iOS 13.3 brings new features to Screentime. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple developers received a fresh batch of new betas for the first time in over two weeks today with new builds of iOS 13.3, tvOS 13.3 and watchOS 6.1.1.
The new iOS 13.3 beta adds a bunch of new bug fixes and performance improvements to go with a couple new feature additions in Screentime for parents.
Things have changed. There's no going back. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple has stopped signing iOS 12.3.2 following the release of iOS 13.2.3 a couple of weeks back. That means that, if you’ve already upgraded, it’s no longer possible to downgrade again.
By now, you know that you can use multiple windows from the same app in iPadOS 13, just like you can on the Mac. And you probably also know that it’s a pain to open a new window from scratch. You have to open the app, then slide the Dock up from the bottom of the screen, then tap the app icon again, then tap the little + icon at the top right.
But did you know that there’s an easier way to open a new window in iPadOS? You can just drag an item to the edge of the screen, and drop it there to open it in a brand-new Split View window. Let’s check it out.
Apple has learned some lessons from iOS 13. Photo: Apple
The challenges Apple has experienced with buggy iOS 13 is causing it to rethink the way it builds and tests operating systems, starting with iOS 14.
According to Bloomberg, software boss Craig Federighi recently announced the changes at a “kickoff” meeting. The new approach will make it easier for testers to be able to switch on and off new features. This is so they can better work out how the features independently impact software functionality.
It’s not better, but it offers a different perspective. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
You’ve always been able to crop photos on your iPhone and iPad. It’s easy to “zoom” into your images, cutting out cruft and distraction at the edges of the frame to focus on what’s important. But now, in iOS 13 and iPadOS, you can do more than crop and chop. Now you also can skew images — aka correct perspective errors — all inside the Photos app’s edit mode.
You can do all kinds of things with this new Photos tool. If you snapped a picture of a painting in the gallery, and didn’t hold your iPhone parallel to the wall, you can fix that. Or you can get more radical, perhaps by “fixing” an image of a skyscraper to stop it from disappearing to a point in the distance. The good news is that these perspective tools are fun and easy to use. Let’s check them out.
The iPadOS Files app isn’t bad, but it has one super-frustrating flaw. While you can now enjoy multiple windows, hook up any and all USB drives, and even connect to network servers, you can’t do one simple thing: Preview a file. Or rather, you can preview any file, just by clicking on it, but you never know whether Files will actually show you a Quick Look preview, or just open that file in an arbitrary app.
Today, we will add a dedicated Quick Look entry to the Files app share menu. Never again will you tap to preview a file and have it launch an app instead.
A second beta of iPadOS 13.3 and the iPhone equivalent just came out. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The beta process for iOS 13.3 and its iPad equivalent is moving along. Apple just seeded the second beta of each to developers. The final version, when it’s released to the general public, will help parents limit who their kids talk to with a big improvement to Screen Time.
In addition, there are new betas of watchOS 6.1.1 and tvOS 13.3.
Stop putting off ideas and start that weekend project. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Walt Disney said it best: “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” If you’ve ever thought, “I wish I knew how to do that,” then this is your wakeup call.
Whether you want to build your own app or a microcomputer, a website or an e-commerce hub, these four deeply discounted educational offerings will inspire you to stop thinking about building something great, and just jump in and get it done. Expand your horizons today! (These courses are all over 93% off right now.)
Check out the columns on that! Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
iOS 13 brought all kinds of neat new features to the Files app, aka the iOS Finder. But maybe the best of all these is the new column view, a very Mac-like view of all the files and folders stored on your iPad. It’s not just an easy-to-browse view, either. The Files app column view also introduces a preview panel with plenty of tricks of its own.
Apple has stopped signing iOS 13.1.2 and 13.1.3 following the release of iOS 13.2. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Following the release of iOS 13.2, Apple has stopped signing previous versions iOS 13.1.2 and 13.1.3. That means that it’s no longer possible to downgrade again from the latest version of iOS if you’ve already upgraded.
To paraphrase T-Bird in 1994’s The Crow, “This is the world of iOS 13.2. There ain’t no coming back.”
iOS 13 has made it easier for users to shut down location tracking. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
Public beta testing just started for iOS 13.3, along with the iPad equivalent. This adds an important feature to Screen Time, but the main benefit of this pre-release version is it apparently fixes a serious memory-management problem introduced in iOS 13.2.
