Roger Fingas
Apple on Monday started seeding a second iOS 8.4 beta to developers, bringing more refinements to the company's future update for iPhones, iPads, and iPods.
The new code can be downloaded as an over-the-air update for existing iOS 8.4 users and should soon be available through Apple's iOS Dev Center as well. In release notes, Apple promises bugfixes and miscellaneous other improvements over the first beta, which was released two weeks ago.
The core feature of iOS 8.4 is an overhauled Music app. It sports a number of interface changes, among them gesture controls, global search, and a persistent MiniPlayer allowing playback control from anywhere in the software.
Apple has also issued the first public beta of the software, based on the latest developer release, and a developer seed of Xcode 6.4 beta 2 for app creators. Access to the public iOS 8.4 beta requires signing up for Apple's Beta Software Program.
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
16 Comments
It's weird that Apple would do such a big change to the OS in an update rather than a new version. Perhaps the rumors of iOS 9 being just a bug fix, Snow Leopard release are true.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/186000/apple-seeds-second-beta-of-ios-8-4-to-developers#post_2716263"]Apple on Monday started seeding a second iOS 8.4 beta to developers, bringing more refinements to the company's upcoming firmware update for iPhones, iPads, and iPods.[/quote] I don't think "firmware" correctly describes the operating system. Just because iOS lives on an SSD (Flash memory), does that make it firmware?
So when does iPad get a UI that takes advantage of its screen size?
Also worth noting, iOS 8.4 finally adds Audiobooks to CarPlay's home screen.
I would love to see an iOS and OS X release this yr that is focused primarily on performance and stability. My phone and Mac are the least stable they have ever been in 8 yrs of ownership.