Apple posts updates to iOS 12, watchOS 5, tvOS 12, and Safari 12

Apple today released iOS 12 which brings performance improvements and exciting new features to iPhone and iPad. Photos introduces new features to help you rediscover and share the photos in your library, Memoji—a new, more customizable Animoji—make Messages more expressive and fun, Screen Time helps you and your family understand and make the most of the time spent on devices, Siri Shortcuts deliver a faster way to get things done with the ability for any app to work with Siri, augmented reality becomes even more engaging with the ability for developers to create shared AR experiences, and new privacy features help protect you from being tracked on the web. This update introduces new features and improvements to:

• iOS has been enhanced for a faster and more responsive experience across the system
• All supported devices see improved performance, going back to iPhone 5s and iPad Air
• Camera launches up to 70 percent faster, the keyboard appears up to 50 percent faster and typing is more responsive*
• Apps launch up to twice as fast when your device is under heavy workload*

• New For You tab helps you discover great photos in your library with Featured Photos, Effect Suggestions, and more
• Sharing Suggestions proactively recommend sharing photos taken at events with the people who are in them
• Search enhancements make it easier to find your photos with intelligent suggestions and multiple keyword support
• Search for photos based on the place, business name, or event where you were when you took them
• Improved camera import with faster performance and a new large preview mode
• RAW support for editing images

• Portrait mode improvements preserve fine detail between subject and background when using Stage Light and Stage Light Mono effects
• QR codes are highlighted in the camera frame, making them easier to scan

• Memoji, a new, more customizable Animoji, make Messages more expressive with personalized characters that are diverse and fun
• Animoji now also include T. rex, ghost, koala, and tiger
• Make Memoji and Animoji wink and stick out their tongue
• New camera effects bring Animoji, filters, text effects, iMessage sticker packs, and shapes to the photos and videos you capture in Messages
• Animoji recordings can now capture up to 30 seconds

• Screen Time provides detailed information and tools to help you and your family find the right balance of time spent with apps and websites
• See the time spent in apps, usage across categories of apps, how many notifications are received, and how often devices are picked up
• App limits help you set the amount of time you or your child can spend in apps and on websites
• Screen Time for kids lets parents manage how their child uses iPhone and iPad right from their own iOS devices

• Turn off Do Not Disturb after a set time, location or calendar event
• Do Not Disturb during Bedtime hides all notifications from your lock screen while you sleep

• Notifications from the same app are automatically grouped together to help you manage your notifications
• Instant Tuning gives you control over your notification settings right from the lock screen
• New Deliver Quietly option silently sends notifications directly to Notification Center without interrupting you

• Siri Shortcuts deliver a faster way to get things done with the ability for any app to work with Siri
• Add shortcuts using the “Add to Siri” button in supported apps, or in Settings > Siri and Search
• Siri suggests shortcuts on the Lock screen and in Search
• Get motorsports results, schedules, stats and standings for Formula 1, Nascar, Indy 500 and MotoGP
• Search for photos by time, location, people, topic or recent trips to find relevant photos and Memories in Photos
• Translate phrases in more languages, with support for over 40 language pairs
• Check facts about celebrities, such as when they were born, and ask questions about food, including calories and nutrient content
• Turn flashlight on or off
• More natural and expressive voice now available in Irish English, South African English, Danish, Norwegian, Cantonese and Mandarin (Taiwan)

• Shared experiences in ARKit 2 let developers create innovative AR apps you can experience together with friends
• Persistence enables developers to save and reload experiences right from where you left off
• Object detection and image tracking gives developers new tools to recognize real world objects and track images while they move through space
• AR Quick Look extends AR throughout iOS, letting you view AR objects with built-in apps like News, Safari, and Files and share them with friends with iMessage and Mail

• New augmented reality app to measure objects and spaces
• Draw lines across surfaces or in free space to measure, and tap on a line’s label to see more information
• Automatically measure rectangular objects
• Capture, share and markup screenshots of your measurements

• Enhanced Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari prevents embedded content and social media buttons from tracking cross-site browsing without your permission
• Suppresses ad retargeting by reducing advertisers’ ability to identify iOS devices uniquely
• Strong and unique passwords are suggested automatically when creating an account or changing a password in most apps and in Safari
• Reused passwords are flagged in Settings > Passwords & Accounts
• Security code AutoFill presents one-time security codes sent over SMS as suggestions in the QuickType bar
• Sharing passwords with contacts is easier than ever using AirDrop from Passwords & Accounts in Settings
• Siri supports quickly navigating to a password on an authenticated device

