iPod Touch

Does your iPhone support Raise to Wake on iOS 10?

iOS 10 makes waking your iPhone from sleep as easy as raising it in your hand. Aptly named Raise to Wake, this useful feature automatically wakes the screen as you raise the device so that you can instantly see all your notifications at a glance. It may sound like it's no big deal, but it is. However, Raise to Wake requires iOS to constantly capture and interpret data from the iPhone's many sensors to determine how you're holding the phone in your hand.

In order to realize this feature in a power-frinedly manner, it reads data from the sensors using  an Apple-designed motion coprocessor, which also happens to be required for tetherless 'Hey Siri' functionality. So, does your iPhone support Raise to Wake on iOS 10 or not?

Video walkthrough: everything new in iOS 10 beta 2

Apple today seeded a second beta of iOS 10 to its registered developers and this time around, release notes are pretty packed to reflect that the company has squashed many bugs in iOS 10 beta 2 while also bringing out a bunch of notable changes, refinements and new features. Here's our running list of everything that has been changed or tweaked in iOS 10 beta 2.

Apple seeds iOS 10 beta 2 to developers

Following the first developer-only preview of iOS 10 which was issued following the June 13 WWDC keynote, the Cupertino firm today pushed iOS 10 beta 2 (build number “14A5297c”) to the members of the Apple Developer Program. The new software is available as an over-the-air download on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices that run the first beta. A beta of iOS 10 will be made available to public beta testers in July.

iOS 10’s Health app will let US users sign up as organ, eye and tissue donors

Apple announced Tuesday that it will add an organ donor registration option to the stock Health app in iOS 10. People in the United States will be able to use a built-in option in the Health app when iOS 10 launches for public consumption this fall to register themselves as organ, eye and tissue donors.

CEO Tim Cook told the Associated Press that the feature should help ease a longstanding donor shortage, reminding the public that the problem hit home when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs endured an “excruciating” wait for a liver transplant in 2009.

Clearing your search history from the Instagram app

Instagram users who search for things frequently leave a trail behind that shows everything they've searched for, and to some who are used to hiding their tracks, this could be considered a privacy concern.

If you want to clear your search history from the Instagram app on your iPhone or iPod touch, then follow along as we take you through the simple steps to do so in this tutorial.

iOS 10 tidbit: using Digital Touch in Messages to send kisses instead of hearts

Aside from a lot of other advances, iOS 10 turns the Messages app into a platform upon which developers can build downloadable stickers, full-screen animations and chat bubble effects. Messages in iOS 10 also supports Digital Touch, a feature that first debuted on the Apple Watch.

With the new Digital Touch interface in iOS 10 Messages, users can draw and sketch with their finger on photos and video, send hearts and create other digital effects on video. But as it turns out, users also have the option to send animated kisses instead of heart beats using a simple gesture.

tvOS 10 preview: all-new Remote app with Siri voice control, tilt gaming & more

A software replacement for the physical remote that came in the box with your fourth-generation Apple TV, Apple's entirely overhauled Remote application provides you with the full range of Siri Remote features complete with touch navigation, tilt-based control in games and voice input via Siri.

And in making tedious text entry on tvOS even easier than before, the new app lets you summon the keyboard right from the Lock screen of your iPhone by pressing a notification that automatically gets pushed every time you select a text field on the Apple TV.

iOS 10 tidbit: managing read receipts on a per-conversation basis

iOS 10 has a new hidden switch, called Emergency Bypass, which permits you to override your global Do Not Disturb setting on a per-contact basis. It's especially handy for those times when you wanna enable Messages notifications for a contact that isn't in your Favorites, even if Do Not Disturb is on.

A similar new feature in iOS 10's Messages app makes it easy to enable or disable read receipts, which tell the other person when you've read an incoming text, on a per-conversation basis.

Facebook tweaks News Feed to prioritize friends over news sites

Adam Mosseri, Facebook's Vice President of Product Management, announced yesterday an upcoming change to the News Feed ranking algorithm on the service.

Soon, your News Feed will prioritize content from friends over news stories from publishers to address missing important updates from friends because content from professional publishers would get preferential treatment.

Evernote just raised its prices

I stopped using Evernote more than a year ago because Apple's much-improved Notes fulfills all of my note-taking needs. That said, I understand that some folks still prefer Evernote because it's cross-platform and has advanced features like geotagging and uploading lots of data.

In announcing the price hike on its paid subscription plans, Evernote said the move would permit its developers to add even more features for power users.

Furthermore, customers who are on Evernote's Basic plan will no longer be permitted to use the service on more than two devices at the same time.

Google Maps and Earth gain high-resolution imagery from Landsat 8 satellite

Google is upgrading the quality of aerial imagery for the satellite view that's available in Google Maps and Google Earth services. According to a blog post yesterday, both mapping services now offer crisp high-definition satellite imagery of Earth without clouds captured by Landsat 8, an Earth observation satellite launched on February 11, 2013 in a collaboration between NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).