As you will probably be well aware by now, an indie flick loosely documenting a portion of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' life and tenure at the helm of the Cupertino company is almost set for release, and stars Ashton Kutcher as the man himself. The Two and a Half Men star has already spoken of his passion of technology and respect for Jobs in a recent interview, and now, an extended Jobs trailer and commentary on the movie offers even further insight into the soon-to-be-released flick.
We should all know by now that when it comes to pre-release versions of iOS there is generally no stone left unturned by those investigative minds that love nothing more than ripping through the internals to see what they can find. The latest iOS 7 beta SDK release is no different, and this time it seems that a keen-eyed developer has cottoned on to Apple testing out an enhanced iPad mini, evidence of which is located deep inside of a hidden file within the SDK.
After what seems like an age, due to the unforeseen downtime of the Apple’s Dev Center, the Cupertino company has released the latest iteration of their in-development software, iOS 7. The latest seed, beta 4, has been a highly anticipated release as the bugs and issues with iOS 7 beta 3 were prevalent. That being said, it's clear Apple has taken everyone's feedback aboard when it comes to the bugs and usability issues, because beta 4 seems to be a very stable build.
Apple TV was once looking like a forgotten device. Once famously dubbed a "hobby" by then COO Tim Cook, the little black box has not seen much love inside Cupertino, let alone outside. Yet, while the talk of a more strenuous connected TV effort remains on the lips of many an analysts, the fruit company is pressing ahead with updates and improvements to the current generation, and now, enhancing its functionality looks to be squarely on the agenda. The latest Apple TV beta suggests music purchasing will soon become a native feature, and with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity facilitating new setup features via iOS 7, there still appears to be plenty of life left in the set-top streamer.
Arguably a week late due to Apple’s developer portal security breach and then that portal subsequently being offline for far, far too long, iOS 7 beta 4 is now finally in the hands of developers. Three weeks after the third beta was pushed out, this new fourth iteration brings with it the usual raft of interface changes as well as some tweaks under the hood. I've been using it for a good few hours at this point, and following on from my previous posts along the same vein, here's how beta 4 is shaping up in these early hours after I updated my iPhone 5.
One of the so-called "killer" new features of the upcoming iPhone has frequently been suggested as a fingerprint sensor, which would be somehow integrated into the home button and would offer added security whether shopping or unlocking. Although we did catch wind of a patent suggesting iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor would instead be integrated into the display rather than the home button, the new iOS 7 beta 4 seems to have slipped that the initial notion may instead be true.
Apple has been releasing new betas for iOS 7 like clockwork since its announcement at WWDC, with every second Monday seeing the fruit of the Cupertino company's development work. But the fourth beta saw a break in the release pattern due to a security breach over at the dev portal that happened about two weeks ago. But thankfully, Apple has been keen on fixing the security issues and after a early leak of iOS 7 beta 4 download links, it is now officially available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch on Dev Center.
Apparently, the download links of iOS 7 Beta 4 are already up ahead of official release on the Dev Center.
After a lengthy eight day stretch of downtime, the Apple Dev Center is now finally back online, and so registered developers should be able to carry on about their business as usual. Late last week, it became apparent that systems were completely down, and after Apple stepped out and confirmed that it had been indeed subjected to a security breach, and that while all passwords and sensitive data were secure and out of reach of any hacker activity, it would be working on overhauling the system completely to prevent any such mishap from occurring in future. That initial memo was then followed by a server status update tool earlier this week, and now, just over a week after the Dev Center first went down, the main sections of the system are now back online.
In a poll of 38,500 Americans, Apple has fought off competition from some of tech's biggest names to hold the crown as favorite brand in the categories of smartphone, tablet and computer, which will certainly serve as a kick in the teeth to rivals. Tim Cook's company has long since been the favorite when it comes to computers, but with the iPad and iPhone seeing off the likes of Google and Samsung, it appears America just cannot get enough of the company's famed gadgets.
