iOS

Lost Within, LiquidSpace, Tiny Guardians and more hit the App Store this week

Josh Gallagher ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

As the flow of updates geared towards the Apple Watch continues to increase, you may be feeling a little left out as you look down at your iPhone. There’s no need to be quite so despondent though, because a bevy of exciting new iPhone and iPad apps also exploded onto the App Store this week.

Whether you’re in the mood for a thrilling adventure, a perplexing puzzle, or something in-between, this list has you covered. If you somehow still find yourself wanting more after reading through this article, remember to keep checking back. We make lists of App Store releases and updates almost every day.

How to enable battery charging chime on MacBook

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 19, 2025

Learn how to use this simple Terminal command to make your MacBook play a confirmation sound when you plug it into a charger.

Note: Owners of recent MacBook models need not even finish reading this article because their machines come with the power-charging chime enabled by default.

iOS 8 adoption rate passes 79 percent

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2018

Various versions of Apple's iOS 8 mobile operating system are now running on 79 percent of devices in active use, as measured by the App Store on April 13, 2015. The freshest stats were churned out Tuesday from the App Store Distribution webpage publicly available on Apple's portal for developers.

iOS 7 is now found on nineteen percent of devices, with earlier iOS versions running on two percent of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches in the wild.

Apple’s ResearchKit available today to developers and medical researchers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Today, Apple's made good on its promise to make ResearchKit available to developers and medical researchers. As announced in a media release Tuesday, medical researchers can tap into ResearchKit to write custom apps while developers are permitted to contribute new research modules to ResearchKit.

ResearchKit was designed as an open source software framework to help doctors and scientists mass-gather accurate data from participants using specialized iPhone apps. With today's ResearchKit release, it's now possible to create medical apps for Android in a true open-source fashion.

Fleksy Keyboard goes free for a week, gains millions of GIFs via partnership with Riffsy

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 14, 2015

Fleksy Keyboard, one of the first and most popular software keyboards for iOS 8 devices, has gone free for a week. The app usually retails for 99 cents a pop and has never gone free since its App Store debut as an iOS 8-compatible downloadable software keyboard in September of last year.

In addition, Fleksy's latest update has rechristened the app as 'Fleksy + GiF Keyboard' to reflect its newly gained integration with Riffsy's GIF Keyboard for iOS. The resulting app now gives you access to millions of GIFs on top of Fleksy's existing emoji support and perks like advanced keyboard capabilities with gestures and much more.

Talks bringing Apple Pay to more countries are reportedly stalling

Jake Smith ∙ April 14, 2015

Apple's efforts to bring Apple Pay technology to China, a region that could help boost payment numbers, are stalling, according to Caixin Online.

Despite earlier word that a deal between Apple and China's UnionPay is close, Caixin Online says neither party has reached any agreements and no timetable for cooperation has been set.

iOS 8.3 stops transfer utilities from accessing app folders, restricts them to iTunes File Sharing

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2015

If you use desktop file managers such as PhoneView, iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer and others to browse app folders on your non-jailbroken iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you have another reason to stay away from the latest iOS 8.3 update as it prevents those programs from functioning properly.

As first reported by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, developers of these apps have confirmed that iOS 8.3 imposes additional restrictions on sandbox access.

In iFunbox, trying to access an app folder on an iOS device running iOS 8.3 produces a message saying “App Sandbox access is restricted by Apple to ones with iTunes File Sharing enabled since iOS 8.3”. This change does not affect jailbroken devices which can access app sandboxes as usual via OpenSSH for complete filesystem privileges and command line access.

Business owners can now claim POIs as their own via Apple Maps on iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 3, 2016

One of the welcome changes in the iOS 8.3 and OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 software updates, which hit yesterday, includes the ability for business owners to claim any point of interest as their own using an updated Report a Problem tool in Apple Maps for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, as reported Thursday by AppleMapsMarketing.

The company began allowing local businesses to manage their listing in the service last October, but required them to use its Maps Connect web service.

At the same time, the iPhone maker appears to be removing some TripAdvisor hotel reviews which started showing up in its Maps service last week.

Touch ID for App Store purchases stops working for many after updating to iOS 8.3

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 9, 2015

A growing number of users are complaining about the inability to use Touch ID fingerprint scanning to authorize purchases in the App Store after updating to iOS 8.3.

As reported on Twitter, Reddit and detailed in a thread on Apple's Support Communities forums, iOS 8.3 appears to be asking for an Apple ID password for each and every purchase made in the App Store.

This is regardless of whether or not the option to use Touch ID in the App Store is enabled in Settings. What gives?

iOS 8.3 brings useful enhancements to Quick Reply

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

Apple today released the iOS 8.3 software update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The software contains dozens of fixes and brings out a handful of feature enhancements related to Messages, Siri, the much enhanced emoji keyboard and more. Oddly, a subtle change to how Quick Reply and Notification Center handle messages with previews disabled aren't mentioned in release notes.

That's something I was alerted to by Twitter user @ericcamazin. Without a doubt, you'll find these changes much welcomed.

Noted analyst says Apple may call next line of handsets ‘iPhone 7’, with major changes

Jake Smith ∙ April 2, 2015

Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities claims Apple may call the next line of its iPhone the "iPhone 7", instead of the "iPhone 6s" like previously thought. The name change will be because of significant changes to the iOS user interface, including Force Touch technology for better interaction, the analyst says.

78 percent of devices are now using iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2018

Having been tracking iOS 8 adoption rates on a regular basis, it's clear now that the pace of user adoption of the latests and greatest iOS version has been slowing down since its peak in the holiday quarter of 2014.

According to the most recent numbers provided by Apple itself on the App Store Distribution webpage, iOS 8 is now installed on 78 percent of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices in the wild, a marginal increase over the 77 percent adoption rate from two weeks ago.