Widgets can now occupy different parts of your home screen along with typical app icons.Stan Horaczek
Last week, Apple took to the virtual stage at its online Worldwide Developers Conference to announce a variety of upcoming software updates. Since then, I have been using a developer’s beta of the fledgeling operating system update to try out the high profile additions and dig up a few underrated updates.
Right now, you can install the early beta as well, but you’ll have to be a part of Apple’s official developer program which will cost you $100 for the year. You’ll also want to make sure you have a secondary device to test it on, because installing an early beta like this onto a phone you rely on every day comes with the potential for a complete software meltdown.
Here are some of the most promising new features to check out once iOS 14 officially launches later this year.
Translate
Downloading specific languages to your device allows you to translate without an internet connection.Stan Horaczek
Apple devotes a new app to its translation technology, which supports 11 different languages and offers several different layouts depending on your specific needs. The app can listen to a speaker and spit back their words in a different language with very little delay. But, it has some handy display modes that make it particularly useful for communicating with others.
Attention mode displays a large, clear version of what you’re saying, so if you want to hold it up to another person you can ask for help or quickly communicate a message to someone. Conversation mode allows two speakers to talk in real-time with their translated words appearing on their respective half of the screen.
The translations typically take place in the cloud, but you can download specific languages directly to your device and get access to all the features in those languages without a connection. That could come in extremely handy if you’re traveling and can’t rely on a steady signal.
I’ve had it crash a few times this week, mostly when switching between modes, but the actual translation seems quick and mostly accurate.
Home screen widgets
The Today View in iOS is a handy preexisting feature that allows you to get snapshots of what’s going on in your various apps. You access it by simply swiping right while you’re on the home screen to reveal a stream of information-packed widgets. If you’re not using it all the time, however, it’s easy to forget that it exists. In iOS 14, those widgets are making their way directly to the home screen so you can start your information bombardment as soon as you’ve unlocked the device.
Widgets now come in three different sizes depending on how much screen real estate you’re willing to devote to a specific app. You can peruse the Widget options for your specific apps via the Widget Gallery.
So far, there aren’t a ton of Widget options to try, but I have already started getting used to a few of them. I didn’t realize how often I opened the Weather app until the Widget absolved me of having to dive in to see what’s coming.
Once third-party widgets start pouring in, I worry home screens may get rather overwhelming, but responsible Widget arrangement could also mean quicker access to necessary information and less time spent poking around within apps.
App Library
With the home screen now taking on new Widget-hosting duties, the app grid is even more crowded. The new App Library lives after your last page of apps and arranges them into handy categories. Recently Added and Suggestions live at the top in order to make your most frequent apps quick to access.
You can hide pages of apps, so you can reduce your entire dashboard to curated collections of widgets and just rely totally on the App Library to find specific applications.
Message mentions
Group chats can get out of hand quickly when it comes to notifications, but now you can customize the chaos in order to keep it in check. Participants can now use the @ in order to directly address someone in the chat, just like in other apps, like Slack. That allows you to customize your notifications so your phone will only ping if someone is talking directly to you. Participants can also add replies in threads to specific messages so the entire conversation doesn’t become impossible to follow.
Bike directions in maps
At the WWDC keynote, Apple said that Maps users requested cycling directions more than any other feature. In iOS 14, Maps will now guide bike riders to their destinations via cycle-friendly routes that have dedicated bike lanes and relatively light traffic. The routes will also indicate when there are steep hills along the way so you can plan when to eat your Power Bar for maximum pedal power.
Right now, the directions are only available in a handful of cities like NYC and San Francisco, but Apple says it’s planning to roll them out to more places soon.
Adaptive lighting
Automation has motivated a huge chunk of the Home updates in iOS 14. The Adaptive Lighting update allows compatible light bulbs to automatically change their color throughout the day. So, if you want bright white light in the afternoon, and warmer, more mellow light in the evening, a simple automation can do that for you without having to think about it.
