Apple released the third developer beta version of iOS 18 on Monday. While there are no major new features like Apple Intelligence in this update, there are some neat design changes. But the new UI for the flashlight takes the cake.
The company had already introduced a new way to control True Tone Flashlights on Pro iPhone 14 and 15 models. Unlike the previous controls of on/off and four levels of brightness, the new controls included variable brightness and a way to adjust the width of the beam. The controls in the first beta just had vertical and horizontal lines to represent them, and it took users a second to get accustomed to it.
Holy shit! You can change light focus on Flashlight in iOS 18! Dynamic Island looks amazing #iOS18 pic.twitter.com/T1M1Xejg6Q
— Willydoo (@wilson_boi_101) June 10, 2024
However, with the iOS 18 developer beta 3, Apple has made the feature and design more amiable and simpler to use. The new design has a curved line to indicate both width of the beam and brightness. The UI also shows a dotted curved lineup top to indicate the peak intensity mark.
OK this new flashlight UI in iOS 18 beta 3 has absolutely no right to go this hard. Too cool pic.twitter.com/vIyaiBYyHp
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) July 8, 2024
This is not a massive change, but it just makes for a fun design shift. As an added bonus, it also makes the flashlight more useful.
The third developer beta brings another design change, automatically converting third-party apps’ icons to a dark shade. Previously, only Apple’s native apps had new dark-tinted icons.
Image Credit: Screenshot by TechCrunch
What’s more, the company has added a new dynamic wallpaper that changes colors based on the time of the day.
Apple’s practice of leveraging ideas from its third-party developer community to become new iOS and Mac features and apps has a hefty price tag, a new report indicates. With the release of iOS 18 later this fall, Apple’s changes may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year, according to an analysis by app intelligence firm Appfigures.
Every June at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, the iPhone maker teases the upcoming releases of its software and operating systems, which often include features previously only available through third-party apps. The practice is so common now it’s even been given a name: “sherlocking” — a reference to a 1990s search app for Mac that borrowed features from a third-party app known as Watson. Now, when Apple launches a new feature that was before the domain of a third-party app, it’s said to have “sherlocked” the app.
In earlier years, sherlocking apps made some sense. After all, did the iPhone’s flashlight really need to be a third-party offering, or would it be better as a built-in function? Plus, Apple has been able to launch features that made its software better adapted to consumers’ wants and needs by looking at what’s popular among the third-party developer community.
Of course, this practice also raises the question as to whether or not Apple is leveraging proprietary data to make its determinations about what to build next, and whether or not the apps it competes with are being offered an even playing field. For example, before Apple launched its own parental controls system, it shut down many third-party apps that had built businesses in this space by saying their solutions were now non-compliant with its rules and policies. The apps weren’t offered access to a developer API for managing Apple’s built-in parental controls for years, prompting an antitrust investigation.
In more recent years, Apple has “sherlocked” third parties with launches of features like Continuity Camera, medication tracking, sleep tracking and mood tracking, as well as apps like Freeform and Journal. This year, it turned its attention to password managers, call recording and transcription apps, those for making custom emoji, AI-powered writing tools and math helpers, trail apps and more.
In an analysis of third-party apps that generated more than 1,000 downloads per year, Appfigures found several genres that had found themselves in Apple’s crosshairs in 2024.
In terms of worldwide gross revenue, these categories have generated significant income over the past 12 months, with the trail app category making the most at $307 million per year, led by market leader and 2023 Apple “App of the Year” AllTrails. Grammar helper apps, like Grammarly and others, also generated $35.7 million, while math helpers and password managers and math helpers earned $23.4 million and $20.3 million, respectively. Apps for making custom emoji generated $7 million, too.
Image Credits: Appfigures
Of these, trail apps accounted for the vast majority of “potentially sherlocked” revenue, or 78%, noted Appfigures, as well as 40% of downloads of sherlocked apps. In May 2024, they accounted for an estimated $28.8 million in gross consumer spending and 2.5 million downloads, to give you an idea of scale.
Many of these app categories were growing quickly, with math solvers having seen revenue growth of 43% year-over-year followed by grammar helpers (+40%), password managers (+38%) and trail apps (+28%). Emoji-making apps, however, were seeing declines at -17% year-over-year.
Image Credits: Appfigures
By downloads, grammar helpers had seen 9.4 million installs over the past 12 months, followed by emoji makers (10.6M), math-solving apps (9.5M) and password managers (457K installs).
Although these apps certainly have dedicated user bases that may not immediately choose to switch to a first-party offering, Apple’s ability to offer similar functionality built-in could be detrimental to their potential growth. Casual users may be satisfied by Apple’s “good enough” solutions and won’t seek out alternatives.
However, apps that continue to develop new features and add enhancements beyond what Apple includes while also taking advantage of other new ways to reach users, like through Apple’s improved Siri, may have a better shot than others.
Apple confirmed today that iOS 17.3 will be released to the public next week, giving iPhone users new features like Stolen Device Protection and collaborative Apple Music playlists.
The company subtly revealed the release date of the software update in a press release about its new Black Unity Sport Band and accompanying watch face for the Apple Watch that features red, green and yellow flowers to represent “the rich cultural diversity of Black communities around the world,” Apple wrote.
There will also be a new Unity Bloom wallpaper for the iPhone and iPad, available next week when iOS 17.3 comes out.
Image Credits: Apple
The most anticipated feature coming to iOS is Stolen Device Protection, a security setting that gives an extra layer of protection if there’s ever a time when someone steals your iPhone and also obtains your passcode. The feature can be turned on through Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Stolen Device Protection.
Stolen Device Protection requires the mandatory use of Face ID or Touch ID before performing sensitive actions such as accessing passwords or passkeys saved in iCloud Keychain, using saved payment methods in Safari and interacting with certain Apple Cash and Apple Card Savings actions in the Wallet app like sending money to your bank account.
Additionally, there will be a security delay if you change sensitive settings, including creating a new Apple ID password, turning off Find My and updating select Apple ID security settings like removing a trusted device or phone number. However, no delay is required when your iPhone is at home, work or other familiar locations.
Apple’s new protection feature appears to be a solution to a serious problem reported by The Wall Street Journal last year. Thieves were found spying on an iPhone user’s passcode in public places (bars were a common location) before stealing the device. Having access to the passcode allows them to quickly change the Apple ID password and then access sensitive information stored in iCloud Keychain.
Image Credits: Apple
We’ll also likely see collaborative Apple Music playlists roll out as part of the update, a feature that was initially promised for iOS 17. Apple previously noted in its iOS 17 features list that it was delayed to 2024, and later on, it reportedly appeared in the iOS 17.3 beta.
Apple Music’s collaborative playlist feature is self-explanatory; it allows subscribers to create playlists with others, which is great for friends and family members who want to bond over shared musical tastes. Plus, you can use emojis to react to the song choices in Now Playing.
The feature can be enabled by clicking on the person-shaped icon in a playlist, which will then provide a link. Multiple people can be added, and everyone has the ability to add, reorder and remove songs. However, the playlist admin can also opt-in to approve song requests to be added. They also have the power to remove people and turn off the collaboration feature altogether.
Spotify, one of Apple Music’s largest competitors, launched a real-time collaborative playlist feature, “Jam,” in September.
Apple introduces protection to prevent thieves from getting your passwords
Image Credits: Matt Cardy / Contributor (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
X, formerly Twitter, today announced support for passkeys, a new and more secure login method than traditional passwords, which will become an option for U.S. users on iOS devices. The technology has been adopted by a number of apps as of late, including PayPal, TikTok, WhatsApp, and others.
Today we’re excited to launch Passkeys as a login option for our US-based users on iOS!
A passkey is a new, easy to use, and secure way to log in to your account – all from your device. Passkeys are more secure than traditional passwords since they’re individually generated by…
— Safety (@Safety) January 23, 2024
Initiated by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and the FIDO Alliance, alongside the World Wide Web Consortium, passkey technology aims to make passwordless logins available across different devices, operating systems, and web browsers. The feature arrived on iOS devices in September 2022 and on Google accounts last May. Unlike logins which rely only on a username and password combination, passkeys use a biometric authentication like Face ID or Touch ID, a PIN, or a physical security authentication key to validate login attempts. This process combines the benefits of two-factor authentication (2FA) into a single step, to make the login process more seamless while also being more secure.
The addition is a particularly useful one for X, given the high-profile hacks that have seen accounts on the service compromised by bad actors. For instance, this January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange’s X account was hacked to share an unauthorized post regarding Bitcoin ETF approval. Other notable hacks have included Donald Trump Jr.’s X account, which was used to post a fake message saying that Donald Trump had passed away, as well as a widespread 2020 crypto scam that saw large accounts compromised, including Apple’s, President Biden’s, and even X owner Elon Musk’s account, among others. In that case, the accounts were used to post a message promoting the address of a Bitcoin wallet with the promise of doubling payments in return. (This hack was prior to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, now called X).
In the days since Musk’s takeover of Twitter/X, the company removed another security measure that helped keep accounts secure when it announced last year that it would no longer support SMS 2FA for non-paying accounts. Twitter (it was Twitter then, not X!) justified the change, likely a cost-cutting measure, by saying the method could be abused by bad actors, such as in the case of SIM swaps. However, the reality was that removing the security protection made Twitter less secure, as a result.
X shared instructions on how to get started with passkeys on iOS but the company didn’t say when the option would be available on other platforms or to more markets beyond the U.S.
Image Credits: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg / Getty Images
Epic Games is preparing to return to iOS in Europe, as a result of the EU regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the company has now confirmed. The Fortnite maker says it will offer both the game and the Epic Games Stores on mobile in Europe, it shared in a blog post that looked at the year in review and what’s ahead in 2024. While the DMA would make it possible for Epic Games to operate a mobile games store, the company’s developer account had been banned from both the App Store and Google Play after it intentionally violated the companies’ rules over in-app purchases in the lead-up to its dual antitrust lawsuits with the tech giants.
Though Epic Games lost its case with Apple, as the courts ruled the Cupertino-based iPhone maker was not a monopolist, it wasn’t entirely clear if Apple would allow the developer to return to the iOS platform, given the violation. Instead, while Epic waited for its lawsuits to play out, Fortnite returned to iOS by way of a third party — Nvidia’s streaming game service, GeForce Now.
Today, the company shared that it has received its Apple Developer Account and will “start developing the Epic Games Store on iOS soon, thanks to the new Digital Markets Act.”
It’s interesting here that Epic Games is expressing gratitude for the regulation and the possibilities it holds, given that CEO Tim Sweeney heavily criticized Apple’s response, calling it “malicious compliance,” “full of junk fees,” and once again, “anti-competitive.” In a post on X, Sweeney wrote that Apple was forcing developers to choose between App Store exclusivity or accepting “a new also-illegal anticompetitive scheme,” he had said.
Despite positioning Apple’s compliance with the regulation as anti-competitive, the company does intend to leverage the new rules to once again compete on mobile, it seems.
Epic says that Epic Games Sweden AB will operate the new mobile Epic Games Store and Fortnite in Europe, while its Store team will lead development. Epic Games Sweden has a total of three studios and over 60 employees, the company also noted.
The company had earlier promised that Fortnite would return to iOS in Europe this year, but not the details of that venture. Nor had it confirmed whether it had re-obtained access to its Apple Developer account at that time.
“Stay tuned for details as we figure out the regulatory timeline,” the company posted to X last month. “We’ll continue to argue to the courts and regulators that Apple is breaking the law.”
Phone cameras have evolved a lot, with image processing becoming increasingly important and granular controls to help users tweak their images. Despite that, many people are still fond of old-school photography styles and techniques. Developer Alex Fox wanted to focus on that nostalgia while building the Mood.camera app.
The iPhone app lets you switch between different retro filters to capture photos. You can also adjust quality and tone through a dial. You can easily switch between different lenses and adjust exposure from the main screen. All of this sounds familiar, but what you don’t get is the live preview of what the photo would look like once it “develops” — and that makes for some fascinating results.
Image Credits: Alex Fox/Mood.camera
Fox said that with this app, he wanted users to focus on the image in the viewfinder rather than the effects, which is why he did not include a live preview feature — you see the same thing as you see in the default camera app. In the same vein, the app has no editing feature, and you can’t import photos from the gallery to apply filters on old photos.
“Since the first Polaroid camera, photography has been focused on more convenience and more control, but I think we’ve lost some of the magic along the way,” Fox told TechCrunch over email.
“Some of the design decisions I made were intended to reduce the conveniences we’re used to, urging users to be in the moment instead of worrying about which filter to use or staring at their phone editing.”
Image Credits: Alex Fox/Mood.camera
The developer started working on a prototype of the app in October 2023 and released a beta version on Reddit earlier this year.
Fox said that over the last two months, a group of photographers helped him hone the app better by taking more than 100,000 photos. The app is free to try for seven days, and then you can pay either $1.99 per month or a one-time fee of $14.99.
In the last few years, apps like Lapse, Dispo and Later Cam have tried to recreate parts of retro cameras by placing limitations on the app’s function. While Lapse and Dispo also attracted investors, their growth eventually slowed down. However, while an indie developer won’t encounter a venture-backed outcome, it could potentially turn their app into a sustainable income and a long-term success.
