Apple prides itself on its relatively good record of preserving security, but despite ongoing efforts to ensure that public releases of iOS and OS X are as stable and water-tight as possible, we're often reminded that software, inherently, is not infallible and that inevitable, faults will arise. The headlines have, for the past week, been largely dominated by talk of the upcoming iOS 8, but as Apple looks to pipe on the improvements, a new flaw within the current iOS 7 has just been unearthed.
With iOS 8, Apple has introduced quite a few good new features to the table. Some are related to functionality, like the third-party keyboard support, while others, such as those we outlined in a detail article, are less obvious but nonetheless important. One particular quirk, as just discovered by one eagle-eyed beta user, definitely advocates user privacy in that in randomizes your device's MAC address before you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot, which also serves as a kick in the teeth for companies whose entire business is based on logging and tracking this information.
Apple's big iOS 8 reveal at WWDC brought with it one or two features that we never saw coming. One feature that's considerably less unexpected but perhaps one that has slipped under the radar, is the Camera app's new time-lapse mode.
Now that WWDC is over, we can get back to wondering what hardware Apple will announce this year. It's a given than the iPhone 6 will be brought to market towards the last quarter of 2014, but what it will contain and how it will look is still up for debate.
Apple's latest iOS software update has been well received by users, pundits and commentators, and one of the main reasons why it has been so heavily lauded can be attributed to the broader set of customization tools. Everywhere you look throughout iOS 8 beta 1 - if you've had the chance - you'll notice the increased scope for tailoring the experience beyond anything seen before with Apple's mobile software, and according to some murmurings on Twitter, Apple could be planning to offer users more jurisdiction over the Control Center.
We're still continuing to learn new bits of information all the time with regards to iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite, and with communication being an integral part of both of Apple's main operating systems, it should come as little surprise that both iMessage and FaceTime look set for some healthy improvements.
Apple just announced and released the Developer Preview of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, and although the forthcoming Mac software update offers a little more than a few cosmetic changes, it is indeed those aesthetic tweaks that are most noticeable about this particular version. Here, we take a look at Yosemite's UI elements versus the corresponding design of the preceding OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and although it doesn't, on the whole, feel as dramatic a departure from tradition as iOS 7 did back in September of last year, the breakdown really hits home how much work Apple's design team has put in.
Apple recently took the decision to bring the manufacturing of some of its Mac line-up back to the United States, and given how popular a move it was, it is no surprise that the company has seized upon almost every available opportunity to mention and showcase the American arm of its manufacturing landscape. Tim Cook, being the head of the organization and all, was only too keen to tweet images of his encounters with Mac Pro production line workers at the Austin plant, but in a bit of a PR gaffe, showed that staff are being prompted by iMacs running on Microsoft's Windows.
With Apple expected to announce its first smartwatch later on this year, the last few days of digging into the iOS 8 beta has been a partial attempt to unearth any watch-shaped clues. So far, not a lot has been discovered within the software, but this is to be expected given how secretive Apple likes to remain on unannounced products, and a plausible report out of Japan has just shed some more light on the wearable's form factor, software, design and release date.
As we are continuing to learn following the release of the very first beta, iOS 8 is full of weird and wonderful surprises, and now it has emerged that the camera of an iPhone running the upcoming software can be used to scan in credit card details.
