Developers received a new build of Apple’s Safari Technology Preview this morning. The experimental browser gives devs a sneak peek at upcoming web technologies for macOS and iOS.
Safari Technology Preview release 104 contains a huge number of bug fixes and other under-the-hood improvements, and it’s available on both macOS Mojave and macOS Catalina.
With all the iOS 14 leaks dropping ahead of WWDC 2020 we already have a pretty solid idea which new features will make the cut, but concept designer Stijn van Oosterwijk has a couple dozen other ideas that would make iOS 14 the biggest iPhone update ever.
Oosterwijk’s new iOS 14 concept video is jammed with new features. The video starts with a new incoming call screen and keeps pouring on other goodies. There’s lock screen widgets, a completely new Tools app, a translate app, an AR experience within the Maps app and so much more.
How many new features can you count?
Apple has eliminated a number of serious flaws that allowed an iPhone’s camera to be hijacked.
Hacker Ryan Pickren discovered the vulnerabilities during a “pretty intense” bug-hunting expedition in Safari. He was paid $75,000 through Apple’s Bug Bounty Program for his efforts.
Here’s a tip for small-business owners trying to fill out the Small Business Administration’s new online COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program application: Use Google’s Chrome browser, not Safari.
Unfortunately, the online form for the SBA’s COVID-19 loans doesn’t function correctly using Apple’s browser.
At some point, fairly recently, Safari started opening new tabs to the right of the currently open tab, instead of opening them at the end of the tab bar, as nature intended. This means that you have to search for the newly opened tab, instead of just knowing exactly where it is. I can see the point of opening tabs next to the current one, but I don’t like it.
Happily, there’s a way to revert Safari’s behavior to the good old way — the way my grandmother, and her grandmother before her, dealt with their tabs. It’s a simple option inside Safari’s debug menu. Wait? Debug menu?
By default, Safari on iOS downloads all files to a folder in your iCloud. This means you can access those files from all your devices. But it also means those files fill up your iCloud Drive. Worse, every megabyte you download also gets uploaded back to iCloud, doubling your bandwidth usage.
Today we’ll see how to change the location of your Safari downloads folder in iOS 13.
You no longer need to fire up Chrome just to explore our planet inside Google Earth. The service today rolled out support for three new browsers, while the ability to use Google Earth in Safari is coming … eventually.
Apple is finally “considering” giving users the ability to set third-party web browsers and email clients as defaults on iOS, according to a new Bloomberg report. It could also open up HomePod to rival music streaming services.
iPhone and iPad owners can already install third-party alternatives, but iOS currently does not allow them to override Apple’s built-in services. That could change as Apple faces increasing pressure over the tight control it imposes over its mobile devices.
Adobe Flash, once a hugely popular way for web browsers to provide multimedia, is almost dead. And Apple is helping bring on the funeral by completely removing support for the Flash plugin from the latest Safari Technology Preview.
Google’s security researchers unearthed some huge security vulnerabilities in Safari that let users’ online behavior to be tracked.
Ironically, the researchers found the vulnerabilities in the Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature Apple added in 2017 to shield users from tracking in the first place.
Ever since Safari 13, the Mac browser now prompts you every time you try to download a file. In this way, it behaves much like Safari for iOS. It’s a security feature, clearly designed to stop websites sneaking files onto your computer. But perhaps you value the convenience of uncontrolled downloads more than this added security? If so, you’re in luck, because you can turn this feature off. Better still, you can still block Safari downloads from “bad” sites, even while allowing new ones automatically.
There are a handful of webpages I keep referring back to, often reading the same parts over and over. They may be part of an instruction manual, or other reference material1. And sometimes, while researching an article, I want to highlight sections and phrases to find them more easily. Just like using a highlighter marker on a sheet of paper.
