Ios7Beta2
Latest
Apple releases beta 4 version of iOS 7 to developers
Apple released iOS 7 beta 4 today to developers, hopefully bringing some new features and bug fixes to the next version of Apple's mobile OS. Apple was on a two week release schedule with beta 2 and beta 3, but this fourth version is arriving at the three-week mark. This version is arriving a few days after the developer portal was reopened following a malicious hack on the site. The latest version is available over-the-air via Settings > General > Software Update on devices running the current iOS 7 beta. Developers can also download it manually from Apple's developer website.
iOS 7 beta 3 now available for developers to download
Apple released iOS 7 beta 3 today to developers, hopefully bringing some new features and bug fixes to the next version of Apple's mobile OS. Apple is on a two week schedule thus far, with beta 2 arriving two weeks after iOS 7 first became available to developers and beta 3 arriving two weeks after beta 2. The latest version is available over-the-air via Settings > General > Software Update on devices running the current iOS 7 beta. Hat tip to F. Rizzo for the email
A tech geek's trip from hell
I'm on a trip right now out of the country, and so far it's been a tech geek's trip from hell. The first day, I ran my iPhone 5 (running iOS 7 beta 2) out of juice -- not surprising, since the beta OS is somewhat power-hungry at this point. Guess what? The iPhone 5 has decided to refuse to start up normally. It has gone into a continuing loop of trying to start up, then rebooting, ad infinitum. Sad, really -- I was planning on shooting a ton of panoramas with the iPhone 5, and I took some wonderful photos from the airplane on the way over. My only choice with this device is to wait until I get back home and then reload the device with a fresh image of iOS 7. Sigh. At least I have my wife's iPhone as a backup for shooting those panoramas. Day two, spouse and I -- both avid photographers -- spent most of the day shooting images of the beautiful Icelandic countryside. Our usual nighttime habit while we're on our trip is to back up the day's photos onto two iPads so that we have the originals on each camera plus two backups. So, while sitting in the lounge at the hotel tonight, I started doing the backups only to find that the Camera Connection Kit wouldn't read either of the 64 GB SDXC cards. After cussing loudly (don't worry, the lounge was empty except for my wife and me), I did a Google search to find that the Camera Connection Kit won't read SDXC cards unless they're formatted in the time-honored and ancient FAT format. Of course, I assumed that formatting the cards in the camera like I've always done would mean they'd be readable by Apple's Camera Connection Kit. Wrong! So, the 64 GB cards are now back in my bag full of camera goodies, and a pair of 16 GB cards -- SDHC -- have been drafted into service for the rest of the trip.The photos we took today will have to wait until we get back home to be moved to some sort of backup media. In addition, I discovered today that although I brought a variety of charging cables on the trip with me, as well as a device or two to allow me to plug multiple devices into one outlet, I had neglected to grab my European to North American plug adapters. Last night was fine, as I had a fully-charged external battery pack that I used to charge up one iPad and also had one North American standard outlet that I could use to charge up another. Tonight? All of the devices will be hungry for electrons. At least the airline we're flying, Icelandair, has USB chargers built into the seats so we'll be able to charge the devices on the next leg of our trip. Knowing my luck so far, they won't be working. I was happy to see that the hotel had a publi- use iMac near the lobby; my smile turned to a frown when I discovered that they were running Windows 7 under Boot Camp on the machine. After finding that I couldn't access the iMac's SD card reader from Windows 7 (I was going to upload the photos to Dropbox), I reached around to the back of the machine, powered it down, and rebooted in the hope that I could get it to boot into OS X. No such luck; the hotel IT people had set up the machine with a password. My revenge was leaving the iMac unusable to any of the other guests. Mua-haha! Your takeaways from this post? Never assume that your technology is going to work perfectly for you when you need it the most. Read the fine print about the Apple (and third-party) hardware you'll be using, and using the jargon used by my wife in the aerospace business, "test like you fly." In other words, test all of the component parts exactly the way you expect to use them before you actually leave home -- that way you'll be able to avoid issues like the one I ran into with the Camera Connection Kit. I just assumed that because I had formatted SD cards in my camera before and used them successfully with the CCK, that everything would be OK. That was a stupid assumption. Also, create a packing checklist and use it. I would have remembered the plug adapters if I had put them on a list. I fully intended to grab them, but got caught up in the typical last-minute packing rush and spaced them out. Finally, if you're not a tech blogger / writer by trade, consider leaving as much of your tech at home as you can. You'll certainly be immune from stupid annoyances like I've run into if you don't have a lot of technology accompanying you on a trip. And isn't a vacation supposed to be a relaxing time away from the normal hassles of life? I'm going on a three-day long weekend trip at the end of the summer, and I think I may just go with nothing but a good paperback book.
Daily Update for June 24, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
iOS 7 beta 2 released, brings its magic to iPad
We got to see quite a bit of iOS 7 back at WWDC 2013, but we only saw it working on an iPhone. Well, we've got some good news for big screen Apple devs, as a new iOS 7 beta's been released OTA and it now works on the iPad. Of course, the new beta also brings the usual nebulous "bug fixes and improvements" for all devices, and among those improvements is the addition of the Voice Memos app and Siri's new voices in English as well. It's available now, so if you're in the beta, you best get to downloading!
iOS 7 beta 2 available for developer download (Updated)
The second beta of iOS 7 has just made it to the Apple Dev Center, hopefully bringing some new features and bug fixes to the iPhones of developers worldwide. This release goes out two weeks to the day after iOS 7 first became available to developers. The beta is available by going to Settings > General > Software Update on devices running the current iOS 7 beta. According to developers who have reached out to TUAW with information about the new beta, it contains the usual "bug fixes and improvements." A document outlining the changes is available to developers at http://developer.apple.com/ios7/release-notes/, although several devs reported that the page is currently offline. Update: Developers are also noting that the update is available for iPad now, marking the first time that iOS 7 will appear on Apple's tablet. Update 2: We're now hearing that the Voice Memo app has reappeared in iOS 7 with a new icon and completely redesigned user interface.
