Tag: iOS

Categories
TechCrunch

Redesigning the iOS 14 home screen, app makers form ‘fairness’ coalition, latest on TikTok ban – TechCrunch

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People are now spending three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In this series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis. iOS 14 Home screen Customization Craze The release of iOS 14 included one of the biggest updates to the iPhone’s user interface in years. Apps can now be stored off screen in the new App Library where they’re organized for you, as opposed to you being forced to categorize apps yourself into various folders. And Apple finally allows for home screen widgets — a development that left Android users snickering about how “behind” their iPhone-using counterparts have been all this time. But as with iOS apps, Apple’s design constraints and rules around widgets mean there’s a standard that all widgets have to meet to be approved. As a result, widgets have a consistent look-and-feel, thanks to things like size limitations and other design guidelines. They can’t be stretched out indefinitely or moved all over the screen, either. Apple may…Continue readingRedesigning the iOS 14 home screen, app makers form ‘fairness’ coalition, latest on TikTok ban – TechCrunch

Categories
The Next Web

What you need to know about iOS 14’s new privacy settings

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Apple’s most recent overhaul of iOS adds multiple new bells and whistles to the platform, including the ability to completely change your screen layout and set your own default apps. However, it may be the new privacy updates that are the most important. Here’s what you need to know. There have been multiple additions, like light indicators near the battery display that show you that apps are using your microphone and camera, and clipboard notifications that tell you from where you’re copying and pasting. The ones we talk about below are the ones we think will be most useful in keeping a lid on your personal data. Precise Location options Up to now, when apps requested to track your location, your options were either to allow it, block it, or allow it while the app was in use. Now you have an additional option: a toggle that lets you choose whether an app tracks your precise location, or a more approximate one. You’ll have to adjust this on each individual app, but it’s definitely worth having the control. To access this, go to the Privacy menu in the Settings app, then go to Location Tracking. You’ll see a list of all the apps that use Location Tracking, and on each one, you can turn off the switch that says “Precise Location.” Each page also has an…Continue readingWhat you need to know about iOS 14’s new privacy settings

Categories
Engadget

iOS 14 update fixes a bug that reset your browser and mail defaults

One of the notable changes in iOS 14 is that it finally allowed users to set new default apps for their web browser and email. Chrome, Firefox, Gmail and others are already taking advantage of the setting, but after the update rolled out last week, many iPhone and iPad owners noticed their devices would go back to the original settings after a restart. This afternoon Apple pushed out iOS 14.0.1 and iPadOS 14.0.1, which addresses that issue. If you haven’t received it already then you should be able to nab the download by manually checking for an update, which 9to5Mac shows is around 171MB to download. Other tweaks in the update address camera previews, problems connecting to WiFi, and a problem that could block images from the widget for Apple News. tvOS and watchOS have also received small bug fixes, so go ahead and update everything Apple just to be sure you’re covered. Source linkContinue readingiOS 14 update fixes a bug that reset your browser and mail defaults

Categories
The Verge

Fantastical’s new widgets look like the perfect use-case for the iOS 14 update

Mac and iOS calendar app Fantastical has updated its software with 12 new customizable widgets. They look like the perfect use-case for iOS 14’s widget support, giving users access to their calendar, events, and weather forecasts straight from the home screen. These aren’t the sort of widgets you’d use to flex on TikTok, of course: these are practical and straightforward designs for people whose live in their schedules. The widgets look as well-designed as you’d expect from Fantastical, and we particularly like the option to jump into meetings directly. No more searching your inbox for that elusive Zoom invitation. Fantastical’s widgets are all hypothetically free to use, but some features (like quick-joining meetings and multiple calendar sets) will not work unless you’re a paying customer. The app moved to a subscription model earlier this year, and costs $4.99 a month on a rolling basis or $3.33 a month if you commit to a whole year’s subscription. The Fantastical update also adds support for handwriting recognition on iPadOS 14. Despite their ancient lineage on mobile devices, widgets have proved to be the break-out star of iOS 14. That’s thanks to the weirder use cases people have been putting them to: creating themed layouts for favorite bands, anime, and much more. Widgets and custom app icons (created via a less-than-optimal Shortcuts hack) have found such a receptive audience that many think Apple should offer greater support for customization, though it’s unlikely that will ever happen. For more on how to use widgets…Continue readingFantastical’s new widgets look like the perfect use-case for the iOS 14 update

Categories
The Next Web

How to hide pages of apps in iOS 14

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. The new iOS 14 has a lot of updates centered around customizing your screen layout. No longer are you fettered by the app tile uniformity of iOSes past. Now you can customize your screen with large widgets, or stacks of them. Also, most crucially, if you don’t want certain apps to take up room on your phone’s pages, you can hide them — whole pages of them, in fact. We all have that one page or folder of apps on our iPhones, populated entirely by apps we use rarely but don’t want to get rid of for one reason or another. For mine, it’s populated by apps like Uber and Airbnb — considering I have my own car and haven’t traveled much since the pandemic started, I have not either app touched in months but I feel the need to keep them on my phone just in case. Luckily iOS doesn’t require you to keep that little app purgatory on your phone anymore, at least not visibly. Now you can hide it while still keeping it on your phone in case you ever need it. Here’s how you do it. In order to access the option to hide an app page, long-press on any part of your screen to bring up edit mode, also known as the “everything is wiggling” mode. Once you’re in edit mode,…Continue readingHow to hide pages of apps in iOS 14

Categories
The Verge

iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 review: iPhone revolution, iPad evolution

