
iOS 12 released - sahin-boydas
https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-12/
======
kbos87
“Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right, which is why iOS has
always been designed with built-in encryption, on-device intelligence, and
other tools that let you share what you want on your terms.”

It isn’t often that you see any company the size of Apple take that strong of
a stance. Privacy is their best feature and it seems like they are doubling
down.

~~~
another-cuppa
It is a really interesting marketing move (and don't delude yourself, this is
a marketing move). To market a feature that Google can't possibly compete
with.

~~~
addicted
If this is a marketing move, then any feature could be described as a
marketing move.

For example, how is Apple's emphasis on privacy, with the additional features
they have added to push for it, different from their emphasis on backing up
when they introduced Time Machine? I think that the Time Machine introduction
was as much of a marketing move, at which point you've broadened the
definition of the phrase where it doesn't really mean anything.

~~~
huebnerob
Yes, every feature is a marketing consideration. Marketing involves everything
about how your potential and existing customers view your products, and
privacy is a _huge_ subject of interest.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with privacy being both a marketing
move and aligned with our interests as users. In fact, I'm _more_ comforted by
the idea that morals and profits are aligned here, because no company is above
choosing the latter when push comes to shove.

~~~
nicky0
Indeed. Making a good product is a marketing move.

------
anselmio
The new Shortcuts app by Apple (must be downloaded separately:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/workflow/id915249334?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/workflow/id915249334?mt=8))
is definitely interesting. An example from the description: "Run custom
scripts in Safari with the new Run JavaScript on Web Page action".

Edit: Just discovered that there's also "Run Script Over SSH" that takes input
passed to a shell script (stdin) and returns the output from the shell script
(stdout).

~~~
SentientNo4
The "new" app is actually not so new, and it was previously called Workflow
([https://www.workflow.is/](https://www.workflow.is/)). Looks like they bought
it and rebranded it as Shortcuts.

~~~
speg
I never used it before, or maybe once on my iPad. But did it have as tight an
integration before? I assume Apple added some iOS level things that really put
it over the top. The Siri shortcut for sure. Either way I’ve already spent a
couple hours with it today just hacking random scripts together. It’s great!

------
xal
After installing it, head to [https://purecycles.com/products/urban-commuter-
bike](https://purecycles.com/products/urban-commuter-bike) to see the best
feature. Placing 3D models in your house via ARKit right from Safari.

Writeup on this Shopify rollout: [https://www.shopify.ca/blog/shopify-
ar](https://www.shopify.ca/blog/shopify-ar)

~~~
gpickett00
That's really cool. I'm looking forward to more sites implementing this.
Imagine if every Amazon product had this.

~~~
LyndsySimon
... or every IKEA product!

~~~
thestephen
Although not _every_ product, such a thing exists!
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ikea-
place/id1279244498?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ikea-
place/id1279244498?mt=8)

------
babl-yc
This the most stable iOS beta I've ever used.

It's exciting to see Apple focus on quality, even if the marketing page
doesn't end up as flashy.

~~~
speg
Already noticing small but appreciated performance improvements. Share sheet
and app switching both came up noticeably quicker.

Am loving shortcuts, looks like they didn't dumb it down. There's even an SSH
action.

~~~
X-Istence
Which app is providing the SSH action?

~~~
tmottabr
It is the app formally named "workflow" that apple acquired some time ago. It
got renamed to "shortcut" for iOS 12 and has this ssh action in it.

If you already had the old "workflow" app it will be updated to the new
"shortcut" app, if you do not have it you need to install it from the App
Store.

~~~
X-Istence
I am familiar with shortcuts, but I didn't think that there was an actual SSH
action that was shipped with it, I thought there was an SSH action that an
application may be providing.

I'll have to check it out.

------
jedberg
I've been using the beta for a few months now. Overall I'm pretty impressed.
It really does make my phone work better than before.

But I'm most excited about Waze support on CarPlay, which does not appear to
have dropped today.

~~~
whafro
As of a few days ago, the rumors were that Waze support was still in early
beta and a ways (sorry) off, but that Google Maps would likely land in
October.

~~~
jedberg
This makes me sad. It was the main reason I started running the beta --
because I foolishly thought they already had the beta of CarPlay support,
since it was _shown in the keynote_. I only found out later that the keynote
was just vaporware.

