iOS

Apple TV rumored to receive Continuity integration with iOS 8 and Yosemite Macs this Fall

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 18, 2014

iOS 8 and Yosemite come with Handoff, a particularly useful feature for completing tasks across multiple devices and seamlessly moving from one device to another. Part of the broader Continuity capability, Handoff relies on proximity sensing via power-sipping Bluetooth 4.0 to detect nearby devices which then broadcast user tasks.

Handoff lets you easily create an intelligent Instant Hotspot on your mobile device, start writing an email on your iPad and continue right where you left off on a Mac, receive and make phone calls and handle text messages on Macs and lots more.

According to one blogger, Apple will be bringing Continuity to its Apple TV media-streaming box when iOS 8 launches this Fall, resulting in a much tighter Apple TV integration with Mac and iOS...

Out now: iOS 8 Beta 2, Yosemite Developer Preview 2, new Xcode and Apple TV software

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 11, 2025

Two weeks after releasing the first beta of iOS 8, Apple today seeded it developers with the second beta of both iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite.

The Yosemite Developer Preview 2 (Build 14A261i) for Macs and a pre-release version of iOS 8 Beta 2 (build 12A4297e) for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are available for download through Apple's Dev Center.

The betas are available standalone or as over-the-air downloads via the Software Update mechanism...

FiftyThree teases Surface Pressure coming to Pencil this Fall with iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

Fans of the awesome Paper drawing app for the iPad by FiftyThree and owners of the startup's companion Pencil stylus will no doubt be looking forward to upgrading to iOS 8 in order to take advantage of a new Surface Pressure feature coming to Pencil and Paper this Fall.

Billed as an industry-first feature, Surface Pressure taps iOS 8's variable touch sizing and leverages Pencil’s uniquely-designed tip to vary the pressure, thickness and width of lines you create, mimicking the behavior of real-life artistic drawing tools such as dry pastel chalks and charcoals...

Unicode 7.0 includes 250 new emoji icons that could come to future iOS update

Joe Rossignol ∙ June 16, 2014

The Unicode Consortium announced today that Unicode 7.0 is now available, adding currency symbols for the Russian ruble and Azerbaijani manat, historic scripts and other new symbols. But as reported by MacRumors, the bigger news for iPhone and iPad users is the addition of approximately 250 new emoji icons. Before you get too excited, Apple still has to update iOS to support the new Unicode standard first…

Apple wanted to buy Parse for iOS 8 CloudKit

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

CloudKit, one of the few platform-enhancing features Apple rolled out at WWDC, had to be created entirely from scratch because the Cupertino firm has failed at buying Parse, a startup that provides much of CloudKit-like functionality.

CloudKit frees up programmers from needing to devote their resources toward building server-side application logic themselves. It does so by providing a common set of APIs for server-based authentication, private and public database, structured and asset storage services and much more.

According to a scoop by The Information, a technology website by former WSJ writer Jessica Lessin, the iPhone maker considered purchasing Parse before Facebook...

WebMD launches Healthy Target, its own health-improvement platform

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2014

Ahead of iOS 8's public launch this Fall, WebMD today introduced Healthy Target, its own health improvement program for the iPhone that aggregates data from various biometric sensors and makes it understandable and actionable.

It sounds much like HealthKit, Apple's new platform in iOS 8 which gives makers of health/fitness apps and accessories official APIs to store users' performance metrics and health data into a system-wide database accessible by the stock Health app and third-party software...

Yosemite’s Handoff feature may not be compatible with all Macs

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Handoff, arguably the coolest feature of the upcoming OS X 10.10 Yosemite, may not be available to all Mac users. In case you're not familiar with Handoff, it's part of Continuity, a new feature designed for seamless transitioning between iOS devices and Macs.

"Now your Mac knows the last thing you were doing on your iOS device and vice versa," Apple's Yosemite webpage explains. "So you can start something on one device and instantly pick it up on another."

As noted by a German blog, Handoff relying on short-range Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity is a strong indication that you'll need a relatively new Mac model in order to take advantage of the feature...

Microsoft mulls porting Cortana assistant to iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 13, 2014

Microsoft has wont to arrive late to parties: following Siri's introduction nearly three years ago, Redmond in April of this year has finally gotten around to unveiling a personal assistant of its own, Cortana, at the Build Developer Conference in San Francisco.

Originally conceived as a Windows Phone 8.1 exclusive, the Windows giant is now reportedly considering bringing the virtual assistant to rival platforms, namely to iOS and Android.

Let me get this straight. Beats updates Android app. Microsoft launches Office for iPad before even releasing a touch-optimized version for Windows 8 tablet. Apple reportedly mulling iTunes for Android...

What a difference a few years make, eh?

iOS 8 lets native apps tap into Safari’s AutoFill & Passwords for frictionless login experience

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 13, 2014

In addition to using your device’s iSight camera to scan in credit card information, Safari in iOS 8 makes it easy for third-party apps to tap into the browser's AutoFill & Passwords feature for hassle-free logins.

Provided a user has previously saved their username and password for a specific website using Safari's AutoFill & Passwords feature, a native iOS app is now permitted to retrieve this information and re-use it to authorize a user quickly and securely, bypassing the login screen altogether...

New in iOS 8: reply notifications for Mail threads

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 12, 2014

Apple really seems laser-focused on further removing communication hurdles and friction in iOS 8 by advancing Mail and Messages stock apps in ways more than one.

For the most part, the changes in these two apps are for the better: Apple hasn't cluttered their interfaces nor has it changed the familiar design.

Apple's thinking and consideration for the end user is especially evident in how iOS 8 handles group chats in Messages and email threads in Mail.

While you can now finally leave a group chat in Messages, Mail in iOS 8 sports a really useful feature where you tell it to issue a push notification each time someone has replied to a designated email thread...

TouchPal video shows off upcoming iOS 8 keyboard with sliding text entry

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

You already know Apple at last week's WWDC gave its developer army the tools to build custom keyboards for iOS 8. It's all part of making the mobile operating system extensible, customizable and more open to developers than ever before.

We also know that Swype, Fleksy and SwiftKey, as well as KeyPoint and Whirlscape, are all building their iOS 8 keyboards and now TouchPal has demoed its upcoming TouchPal X keyboard running on iOS 8.

Billed as "the first iOS 8 keyboard with gesture/sliding input," next word prediction and other features, TouchPal X allows you to slide over letters for a word, up for a number and down for a symbol.

Check it out in action in a video included right after the break...

Skype 5.0 now available on the App Store

Joe Rossignol ∙ June 10, 2014

Just one day after teasing a brand new design for Skype for iOS, Microsoft has released the updated app on the App Store for iPhone. Our own Christian Zibreg walked through several of the new features, ranging from a sleeker user interface and faster performance to cross-platform read receipt syncing and the ability to start group chats from the hub. Details ahead…