iOS

iOS 8 uses M7 chip and motion sensors for accurate indoor positioning

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 5, 2014

Apple with iOS 8 is advancing the CoreLocation API with new features designed to provide users with even more reliable, faster and precise indoor positioning in supported venues. Currently, iOS determines your location using a combination of GPS, a crowd-sourced location database of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and the cellular triangulation technique that determines your rough location based on cell tower signal strength.

As GPS/cellular are often unavailable or perform poorly inside buildings and in underground places like parking lots, iOS 8 can resort to using a combination of iBeacon transmitters, if any, and motion data provided by your device's accelerometer, compass and gyroscope sensors...

Fleksy teases its upcoming iOS 8 keyboard

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 28, 2016

Aside from customizable Share sheets and support for third-party Share Extensions, downloadable soft-keyboards is yet another feature making iOS 8 more flexible and way more customizable than ever.

As we explained yesterday, registered iOS developers can now use Apple's iOS 8 SDK to write software keyboards and distribute them in the App Store. And users will be permitted to download any third-party keyboard they like.

This will make it dead simple to finally use new input methods system-wide. I bet you didn't see downloadable iOS 8 keyboards coming! Apple's promotional graphics shown at Monday's keynote and used on the iOS 8 webpage has already hinted at a downloadable Swype keyboard.

And just this morning, an image tweeted out by its developer has confirmed that the popular Fleksy Android keyboard will be available when iOS 8 launches this Fall...

Find My iPhone in iOS 8 introduces ‘Send Last Location’ feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 4, 2014

Find My iPhone is a great way to locate your lost or misplaced device - that is, unless a thief was smart enough to find a way to disable it right after you've been mugged and your device has been taken from you.

Additionally, if the person has shut down your device or it has run out of battery charge, Apple's free Find My iPhone app will only display its last known location for up to 24 hours.

The same goes for the web interface over at iCloud.com. After the 24 hour cut-off period, you're basically unable to locate the device on a world map until it has been restarted and has established a network connection...

15 jailbreak tweaks that iOS 8 made obsolete

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated April 10, 2023

Whenever a new iOS version is released, it is always interesting to reflect on which features Apple added to the software that were already possible by jailbreaking your device. iOS 8 took a lot of people by surprise, with several new major features as opposed to minor refinements. As a result, the software update rendered a lot of jailbreak tweaks obsolete going forward. But it also isn't all bad news for the jailbreak scene. Read ahead for a list of jailbreak tweaks on the chopping block and more…

New in iOS 8 Accessibility: better zoom, Grayscale

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 3, 2014

Over the years, both iOS and OS X platforms have adopted a number of great accessibility features to help tailor how Apple's mobile and desktop devices work for people with disabilities.

If you're color blind or have low vision, a brand new Accessibility option in iOS 8 replaces the colors with a range of gray shades from white to black, as used in a monochrome display or printout.

That's not all, as iOS 8 includes additional screen zoom options and more. I've detailed this changes for you right after the break...

iOS 8 puts app shortcuts on the Lock screen based on your location

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 3, 2014

Another handy improvement we've discovered in iOS 8 deals with location tracking improvements.

Apparently, Apple's upcoming mobile operating system puts an app icon right on the Lock screen whenever in a vicinity of a location that has a corresponding app in the App Store. Just walk up to a nearby Apple Store and an app icon appears on the Lock screen. Same for places like Tesco and Vons.

"When Location Services is turned on, the device's current location is used to recommend relevant apps on the lock screen," as per iOS 8 release notes. Again, you don't even need to have the app installed on your device. It's important to note that this feature is unrelated to iBeacons, here are full details...

iOS 8 gains intelligent Instant Hotspot feature

Joe Rossignol ∙ June 3, 2014

iPhones and iPads have long had a feature called Personal Hotspot for tethering your cellular data connection to a Mac or another device over Bluetooth, USB or Wi-Fi. To setup the personal hotspot, users had to navigate to settings and toggle on the feature. Then, the device would appear as a Wi-Fi network or under network services in settings if connected using USB…

iOS 8 AirPlay broadcasts to Apple TV without Wi-Fi

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 3, 2014

Apple's current implementation of AirPlay, its media streaming technology, requires a Mac or iOS device to be on the same Wi-Fi network as an AirPlay receiver, which in most scenarios is the Apple TV. While seamless, AirPlay in its current form makes it impossible to use in places where you don't have access to a local Wi-Fi network.

Feeling your pain, Apple in iOS 8 has implemented zero-configuration peer-to-peer networking between AirPlay devices. This lets you broadcast whatever content from an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to your Apple TV, even if these devices are not on the same local network...

OS X Yosemite lets you video capture iOS 8 devices with a Lightning cable

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 3, 2014

Capturing a real-time screencast of apps and games running on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad used to require juggling with various devices/cables.

As our own Jeff Benjamin would explain, a typical solution would involve using a pro camcorder to physically record the screen of an iOS device and taking advantage of one of Lightning digital A/V adapters to feed live video from your iOS device to a computer or a specialized video capture device.

Starting this Fall, iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite will greatly simplify the process by allowing you to capture a screencast by connecting an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to a computer using a Lightning cable, no A/V adapters or HDMI capture cards needed whatsoever...

iOS 8 adds Handoff feature for completing tasks across multiple devices

Joe Rossignol ∙ June 3, 2014

Apple has introduced a handy new feature in iOS 8 called Handoff, which lets you start a task on one Apple device and pick up right where you left off on another. For instance, you might start composing a long email on your iPhone and sit down at your desk to finish it on your Mac later. Or perhaps you are browsing the web on your Mac, and then keep looking at the same link from your iPad…