Search scans on your iPhone in Notes app. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Did you know that you can scan paper documents into the Notes app on your iPhone and iPad? The app turns them into PDFs, and trims them to make them look as if you scanned them in a proper scanner. Maybe you read our how-to article on scanning into the Notes app, and you already know this. But in iOS 13, things get better: You also can search those scanned documents.
That’s right. You can scan a sheet of paper into Notes, and anything printed on it will become searchable, as if you typed it in yourself. Let’s see how to search scans.
Jamf Now helps keep employees' devices secure and up to date. Photo: Jamf Now
This OS updates and security post is presented by Jamf Now.
Apple’s new operating systems, macOS Catalina and iOS 13, bring innovative capabilities to organizations using them. A streamlined approach to Apple upgrades ensures security measures are met, an accurate systems inventory is maintained and downtime is eliminated. Mobile device management products like Jamf Now help simplify the upgrade process and maintain security of employees’ devices by keeping them up to date.
The first iPadOS 13.3 Developer beta is out, along with an iPhone version. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple has just begun beta testing the next updates for iPhone and iPad. It’s not known yet if iOS 13.3 and iPadOS 13.3 fix the serious memory management problem introduced in the previous version, introduced last week.
In addition, watchOS 6.1.1 also just entered beta testing.
Get the latest Creative Cloud update today. Photo: Adobe
Adobe’s massive catalog of fonts is now available on iOS for the first time. You can use them inside any app that supports custom font APIs — so long as you’re running iOS 13.1.
Get started by downloading the Creative Cloud app today.
You know how when you swipe an email on your iPhone or iPad, and depending on the direction you swipe, you get a bunch of options? Mark as read, move, archive — that kind of thing. But how do you customize these options? And how do you access the ridiculously well-hidden option to archive and/or delete?
The trash can is an icon that deserves to be returned to its rightful place. Screenshot: John Roberts/Twitter
Why did Apple change its Mail app by placing the trash can icon where the reply arrow used to be?
Several iPhone users who updated to iOS 13 have asked that same question, taking to Twitter to vent and find a growing community of people who have accidentally deleted emails.
Twitterrific’s latest update is out now with a brand-new dark mode and multi-window support on iPad. The verison 6.1 release makes it easier than ever to keep tabs on different accounts and feeds.
There's just one problem — and that's Apple. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Better mouse support on iPad could be the “perfect disruption” to PC gaming, one analyst believes.
Apple has already added the ability to control iPhone and iPad with a mouse in its latest software updates. Future enhancements could help it become a more compelling notebook computer replacement.
But will Apple ever give us full mouse support in iPadOS?
Get the latest update today. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Gmail is the latest to pick up a brand-new dark mode for iOS 13.
Google started making the feature available to a small number of users back in September — but now all should be able to take advantage of it. And it looks particularly good on OLED displays.
The iPad version has a toggle directly over the preview image. Photo: Cult of Mac
In iPadOS and iOS 13, long-pressing a link does two things simultaneously. It brings up a contextual menu with options for sharing and so on, and it loads a preview of the linked web page. Apple calls this a link preview.
But what if you don’t want a link preview? Maybe you’re on a cellular connection and you don’t want to waste data by loading pages you won’t read. Or maybe you only need the link, and never want to see the page. What if it’s a link to a huge image, or an MP3? Or perhaps it’s a link in an email, and you want to use the contextual menu to check the URL for scams. In this last case, there’s no way you want that link to load. It could prove disastrous.
The good news is that you can disable link previews in iOS 13 with a single tap.
LumaFusion now reads external storage drives. Photo: LumaTouch
LumaFusion, the powerful and popular video editing app for iOS, just got a big update that adds a number of welcome new features. It can now access external drives in iOS 13 — and use custom fonts.
I was sure I was going to cancel, but I'm actually enjoying Apple Arcade games quite a bit! Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
I don’t consider myself much of a gamer, but the idea of games always seems to appeal to me. That’s why, when Apple Arcade launched, I activated my subscription to test the waters. My hope was that I’d get some clarity before it cost me anything to try.
Now, a month has passed, and I’ve got some mixed feelings about the service. Should I keep paying for it? Are its 100-plus games worth the monthly fee? Can I play it when and where I want? Get the lowdown in my Apple Arcade review.
Remember things, when you need them. Photo: Estée Janssens
The Reminders app got a total revamp in iOS 13, making it way quicker and easier to add due dates, alerts and location-based notifications to new reminders. But it also added one killer new feature: Remind me when messaging.
This lets you add a contact to the reminder, and the next time you’re messaging that person, a notification will pop up.