• All-new design that makes discovering and enjoying books and audiobooks easy and fun
• Reading Now makes it simple to get back to the book you’re currently reading or find great recommendations for what to read next
• Add books to the new Want to Read collection to keep track of what you’d like to read next
• The Book Store makes it easy to find your next favorite read with new and popular selections from our Apple Books editors and recommendations chosen just for you
• The new Audiobooks store helps you find immersive stories and informative nonfiction books narrated by your favorite authors, actors, and celebrities

• Search now supports lyrics so you can use a few of the words to find a song
• Artist pages have an easier to browse design with a personalized station of any artist’s music
• The new Friends Mix is a playlist of songs you’ll love from everything your friends are listening to
• New charts to show you the daily top 100 songs in countries around the world

• Apple News is redesigned to make it easier to discover new channels and topics
• The new sidebar on iPad and Channels tab on iPhone make it easy to jump straight to your favorite publications and discover new ones

• All-new design lets you easily view stock quotes, interactive charts, and top news on iPhone and iPad
• Top Stories section includes articles selected by Apple News editors to highlight the latest news driving the market
• Read Apple News stories right in the app, formatted to look great on iPhone and iPad
• Watchlist includes color-coded sparklines that let you see daily performance at a glance
• See an interactive chart for every ticker symbol, plus key details including after-hours price, trading volume, and more

• All-new design with improved ease of use
• iCloud keeps your recordings and edits in sync across all of your devices
• Available on iPad with support for both portrait and landscape orientation

• Get notified when movies and TV shows are available to watch in Up Next
• Share your favorite movies, TV shows, and sporting events with universal links

• Now supports chapters for shows that include them
• Skip 30 seconds or to the next chapter with forward and back buttons in your car or on your headphones
• Easily manage new episode notifications from the Listen Now screen

• Live Listen now works with AirPods to help you hear more clearly
• RTT phone calling now works with AT&T
• Speak Selection now supports using the Siri voice to speak text that you have selected

• Camera effects in FaceTime transform your look in real-time
• CarPlay adds support for third-party navigation apps
• On supported campuses, use contactless student ID cards in Wallet to access buildings and pay with Apple Pay
• Website icons can appear in tabs on iPad by enabling them in Settings > Safari
• Weather includes air quality index in supported regions
• Quickly swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go home on iPad
• Swipe down from the top right to access Control Center on iPad
• Mark Up includes a palette of additional colors and options to change line width and opacity for each tool
• Battery usage chart in Settings now shows your usage for the last 24 hours or 10 days, and you can tap a bar to see app use for that period of time
• On devices without 3D Touch, touch and hold the keyboard Space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad
• Maps adds support for indoor maps for airports and malls with indoor positioning in China
• New definition dictionary in Hebrew, and bilingual dictionaries in Arabic and English, and Hindi and English
• New English thesaurus
• Automatic software updates allow iOS updates to be installed automatically overnight

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:

Apple today released watchOS 5 which brings you new ways to be more active, stay connected, and monitor your health with your Apple Watch including Activity competitions, automatic workout detection, Yoga and Hiking workouts, Podcasts, Walkie-Talkie, new watch faces, an updated Siri watch face, and enhancements to notifications and the Heart Rate app.

• Challenge any of your Activity sharing friends to a one-on-one, seven-day competition
• Earn points by filling your Activity rings, one point for every percent added to the rings each day
• View active competitions in the sharing tab of the Activity app
• Receive intelligent and personalized notifications throughout the competitions
• Earn awards at the end of the competition, and view in the redesigned Awards tab in the Activity app on iPhone

• Automatic workout detection sends alerts to start the Workout app for many workouts, giving you retroactive credit for exercise already started, and end alerts reminding you to end your workout
• Yoga and Hiking workout types for accurate tracking of relevant metrics
• Set target pace during outdoor run workouts and receive alerts if you fall behind or move ahead of that target pace
• Track cadence, or steps per minute, as you run and see average cadence in running Workout summaries
• Rolling mile (or km) metric for running workouts measures pace for the immediately preceding mile (or km)

• Sync subscribed shows on Apple Podcasts to Apple Watch for local playback with Bluetooth headphones
• New episodes are automatically refreshed as they are added to subscribed shows
• Stream any available episode or show on Apple Podcasts with Siri when connected to Wi-Fi or cellular
• New Podcasts complication for watch faces