Until now, I’ve never found good way to do it. Apps required me to sign up for an account, or store my highlights on their servers, or pay a subscription. Or the app was just plain clunky. Then I found Highlighter for Safari.
iPhone and iPad owners received a critical software update this morning aimed at fixing one of the most annoying bugs in iOS 13.2.
iOS 13.2.2 and iPadOS 13.2.2 come just over a week after Apple released iOS 13.2, which contains a nasty memory bug that causes apps to quit unexpectedly in the background. The recent iOS 13.3 beta added a fix for the memory bug, but now everyone can enjoy the bug fix without having to install beta software.
Apple is under fire for sending Safari browser data to China.
It is known that Safari can send information to Google Safe Browsing to protect users against online phishing and scams. But it seems Apple’s browser is also sending similar data to Tencent in China.
If you know the trick, you can use Instagram on your Mac. And I don’t just mean viewing your timeline in Safari. I mean uploading pictures, adding filters, the lot. What’s more, it’s dead easy. Interested? Here’s how it works.
In iOS 13 and iPadOS, Safari gets a download manager. If you tap (or click, with the new iOS mouse support) on a link to a file, that file will now get downloaded to a folder. What’s more, you can change the location of that download folder.
This is one of the small but essential new features in iPadOS that really turns the iPad into a viable MacBook replacement, even for those who aren’t yet used to the arcane ways of iOS. Let’s check it out.
Safari’s new “desktop-class” features are getting all the press in iPadOS, but the new download folder, and better website support aren’t everything. There’s also a new in-app settings panels with a ton of options — per-site text size, for example — and even a new font in the Safari Reader View. Let’s check it out.
iOS 13, which launches today, focuses more on adding a range of incredibly useful features and tweaks rather than pursuing a bold, overarching new direction. For instance, Safari on iPad now functions as a full desktop browser, just like on your Mac. Another great addition is the redesigned share sheet, which includes a top row of one-tap buttons for easily sharing with friends via iMessage. If you’re curious about when someone shares their location how do you see it, iOS also introduces enhancements to location-sharing features, which you can learn more about here.
Or, in iPadOS 13, which ships at the end of the month, you can plug in pretty much any USB device and it will work. Hard drives, SD cards full of movies, anything.
So, while you’re waiting for the new version of iOS to install on your device(s), check out all the new iOS 13 features right here.
The team that develops WebKit for Apple’s Safari browser is taking a strong stand against companies tracking people on the web.
They call out tracking as an infringement of user privacy, and promise WebKit will block it wherever possible.
Developers received a fresh batch of new beta builds this morning in the form of iOS 13 beta 5. Apple seeded the new software updates just under two weeks after the last set of betas came out, bringing fresh changes to mouse support on iPad, smaller quick action menus and tons of bug fixes.
We already know that Apple has completely made over the Reminders app in iOS 13, adding a new, more powerful layout, and some excellent quick-entry tools so you don’t have to tap the screen like a million times just to remember to take out the trash when you get home.
But Reminders has also gotten its virtual claws deeper into the rest of iOS. Today we’ll see two great integrations that you might not have heard about yet.
If you currently use a third-party bookmark manager, you might be able to ditch it when you upgrade your iPhone or iPad to iOS 13. The main new feature is that you can now save all your open tabs into a bookmark folder, then reopen all the links in that folder with one tap. But that’s not all. Thanks to iPadOS’ new contextual menus, the built-in bookmarks got way easier to use.
In iPadOS, Safari sports a brand-new popup menu that lets you rearrange, copy and close tabs just by long-pressing on them. It offers only a few options, but they prove so useful that you will use this trick all the time.
Check out yet another great Safari feature in iPadOS.
Apple seeded the third beta build of iOS 13 and iPadOS to developers this morning, bringing a host of new tweaks and bug fixes to test devices just before the 4th of July break.
iOS 13 beta 3 arrives just over two weeks after Apple dropped the last developer beta. The first iOS 13 public beta came out a week ago. Apple also released the third betas of tvOS 13, watchOS 6 and macOS Catalina today.
Did you ever type in a URL, only to find later that you already had that site open in another Safari tab? Well, never again, because in iOS 13, Safari will prompt you to open that original tab instead.