iOS

How to preview flight information and track flights on iPhone, iPad and Mac

Owners of an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Mac can quickly look up flight status information found in Notes, Messages, and Mail using a rich interface with flight trajectory, flight status, arrival times and other information.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to quickly preview the current status and other information pertaining to an airline and flight number, with or without leaving the context of what you're currently doing.

iOS 9.2 to bring Arabic support for Siri

According to a new report by 9to5Mac, Apple’s upcoming iOS 9.2 software update will enable support for Arabic in Siri.

With last year’s iOS 8 update, Apple has paved the way for Siri in Arabic with Arabic support for iOS’s Dictation and QuickType keyboard features.

The full support for Arabic will allow local users not only to converse with Siri in Arabic but search for local places and businesses and more.

Some users are complaining about Touch ID issues after updating to iOS 9.1

A growing number of iPhone and iPad users are taking to Apple's Support Communities forums to complain about slow or unreliable Touch ID performance after applying Apple's iOS 9.1 software update to their devices.

In addition to slow response times and unreliable performance, other issues plaguing an unknown number of users include Touch ID stopping working altogether on their iOS 9.1 devices.

How to sort iOS notifications

iOS has always grouped alerts in the Notification Center in the order they were received. If you're overwhelmed with numerous notifications from apps and services on a daily basis, this can quickly clutter your view and push important notifications out of the view.

It is possible to change grouping of push alerts to have them compartmentalized according to their respective originating app and listed in the order you define.

In this tutorial, we'll detail how you can select, manage and adjust app grouping within the Notification Center on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

iOS 9.2 beta 2 brings AT&T Wi-Fi Calling to the Mac

The latest beta version of what would become the second major update to iOS 9, which was seeded to developers yesterday, enables Wi-Fi Calling through AT&T on your Mac, 9to5Mac discovered.

While Wi-Fi Calling allows you to place a phone call in an area with little or no cellular coverage, bringing AT&T Wi-Fi Calling to the Mac and other devices you own lets you make and receive phone calls on your Mac (or iPad or iPod touch, for that matter) without needing to be on the same network, or even in the same area, as your iPhone.

Microsoft invites a limited number of iOS users to beta-test Cortana assistant

Microsoft today announced that a limited number of iPhone owners in the United States and China can now sign up to test-drive the first public beta of its personal digital assistant, called Cortana. “Over the coming months, we’ll continue to deliver frequent updates to the app to expand the features and functionality,” notes the Windows maker.

While Cortana offers the most complete experience on Windows devices due to its tight integration with Microsoft's operating system and Apple-imposed restrictions related to iOS development, Cortana for iOS does take the intelligence of its Windows counterpart and brings that experience to the user's iPhone.

iOS 9 is now powering two-thirds of Apple’s mobile devices in the wild

Apple's iOS 9 mobile operating system is now installed on two out of each three iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices in the wild just a little over a month and a half following its September 16, 2015 release.

According to the official stats available through the company's App Store dashboard for developers, iOS 9 is now powering 66 percent of Apple's mobile devices in active use versus the adoption rate of 61 percent recorded just two weeks ago.

Apple opens cryptographic libraries used to protect iOS and OS X to app makers

Apple yesterday announced it's opened up its cryptographic libraries, the same ones used to protect iOS and OS X, to third-party developers. As reported by VentureBeat, the move is significant in that developers can now implement advanced security features into their apps, for free.

In addition to open-sourcing the cryptographic libraries, Apple back in the summer promised to open source its Swift programming language by the end of the year.

Google launches YouTube Red, charges iOS users Apple tax

Following its official announcement less than two weeks ago, Google today formally launched a new music and video subscription service—YouTube Red.

In exchange for a monthly fee of $9.99, Red provides ad-free access to videos across all of YouTube, the ability to save clips and playlists for offline use and support for background playback. All these perks are available to Red members users across desktop, mobile and the web.

Due to Apple's 30 percent cut on In-App Purchases, Google has decided to raise Red's subscriptions on iOS devices to $12.99 per month in order to compensate for the Apple tax. A free 30-day trial of YouTube Red (US only) is available to those who want to try out the service and see if it's worth the asking price to them.