Apple Seeds Fourth Betas of iOS and iPadOS 13.5 to Developers With Exposure Notification API, Face ID Mask Updates and More

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the fourth betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.5 updates to developers, one week after seeding the third betas and over a month after releasing iOS and iPadOS 13.4 with iCloud Folder Sharing, iPad trackpad support, and more.

iOS and ??iPadOS?? 13.5 can be downloaded from the Apple Developer center or over the air after the proper developer profile has been installed.

iOS and iPadOS 13.5 introduce the exposure notification API designed by Apple and Google, which is designed to allow public health authorities to create COVID-19 contact tracing apps that are meant to slow the spread of the virus.

The API Apple has introduced is for health-related apps that will incorporate the new API, but there is a toggle in the Settings app that is designed to allow users to opt out of participating in COVID-19 exposure notifications.

Along with laying the ground work for the exposure notification API and accompanying apps, iOS 13.5 makes it easier to unlock an iPhone with a passcode when wearing a mask, as many people are wearing face coverings at the current time.

With the update, the passcode interface pops up more quickly when an iPhone detects that a mask is obscuring the face after a user swipes upward, so it's quicker to get into an iPhone using a passcode than before.

There's also a tweak to Group FaceTime, with Apple introducing a new toggle to disable the feature that automatically enlarges the tile of the person who is speaking. By default, Group FaceTime has a dynamic view with a tile for each person, and the person speaking has a larger tile while other tiles fade into the background.

An "Automatic Prominence" section in the FaceTime portion of the Settings app allows this to be disabled, displaying all of the people using FaceTime in a grid with equal-sized windows regardless of who is talking. A tile can be enlarged with a tap.

Earlier betas have introduced a new Apple Music feature that allows Apple Music songs to be shared on Instagram Stories. Tapping the Share button on a song in Apple Music creates a story with a song title, album name, and animated background, but at this time there is no way to get to Apple Music from the shared information.

iOS 13.5 also patches two security vulnerabilities that affect the Mail app on the iPhone and the iPad. One vulnerability allowed an attacker to remotely infect an iOS device by sending emails that consume a significant amount of memory, while another allowed remote code executions.

The update may also address an issue with Personal Hotspot that prevents it from working for some people and it could also fix a VPN-related vulnerability, both of which are bugs that Apple has promised to address in upcoming iOS updates.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Fourth Betas of iOS and iPadOS 13.5 to Developers With Exposure Notification API, Face ID Mask Updates and More [Update: Public Beta Available]

 

[I7guy]

Sheltering in place is making the little things in life more appreciated....like beta updates.

 

[Mutepointer]

The updates beta be good. Get it? Beta? 😅

 

[zorinlynx]

>The update may also address an issue with Personal Hotspot that prevents it from working for some people and it could also fix a VPN-related vulnerability, both of which are bugs that Apple has promised to address in upcoming iOS updates.

Has there been any word as to whether these issues are actually fixed yet?

 

[MacHiavelli]

COVID-19 contact-tracing apps are just another example of virtue-signalling nonsense that will do more harm than good.

The UK, for example, reported a tenfold increase in acute respiratory illnesses in the last three months of 2019. Does anyone really think they were all flu when no one was actually tested?

Hospitalisations for flu 10-fold higher than last year, official figures show

The number of people hospitalised with flu this winter is almost ten times as high as this time last year, new figures show.

www.telegraph.co.uk

And Public Health England identified a coronavirus outbreak (note that an outbreak means multiple cases, not one isolated case) in December 2019, long before the cases in China. See the top of page two, "Acute respiratory disease outbreaks", of the PDF below.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/854797/Weekly_national_influenza_report_week_51_2019.pdf

>> PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND, Dec 2019: "155 new acute respiratory outbreaks have been reported in the past 7 days (...) and one for coronavirus." <<

 

[GIZBUG]

The updates beta be good. Get it? Beta? 😅

Huh? You been around here a few years, you know how the beta process goes.....
semi stable when they release a public beta, meant to be tested, battery life never has good as release versions due to debugging.... cmon man
Plus this beta came out 12 minutes ago, how would someone know if its good yet?

 

[Mutepointer]

Huh? You been around here a few years, you know how the beta process goes.....
semi stable when they release a public beta, meant to be tested, battery life never has good as release versions due to debugging.... cmon man
Plus this beta came out 12 minutes ago, how would someone know if its good yet?

Seems you didn’t get my joke? Don’t worry, my friend.

 

[kanki1985]

Looks like by the time this launches, Covid will be long gone!!

 

[AngerDanger]

The updates beta be good. Get it? Beta? 😅

Yeah, like the second letter of the Greek alphabet!

 

[Puppuccino]

Apple need to get knocking quick to release this new API, it’s important contact tracing apps launch sooner rather than later so it’s tracks data for longer otherwise it’ll be too late.

