Latest iOS 9 Beta Adds News App, Music Quality Settings, Screenshot Folder, and More

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 9 July 2015 13:23 IST

On Wednesday Apple released the third beta version iOS 9 - its mobile operating system for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - to developers. The build number 13A4293g is available over-the-air or via Apple's developer portal. This beta is the biggest update to iOS 9 so far, adding a new app as well as bringing changes to older apps.

iOS 9 beta 3 introduces the News app, which was first announced at WWDC. This new app offers a list of curated stories, which is similar to third-party apps like Flipboard and Inside. This app also supports the addition of RSS feeds from Safari. It is available only to US users for now. The update also includes an entirely revamped two-factor authentication system that was also brought to the OS X El Capitan developer beta. The new built-in system uses different methods to trust devices and display verification codes (now six-digit). iOS 9 also sees the search option including Siri app suggestions as well.

The new beta makes use of the screen estate that the iPad provides and now has app folders with 4x4 arrangement as opposed to the 3x3 arrangement, which now allows you to save up to 105 apps per folder.

The Photos app also gets an update with iOS 9, adding pre-determined folders called Selfies and Screenshots. And as their names suggest, the Selfies folder bunches all the photos captured by the front camera and the screenshots folder puts all the photos taken by holding down the power button and home button.

Addressing a complaint users have had with the Apple Music service - not being able to adjust audio quality for cellular connections - Apple has revamped the settings section of the Music app to includes an option to stream music at the highest quality while using a cellular connection. The Restrictions settings has a new logo for Siri & Dictation and there is a new setting to toggle on/off access to the News app, and the option to turn off Apple Music Connect is gone.

There is a minor bug - that has been added by Apple to 'Known Issues' section in the release notes - which removes the ability to use the volume button for shooting pictures from inside the camera app.

Apart from iOS 9 beta 3, Apple also introduced Apple watchOS 2 beta 3. This new beta includes a ton of enhancements and bug fixes like - enlarged keypad buttons, more granular control of volume and brightness, a new Music app icon, Beats 1 support in Music app, Weather now shows when it was last updated, activation lock, and a function where pressing down the digital crown on the app screen returns you to the watch face.

There is also a new El Capitan Beta 3 which has several bug fixes. There is also a new splash screen for the Calendar app, and now you can also drag a window out of the top bar and move it back to the desktop as a separate window in the Mission Control page.

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