Seems like all the kids these days are using YouTube to listen to songs. It used to be trivially easy to play videos in the background, though, by just starting a video in the YouTube app or in Safari, and then just switching out to another app.
These days, however, the latest iOS version has changed that, and switching out of the YouTube app or Safari with a video playing stops the playback. Never fear, though, there are a couple of workarounds.
Do you have a lot of reliability issues with your iPhone or iPad? You might want to make haste to upgrade to iOS 7.1. According to a prominent app monitoring firm, iOS 7.1 is the least crash prone and most stable version of iOS yet.
Want to supercharge your stock music player? If you’re on a jailbroken iPhone, check out Aria. It’s a new Cydia tweak that adds a number of new improvements to the stock Music.app in iOS 7.1, including the ability to see albums in a grid view, a new ‘Now Playing’ interface (like in Apple’s Remote app), an ‘Endless Playing’ feature that will start a shuffled play after an album ends, improved lyrics views, and a number of UI improvements, including gestural support.
From a tectonic perspective, any time Apple releases a new version of iOS, it’s like an Earthquake hit the internet. But you might be surprised by how high on the Richter Scale an Apple iOS release is.
This chart by network management services provider Deepfield shows just how big of a seismic event the release of iOS 71 was. From almost zero traffic, iOS 7.1 caused traffic to spike to over 1 terrabyte of data per second… and that’s just a partial view of the effect iOS 7.1 had on the world’s networks. Imagine what this chart will look like when iOS 8 comes around?
Via: GigaOm
Thanks to a glitch in iOS 7, it was possible to put folders inside of other folders. With iOS 7.1, Apple fixed the glitch, but lo and behold, they seem to have missed an even bigger glitch that makes it much easier to accomplish the same thing. Here’s how.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3QWRY_k6V0
Sadly, iOS 7.1 finally put an end to the Evasi0n jailbreak, the versatile hack that allowed anyone running iOS 7 to iOS 7.0.6 to run unsigned (i.e. Apple verboten) code on their iOS devices.
But all is not lost! Seasoned jailbreaker Winocm has posted a video of iOS 7.1 running on a jailbroken iPhone 4, untethered.
Since updating to iOS 7.1, a number of users have complained of tethering issues — meaning that information doesn’t save when trying to entering custom APN settings into a device’s Cellular menu.
In the update, Apple has apparently disabled users from setting up Personal Hotspots on carriers who either aren’t official iPhone partners, or who don’t support the feature.
One of iOS 7.1’s major changes was a new Calendar app that added such features as the ability to see a full list of events while in your Calendar’s month view, as well as a more complete list of nation-specific holiday.
If you use your iPhone as an organizer, the new Calendar app is enough to update to iOS 7.1 on its own right. Unfortunately, iOS 7.1 also broke the popular evasi0n jailbreak, meaning that to get the new Calendar, you had to abandon your jailbroken device.
No longer. If you have a jailbroken iOS device, you can now download a new app that patches the iOS 7.1 calendar into iOS versions 7.0 and 7.0.6. Called Gregorian, it can be downloaded through Cydia from the https://rpetri.ch/repo/ repository.
Via: Modmyi
Mobile publishing and monetization platform Onswipe have created an infographic comparing iOS 7 adoption with that of the recently launched iOS 7.1.
Both iOS versions are tracked for the first 4.5 days of their respective releases. As the chart makes clear, while iOS 7 represented 45.90% of iOS traffic after that time, the incremental improvement iOS 7.1 showed a respectable 28.27% adoption rate for active devices.
There’s a new accessibility feature built into Apple’s already pretty splendid suite of options for people of various abilities. Called Switch Control, it allows those with motor difficulties to connect a switch to their iOS device for better access.
The feature, originally released alongside iOS 7, allows users to connect a switch via cable or Bluetooth as well as setting up the screen itself as one big switch button.
In iOS 7.1, then, Apple added another useful option: to use the Camera itself as a head switch. Here’s how to set it up.
The iOS 7 update has another nice tweak in the camera app. Just like the iPhone 5S warns you when it decides to automatically engage the HDR mode, it now tells you when it’s going to fire the flash. To be honest, you should probably have the flash turned off all the time, but if you don’t, you at least now get a warning before it powers up and washes out your poor subject’s skin tones.
iOS 7 allowed you to switch between the day view and the list view with the tap of a button.
The new iOS 7.1 update now lets you see your events list along with your monthly calendar all on the same screen, giving Apple’s Calendar app a much-needed boost in usefulness.
Here’s how to enable it.
iOS 7.1 was only released on Monday, but already it looks as though it may be installed on close to 12% of iOS devices.
The figures come from mobile publishing and monetization platform Onswipe, who analyzed the data from approximately 3 million devices.
Among the new features of iOS 7.1 is the addition of a warning message for users concerning the 15-minute in-app purchase window. This quarter-hour window allows you to buy IAPs on an iOS device without further authorization for 15 minutes following the correct entry of a password.
iOS 7.1 includes a host of obvious and subtle improvements, including a key addition that will make iBeacons smarter.
