hi-fi soundAnd here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBulSRR9Fc
Subscribe to iDownloadBlog on YouTube
What's your favorite WWDC 2017 announcement so far?
Post a comment below to let us know!