iOS 8

Fleksy Keyboard goes free for a week, gains millions of GIFs via partnership with Riffsy

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 14, 2015

Fleksy Keyboard, one of the first and most popular software keyboards for iOS 8 devices, has gone free for a week. The app usually retails for 99 cents a pop and has never gone free since its App Store debut as an iOS 8-compatible downloadable software keyboard in September of last year.

In addition, Fleksy's latest update has rechristened the app as 'Fleksy + GiF Keyboard' to reflect its newly gained integration with Riffsy's GIF Keyboard for iOS. The resulting app now gives you access to millions of GIFs on top of Fleksy's existing emoji support and perks like advanced keyboard capabilities with gestures and much more.

iOS 8.3 stops transfer utilities from accessing app folders, restricts them to iTunes File Sharing

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2015

If you use desktop file managers such as PhoneView, iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer and others to browse app folders on your non-jailbroken iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you have another reason to stay away from the latest iOS 8.3 update as it prevents those programs from functioning properly.

As first reported by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, developers of these apps have confirmed that iOS 8.3 imposes additional restrictions on sandbox access.

In iFunbox, trying to access an app folder on an iOS device running iOS 8.3 produces a message saying “App Sandbox access is restricted by Apple to ones with iTunes File Sharing enabled since iOS 8.3”. This change does not affect jailbroken devices which can access app sandboxes as usual via OpenSSH for complete filesystem privileges and command line access.

Business owners can now claim POIs as their own via Apple Maps on iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 3, 2016

One of the welcome changes in the iOS 8.3 and OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 software updates, which hit yesterday, includes the ability for business owners to claim any point of interest as their own using an updated Report a Problem tool in Apple Maps for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, as reported Thursday by AppleMapsMarketing.

The company began allowing local businesses to manage their listing in the service last October, but required them to use its Maps Connect web service.

At the same time, the iPhone maker appears to be removing some TripAdvisor hotel reviews which started showing up in its Maps service last week.

Touch ID for App Store purchases stops working for many after updating to iOS 8.3

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 9, 2015

A growing number of users are complaining about the inability to use Touch ID fingerprint scanning to authorize purchases in the App Store after updating to iOS 8.3.

As reported on Twitter, Reddit and detailed in a thread on Apple's Support Communities forums, iOS 8.3 appears to be asking for an Apple ID password for each and every purchase made in the App Store.

This is regardless of whether or not the option to use Touch ID in the App Store is enabled in Settings. What gives?

iOS 8.3 brings useful enhancements to Quick Reply

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

Apple today released the iOS 8.3 software update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The software contains dozens of fixes and brings out a handful of feature enhancements related to Messages, Siri, the much enhanced emoji keyboard and more. Oddly, a subtle change to how Quick Reply and Notification Center handle messages with previews disabled aren't mentioned in release notes.

That's something I was alerted to by Twitter user @ericcamazin. Without a doubt, you'll find these changes much welcomed.

Apple reminds developers of upcoming 64-bit requirement for app updates

Sébastien Page ∙ April 8, 2015

As a reminder to developer, Apple published on its developer portal today that starting June 1, 2015, all app updates submitted to the App Store will have to include 64-bit support and be built with the iOS 8 SDK. While the move probably won't affect active developers who are already in compliance, smaller developer who haven't updated their apps for iOS 8 or 64-bit devices yet will have some catching up to do, and it's only good for us users.

Apple releases iOS 8.3 with new Siri languages, diverse emojis and more

Cody Lee ∙ April 8, 2015

In addition to releasing OS X 10.10.3 to the public this morning, Apple has also rolled out iOS 8.3. The update, which developers and members of Apple's public beta program have been testing since February, includes a number of new features and improvements.

Among those new features is support for Wireless CarPlay, which allows folks with vehicles or head units that support the feature to use CarPlay without dealing with cables. There is also new, more diverse emojis, additional language support in Siri, Safari fixes and more.

Noted analyst says Apple may call next line of handsets ‘iPhone 7’, with major changes

Jake Smith ∙ April 2, 2015

Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities claims Apple may call the next line of its iPhone the "iPhone 7", instead of the "iPhone 6s" like previously thought. The name change will be because of significant changes to the iOS user interface, including Force Touch technology for better interaction, the analyst says.

78 percent of devices are now using iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2018

Having been tracking iOS 8 adoption rates on a regular basis, it's clear now that the pace of user adoption of the latests and greatest iOS version has been slowing down since its peak in the holiday quarter of 2014.

According to the most recent numbers provided by Apple itself on the App Store Distribution webpage, iOS 8 is now installed on 78 percent of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices in the wild, a marginal increase over the 77 percent adoption rate from two weeks ago.

‘Cask’ brings slick animations to iOS table views

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Now that his work on Auxo seems to be finished, perhaps this means that we will begin seeing more frequent releases from Ryan Petrich? It doesn’t appear that he’s wasting any time, as Cask, a new jailbreak tweak, just recently appeared on his beta repo.

Cask is a tweak that brings animated table scrolling, inspired by Google Plus, to iOS. Although it may sound like a small thing, when you see Cask in action, you’ll realize that it causes a significant visual change. Be sure to watch our full video walkthrough of Cask in action.

Native Twitter sharing disappears from latest iOS beta if Twitter’s mobile app is installed

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 30, 2015

iOS 8.3 beta 4 that was seeded to Apple's registered iOS developers last week has removed the long-standing option to share content to Twitter, according to our own findings a couple days ago that have since been confirmed by other users.

We've noticed something was afoot as the option to share to Twitter has gone missing from the Share sheet in iOS 8's stock Photos and Safari app.

Technically, the feature has not been removed entirely because it only disappears after installing Twitter's official iOS app in iOS 8.3 beta 4, as evidenced on the screenshots provided by our own Oliver Haslam.

Uninstall Twitter and it comes back.

Vex brings Control Center and Notification Center themes to iOS 8

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Vex, an upcoming jailbreak tweak that will soon be available on the BigBoss repo for $0.99, will let users add themes to both Control Center and Notification Center on iOS. The tweak, which features a host of themes for both interfaces, will even play nice with Auxo Legacy Edition once its released.