Plenty of other platforms allow you to create routines like this, but this is the kind of simple thing that Home has been conspicuously missing.
App Clips
Abandoned apps that you use once and then abandon tend to clutter up your device and go out of date. App Clips are designed to alleviate that problem. Users can access App Clips in a wide variety of ways including scanning a redesigned QR code, tapping an NFC-enabled beacon, or clicking a link from Maps, Safari, or Messages. Each Clip must be under 10 MB and doesn’t add itself to your home screen like a full app. They’re designed for one-off circumstances like if you’re paying to rent a scooter or make some other kind of micro transaction.
Once users are typically relying on 5G speeds, those 10 MB downloads will seem almost instantaneous.
Privacy labels in the App Store
Soon, each app in the App Store will have a simplified label that indicates what kind of data the software will collect about you and whether or not the developer plans to share it with others. It will also let you know if the data collected will be anonymous or directly linked to your identity.
This will likely be one of the more controversial updates, but if it’s done correctly, it could give users a much better picture of how much personal info they’re giving up every time they download a new app.
Recording indicator
A simple dot in the top right corner of the screen now indicates when the camera or microphone is recording you. Many conspiracy theories claim that apps constantly listen and watch in the background to target you with ads, but now Apple will let you know for sure when something is recording.
It’s hardly noticeable when you’re using it in everyday life, but I look forward to a time when the dot shows up and I have no idea why and it makes me paranoid forever.
Separate focus and exposure controls in the camera app
Apple’s camera hardware has been great for years, but the stock camera app is overly simplistic. Now, it offers more manual controls, including the ability to lock the focus in one spot and the exposure metering in another. That makes shots like silhouettes of dark shapes in front of dramatic sunsets much easier to execute. It’s a simple upgrade, but for photo nerds like me, it’s a notable one.
Tap the back to launch
As part of the accessibility additions in iOS 14, users can now tap on the back of the phone—you can use two or three taps—in order to perform certain actions. For instance, you can map three taps on the back of the device to take a screenshot. Apple has allowed users to shake the device in order to perform some tasks without actually touching the screen, but I have never found those particularly handy. This, however, seems much more practical at least in the short time I’ve used it so far.
Code found in iOS 14 beta 2 points to Apple working on bringing QR code support for payments using Apple Pay. This will allow Apple Pay users to simply scan a QR code to trigger a transaction.
The company did not talk about this change in Apple Pay at WWDC 2020 so it is likely we will hear more about it later in the year when it announces the iPhone 12. The feature also seems to be in an unfinished state in iOS 14 beta 2. The QR code-based payment system will also be available to third-party apps.
It is possible that Apple could use this QR code-based payment method to bring Apple Pay to more countries. Right now, Apple Pay is only available in countries where NFC is prevalent. In India, for example, Google Pay uses a QR code-based approach thereby allowing users to easily make payments for their transactions at retail stores by scanning a QR code. The Cupertino company could also be looking to do the same to expand the availability of Apple Pay to more countries.
Apple has released iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 beta 2 for download. If you have a compatible iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, you can update right now.
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 Beta 2 Arrive with Loads of Bug Fixes and Improvements, Download Now if You have Beta 1 Installed
More interested in learning about iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 features instead?
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are mighty big updates for a lot of reasons. But the real changes live on the iPhone where users are treated to a whole new home screen layout, thanks to addition of interactive widgets and App Library. And all of this will be available to everyone later this year with a compatible device, which is literally every phone and tablet from Apple that can run iOS 13 or iPadOS 13.
But right now, we have betas to deal with and Apple has released iOS 14 beta 2 and iPadOS 14 beta 2 for registered developers. Both pack a lot of bug fixes and performance enhancements therefore you should go ahead and install the update immediately without skipping a beat.
