Following weeks of anticipation, Apple today issued invites for a September 10 press event that will finally see the grand unveiling of its latest iPhones. The Cupertino company is expected to show off both the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, and announce a public release date for iOS 7.
When Apple introduced iOS 7, one of the new features was a section in the App Store called “Near Me.” The idea is simple: using some kind of location-based algorithm, the App Store shows you apps that are relevant to your specific area. It’s like Genius, but more specific.
Apple obviously wants people to use Near Me, as the category is given the center menu button in the iOS 7 beta App Store. The feature wasn’t enabled in earlier betas of iOS 7, but some users are now able to use it to find apps.
Apple may release iOS 7 to the public the same day as its accompanying iPhone event on Tuesday, September 10th. In the past, Apple has released the final GM build of the next iOS to developers on the day of the event and then waited about a week to push the update out to everyone. This year could be different.
An email sent out from Nuance to developers in its voice recognition program suggests that iOS 7 will indeed drop on the 10th. And the fact that Nuance powers Siri lends credence to the date.
Every once in a while, I’m listening to a song via the Music app on my iPhone, or (lately) listening to iTunes Radio on my iPad through a bluetooth speaker in the house, when I want to quickly figure out what’s playing, or maybe mess with the controls, skip a song, or something like that.
Typically, I’d double click the Home button to get a basic controller to pause or skip a song, or click into the home screen, find the Music app, launch it, then tap the Now Playing button, and then make any adjustments.
Now, however, with iOS 7 beta’s new Control Center, you can tap right through to the Now Playing song with a swipe and a tap. Here’s how.
We’re a few weeks away from the final release of iOS 7, but it looks like Apple is starting to prep its non-stock apps with an iOS 7 update. This morning Apple released an update for Find My iPhone that comes with a new icon more fitting for iOS 7.
A few bug fixes were tossed in, but early reports claim the update has broken the app for non-developers, so we’d advise against updating right now. The new Find My iPhone icon was also added to the beta.iCloud.com homescreen, but hasn’t been updated on iCloud.com yet.
Apple is expected to make iOS 7 beta 7 available to registered developers today, just days after it released iOS 7 beta 6. This is expected to be the final beta before Apple seeds the Gold Master release early next month.
Until Apple’s Developer Center was taken down due to a security breach, the Cupertino company was steadily rolling out new iOS 7 betas every other Monday — and it appears that trend is set to continue now that everything’s back to normal.
Sources familiar with Apple’s plans say that we can expect iOS 7 beta 6 to arrive next week, ahead of a Gold Master release on Friday, September 5.
With less a month to go until Apple unveils its new iPhones and the release date of iOS 7, the iCloud beta site just received a redesign to bring it more in-line with iOS 7’s UI.
Apple has replaced the old iCloud app icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and Find My iPhone with their counterparts from iOS 7. Along with the new icons, Apple has redesigned the UI of each app with the updated look of iOS 7 as well.
Take a look:
Pocket Casts is arguably the finest podcast client on Android, and it’s pretty terrific on iOS, too. But it’s about to get even better. With the upcoming Pocket Casts 4 update, we’ll see a brand new user interface based on iOS 7’s new design, iPad support, cross-platform syncing for subscriptions, playlists, and play states, and lots more.
Never heard of the British Oreo? You will on this week’s CultCast! Of course we’ll also cover the week’s best Apple stories, including what’s new in iOS 7 beta 5; our own Leander Kahney’s new book about Jony Ive; the strange new buzz around the upcoming Jobs movie; plus we pitch our favorite tech and apps in a little segment we call Faves ‘N Raves.
Have a few chortles whilst getting caught up on this 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.
Show notes up next!
iOS 7 is a radical departure from anything Apple has done design wise, but OS X Mavericks largely still looks like the Mac operating system we all know and love. Much of the leather and linen has been removed in Mavericks, but the OS hasn’t been fundamentally redesigned like iOS.
A designer from the U.K. named Stu Crew sent us his “Ivericks” concept for OS X that blends the design language of iOS 7 with the desktop. “In order to visualise the new style on a Mac screen I recreated several elements and applied them to several programs,” said Crew. “Created to explore the idea of an updated OS X, this is just a update of looks with a few new functions taken from both the iPhone and iPad.”
Where does Jony Ive get his inspiration? We’ve been asking that question for years, and while genius plays a part in it, like the best designers, Ive is profoundly influenced by the world around him.
The same is true with iOS 7. Ive’s new design might look radical with its bright colors and palette of pastels, but it is inspired by a color pattern that naturally occurs in the environs of Cupertino, and likely inside your own home. What is this inspiration? It might surprise you.
You know the little Location Services triangle in the top right of your iPhone’s status bar well. It floats there faithfully every day, representing modern technology’s obsession with location data. Knowing where you are and what you do on a daily basis is incredibly valuable to advertisers and merchants looking to sell the next “x because you where at x.” Knowing your location also makes apps and iOS smarter, which ultimately makes the experience of using your iPhone more seamless.
