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.

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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:

Apple has reportedly seeded its fourth iOS 7.1 beta build to testing partners ahead of a possible developer release tomorrow. The update is said to include “various fixes” for keyboard issues and problems with the Contacts app, as well as some more changes to the user interface inside the Phone app.

Speaking of jailbreaks, the Evasi0n jailbreak allows any device running iOS 7 to crack open Apple’s stronghold and tweak any aspect of the system.

Unfortunately, when the Evasi0n jailbreak was released, the team behind it didn’t reach out to members of the jailbreak community, leading to an initial release that didn’t support Cydia, Mobile Substrate, and had a number of bugs that could cause unfortunate boot loops, especially on the iPad mini with Retina Display.

Yesterday, Team Evasi0n released a new version of their jailbreak that not only includes an updated Cydia bundle and fixes the iPad mini boot loop, but also makes the tool compatible with iOS 7.1 beta 3 so that Apple’s latest iOS beta can be jailbroken. That probably won’t last for long — Apple is likely to close the hole that makes the Evasi0n jailbreak possible when iOS 7.1 is released to the masses — but it’s nice for the time being.

Source: Evasi0n

One of the maddeningly tiny details of iOS that has been completely broken for ages is the fact that page indicators — those little bubbles you see at the bottom of the home screen indicating there are more pages of apps to swipe to — have been off-center.

In fact, while the indicators have been screwed up since iOS 3.1.3 — a journey of drifting that seems to have started when Apple decided to put Spotlight search in iOS — iOS 7.1 is finally set to put things right, perfectly centering the page indicators for the first time in four years. You can all stop rioting in the streets now.

Source: Marc Edwards
Via: TUAW

Apple released iOS 7.1 beta 3 to developers today, and like always, many have already combed through the new software to find what’s new. The second beta of 7.1 brought a few additions and UI tweaks, and beta 3 also includes several noticeable changes.

Here are 8 design changes Apple made in the latest iOS 7.1 beta today:

Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 7.1 to developers today as a direct download and OTA update. The release comes after beta 2 was seeded in the Apple Dev Center on December 13.

Apple hasn’t said what new features are in beta 3, but rest assured that we’ll let you know. New betas for the Apple TV and Xcode were also released alongside 7.1 beta 3 today. The public release of iOS 7.1 hasn’t been revealed, but this new beta is a sign that the software is getting closer to prime time.