Download iOS 14 / iPadOS 14 Beta 2 OTA
Connect to a power outlet
Launch the Settings app
Navigate to General > Software Update
Tap on Download and Install when the second beta shows up for download
You can clean install the second beta as well. I will only recommend this route if you are having too many problems with the first beta. This involves a lot of things and legwork, and all the details about it can be found here: How to Clean Install iOS 14 / iPadOS 14 Beta on iPhone and iPad
Download Without a Developer Account? That is Possible too
Even though the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 betas will be available to the public for free some time in July, but you can download the developer beta for free without spending a dime. It's a simple case of downloading the iOS or iPadOS 14 configuration profile onto your device and you will start receiving updates immediately. But the problem is, it's not an official method of installing updates, and there is a lot that can go wrong. And furthermore, you have to search for the configuration profile online yourself, for obvious reasons. But if you are interested in this method still, you can find more details here: Download iOS 14 / iPadOS 14 Beta Without Developer Account
Downgrade to iOS 13 Anytime You Like
Not feeling the new beta at all? Well, you can always downgrade to iOS 13 whenever you like. Just follow the tutorial outlined here: How to Downgrade iOS 14 / iPadOS 14 Beta to iOS 13 [Tutorial]
We will highlight everything that is new in this iOS 14 beta 2 and iPadOS 14 beta 2 release in a separate post so make sure you keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, update your devices to the latest developer preview.
iOS 14 is still in beta but it has exposed a number of popular apps, including LinkedIn and TikTok, that read the iPhone clipboard regularly, without any reason or permissions. For some apps, it is understandable if they automatically copy content from the clipboard to provide a feature that enhances user experience, but as you will see from these list of apps, most of them do not even have any text field, or relevant functionality, that would provide any benefit to the end-user from reading the clipboard.
iOS 14 has a new feature that notifies the user every time an app pastes data from the clipboard, whether it is intentional or automatically. Because iOS devices and Macs use a feature called Universal Clipboard, which allows them to copy and paste content between each other, these apps are able to snoop on a lot of content which might include passwords, credit card details, banking details, and much more.
Here is a list of the apps discovered so far that have been found guilty of accessing clipboard data:
LinkedIn
Call of Duty
Fruit Ninja
PUBG Mobile
Accuweather
AliExpress
Google News
Tik Tok
Reddit
Overstock
Paetron
ABC News
Al Jazeera English
CBC News
CBS News
CNBC
Fox News
News Break
New York Times
NPR
ntv Nachrichten
Reuters
Russia Today
Stern Nachrichten
The Economist
The Huffington Post
The Wall Street Journal
Vice News
Hotels.com
Hotel Tonight
The Weather Network
Sky Ticket
TruCaller
ToTalk
Tok
Viber
Weibo
Zoosk
8 Ball Pool
Amaze!!!
Bejeweled
Block Puzzle
Classic Bejeweled
Classic Bejeweled HD
Golfmasters
Plants vs Zombies Heroes
Bed Bath & Beyond
Here is a video which shows how these apps spy on your clipboard every time you copy something:
To understand the extent to which apps like LinkedIn snoop on your private data in the clipboard, here is an example shared on Twitter:
LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to see each paste notification.
I’m on an IPad Pro and it’s copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro.
Tik tok just got called out for this exact reason. pic.twitter.com/l6NIT8ixEF
— Don 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 urspace.io (@DonCubed) July 2, 2020
Whether the clipboard data is synced to the server or not, the point of exposing these apps is that they have no business to access clipboard data like this. There is no good reason to do so.
Many of the developers behind these apps, including LinkedIn and Tik Tok, have publicly announced that they will stop this practice. Even though Tik Tok had promised to fix this before, they never fixed the issue. Casey Newton of The Verge explained these 'bugs' in the best way:
If you think that this issue only exists on iOS, it also impacts Android. Most Android apps can even access clipboard data, when they are in the background, which makes them even more dangerous than their iOS counterparts. Android changed this behavior with version 10, but we know how many users actually get to use the latest Android updates.
Until these apps push out updates that fix the clipboard issues, beware of what you copy on your devices.