~~~
saagarjha
Apps need to wait until the general release before they can push updates
through the App Store.

~~~
jedberg
Yeah I assumed I'd need to use Testflight, but it's not even there yet.

~~~
ihuman
You need to be invited to a beta for it to show up in Testflight. Testflight
doesn't support open public betas.

------
ihuman
MacStories has published their yearly review of the new iOS. The 42250-word
long breakdown of iOS 12 goes into detail on every new feature.

[https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-12-the-macstories-
rev...](https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-12-the-macstories-review/)

~~~
kristofferR
Everyone here who is a developer or interested in automation should read page
7-9.

[https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-12-the-macstories-
rev...](https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-12-the-macstories-
review/7/#content)

------
36bydesign
For iCloud Drive, we should be able to manage which files are saved locally
and which aren’t. As is, documents can be manually downloaded but there’s no
way to reverse it and have the given documents stored back only in the cloud
(freeing up local storage). Then magically a week or more later stuff is
uploaded and no longer stored locally. It feels fickle and frustrating.

~~~
nkkollaw
It's been a lond time, but I read that you can add specific suffixes to folder
names to control syncing.

I think it was ".nosync" and ".tmp"

~~~
h1d
Not sure what kind of dumb method this is. You can't possibly change a
project's folder name just because of your need.

At least if it was by creating an empty file with that name.

Also iCloud Drive's synching has been an utter mess and I gave up after
nothing syncs at random times.

~~~
nkkollaw
> Not sure what kind of dumb method this is

That's not very nice. I'm just trying to help and that seems to be the only
thing that seems to be working.

I don't work at Apple, so...

------
nrjames
My guess is that the privacy/tracking on Safari is going to be turned on for
all apps. iOS will soon keep track, at the OS level, of whether apps are
allowed to access your Advertising ID. If you say no, then ad-based apps
simply will not be able to access your advertising ID and/or SKAdNetwork will
be used at the system level to anonymize you as a user. Not sure what they
will do with other tracking (like analytics).
[https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwo...](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork)

------
Confiks
Does anyone know if and what concrete changes have been made to Core NFC,
beyond the speculation beforehand [1]? I understand there has been a beta of
iOS 12 for a while now. The documentation still shows information for iOS 11
[2]

[1] [https://9to5mac.com/2018/05/25/apple-will-reportedly-open-
up...](https://9to5mac.com/2018/05/25/apple-will-reportedly-open-up-nfc-in-
ios-12/)

[2]
[https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corenfc](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corenfc)

~~~
therockhead
The WWDC app has a new short video called “What’s new in Core NFC” which
mentiones the new features in the Iphones such as reading NFC in the
background.

~~~
ecesena
Any news on writes? I assume no... :/

~~~
mofe
unfortunately not, waiting hard :/

------
retromario
"On devices without 3D Touch, touch and hold the keyboard Space bar to turn
your keyboard into a trackpad"

This is subtle but huge. One of the main reasons to get a phone with 3D touch
is/was the ability to easily move your cursor when typing. This makes the XR
model (which lacks 3D touch) a lot more enticing.

~~~
anreekoh
Finally. Man I’ve had this feature on my jailbroken devices for over 4 years.
And every update I would hope they would add this. Clicking around with the
cursor was always so stupid because almost all quick cursor changes would be
~10 characters back, aka not a huge amount of movement.

Some keyboards have this feature like Nintype (which is over engineered imo),
but I’ve always wanted this natively. Glad to see it coming.

------
joezydeco
I'm really psyched to have the new Screen Time feature working across my
family. It's got some quirks which I suppose will be smoothed out in time, but
it's still lightyears better than previous third-party programs.

The only thing I wish Apple had done was create a separate app to control the
restrictions, or at least provide an API so someone else could do it. Digging
all the way into Settings to change time and lockout settings is already a
pain.

~~~
m3kw9
Just add the screen time widget and access from there, like it’s own app.

~~~
joezydeco
That's a good start, thanks.

------
gnicholas
From the update description: _Portrait mode improvements preserve fine detail
between subject and background when using Stage Light and Stage Light Mono
effects_

I thought that iOS 12 would improve this for Portrait mode generally. I have
an iPhone 7 Plus and sure hope that these benefits are available on my iPhone
(which doesn't have these specific effects — just vanilla Portrait mode).

