iOS 8 beta 2 comes with native Podcasts app, brings QuickType keyboard to iPad, more

Posted:
in iPad edited June 2014
Small changes and enhancements can be found in Apple's newly released second beta of iOS 8, including the addition of the QuickType keyboard for iPad, and a change that makes the Podcasts app a native app that cannot be uninstalled.




Upon installing iOS 8 beta 2, developers will discover that Apple's official Podcasts application is now built in to the operating system. Accordingly, it cannot be uninstalled.

Apple made this same change with the iBooks app in iOS 8 beta 1. Now, both applications --?which were previously available as free downloads on the iOS App Store -- will come as part of the default iOS experience.

The new beta also introduces Apple's new QuickType keyboard on iPad, after being available on iPhone in the first beta. QuickType presents three recommended words above the keyboard as a user types, and the system will intelligently learn a user's preferred words as they use iOS 8 over time.




In another welcome change, Apple has made the Safari browser block ads that automatically redirect users to the App Store without any interaction. For months now, some advertisers have taken advantage of this and immediately taken users from the browser to the App Store without any input.

In another change to Safari, users can quickly add a site to Shared Links, or save a bookmark by tapping and holding on the Bookmarks button in the browser.

And finally in a minor tweak, the camera and voice buttons in the iOS 8 Messages app have been changed from blue to gray.

iOS 8 beta 2 also comes with a number of bug fixes. For example, the new release ensures that the screen brightness slider in Settings now works, and also prevents crashes when adding a third-party keyboard.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    can't wait to see it when it is ready to, looking forward to IOS 8 and Yosemite
  • Reply 2 of 27
    Great. More bloatware on my phone. I wish that Apple'd make apps like Podcasts, Newsstand, Game Center, Compass, Passbook, Notes & Reminder available as seperate apps in the App Store. As it stands now I have a seperate folder called "Useless Aps" where I put these because I rarely, if ever, use them.
  • Reply 3 of 27
    caladaniancaladanian Posts: 380member
    Update from beta 1 to beta 2 not possible over the air on my 5s. :/
  • Reply 4 of 27
    curtis hannahcurtis hannah Posts: 1,833member
    Great. More bloatware on my phone. I wish that Apple'd make apps like Podcasts, Newsstand, Game Center, Compass, Passbook, Notes & Reminder available as seperate apps in the App Store. As it stands now I have a seperate folder called "Useless Aps" where I put these because I rarely, if ever, use them.
    Everyone would prefer various apps on there device to be able to be removed, or at least a switch for icon off(like safari and App Store has). Simply like windows and Samsung they have apps that are useless but always there.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    hammerd2hammerd2 Posts: 50member
    It wouldn't be too much of a problem if the Podcast app wasn't such an unmitigated pile of ....

    Podcasts worked just fine when they were integrated into the Music app, ever since then it's been atrocious.

    Now it's a native app, does this mean that when you press play after it's gone into sleep mode that it'll re-start the podcast where it left off or will it still randomly decide to occasionally play a random music track ?
  • Reply 6 of 27
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Don't mind it being on there by default since I use it (despite its flaws) but ffs I wish they'd allow deletion of some of the default apps.
  • Reply 7 of 27
    Only three apps on your home screen? Very frugal.
  • Reply 8 of 27
    zabazaba Posts: 226member
    I thought podcasts were dead years ago just like rss is.
  • Reply 9 of 27
    zozmanzozman Posts: 393member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by zaba View Post



    I thought podcasts were dead years ago just like rss is.

     

    Haha :) Ummmm no, they are very popular I'm using the podcast app in fact as i type this, listening to Fatman on Batman.

    When i setup a new iOS device i usually download the podcasts app first.

     

  • Reply 10 of 27
    bsenkabsenka Posts: 799member
    hammerd2 wrote: »
    It wouldn't be too much of a problem if the Podcast app wasn't such an unmitigated pile of ....

    Podcasts worked just fine when they were integrated into the Music app, ever since then it's been atrocious.

    Now it's a native app, does this mean that when you press play after it's gone into sleep mode that it'll re-start the podcast where it left off or will it still randomly decide to occasionally play a random music track ?

    Tell me about it. The way iOS 7 handles podcasts is so bad, and completely unlike anything in the Apple experience. Nearly every function in it simply doesn't work. Podcasts will not sync with iTunes, episodes you've listened to continuously reappear as unplayed, it will not remember your place, the show description info doesn't display, chapter breaks don't work. album art doesn't show up, and files that are on your phone will not show up in the app. The interface is also far too bright, so it's totally inappropriate for using in the car mounted in a cradle. It keeps making you use cellular data It's a complete disaster. I do not understand how it is that Apple has not fixed this yet. Even more confounding is why Apple makes you use that terrible app anyway instead of just playing podcasts through the Music app, where everything worked flawlessly. If they'd at least let me go back to using the Music app for podcasts again, I wouldn't even care what they did (or didn't do) with the Podcasts app.
  • Reply 11 of 27
    vonizvoniz Posts: 1member
    iOs 8 is really amazing. Waiting forward to download this update. You can also go through this link
    :
    http://bit.ly/itnirdf8
  • Reply 12 of 27
    zabazaba Posts: 226member
    zozman wrote: »
    Haha :) Ummmm no, they are very popular I'm using the podcast app in fact as i type this, listening to Fatman on Batman.
    When i setup a new iOS device i usually download the podcasts app first.

