What's New in iOS 10.2 Beta 2: SOS Feature, Music Changes and New 'TV' App

[MacRumors]

Apple seeded the second beta of iOS 10.2 to developers this morning, introducing a few new features that join changes introduced in the first beta of iOS 10.2.

As can be seen in the video and outline below, iOS 10.2 includes the TV app Apple promised at its October 27 event, some Apple Music design tweaks, and support for a new SOS feature.

TV app - The TV app is designed to serve as an Apple-designed TV guide to help users discover new content and decide what to watch. It's going to be available for iOS devices and the Apple TV, and it features support for Single Sign-On and Siri Live Tune-In, along with a store for purchasing iTunes content and TV subscriptions and recommendations for new shows and movies to watch.

SOS - There's a new SOS feature that will call emergency services when the power button on the iPhone is pressed five times. According to Apple's release notes, SOS works in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, UK, and US. Settings for SOS are available in the Settings app under the General section.

Music - There are more prominent Shuffle and Repeat buttons available in the Music app when playing a song.

The first beta of iOS 10.2 introduced a selection of new emoji and emoji redesigns, plus it included new wallpapers, a new "Celebrate" Screen Effect, a new option to save camera settings, a Videos widget, and support for Single Sign-On, a feature designed to let those with a cable subscription sign in once to access available content across multiple apps.

The second beta of iOS 10.2 is only available for developers, but Apple will likely make the beta available for public beta testers later this week. Apple has promised a December launch for several of the features in iOS 10.2 (including Single Sign-On and the TV app) so a public launch could come in the early days of the month.

Article Link: What's New in iOS 10.2 Beta 2: SOS Feature, Music Changes and New 'TV' App

 

[Born Again]

I've fallen and i can't get up!

remember those commercials? Well have your cellphone on you - press home 5 times. Thanks Obama

 

[tazinlwfl]

So, it looks like on my iPhone 6s+, "TV" took the place of "Videos" in my Entertainment Folder, but now "Videos" shows up as a new app on my last home screen page. Weird

ETA - the app itself doesn't really work without being signed in, and PlayStation Vue isn't a provider yet. I get this error when trying to share watch data with Apple

 

[Sirious]

Emergency SOS addition is very welcome. Hope I never have to use it though

 

[5105973]

I've fallen and i can't get up!

remember those commercials? Well have your cellphone on you - press home 5 times. Thanks Obama

Lol, yeah I remember those commercials. I am glad this is going to be a feature because my mother-in-law had a medical emergency a few years ago and could have used this. Somehow she made it to her landline to call the emergency services. She has one of my older iPhones now and we also have an IPhone 6 to give her if she needs it to run iOS 10.2.

This feature was actually on the Note7 with the extra feature of making the video camera turn on as well, if I recall correctly. It's wonderful to have and I hope it is something that will eventually be a feature on all phones.

I am completely leaving iOS phones for awhile, but I am sure I'll be back and I'm really looking forward to the health and fitness features Apple seems committed to bringing out for us.

 

[Shirasaki]

Just don't tell me they remove star ratings at this beta!
And it looks like his problem can now be solved perfectly in iOS 10.2. I mean, "repeat and shuffle button".

 

[FasterQuieter]

It is annoying when they devote resources to something I won't be able to use. No Netflix (yet?), Amazon (not their fault), Plex (obviously). I am guessing it will be one of those things I open once, see how it works, then that's that forever. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Frankied22]

They had to add an instructional pop up just to tell people how to use the music player. That should tell you something.

 

[ip67]

Does this beta solve the cellular signal issues yet? Really annoying.

 

[Donoban]

They had to add an instructional pop up just to tell people how to use the music player. That should tell you something.

This seems to be fairly common. New features are added, you get a one time quick pop up advising of the feature then it goes away.

 

[calzon65]

Here's an idea ... maybe they should fix the bugs.