• Invite friends with Apple Watch to communicate with Walkie-Talkie
• Press to talk and release to listen
• Supports one-to-one interactions between Apple Watch users
• Special sounds and haptics distinguish Walkie-Talkie from other notifications on Apple Watch
• Set your availability for Walkie-Talkie
• Walkie-Talkie works through Wi-Fi or cellular on Apple Watch or with paired iPhone

• Breathe face with three animation styles to choose from: Classic, Calm, and Focus
• Three new motion faces—Fire & Water, Vapor, and Liquid Metal—that animate when you raise your wrist or tap the display
• Display curated moments from your photo library using the Memories option on the Photos watch face
• New complications for Podcasts and Walkie-Talkie

• Updated Siri watch face intelligently surfaces predictive and proactive Shortcuts based on routines and inputs like location and time of day
• Integration with Maps on the Siri watch face shows turn-by-turn directions and estimated arrival times to your next calendar event location
• Heart Rate measurements surfaced on the Siri watch face including resting rate, walking average, and recovery rate
• Live sports scores and upcoming games for your favorite teams in the TV app appear on the Siri watch face
• Support for third-party app shortcuts on the Siri watch face
• Access to Siri with Raise to Speak, by raising your wrist to your mouth and speaking your request into the watch (Series 3 and later)
• Support for customized voice commands for Siri Shortcuts that are created and managed on iPhone

• Notifications from the same app are automatically grouped together to help you manage your notifications
• Ability to modify notifications preferences for an app by swiping left on an app notification in Notification Center
• New Deliver Quietly option silently sends notifications directly to Notification Center without interrupting you
• Turn off Do Not Disturb after a set time, location or calendar event

• Option to be notified if your heart rate falls below a specified threshold while you appeared to be inactive for a 10-minute period
• Heart Rate measurements including resting rate, walking average, and recovery rate shown on the Siri watch face

• View website content optimized for Apple Watch when receiving links in Mail or Messages
• Add cities to Weather app on Apple Watch
S• ee new metrics like UV Index, wind speed, and air quality index in supported regions in Weather app
• Add new stocks to track in the Stocks app on Apple Watch
• Customize arrangement of Control Center icons
• Choose Wi-Fi networks in Settings app and enter password if prompted
• Answer FaceTime video calls as audio on Apple Watch
• Option to install software updates overnight
• Add cities to World Clock app on Apple Watch
• Use redesigned categories to scroll through and choose emoji in Mail and Messages
• Adds support for system language in Hindi

• When a new update is available, your Apple Watch notifies you. Tap Update Tonight in the notification, then go to your iPhone to confirm that you want to update overnight. At the end of the day, leave your Apple Watch and iPhone charging overnight, so the update can complete.

• To check for updates manually:
– Keep your Apple Watch on its charger until the update completes.
– On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, then tap the My Watch tab.
– Tap General > Software Update
– Apple Watch app showing one notification badge for an available update.
– Download the update. If asked for your iPhone passcode or Apple Watch passcode, enter it.
– Wait for the progress wheel to appear on your Apple Watch. It could take from several minutes to an hour for the update to complete.
– Leave your Apple Watch on its charger while the update completes. Don’t restart your iPhone or Apple Watch, and don’t quit the Apple Watch app. When the update completes, your Apple Watch will restart on its own.

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:

tvOS 12 delivers Dolby Atmos support to Apple TV 4K. With tvOS 12, Apple TV 4K is the only streaming player both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos certified, delivering the highest quality cinematic experience of stunning 4K HDR visuals and immersive sound that flows all around in three-dimensional space.

tvOS 12 also offers a new Zero Sign-on feature that gives you access to your account simply by detecting the broadband network. Zero sign-on begins with Charter later this year and will expand to other providers over time.

Apple, in collaboration with the International Space Station National Lab and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, delivers brand new aerials shot from space by NASA astronauts, so Apple TV customers running tvOS 12 can enjoy even more stunning scenes filmed in 4K HDR. Aerial screensavers will also be more interactive, allowing viewers to see the location information and swipe between dozens of beautiful aerials.

Home control systems like Control4, Crestron and Savant can be used to control Apple TV, including using Siri for voice search and control.

tvOS 12 also supports AutoFill passwords saved on iOS 12 and brings Apple TV remote to the Control Center on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

To manually update your Apple TV with the latest update, you need to open the Settings app on your TV and then navigate to Settings > Systems > Software Update.