If you’ve had Location Services turned on, then you’ve already been giving Apple permission to silently track your every move. A new setting in iOS 7 called “Frequent Locations” makes how and to what level you are tracked more transparent, right down to the minute you left your house yesterday.
After using iOS 7 for a couple of months, I’ve been missing some of the gorgeous iPhone themes that are out there for jailbreakers. You may think that theming iOS 6 is pointless when Apple’s next-gen OS is right around the corner, but one of the most prolific designers in the jailbreak community doesn’t agree.
We’ve highlighted Sentry’s work multiple times on Cult of Mac, and he’s most famous for Auxo, a popular app switcher replacement tweak. Aplo is a new Winterboard theme from Sentry that has been in the works for quite some time, and it’s drop-dead gorgeous.
iOS 7 beta 4 was just released last week, but that hasn’t kept Apple from pumping out another beta to developers faster than you can say “Oppenheimer.” Beta 5 was released today, and like always, there are some subtle and not-so-subtle changes worth noting.
Here are eight changes in iOS 7 beta 5:
When iOS 7 launches in the fall, iTunes Radio will give millions of users the ability to listen to a Pandora-like station of streaming music an algorithm thinks they’ll like, with each track available for purchase with just a tap. Yet despite the name, iTunes Radio isn’t really radio, because radio with its DJs imply human curation.
But that might change before launch. Word has it that Apple is now approaching real radio stations to be included in iTunes Radio.
As someone who has been testing iOS 7 for months, I can tell you that when it drops, some app icons are going to stick out like a sore thumb. Why? Because icon design that looked good in the house Scott Forstall built are going to look really out of place in the house Jony Ive knocked flat to the ground.
Unfortunately, unlike on OS X, there isn’t an easy way to swap out an app’s icon for a custom one of your choosing. That said, a new app called Iconical has figured out a workaround. The app lets you customize your homescreen, no jailbreak required, by taking advantage of the custom URL schemes of over 14,000 apps. This, my friends, is a clever idea.
If you thought the switch from the squat screen iPhone of the iPhones 1–4 to the tall and slim screen of the iPhone 5 was bad, then wait for iOS 7. I have the beta in daily use on my iPhone, and when I go back to my iOS 6-encumbered iPad mini, it feels like I’m visiting my grandmother’s house. Worse: any apps with a lot of heavy UI chrome start to seem as oppressive as a serial killer’s basement.
Thankfully, there’s an easy fix in the simple and clean shape of Glyphish, a set of beautiful icons, illustrations and (not so hot) backgrounds.
Friends—this week’s episode of The CultCast is so much fun, you might find yourself doing the Balki Bartokomous dance of joy. Join us and special guest Adam Christianson from the very popular MacCast podcast as we discuss why the low-cost iPhone 5C is a unicorn you might soon see. We’ll cover all the recent rumors. Then, we’ll cover what’s new, like the just-seeded iOS 7 beta 4. Plus, there’s new evidence of a fingerprint sensor coming to future iPhones, but will the 5S be getting the upgrade? All that and so much more!
Have a few LOLs and get caught up on this 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.
Thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this episode. Show notes up next.
Last month, security researchers figured out there was a Trojan horse built into an iOS device: the charger. If a hacker wanted to, they could use a modified charger (which costs less than $45) that would install malware onto any device running iOS.
True, the hack required physical proximity — not to mention specialized hardware — to work. But it was a universal hack that worked on any device, and it could make a victim out of anyone doing something as simple as asking to borrow someone’s iPhone charger at the local Starbucks.
A bad hack indeed. But Apple’s on the case.
Remember that cool iOS 7 Control Center port for Android that hit Google Play earlier this month? Well, Apple obviously didn’t like it, and it has contacted Google to have it pulled. Fortunately for us, developer Hi Tools Studio has already released an updated version to Google Play, so go grab it before it disappears again.
IOS7 beta 4 continues to impress, and it seems that Apple has now ironed out a lot of the bigger bugs, leaving time to polish the smaller things. In just a few hours of use I have noticed a couple of very helpful additions: one to Spotlight and one to the snooze function of the alarm clock.
Good news for Brits: the new iOS 7 beta 4 has changed the colors of motorways and A-roads to match the long established scheme used in all other UK maps. Now the motorways (freeways) are drawn in blue and the A-roads (main roads, with one or two-lanes) are green.
Along with today’s release of the fourth iOS 7 beta, Apple has also seeded a beta build of iTunes 11.1 to developers that includes the new iTunes Radio feature.
Apple unveiled iTunes Radio at WWDC 2013 last month. The new streaming music service allows users to create radio stations based on artists or songs, similar to Pandora. iTunes Radio will be free with ads, but if you have an iTunes Match subscription, there are no ads.
Developers can download the new preview directly from the iOS Dev Center.
Right on schedule, iOS 7 Beta 4 has been released to registered developers. It’s being shot out to developers on iOS 7 through a 264MB over-the-air updates, or through the Dev Center, featuring “bug fixes and other improvements.”
Here are the direct download links:
