iOS is Apple’s operating system for the iPhone and iPad. It’s also the basis for tvOS for the Apple TV and watchOS for the Apple Watch. It’s even beginning to infiltrate the Mac in some ways. Apple has worked hard to keep iOS private and secure, and it has a huge ecosystem of apps via its official App Store. Some have argued that it is too locked down, but the trade-off is that it’s fast and stable for most users.
The hit roguelike Enter the Gungeon is coming to iOS and Android “soon,” Devolver Digital announced today. Exit the Gungeon, which was delisted from Apple Arcade last year, will also be back on iOS and is coming to Google Play. Playing the games on mobile will be a good warmup to next year’s Enter the Gungeon 2.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook app has joined Kindle and Spotify in making it easier to buy e-books and audiobooks on the iPhone. A recent update has added a new “buy on BN.com” option to the iOS app, as spotted earlier by Good e-Reader.
The change comes after a judge ordered Apple to lift restrictions on web links and outside payment options, a decision that a higher court upheld earlier this month.
[goodereader.com]
Vivo claims its X Fold 5 has achieved an Android first: interoperability with the Apple Watch. According to product manager Han Boxiao the watch can display calls and texts from the X Fold 5, and sync health data. The phone can also receive calls and texts sent to an iPhone, access iCloud, and extend the display of a Mac.
How? We have no idea, but hopefully we’ll find out when the phone launches this month.
Big changes are in store across Apple’s platforms, from a design refresh to major multitasking improvements for the iPad.
Mark Gurman’s Bloomberg newsletter brings one more pre-WWDC 25 rumor, saying the most exciting part of the conference will be the rumored design overhaul for iPhone, Mac, and other platforms that he says is called Liquid Glass (remember Microsoft’s Aero Glass, and Apple’s iOS 7 shift away from skeuomorphism?).
Adding “transparency and shine effects in all of Apple’s tool bars, in-app interfaces and controls,” he says it sets the stage for next year’s “Glasswing” iPhone design with curved glass sides, slim bezels, and no cutout section in the display.
The keynote for Apple’s next developer conference is only a week away, and the homepage for the event has just been updated with a short tagline, “sleek peek,” while exec Greg Joswiak tweeted out this new animation. We’re guessing this refers to the visionOS-like design refresh supposedly coming for Apple’s operating systems, and not to the “gap year” for AI features rumored over the weekend.
Whatever it is, we’ll be at Apple Park on June 9th to report the details.
The WhatsApp for iOS 25.16.81 update that’s rolling out over the coming weeks allows users to hold down on a message to select and copy specific sections, instead of being forced to copy the entire message text. Android users are still stuck with this limitation for now, but WABetaInfo reports that a similar update is in the works.
This year’s rumored redesign for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS is also coming to watchOS and tvOS, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. In an April subscriber edition of Power On, he wrote that watchOS would only get elements of the redesign “here and there.”
It’s expected the updates will take cues from the look of the glassy, translucent visionOS, which, Gurman writes, is also getting tweaks where they “make sense for a headset.”
Plus, in this week’s Installer: a cheap set-top box worth a try, a clever twist on the Stream Deck, where to go post-Pocket, and more.
A ruling in March gave Apple 90 days to allow sideloading for iPhone users in Brazil, but that ruling was reversed shortly after. Now Apple is being compelled once more to let Brazilian users sideload, reports 9to5Mac.