Has anyone see improvements in Portrait mode in the beta?

~~~
oflannabhra
Here is a decent breakdown (unfortunately as a Twitter thread):

[https://twitter.com/tobiasdm/status/1007229233104588801](https://twitter.com/tobiasdm/status/1007229233104588801)

also (from the Halide.app dev):

[https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1027072222425317376](https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1027072222425317376)

~~~
gnicholas
Thanks for these! I'd seen the latter, and assumed that if the edge detection
algo was refined, then it would be available everywhere that it's used. From
the other commenter, it seems like maybe not. I wish I'd taken some "before"
photos so that I could compare after updating.

------
ivraatiems
I'm still on iOS 10 on my iPhone SE. Why should I upgrade?

Even if there was a convincing reason to, I'm afraid performance will tank, as
it often does on older iPhones getting their last update.

~~~
augustocallejas
I was also on iOS 10 on my iPhone SE until a couple weeks ago. The blocker for
me was that I wasn't able to open my credit card app anymore to see my
balance, because they stopped supporting iOS 10 (there were other app updates
that were pending my iOS upgrade). I upgraded to 11.4.1. I'm hoping to stay on
that until iOS 13 is announced. I prefer stability, so I prefer staying on the
latest minor version of each iOS release.

~~~
kstrauser
In my personal experience, and from reading what pretty much all other beta
testers have said, iOS 12 is faster and more stable than any iOS 11 release.

------
ex3ndr
Does anyone know if Mojave is going to be as awesome as this iOS update?

~~~
kristofferR
It's definitely faster/smoother, and the dark mode is awesome. Other than that
the differences aren't that big.

------
multibit
> Safari also prevents advertisers from collecting your device’s unique
> characteristics, so they can’t identify your device or retarget ads to you
> across the web.

Probably easier to do anti-fingerprinting on such a homogenous group of
devices.

------
makmanalp
Oh finally, I'm so happy about the notifications / do not disturb
functionality - super annoying to have chat and email notifications popping up
all the time and having to fully disable / reenable them.

------
hardmath123
> Contactless student ID cards. With contactless student ID cards in Wallet,
> you can use your iPhone all over campus to access places like your dorm, the
> library, and events; or pay for laundry, snacks, and dinners.

This sounds amazing.

------
scotchio
I blindly accept these new Terms and Conditions.

~~~
throwaway5250
I, for one, welcome these new Terms and Conditions.

------
ex3ndr
This is just awesome, installed iOS 12 on iPod Touch 6 and my react-native app
has stable 58-60fps during scrolling of the large list of messages!

Impressive!

------
wiredfool
I hope they've fixed the bug in Mail.app where it fixates on a particular
message from a month ago, which then requires you to scroll like a hamster to
get to the latest messages. And then then next time as well.

This has been around for a while, so I'm not really holding my breath.

~~~
wlesieutre
I'm personally hoping for correct message ordering in iMessage. It frequently
puts replies to questions before the question had been asked, so reading back
through conversations makes very little sense.

That's been around for years as well, so again no holding my breath.

At least it's faster!

~~~
Jtsummers
Which iOS version do you have? I recall that same issue, but it was fixed in
one of the .x updates, but I don't recall which major version number.

~~~
wlesieutre
Still happens on 11.4.1, I've got an obvious one last Saturday where I sent a
photo and my friend's response to it is placed above as if it were sent before
they even saw the photo.

We're both in the same time zone with correctly set clocks.

I appreciate Apple's stance on privacy, but I'm still talking to a lot of
people on Messenger because the messages go in the right order there.

~~~
Jtsummers
Huh, weird. That disappeared from my devices and my friends' and families'
devices, so I thought it had been resolved. TIL.

------
sergiotapia
>FaceTime with up to 32 people at once.

"Why would I _ever_ want to do that?"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzqXzYGN-
gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzqXzYGN-gs)

~~~
abledon
atleast time stamp it . god.

------
jasonrhaas
Its nice to see an update that is focused on better performance, better
privacy, and better control over those annoying notifications.

------
garfieldnate
I'm glad to see that Apple Books got some love. I was so sad when I updated to
a newer iOS and Apple Books no longer had a way to find uncategorized books.
All my books just would just get crammed together into one huge bookshelf and
I'd have no way knowing which were already placed on a proper bookshelf.

------
rdl
Less buggy than iOS 10 or iOS 11 releases on launch day, at least for me on a
range of different devices.

------
gdubs
I’ve been on the beta all summer and the “screen time” feature has been a nice
weekly update. Def have made an effort to cut down the time due to seeing the
stats every Sunday. (Though, happily they weren’t as bad as I’d imagined they
might be.)

------
Tomte
A friend of mine is still running her iPhone 6 on the original iOS version, so
probably iOS 8.

It would slow down with iOS 12, right? Those speed gains are compared to non-
ancient versions?

