iPad

From the latest news to the most comprehensive tutorials, learn how to get the most out of your iPad with our step-by-step guides and expert tips.

Instagram is working on a text translation feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Yesterday, Instagram took to its own photo-sharing service to announce that it's working on a text translation for its mobile app. The new feature will begin rolling out in the coming month.

A Translation button will appear on feed stories and profile bios if they're written in languages different from your own. Captions and comments on posts in your feed and the bio on your profile will be translated automatically based on the language they're written in and the language settings of the person viewing it.

Apple explains why iOS 10 kernel is unencrypted

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Following the discovery by MIT Technology Review that the kernel in iOS 10 beta is unencrypted, Apple has gone on the record to explain why that's the case. Speaking with Dave Mark of The Loop, an Apple spokesperson has officially confirmed that the decision was intentional.

Now, some security experts speculated that leaving the iOS 10 kernel unencrypted would aid anyone, nefarious users included, looking for security weaknesses in the iOS software.

Apple explains why such fears are unfounded.

WhatsApp is about to get a whole lot better

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has some notable improvements in the pipeline, including support for large emoji characters, all-new public groups, the ability to share locally stored tracks and Apple Music songs with friends and family, deeper Facebook integration, profile codes, stickers and multi-account support, to name a few.

But we're just getting started.

Dropbox gains document scanner, secure file sharing and other productivity improvements

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

Dropbox today announced a major update to its mobile and desktop clients across platforms, including the ability to scan documents in the mobile app, create Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files on the go, share files securely with others using access privileges and much more.

On the downside, Dropbox's existing Camera Sync feature has been removed from the mobile app so you now must manage photos using the desktop client. Dropbox for iOS is available at no charge via the App Store. The Mac client must be downloaded directly from the Dropbox website.

Unicode 9.0 goes official with 72 new emojis

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

The Unicode Consortium, the organization which develops the Unicode standard that specifies the representation of text in all modern software, officially announced Unicode 9.0, the next major revision to the Unicode standard.

The Unicode 9.0 specification is now available to vendors with 7,500 new characters for a total of 128,172 characters, including six new scripts and 72 new emoji characters.

iOS 10 beta kernel is unencrypted, but why?

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

MIT Technology Review has discovered that the kernel in iOS 10 beta is unencrypted, making it a lot easier for technology-minded users, jailbreak developers and the like to take a peek under iOS's hood and pinpoint any potential vulnerabilities.

For those wondering, kernels in all prior iOS betas used to be encrypted. Is this a bold move meant to help strengthen security in iOS 10 or will this decision actually introduce further security risks and open new attack vectors for hackers to exploit?

Quick review: traveling smart with Radar, Yahoo’s new iPhone app for planning trips

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2018

Yahoo today released a brand new mobile application for planning trips, Radar for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app is available at no charge in the App Store and includes a smart chat bot that you can interact with. Using data from a number of popular third-party services, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, Radar delivers personalized recommendations of sights to see, activities and restaurants in an attractively designed mobile user interface.

After using it briefly, I can safely say that Radar is one of the best mobile apps Yahoo has published in a while.

Twelve South’s most popular iPad stand, Compass 2, now available in Gold and Rose Gold

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 21, 2016

Compass 2, a compact, ultra-portable iPad stand from the United States-based premium accessory vendor Twelve South, is now available in two new colorways to match your Gold or Rose Gold Apple tablet. The accessory is designed to work with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and all generations of the iPad Air and iPad mini, in both landscape and portrait mode. The new Gold and Rose Gold editions of the Compass 2 are now available for $39.99 a pop each on Amazon and via Twelve South's web store.

Apple seeds beta 3 of iOS 9.3.3, OS X 10.11.6 and tvOS 9.2.2

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Tuesday seeded the third beta for iOS 9.3.3 to both developers and public testers. The beta can be installed via the over-the-air update mechanism in iOS, or it can be downloaded from either Apple's dev center or the Beta Software Program website.

The update comes two weeks after the second iOS 9.3.3 beta was released, and it’s mostly bug fixes. Apple is obviously trying to iron out a few remaining bugs in iOS 9.3 so it can turn its attention to iOS 10, which arrived in beta form last week during WWDC.

Vine starts an experiment with longer video, too

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Twitter today said its users will soon be able to tweet out 140-second videos, a major increase in video duration compared to the current 30-second limit. The company also announced that its shortform video-sharing app, Vine, will start an experiment with longer video as well.

Twitter now accepts 140-second video uploads, rolls out new full-screen viewing experience

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2018

Micro-blogging startup Twitter on Tuesday announced a major expansion of native video length, with users able to upload videos to the service which can now be up to 140 seconds long, or two minutes and twenty seconds. Before today, Twitter video uploads were capped at thirty seconds. This change is scheduled to go into effect soon and will require an updated mobile app.

Instagram now has 500 million monthly users

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 21, 2016

Facebook-owned Instagram today announced a major milestone as the service just passed 500 million monthly users, more than 80 percent of whom are living outside of the United States. The announcement came a little more than a month following Instagram's major redesign of its mobile app. The only metric that matters is daily active users and Instagram said that out of the 500+ million monthly users, 300 million use the service every single day.