When was ios released

In this version of the iOS, Ive ushered in a major overhaul of the user interface, designed to make it more modern.

While the design was indeed more modern, its small, thin fonts were hard to read for some users and frequent animations caused motion sickness for others. The design of the current iOS is derived from the changes made in iOS 7.

After Apple made improvements, and users became accustomed to the changes, complaints subsided. Support ended: Final version: 6. It was released on Feb. Controversy was one of the dominant themes of iOS 6. While this version introduced the world to Siri — which, despite being later surpassed by competitors, was a truly revolutionary technology — problems with it also led to major changes. The driver of these problems was Apple's increasing competition with Google, whose Android smartphone platform was posing a threat to the iPhone.

Google had supplied the Maps and YouTube apps pre-installed with the iPhone since 1. In iOS 6, that changed. Apple introduced its own Maps app, which was badly received due to bugs, bad directions, and problems with certain features. When he refused, Cook fired him. Forstall had been involved with the iPhone since before the first model, so this was a profound change.

Support ended: Final version: 5. It was released on May 7, Initial version: It was released on Oct. Apple responded to the growing trend of wirelessness, and cloud computing, in iOS 5, by introducing essential new features and platforms. Among those was iCloud, the ability to activate an iPhone wirelessly previously it had required a connection to a computer , and syncing with iTunes via Wi-Fi.

More features that are now central to the iOS experience debuted here, including iMessage and Notification Center. Support ended: Final version: 4. It was released on July 25, Initial version: It was released on June 22, Many aspects of the modern iOS began to take shape in iOS 4.

Features that are now widely used debuted in various updates to this version, including FaceTime, multitasking, iBooks, organizing apps into folders, Personal Hotspot, AirPlay , and AirPrint. Another important change introduced with iOS 4 was the name "iOS" itself. As noted earlier, the iOS name was unveiled for this version, replacing the previously used "iPhone OS" name.

This was also the first version of the iOS to drop support for any iOS devices. It was not compatible with the original iPhone or the 1st generation iPod touch.

Some older models that were technically compatible were not able to use all features of this version. Support ended: Final version: 3. It added features including copy and paste, Spotlight search, MMS support in the Messages app, and the ability to record videos using the Camera app.

Also notable about this version of the iOS is that it was the first to support the iPad. The 1st generation iPad was released in , and version 3. It was released on January 27, Initial version: It was released on July 11, One year after the iPhone became a bigger hit than almost anyone projected, Apple released iOS 2.

The most profound change introduced in this version was the App Store and its support for real third-party apps rather than web apps.

The latest version of macOS is Learn how to update the software on your Mac and how to allow important background updates. The latest version of tvOS is Learn how to update the software on your Apple TV.

The latest version of watchOS is 8. Learn how to update the software on your Apple Watch. Apple Watch Series 1, 2, 3, and 4 15 Jul Xcode Windows 7 and later 11 Sep watchOS 5.

Apple TV 3rd generation 22 Jul Safari Windows 7 and later 27 Nov macOS Mojave Redditor ChrisSDreiling , who spotted the update in iOS 15 beta 3, says Maps will let you know if there are flash floods on your journey, and suggest alternate routes to avoid the extreme weather. Although other types of weather alerts weren't mentioned in ChrisSDreiling's post, it will be interesting to see if more weather warnings will be added.

At WWDC this spring, Apple announced that it will add ID card support for the Wallet app in iOS 15, allowing you to carry digital versions of government-issued identification cards like your driver's license on your iPhone.

The ID feature isn't in the initial release of iOS 15 and it's still unclear how exactly it will work. It will also only be for US users. According to code uncovered by 9to5Mac in the iOS 15 beta 4 for developers, Apple could be using facial recognition selfies to validate your digital ID cards when adding them to your wallet.

Some banking apps already use this selfie validation feature to authenticate users when logging on with new devices. Now that iOS 15 is generally available, you likely got a notification from Apple letting you know you can update. If you have already installed the iOS 15 beta on your phone, you can uninstall it before downloading the final version of the OS.

With the update, Apple was well on its way to not just reaching feature parity with competing platforms, but establishing an OS that could be dominate on the feature front.

Only a few major checkboxes remained, not the least of which was multitasking. A few months later, Apple released iOS 3. New UI paradigms for a larger screen. In order to bring iOS to the iPad, Apple didn't just "blow up" the iPhone UI, but rather added a few changes designed specifically for the larger screen.