~~~
pfranz
I have a 6s. iOS 11 was pretty annoying and my battery drained noticeably
quicker--I was bummed with the upgrade but I think I wanted it for AirPods
support. Also I remember the "instant camera" was a feature demoed when the
phone was first released and iOS 11 took 5-10 seconds to bring up the camera.

I've been using the 12 beta for months and it immediately fixed those things.
I'm not sure if the camera is as snappy as the original iOS, but it's less
than a second. I'm not sure how this all compares to the original iOS it
shipped with, though.

~~~
h1srf
I have a 6s that's still on 10. Reading this and other comments make me think
that maybe 12 won't be too bad. There's a few apps out there that I use that
don't work with 10 anymore and so this may be the time for me to upgrade.

~~~
Apocryphon
I'm pretty curious about how 12 compares to 10 as well. Seems like 11 was
definitely worse on performance, but might be too early to compare 12 to
earlier versions.

------
spleen
The update seems to have messed up the color profile on iPhone X. Colors are
brighter, more saturated, more washed out and generally crappier.

~~~
invalidusernam3
Isn't "brighter, more saturated" basically the opposite of "more washed out"?

~~~
thestephen
I would guess that OP means that it is overly satured, and therefore that some
color information is lost.

I noticed this sometimes happening for a few seconds when switching out from
some apps that play video while having high brightness. I haven't had it occur
permanently, though.

------
chrisper
How is using a custom keyboard on iOS? I remember it being really bad... like
it always resetting to the stock keyboard etc.

~~~
ender341341
The only problem I have with it is you can't use them for password fields. It
would be nice if my password manager could provide a keyboard.

~~~
wlesieutre
You'll be pleased to see this: [https://www.macrumors.com/guide/password-
autofill-ios-12-wit...](https://www.macrumors.com/guide/password-autofill-
ios-12-with-1password/)

~~~
aeontech
Oh, that is so cool!

------
epynonymous
anyone know what library the stock app uses for its charts? the redesigned
stock app is pretty cool, i was searching for it and seems it’s called a spark
line, but i couldnt find anything in the developer docs or cocoapods

------
usaphp
I like that you can now swipe up the app to quit it instead of long press.

------
blattimwind
Can you now finally toggle location data in the control center?

~~~
blattimwind
Nope.

------
jiveturkey
anyone know if css backdrop-filter memory exhaustion bug is fixed? if not,
i'll wait for the point release.

~~~
procinct
Is there any particular reason why you want to wait until this bug is fixed?
It seems unlikely you would ever run into it in real life outside of the demo.

~~~
jiveturkey
just because of churn. there’s sure to be an update very soon. not because i
expect to actually run across the attack.

------
dang
Please don't editorialize in titles here. That's in the site guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

(Submitted title was "iOS 12 released. - What do you think? - What is
missing?")

------
beerlord
Its impressive that Apple is still supporting the iPhone 5S - a device
released in 2013.

By contrast Google's Nexus 5 flagship Android phone, also released in 2013,
received its last major updated in 2015.

5 years of software updates (and probably more to come) vs 2 years - that's
why I switched from Android to iPhone.

~~~
baddox
That's why I always chuckle when people accuse Apple of planned obsolescence.
I'm sure Apple would prefer that you update your iPhone every year, but
relative to all other Android flagships I'm aware of, 5 years of OS updates is
_massive_.

~~~
LMYahooTFY
I'm not sure how what you say negates the possibility that planned
obsolescence is part of Apple's business?

------
Invictus0
Still satisfied with iOS 10. The only thing that interests me in the updates
anymore is the security and the tables in Notes (iOS 10 doesn't have that).

------
noncoml
I was hoping to see some Siri improvements but unfortunately nothing major
there.

