Earlier on this year, Apple rolled out iOS 7.1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and among a number of changes, bug fixes and new additions, one of the flagship features was the introduction of CarPlay. Announced as iOS in the Car back at WWDC 2013, CarPlay means that users could remain connected while driving without distraction from the road, and not only does the feature promote road safety, but also offers a broad range of functionality thanks largely to the Siri voice assistant. It has long since been known that audio giant Pioneer would be among the first to retail its own fleet of aftermarket, CarPlay-ready infotainment systems, and today, five of its line-up will offer full-on support of Apple's in-car flavor of iOS via firmware update.
Although iOS 8 was first showcased at this year's WWDC developer gathering back in June, it wasn't until September's iPhone 6 event that we first caught a glimpse of the new integrated, contactless payment system dubbed Apple Pay. The Cupertino company's new infrastructure would not, we were told, be a part of iOS 8.0 on day one, but would follow in a subsequent October software update. According to a new report, the Mac maker is right on schedule to roll Apple Pay out with iOS 8.1, with the same source also offering a firm date on the release.
Apple's introduction of third-party keyboards with iOS 8 has been a real win for productivity and general functionality. Users can now call upon the powers of Fleksy, SwiftKey and Swype when typing emails, messages and creating documents, and in turn, get the job done considerably more quickly. The opening up of the keyboard aspect has also brought a new wave of fun typing experiences, with the likes of the Riffsy GIF Keyboard bringing those much-loved memes to iOS, but before Riffsy even hit the App Store last week, PopKey sold the idea to us with its equally entertaining effort. At the time, it wasn't ready for end user consumption, but now, PopKey is ready for prime time, and below, you'll find both details and download link.
Tweetbot is among the most popular third-party Twitter clients for iPhone, and in line with Apple's introduction of two new iPhones as well as the iOS 8 software, has just been updated with a host of new and exciting features.
Pebble has announced an improvement to the fleet of fitness-tracking features it first rolled out in an update earlier on this year, and along with the enhanced functionality, has also revised the prices of its line-up. Notably, it brings the cost of the entry-level Pebble down to $99, hitting the sub-$100 category for the very first time, and with the premium Pebble Steel now only costing $199, it's clear that the likes of Apple Watch and Android Wear are ramping up the pressure on the start-up.
Apple released the first beta of iOS 8.1 to developers just yesterday, and as we expected, it comes with a lot of minor changes that make up for a handful update over what is available publicly in the form of iOS 8.0.2. Here, we’ll run through all the changes in a neatly organized bulleted list.
When Apple first introduced folders in iOS way back with the iOS 4 release, it was largely laughed at by Android fans for being flimsy and barely functional. They had good reason to do that, too; Android has had a much functional, not to mention useful, folder organization system since time immemorial, whereas iOS' initial attempts were lousy and half-baked at best. In fact, there were so many lacking bits and pieces, and glitches, that one of them ended up serving a purpose that wasn't originally intended; the ability to nest folders within folders. It appears that the same glitch has carried over all the way to iOS 8 as well, and using the same technique (which we'll describe going forward for the uninitiated), you can nest folders within folders even in iOS 8 and iOS 8.0.2.
Thus far, Apple has launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in just under 30 nations, with the initial roll-out in the United States, United Kingdom and several others on September 19th followed closely by the addition of a further 20 countries only last Friday. Conspicuous by its absence, however, has been China, an emerging market with something of an affinity to Apple's product line-up. But with the news having trickled out to the blogosphere a short while ago that Chinese regulators has approved both of the Mac maker's new smartphones for retail, Apple has now confirmed that the larger handsets will be available throughout the world's most populous nation as of October 17th.
Apple has just released iOS 8.1 beta 1 download for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. The first beta build carries a build number of 12B401 and is available to download immediately for registered developers, and is likely an update which includes support for Apple Pay and other bug fixes.
Ordinarily, Apple releases a major enhancement to its mobile software in September, with a further, '.1' update arriving early on in the following year. However, iOS 8's schedule of updates will see the Cupertino pushing out the changes much more aggressively, with three major new releases set to arrive before iOS 9. Not only has iOS 8 brought so much to the table already, but there's still a great deal to come, and so along with the customary iOS 8.1 update, expect to see iOS 8.2 and a further iOS 8.3 as Apple seeks to roll out and establish the likes of Health / HomeKit, CarPlay, Apple Pay and several other potential game-changers.
