“Apple on Monday launched Safari 12 for its two most recent Mac operating systems, Sierra and High Sierra, primarily improving security and privacy,”Roger Fingas reports for AppleInsider.

“The updated browser, for example, blocks social media buttons or embedded content from tracking cross-site browsing without permission, and makes it harder for advertisers to identify individual Macs,” Fingas reports. “It will also suggest strong passwords when creating or updating an account, and can flag reused ones.”

Fingas reports, “Users can now see a website’s icon in each tab, making it less confusing to switch.”

Apple updates iOS to 12, watchOS to 5, tvOS to 12, and Safari for macOS Sierra ad High Sierra to 12. —PING!
Thanks to AMorePerfectUnion for reminding me when I got home from a long day seeing clients!

Apple Update Monday Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

Will Siri work better? She definitely doesn’t translate well. Maybe I’ve said she’s stupid a few times too many. Or that I ask her to translate pro-Trump commentary.

Well, Sword, this one makes my 4S a fossil of the small iphone days.

Wish there was an iphone that fit in a pocket.

Is the iPhone SE too big? It was just discontinued this week, but I bet you can find one. It would be a significant upgrade processor-wise, and it supports Apple Pay. I’d look into it quickly if you’re interested.

Well, Sword, this one makes my 4S a fossil of the small iphone days. Wish there was an iphone that fit in a pocket.

This upgrade doesn't do my 5C much good, either.

The closest to our phones was the iPhone SE, but those are no longer made, and are hit or miss to find.

I emailed Apple and thanked them for turning off my Ad Blocker extensions. Some of these I paid for and now Apple has decided to fill my browser with all the crap I don't want to see.

I am not happy!!!

Wish there was an iphone that fit in a pocket.

There is. The iPhone 7 or 8 both with 4.7" screens are still on sale and measure only about 5.44" X 2.65" #X 0.33" (7 — $449) or 5.45" X 2.65" X 0.29" (8 — $599) which can easily fit in a shirt pocket.

Your iPhone 4s measures 4.5" X 2.33" X 0.37" with a 4" screen. . . and is far slower and is insecure. No Secure Enclave. No encryption Engine. No fingerprint sensor. No Retina display. Anyone can get into it in five minutes with online tools now.

iPhone SE dimensions: 4.87 x 2.31 x .30 inches. Same problems with security as the iPhone 4s. It's too old a design to hold onto for long. . . but the price is probably right. I think you might find a new one for around $349. . . but you'd have to go to Best Buy or Walmart or one of the carriers. Apple doesn't offer it now.

I emailed Apple and thanked them for turning off my Ad Blocker extensions. Some of these I paid for and now Apple has decided to fill my browser with all the crap I don't want to see.

Go into the App Store and do the App updates. A lot of them need to be updated to work again with the new iOS. Seemed to work for me and fixed the problems with misbehaving apps. Just installing the new iOS does not update all the apps that need to be brought up to date. If you have autoupdating turned on, they will eventually catch up over the next couple of days, but they're not in a hurry to do it for your schedule, so if you have some that are important, you can prioritize in the App Store update and force the ones you want updated NOW instead of waiting for them.

Summary: deeper, wider, better data mining about you and your family and friends! We’re watching you!

Nice try, but Apple isn't in the data selling business like Alphabet/Google/YouTube/Android/FaceBook/Twitter are. Apple doesn't collect such data. If you allow Google and their browsing ads on your devices, that's your fault. There are alternatives. Apple sells privacy. . . and does not even have access to your data. Only YOU have your password to your encrypted data.

That being said, anything you send, email, or phone in the clear is open to the government via the carriers.

Apple's proprietary Messaging app, however, is end-to-end encrypted to a 256 bit AES standard, so that is safe.

I appreciate your reassurance, but now that Apple has messed with both of my ad blockers with the new update, I have no choice but either to 1) give them my credit card data and buy one of their blocker apps, or 2) put up with ads.

It’s been horrible today since I updated Safari — every site except FR is full of ads, and I get frequent reminders onscreen from Apple that AdBlockPlus is slowing down my browser, which I PREFER, since it used to keep the ads away. But it no longer does now that Apple’s update has crippled AdBlockPlus and removed UBlock entirely from my computer.

As a user, I am like a singer who does not want to have to learn how a piano is constructed in order to have accompaniement; and I do not want to have to get a degree in computer architecture just to use a laptop without constant aggravation from dancing ads and pop-ups.

Any ideas?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.