iOS is Apple’s operating system for the iPhone and iPad. It’s also the basis for tvOS for the Apple TV and watchOS for the Apple Watch. It’s even beginning to infiltrate the Mac in some ways. Apple has worked hard to keep iOS private and secure, and it has a huge ecosystem of apps via its official App Store. Some have argued that it is too locked down, but the trade-off is that it’s fast and stable for most users.
You get a window. And you get a window. And you get a window.
The company has some criticisms of the Competition and Markets Authority’s roadmaps of “potential actions to improve competition” for Apple and Google, and Epic now says it “can’t bring the Epic Games Store to iOS in the UK this year (if ever).”
Epic originally aimed to bring the store and Fortnite to iOS in the UK in the second half of 2025.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has proposed giving them “strategic market status” for iOS and Android, since over 90 percent of UK mobile devices run either OS.
It took the CMA since January to figure out what the EU did two years ago, and somehow it’s not done yet — it’ll take until October to confirm the proposal, around the same time it will “begin consulting” on its roadmaps to rein the two in.
The third iOS 26 developer beta includes a new Sleep Detection feature for AirPods that allows them to “sense when you fall asleep and automatically pause media.” 9to5Mac first rumored this feature last month, which some users saw in the second iOS 26 developer beta as well.
Backyard Baseball 2001 is getting remastered for Steam, iOS, and Android as Backyard Baseball ‘01, releasing July 8th.
The quarter-century-old sports game was the first of the series to include real MLB players, and 28 of the original 31 pros return in the remaster: including Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran, Derek Jeter, Mark McGwire, and Jose Canseco. So you can reunite the The Bash Brothers to take on some kids.
The hit roguelike Enter the Gungeon is coming to iOS and Android “soon,” Devolver Digital announced today. Exit the Gungeon, which was delisted from Apple Arcade last year, will also be back on iOS and is coming to Google Play. Playing the games on mobile will be a good warmup to next year’s Enter the Gungeon 2.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook app has joined Kindle and Spotify in making it easier to buy e-books and audiobooks on the iPhone. A recent update has added a new “buy on BN.com” option to the iOS app, as spotted earlier by Good e-Reader.
The change comes after a judge ordered Apple to lift restrictions on web links and outside payment options, a decision that a higher court upheld earlier this month.
[goodereader.com]
Vivo claims its X Fold 5 has achieved an Android first: interoperability with the Apple Watch. According to product manager Han Boxiao the watch can display calls and texts from the X Fold 5, and sync health data. The phone can also receive calls and texts sent to an iPhone, access iCloud, and extend the display of a Mac.
How? We have no idea, but hopefully we’ll find out when the phone launches this month.
Big changes are in store across Apple’s platforms, from a design refresh to major multitasking improvements for the iPad.
Mark Gurman’s Bloomberg newsletter brings one more pre-WWDC 25 rumor, saying the most exciting part of the conference will be the rumored design overhaul for iPhone, Mac, and other platforms that he says is called Liquid Glass (remember Microsoft’s Aero Glass, and Apple’s iOS 7 shift away from skeuomorphism?).
Adding “transparency and shine effects in all of Apple’s tool bars, in-app interfaces and controls,” he says it sets the stage for next year’s “Glasswing” iPhone design with curved glass sides, slim bezels, and no cutout section in the display.
The keynote for Apple’s next developer conference is only a week away, and the homepage for the event has just been updated with a short tagline, “sleek peek,” while exec Greg Joswiak tweeted out this new animation. We’re guessing this refers to the visionOS-like design refresh supposedly coming for Apple’s operating systems, and not to the “gap year” for AI features rumored over the weekend.
Whatever it is, we’ll be at Apple Park on June 9th to report the details.