Up until now, iOS 7 on the iPhone 4 has been painful to use. The New York Times calls it “planned obsolescence,” but it’s really just old hardware having a difficult time powering new software.
The good news is that the newly released iOS 7.1 has noticeably sped up animations on the iPhone 4, reports Ars Technica. “iOS 7.1 solves the problem for people who don’t tweak their devices’ settings or for people who like the way the animations look but not how they feel,” according to Ars. “Animation durations have been shortened noticeably throughout iOS 7.1, and toggling “reduce motion” is now purely cosmetic.”
Apps open generally faster, and opening interfaces like Control Center feels smoother. Since iOS 7.1 will likely be the last major update that’s available on the iPhone 4, there is no reason to not download it.
Source: Ars Technica
Apple might have added a bunch of new features for iOS 7.1, but not all of them are available in every single market.
Thanks to Apple’s “iOS 7 Feature Availability” webpage, however, it is possible for international users to easily check which features are supported in which countries. Apple’s CarPlay, for example, is currently available in just thirteen markets, while Siri’s more advanced features — included restaurant and movie reviews — to limited to even less than that.
It’s a tale as old as time (and, perhaps, a song as old as rhyme): Apple releases a new version of iOS, hackers immediately get busy finding security vulnerabilities to exploit, eventually claw together a jailbreak, only for Apple to then find out about the flaws and fix them for the new iOS version.
Rinse and repeat.
Having released iOS 7.1, Apple has also released a list crediting the individual researchers and companies who helped spot security issues with the previous version of iOS — including jailbreak specialists Evad3rs, the team behind the iOS 6 and 7 jailbreaks.
As mentioned in our iOS 7.1 screenshot roundup, the new iOS update adds auto-HDR mode for the iPhone 5s, letting the camera’s brain decide whether or not to activate the High-Dynamic Range feature.
In theory, this should mean that your iPhone will switch to HDR when there is too much contrast in the scene for the camera to capture in one exposure.
After months of building and testing, Apple has finally taken the wraps off iOS 7’s biggest update ever, so to celebrate they’ve add a new iOS 7.1 section to homepage touting the update.
iOS 7.1 update https://t.co/0IJFsNWa8Z
— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) March 10, 2014
The long awaited update introduces CarPlay to the iPhone along with improved Siri controls, HDR Auto, an improved calendar, and lots of bug fixes
The new promo page gives an overview of some of the changes, but for a deeper look at all the design tweaks, check out our gallery of iOS 7.1’s new features.
Source: Apple
Apple has just started rolling out its latest iOS 7.1 update with performance improvements, design tweaks, and more. This is the first major update we’ve seen since iOS 7 made its debut last September, and it’s available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Hallelujah, iOS has come to the car! And on this week’s CultCast, we’ll tell you what we love and don’t about Apple’s new CarPlay-enabled automobiles. Plus: why Apple’s best years are still to come; why iOS 7.1 could drop at any moment; rumors of new iPhones every six months; and we pitch our favorite tech and apps on an all new Faves ‘N Raves.
Heartily laugh your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin.
And thanks to Backblaze online backup for supporting this episode! Founded by ex-Apple engineers, Backblaze was built to work seamlessly with all the Macs in your life. Get easy-to-use, unlimited backup for your Macs and external hard drives—try it for free at Backblaze.com/cultofmac.
Full show notes up next.
An updated version of the iTunes Festival app has appeared in the App Store. According to Apple’s release notes, the update includes a “refreshed design” and the ability to stream the upcoming festival at SXSW next week.
While the update is visible in the App Store, it can’t be downloaded in the U.S. currently. Instead, a message saying the app is temporarily unavailable is displayed.
A recent rumor said that the iTunes Festival SXSW update would require iOS 7.1, but Apple has yet to release that update. The App Store says iOS 7.0+ is needed to install the new iTunes Festival 5.0 app.
Update: Users in most countries are able to download the app now.
Source: App Store
Via: MacStories
iOS 7.1 has already been expected to drop this month, and now a more specific timeframe has been given by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber. According to Gruber’s source, iOS 7.1 will be required to stream Apple’s SXSW iTunes Festival from its dedicated app.
Since the festival begins in a week on March 11th, that means iOS 7.1 should be released “any day now.”
The fifth developer beta of 7.1 was seeded a month ago, and Apple released iOS 7.0.6 with bug fixes a couple of weeks ago.
Source: Daring Fireball
Apple has released a fifth beta build of iOS 7.1 to developers this morning, two weeks after dropping the last iOS 7.1 beta was seeded.
iOS 7.1 beta 5 is available to developers in the Dev Center or via an OTA update for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Like last time, Apple has also released a new beta for Apple TV as well as XCode 5.1.
The release notes only mention the addition of new natural-sounding Siri voice for English (Australia), English (United Kingdom), Japanese, and Chinese (Mandarin – China). We’ll update you on any other new changes once we get it downloaded on our devices. Feel free to yell at us on Twitter (@cultofmac) if you come across anything yourself.
Here are the download links: