Apple seeded iOS 13 Developer beta 6 this afternoon, slightly more than a week after the last pre-release update. Until now, the company has generally introduced new versions every two weeks, so it’s accelerating the rate.
Tablet users also got the sixth iPadOS 13 Developer beta today containing the same changes as the iPhone one. There are fresh betas for watchOS 5 beta 6 and tvOS 13 beta 6, too.
Anyone brave enough to install onto their iPhone or iPad pre-release versions of Apple’s next operating systems can grab the latest betas. Everyone has access to iOS 13 and iPad OS 13 Public beta 4 just a day after developers got their own new version.
In addition, developers received their fifth beta of watchOS 6.
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.
Apple’s process for pre-testing its operating systems continues to roll along. Developers can now download a fourth beta of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13.
Not to be left out, there are also fresh betas for tvOS and watchOS.
There’s a cornucopia of Apple betas out today. For starters, the public can download their second pre-release versions of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13.
And, in a curious move, developers just got tweaked versions of the betas introduced last week.
Apple significantly improved mouse support in the latest iPadOS 13 beta for developers. Most notably, the cursor size and color became controllable. And scrolling is much smoother.
These and other changes are very good news to those who intend to regularly employ a mouse when using this tablet with a keyboard.
Without changing the hardware, iPadOS 13 manages to decrease the latency of the Apple Pencil. And that’s just the start: there are also new features for non-artists to take advantage of this active stylus.
Check out our first impressions of using an Apple Pencil with the initial beta of Apple’s next operating system.
After an action packed WWDC, we’ve finally had a few days to see what Apple has in the works for iOS in 2019. One of the big surprises for us was the introduction of iPadOS – an iPad specific fork of iOS 13.
With the addition of iPadOS, Apple has started to formalized the differences between iPhone and iPad as it comes to interacting with the OS. One of the big differences is in gestures and multitasking. Many of the gestures on iPad are remaining mostly the same, but there are a few news ones to take note of.
You know how when you go to the updates section in the App Store and you see that it’s taking forever for one app to download even though you never use it?
The days of that happening are finally going to be over once iOS 13. An unmentioned feature in iOS 13 lets users delete apps right from the App Store section so you don’t have to go hunt down the app icon.
Check it out in action:
Mouse support has drawn more attention, but giving iPad Pro full access to external drives is the biggest improvement in iPadOS 13. It will make using a tablet easier and cheaper for professionals and average users alike.
With adapters, it’s now possible to access everything from hard drives to microSD cards. This feature is a real gamechanger.
A change in iOS 13 blocks third-party applications from accessing the Notes field in the Contacts app. This is because many people have the bad habit of storing confidential information in this field, forgetting that they then give mapping, social networking and other types of apps access to all their Contacts data.
The change isn’t Apple fixing a security hole the company itself introduced. Instead, iPhone and iPad are compensating for users storing personal information insecurely.
Apple promised the Safari browser coming to iPads later this year will be “desktop class.” That’s a vague term, but tests with the first beta of iPadOS 13 show that it comes very close to the macOS version. There’s still room for improvement, though.
Even so, this is a major milestone for Apple’s tablets. Limitations in Safari have held the iPad back for far too long.
The mobile hotspot built into the iPhone gets some real improvements in iOS 13. iPads can connect automatically and stay connected even when asleep.
In addition, Apple upgraded some of iOS 13’s other Wi-Fi capabilities, including making the Control Center more useful.
Apple is making it even easier for iPad users to access Safari features with a physical keyboard. The newly-announced iPadOS adds dozens of keyboard shortcuts to this browser, on top of the ones already there.
There’s bad news for those with an iPhone released in 2014 or earlier: it’s not possible to install iOS 13 on these handsets. The same goes for iPad models from 4 years ago; they can’t be upgraded to the new iPadOS.
Still, all Apple’s phones and tablets released in the last 4 years are getting upgrades.
Apple just took a big step toward ditching its lame controller restrictions. Major updates to tvOS, iOS, and iPadOS this fall will finally add full support for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One controllers.
If you game on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, this is an incredibly exciting development.
Wow, iOS 13 is quite something. We got most of what we wanted, and a lot more. Proper USB support, an improved Files app, plus a radical new UI paradigm for the iPad. And what about that mouse support!
Let’s take a look at the main points. And over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be going extremely deep on everything that’s new in iOS 13.