 

[tazdevl]

TV app “there’s a problem loading this content“ mp4 video bug fixed in this version? Encode mp4/m4v, load via iTunes, try playing.

 

[TechieGeek]

Huh? You been around here a few years, you know how the beta process goes.....
semi stable when they release a public beta, meant to be tested, battery life never has good as release versions due to debugging.... cmon man
Plus this beta came out 12 minutes ago, how would someone know if its good yet?

Isn’t “poor battery life due to logging” just a myth? The release versions also log and share data back with Apple.

 

[AbhijitD]

What about the "Library view disappearing in offline mode" bug in TV app. Are there any fixes on that? Unless Apple plans to never fix it....

 

[I7guy]

COVID-19 contact-tracing apps are just another example of virtue-signalling nonsense that will do more harm than good.

The UK, for example, reported a tenfold increase in acute respiratory illnesses in the last three months of 2019. Does anyone really think they were all flu when no one was actually tested?

Hospitalisations for flu 10-fold higher than last year, official figures show

The number of people hospitalised with flu this winter is almost ten times as high as this time last year, new figures show.

www.telegraph.co.uk

And Public Health England identified a coronavirus outbreak (note that an outbreak means multiple cases, not one isolated case) in December 2019, long before the cases in China. See the top of page two, "Acute respiratory disease outbreaks", of the PDF below.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/854797/Weekly_national_influenza_report_week_51_2019.pdf

>> PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND, Dec 2019: "155 new acute respiratory outbreaks have been reported in the past 7 days (...) and one for coronavirus." <<

Just to clarify...virtue-signalling (a made up word) has to do with looking good...not doing good.

 

[adrianlondon]

The updates beta be good. Get it? Beta? 😅

Well, you've lost your status as an alpha male.

Just to clarify...virtue-signalling (a made up word) has to do with looking good...not doing good.

All words are made up.

 

[Johnny Jackhammer]

COVID-19 contact-tracing apps are just another example of virtue-signalling nonsense that will do more harm than good.

That feature makes no sense. "Random number" implies that you won't be personally identified—come on people—yet they know you have been infected because you've taken the initiative to download an app where you've entered that fact? Then, presumably, while you are infected you are walking around town infecting others. So, you're concerned enough to go to the trouble of letting Apple/Google/Government know you are infected via apps, but not concerned enough to self-isolate??

 

[ElectricPotato]

I want these notifications tied to the voice of Professor Farnsworth from Futurama: "Good news, everyone!"

 

[Lepton]

Apple Music on iPhone needs two things badly: Full screen album covers. Steve would have had this in 1.0, album art is important. Landscape mode. All recent iPhones play stereo sound - if you hold the phone in landscape! [Sound merges into mono in portrait] So you should hold it in landscape, but the Music app screen stays sideways!

 

[RecentlyConverted]

Will the tracing app only be on the iPhone, or will it be on the watch too?

 

[tkukoc]

Will the tracing app only be on the iPhone, or will it be on the watch too?

You'd think they would put it on any of their devices that are mobile, watch/phone/ipad. But that is a great question.

 

[Professor Rucy]

Sheltering in place is making the little things in life more appreciated....like beta updates.

I’m udating while waiting on lunch here in my favorite restaurant. Reopened Monday.

 

[rbgaynor]

You'd think they would put it on any of their devices that are mobile, watch/phone/ipad. But that is a great question.

The app portion is being developed by government agencies, not by Apple.

 

[Snow Leper]

X Æ A-12

 

[adrianlondon]

That feature makes no sense. "Random number" implies that you won't be personally identified—come on people—yet they know you have been infected because you've taken the initiative to download an app where you've entered that fact? Then, presumably, while you are infected you are walking around town infecting others. So, you're concerned enough to go to the trouble of letting Apple/Google/Government know you are infected via apps, but not concerned enough to self-isolate??

It's back-dated. Someone gets tested. ooops - they're full of virus, go home and isolate. Then, that info is uploaded to a server and sent out to the phones which, if that "random number" matches one in your phone then it tells you that at some point recently you were close to someone who's just tested positive for C19. What you do with that info, well, that's where it gets hazy. If someone told me that I may have walked past someone who had C19 then what? Then nothing, imo.

 

[I7guy]

It's back-dated. Someone gets tested. ooops - they're full of virus, go home and isolate. Then, that info is uploaded to a server and sent out to the phones which, if that "random number" matches one in your phone then it tells you that at some point recently you were close to someone who's just tested positive for C19. What you do with that info, well, that's where it gets hazy. If someone told me that I may have walked past someone who had C19 then what? Then nothing, imo.

Unless you pick up COVID-19 and pass it to someone else. Then it’s not nothing.