Apple spells out the significance of its new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 updates right in the release notes. iOS 14 “updates the core experience of iPhone” thanks to redesigned widgets that can be placed anywhere on your home screen and a new App Library feature for managing app overload and organization. iPadOS 14 is a bit less grand in scope, with Apple saying that it “introduces new Apple Pencil features and redesigned apps that take advantage of iPad’s large multi-touch display.” One marks the biggest shift for the iPhone in years, and the other continues to augment the creativity and productivity power of Apple’s tablets. For both platforms, the new software includes a long list of improvements to Messages, Maps, the Music app, Siri, and more. And Apple continues its quest to put privacy at the center of everything, with new protections for your personal data and indicators that reveal just how often apps are accessing your device’s camera, microphone, or even the clipboard. But first let me touch on something that’s equally important to new features: performance and reliability. Apple shipped iOS 13 in tatters last year, quickly releasing iOS 13.1 (with bug fixes aplenty) just five days later, and I’d say things didn’t feel truly stable and dependable until a couple more updates after that. Despite what feels like a sudden rollout, iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 seem to be in a much better place out of the gate. I’m still encountering the odd bug on occasion…Continue readingiOS 14 and iPadOS 14 review: iPhone revolution, iPad evolution

Categories
The Next Web

How to set a default mail app in iOS 14

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Apple’s iOS 14 is an improvement in many ways — it gives you more freedom in organizing your apps, it finally makes widgets worth looking at, and (my favorite) allow you to set at least a few new default apps other than Apple’s homegrown options. Here’s how to do that with the mail app. It’s always been my philosophy that if we must be forced to use Apple’s apps, they’re not good enough. There have been some of their built-in apps I’ve circled back to after trying other options, and others that I haven’t. Either way, it’s nice to finally have the option. We’ve already covered how to change your browser from the default Safari. Now that Google has updated Gmail to make it one of the new options, here’s how to do likewise for your mail. To start, make sure your apps are all up-to-date, obviously. Then go to the Settings menu on your device. Scroll down until you find the email app of your choice. I’m using Gmail in this example.   Once you’re in the menu, select the option that says “Default Mail App.” This will bring up a menu of your other options. Select whichever one you wish to be the default. The other mail apps you can set to default include Hey, Spark, and Outlook. They’ll all be available to…Continue readingHow to set a default mail app in iOS 14

Categories
Engadget

Now iOS users can set Gmail as their default email app

When Apple unveiled iOS 14, it quietly noted that this version of the operating system finally lets users set their own default apps for email and web browsing. Google already updated Chrome on iOS so that those who’ve installed the new OS since it was released last week can set the Google browser as a default (however, as MacRumors and 9to5Google note, some users have been plagued by a bug that resets it back to Safari whenever the device restarts), and today it released version 6.0.200825 of the Gmail app. With iOS 14, you can now set #gmail as your default email on iPhone or iPad → https://t.co/iODOD2y2ot pic.twitter.com/a0RGjQsDtI — Gmail (@gmail) September 21, 2020 As the Gmail support page (and an easy-to-follow GIF) explains, changing the default should be as easy as visiting the settings page on your iPhone or iPad, selecting Gmail, then clicking Default app, and switching it to Gmail. For many of you, Gmail has probably already been opening links from Chrome, for example, but now it’s the default everywhere. Wasn’t that easy? Source linkContinue readingNow iOS users can set Gmail as their default email app

Categories
Wired

The iOS 14 Privacy and Security Features You Should Know

This new iOS 14 feature gives your iPhone a different MAC address every time it connects, making it much more difficult for this sort of tracking to work. It’s set to be enabled by default for every new network you connect to. Know When Apps Snoop on Your Clipboard If you see a message about apps pasting clipboard information from other apps at the top of your iPhone screen, don’t panic: That’s just the new clipboard notification feature in iOS kicking into action. As the iOS 14 beta program revealed, plenty more apps monitor the clipboard than you would actually think, even before you’ve actually pasted anything. Most apps now seem to have tidied up their approach to clipboard access to avoid getting called out. If you’re using iOS 14, you should only see the notification when you actually choose to paste something inside an app, in which case the app obviously needs access to the clipboard. Limit How Apps Track You Another change in iOS 14 is that apps will have to specifically request permission to track you across other apps and sites. However, after complaints from advertisers—most notably Facebook, which in August said the move would “severely impact” its lucrative Audience Network—this feature won’t be fully enforced until sometime next year. For now, you can head to Privacy then Tracking from the iOS Settings menu, and you’ll find a toggle switch for whether you want apps to be able to request permission to track you outside of the…Continue readingThe iOS 14 Privacy and Security Features You Should Know

Categories
The Next Web

Apple’s iOS 14 will give users more privacy protection — and publishers aren’t happy about it

iPhone users are about to receive access to Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 14. It will come with the usual array of shiny new features, but the real game-changer will be missing – at least until January. For the first time, iOS 14 is to require apps to get permission from users before collecting their data – giving users an opt-in to this compromise to their privacy. This caused a major backlash from companies that rely on this data to make money, most notably Facebook. So why did Apple decide to jeopardize the business models of major rivals and their advertisers, and will the postponement make any difference? The backlash The opt-in is not the only change in iOS 14 that gives users more privacy protection, but it has attracted the most attention. Privacy campaigners will applaud the move, but the reaction from the media business has been mixed. The likes of American online publishing trade body Digital Content Next thought it would potentially benefit members. But Facebook warned the opt-in could halve publishers’ revenues on its advertising platform, while some publishers are loudly concerned. The owner of UK news site Mail Online, DMG Media, threatened to delete its app from the App Store. Whether publishers win or lose very much depends on their business model and customer base. Publishers’ model of selling their product to consumers and selling space to advertisers has been badly damaged by the internet. All the free content online drove down physical sales, which…Continue readingApple’s iOS 14 will give users more privacy protection — and publishers aren’t happy about it