It does seem like they fixed the issue where Siri would give you snarky
replies when it misunderstand you, but that’s about it.

~~~
wlesieutre
Apps can let you assign custom commands in Siri now. Some examples here:

[https://www.cultofmac.com/576807/these-apps-just-got-an-
ios-...](https://www.cultofmac.com/576807/these-apps-just-got-an-ios-12-and-
siri-shortcuts-overhaul/)

Requiring you to record your own phrases has a big tradeoff in that all your
apps don't get automatic Siri support across all of their features, but it
avoids the homophone hijacking and discoverability problems that other voice
assistants have run into.

[https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2018/08/resea...](https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2018/08/researchers-show-alexa-skill-squatting-could-hijack-voice-
commands/)

------
kylemuir
This was a bit jarring to me: Apple takes a big stance on privacy as a
fundamental human right but feel free to spy on what your kids are up to?

~~~
epicide
It can be taken too far, but generally, if you paid for their device and
you're legally responsible for their well-being and things they do on the
internet, then I don't see the issue.

Combine this with the fact that the kid doesn't have to use the device for
anything/everything.

It's like wanting to know where the kid is driving if you paid for the car,
the insurance, and you're legally and financially responsible if they hit
someone/something.

Again, I do believe this can be taken too far (and I don't know exactly where
the line is). Paying for a phone doesn't give you right to spy on absolutely
everything. I haven't seen anything that is beyond just app usage time,
though.

------
decebalus1
> “Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right, which is why iOS has
> always been designed with built-in encryption, on-device intelligence, and
> other tools that let you share what you want on your terms.”

Does that also apply to PRISM? I mean can I share with the NSA only what I
want on my own terms?

------
wincy
So from my testing with the beta, then having to roll back and losing 100GB of
music, be aware that if you have an original Apple Watch, it’s not compatible
with iOS12.

~~~
DenisM
The just-release Watch OS 5 is compatible with Watch 1:
[https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-5/](https://www.apple.com/watchos/watchos-5/)
so w 1 should be compatible with iOS 12

~~~
wlesieutre
"Series 1" is not the original Apple Watch model. Confusingly, that's
officially named "Apple Watch First Generation" and colloquially called
"Series 0".

When they released the Series 2 with better processor, GPS, brighter screen
and better waterproofing, they simultaneously killed the "Series 0" and
launched the Series 1 as the low price model. It got the new processor but not
the other improvements.

That leaves the Series 0 as the only one with the original crappy processor,
and support for that has been dropped in watchOS 5.

~~~
DenisM
Indeed. I had no idea. Thank you.

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204507#link5](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT204507#link5)

------
vermooten
It's got zero (0) new features that interest me.

~~~
jwr
Performance doesn’t interest you? I wish we stopped requiring "features" from
every software release. I'd rather have less "features", but get software that
works better.

------
sizzle
Will iPhone ever get bootcamp functionality to run Android, similar to how
macOS can run windows?

From a legal perspective, could they allow the ability to boot Android without
fear of lawsuit, given they allow you to boot Windows via bootcamp?

Putting technical feasibility aside, I would be iPhone for life if that was
even possible.

------
TwoQ
The only reason I have yet to move fully to Android is because right now,
Android without Google is such a neutered experience that I don't see any
reason to try.

I only have an iPhone because of Apple's privacy stance. I hate every other
element of the company.

------
zoltaan
Damn! There comes the bullying of upgrading. :( I am sure they want the best
for us when they shove it down our throat.

~~~
jen729w
“Shoving it down your throat” would mean that you had no choice but to install
it. You do have a choice. Just ignore the red dot. It’s not _that_ hard.

Although why you’d want to is beyond me. We’ve been saying this here since iOS
was a thing. People didn’t want to go from 6 to 7, or 7 to 8, and now 11 to
12. And yet, here we all are.

~~~
zoltaan
In case you really do not understand please google 'disable ios update
notifications' (note the hit count), or alike. (you must have limited
experience in iOS despite of your long time exposure)

~~~
sctb
Please don't be personally thorny towards other users.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
zoltaan
Do you want to suppress my perception? The tone of the answer was in tune of
the reply, if one was thorny, the other too. You may choose to see that the
other user was intentionally ignoring common knowledge to pick condescending
tone, but you chose not to. You should not be arbitrarily partial. Thanks!

------
nkkollaw
I don't know, I've watched the keynote, and it just looked to me like Allison
was right in saying that the company without Steve Jobs would go down.

Pretty considerably and pretty quickly, too, IMO.

~~~
saagarjha
Which keynote are you talking about? I thought the release of iOS 12 at WWDC
was relatively well received.

~~~
nkkollaw
The one about the new iPhones, not WWDC.