 

[Defender2010]

Star

Just don't tell me they remove star ratings at this beta!
And it looks like his problem can now be solved perfectly in iOS 10.2. I mean, "repeat and shuffle button".

star ratings are still there

 

[Shirasaki]

Star

star ratings are still there

Nice. Will follow up soon.
Thanks.

 

[Juicy Box]

SOS - There's a new SOS feature that will call emergency services when the power button on the iPhone is pressed five times. A

Yikes, it sounds nice, but I can see this happening by accident.

Especially since Apple moved the power button from the top, to the side.

I hate the side power button, I hit it all the time by accident.

 

[tkukoc]

I really do not understand these huge buttons in the music player. You would think the smaller editions of these buttons would be pretty obvious at this point as to what they do. I mean come on.. if people can use emoji's.. do we need massive buttons that say SHUFFLE and REPEAT? Guess it's just me??

 

[ignatius345]

They had to add an instructional pop up just to tell people how to use the music player. That should tell you something.

The iOS 10 music app is so screwed. I jumped over to Cesium and haven't looked back. It works quite nicely and pulls from the same music library as the native app -- you can even switch between the two while playing the same song.

 

[TurboPGT!]

It is annoying when they devote resources to something I won't be able to use. No Netflix (yet?), Amazon (not their fault), Plex (obviously). I am guessing it will be one of those things I open once, see how it works, then that's that forever. I hope I'm wrong.

Um, at least they're trying. If you want to complain, call up the content providers and licensees who are 1000% responsible for every lack and delay in the entire experience.
[doublepost=1478558465][/doublepost]

The iOS 10 music app is so screwed.

Nope.
But thanks for your typical macrumors contribution though.

 

[RudySnow]

I found it comical that the TV app was automatically installed in my junk Apple apps folder!

Not a knock to the app since I haven't used it, but why not put it in my Media folder? Odd.

 

[skillwill]

The Music app still looks rediculous. Just get rid of the silly card stack thing at the top and have the buttons right there

 

[Walbag]

No TV app here in Australia on iPhone 6s ?

 

[Juicy Box]

The Music app still looks rediculous. Just get rid of the silly card stack thing at the top and have the buttons right there

I haven't used the music app in iOS 10. Is it worse than iOS 9's music app?

 

[Shirasaki]

I haven't used the music app in iOS 10. Is it worse than iOS 9's music app?

It is totally subjective. But there is a post in forum with name "the new music app", check it out.

 

[marioman38]

I'm a huge fan of iOS 10 music app. I like the huge next and back button so i can change songs without fumbling around when driving. The prime music app is a nightmare to navigate in comparison.

 

[stiligFox]

Like the improvements to the Music app - It's already really nice as it is IMO (Except the album art is way too big compared to text size)

SOS sounds a like a very good feature as well to have built in. All around sounds like it's going to be a great update!
[doublepost=1478559737][/doublepost]

I found it comical that the TV app was automatically installed in my junk Apple apps folder!

Not a knock to the app since I haven't used it, but why not put it in my Media folder? Odd.

I bet you renamed Apple's stock folder from "Extras" to "Junk" - and I'm guessing the OS still considers that the stock Apple folder. Perhaps?

 

[KALLT]

I really do not understand these huge buttons in the music player. You would think the smaller editions of these buttons would be pretty obvious at this point as to what they do. I mean come on.. if people can use emoji's.. do we need massive buttons that say SHUFFLE and REPEAT? Guess it's just me??

No, it is not just you. There is absolutely no reason for it. It completely conflicts with the principle that the user chooses the font size, font boldness and the display zoom factor. It is not just in the Apple Music app, it is in Maps and Home too and evidently also in the upcoming TV app. This appears to be all about style, to reflect the clumsiness that is watchOS.

Apple has not articulated why they changed the design language like this. There is nothing about this in Apple’s interface guidelines either and almost no guidance is given to developers to adopt this design or why they should want to. To do this, you’d have to modify many standard UI components or create custom components, something which they actually discourage you to do. It is like ‘brushed metal’ all over again.