     
    Really, I work in the graphic design/web industry, I have loads of colleagues scattered all over the UK, we were talking about podcasts only recently, and RSS, the general consensus was that it's kinda had its day, just like desktop widgets, everyone I know has terminated them using terminal. But that's me generalising again. Be interesting to see some stats on this.
  • Reply 13 of 27
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by zaba View Post





    Really, I work in the graphic design/web industry, I have loads of colleagues scattered all over the UK, we were talking about podcasts only recently, and RSS, the general consensus was that it's kinda had its day, just like desktop widgets, everyone I know has terminated them using terminal. But that's me generalising again. Be interesting to see some stats on this.

    http://blog.tunheim.com/2014/03/26/rising-popularity-podcasts-listeners-rediscovering-podcasts/1438#.U6Fez_ldWno

     

    Seems pretty healthy

  • Reply 14 of 27
    zabazaba Posts: 226member
    crowley wrote: »
    Interesting reading, thanks Crowley for that link.
  • Reply 15 of 27
    zozmanzozman Posts: 393member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by zaba View Post





    Really, I work in the graphic design/web industry, I have loads of colleagues scattered all over the UK, we were talking about podcasts only recently, and RSS, the general consensus was that it's kinda had its day, just like desktop widgets, everyone I know has terminated them using terminal. But that's me generalising again. Be interesting to see some stats on this.



    Some podcasts are big in the fitness community & comic nerds I'm both haha. 

  • Reply 16 of 27
    jodijodi Posts: 4member

    Podcasts are one of the main things that I use my iPhone for. I especially listen to or watch iOS related podcasts. When Apple had podcasts integrated into the Music app, I used iTunes on my Mac to perform the downloading and I sync'd my iPhone to get the podcasts. I was happy with that setup. Then Apple changed it to the Podcasts app and I looked for another solution. I tried many (around 10) and found iCatcher to be the best by far. I still try out the Podcasts app each time it is updated, but features that it lacks for me (over iCatcher) are:

    Does not let me specify which wifi networks to download on (for example, in iCatcher I specify my home wifi so it will download podcasts only at home but not at work where I should not download too much).

    The Stations do not allow episodes to be excluded from the Station if they have not been downloaded. This impacts me since I can be on work wifi and listening to podcasts and do not realise that it is streaming a podcast. I only want it to play the already downloaded ones, the others should be excluded from the playlist.

    I'd like to see default settings for all podcasts. I shouldn't have to go into every single one and select the Play and Sort Order, refresh limit, etc. I like that these features can be individually set, but the defaults that Apple provides are not the default settings that I'd like.

    I'd like the option of putting Downloads as an icon down the bottom with a badge of number of items in the download queue.

    In iCatcher, I can import or export the podcast episodes (via Apps tab in iTunes) which means that I can use work or home computer with it, but the Podcast app must be sync'd to one computer.

     

    There might be a few more things, but those are the main features that are still missing for me, I has been improving though.

  • Reply 17 of 27
    applezillaapplezilla Posts: 941member

    Great! I use the native Podcasts app every day. Installing...

  • Reply 18 of 27
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    zaba wrote: »
    I thought podcasts were dead years ago just like rss is.

    No way. There are thousands of interesting podcasts that I'll never be able to get around to listening to, but I do have about 20 I am subscribed to at the moment. Podcasts are audio and video. Check out the MacBreak Weekly "vodcast" sometime.
  • Reply 19 of 27
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    zozman wrote: »

    Some podcasts are big in the fitness community & comic nerds I'm both haha. 

    I've subscriptions for several of the Nerdist podcasts. Chris Hardwicke has been getting great guests recently. Big names.
  • Reply 20 of 27
    bsenka wrote: »
    hammerd2 wrote: »
    It wouldn't be too much of a problem if the Podcast app wasn't such an unmitigated pile of ....

    Podcasts worked just fine when they were integrated into the Music app, ever since then it's been atrocious.

    Now it's a native app, does this mean that when you press play after it's gone into sleep mode that it'll re-start the podcast where it left off or will it still randomly decide to occasionally play a random music track ?

    Tell me about it. The way iOS 7 handles podcasts is so bad, and completely unlike anything in the Apple experience. Nearly every function in it simply doesn't work. Podcasts will not sync with iTunes, episodes you've listened to continuously reappear as unplayed, it will not remember your place, the show description info doesn't display, chapter breaks don't work. album art doesn't show up, and files that are on your phone will not show up in the app. The interface is also far too bright, so it's totally inappropriate for using in the car mounted in a cradle. It keeps making you use cellular data It's a complete disaster. I do not understand how it is that Apple has not fixed this yet. Even more confounding is why Apple makes you use that terrible app anyway instead of just playing podcasts through the Music app, where everything worked flawlessly. If they'd at least let me go back to using the Music app for podcasts again, I wouldn't even care what they did (or didn't do) with the Podcasts app.

    I don't have any of the problems you have. Guess you use a jaibroken device.
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