The most significant was the addition to a left-hand sidebar list. Typically, an app would have a list of content you could drill down into, then go back to the list. Apple removed that step by displaying the list on the left and the content on the right, no "back" button required for most apps.

Apple also made it so that you could still see your content in a full-screen simply by turning the iPad into portrait-mode. The list was then hidden not behind a back button, but instead became a pop-over list. Apple added pop-over dialogs throughout the OS where previously the iPhone would require users to switch screens.

New app designs. Safari received a dedicated row for bookmarks, Apple added CoverFlow to the App Store, the Photos app organized pictures into stacks of images that could be pinched-out for a sneak-peek of the images within, Music got a simplified, iTunes-like interface with rows of album art, and the Settings app received the two-pane treatment mentioned above. Essentially, native app sthat would have looked silly "blown up" to the iPad's x screen resolution received UI tweaks for the iPad's larger screen.

Unfortunately, iOS 3. The Notepad app received a border of stitched leather to make it look like a real notebook, the Calendar and Contacts apps were both made to look like small books, complete with pages. While many simply found the new looks to be corny, the bigger issues was that in most cases, the realistic appearance did not have a direct correlation with the user interface.

So while the Address Book might look like a book, there were no pages to be turned, instead it simply had a book skin.

This look has stayed around and in some cases has even made the transition to Mac OS X. The very common knock against the iPad boiled down to this: it was just a big iPhone.

That complaint was both true and false for a number of reasons. It was technically true that with iOS 3. However, that complaint turned out to not matter too much when it came to sales: Apple had already trained millions of users on how to use the iPhone and with the iPad essentially decided not to mess with a good thing.

This version and two subesquent iOS 3. Released in June of , iOS 4 was mainly about one thing: adding features for power users. Multitasking, app folders, Wi-Fi tethering, spell-check, customized Spotlight searching including web and Wikipedia , unified inbox, and support for multiple Exchange accounts all added up to an update that helped keep iOS competitive with Android, which was beginning to finally make inroads.

The headline improvement was, of course, multitasking. However, iOS 4 did not technically support "true" multitasking in that it didn't allow any app to simply run in the background. Instead, iOS 4 offered developers several different multitasking services that they could run in the background:.

The major question at the time was whether Apple's unique implementation of multitasking was a distinction without a difference. For most users, that turned out to be the case. Apple's implementation of multitasking meant that the iPhone would be less likely to suffer from rogue apps taking up too much memory in the background, which in turn led to a system with most of the battery life and performance benefits of the old, "single-tasking" iOS with the multitasking features that Apple felt users needed.

There were and are plenty of cases where Apple's system didn't feel robust-enough, such as allowing apps to update themselves in the background, but by-and-large the compromise struck in iOS 4 and beyond has worked for most users. The multitasking menu was triggered by yet another Home button change: you brought up a list of recently running apps with a double-press. Although Steve Jobs famously said that "If you see a task manager [ Apple also added a persistent set of music control widgets that could be accessed by swiping to the left of the menu.

As with many iOS features over the years, Apple was certainly not the first to offer video chat. However, Apple's implementation both worked better and had a simpler interface than other solutions. FaceTime worked only between iPhones and and later, Macs and iPad 2s and though Apple had promised to make the video chat solution an open standard, it has yet to deliver on that promise.

With iOS 4, Apple "finally" introduced folders to the homescreen. Its solution was elegant in that users simply had to drag and drop icons on top of each other to form folders, a UI innovation that seems simple yet Android has just now caught up with Ice Cream Sandwich.

Along with folders, iPhone users could now also replace the background image on the home screen. Retina Display. Apple also added support for the iPhone 4's Retina Display and faster processor, giving developers even more ways to create high quality apps. Productivity features. Although iOS 4 still may not have appealed to hardcore BlackBerry users, Apple did at least beef up its email offering by adding support for multiple Exchange accounts and, critically, a unified inbox and threaded email messages.

System-wide spell check also made its first appearance, offering red underlines and quick text-replacement for misspelled words. The Calendar app now allowed users the individually hide specific calendars, the Contacts app gained the ability to link duplicate contacts, and the Messaging app received search capabilities. Unfortunately for Apple, iOS 4 was also embroiled in the Antennagate scandal just as much as the iPhone 4 was.

In this version of iOS as well as earlier versions , Apple claimed the phone didn't properly display signal strength information. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars.

Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place. On the camera front, iOS 4. Lastly, this update introduced AirPrint for those who still bother with that sort of thing. That purpose actually brought with it an added benefit: full support for Wi-Fi-based mobile hotspots. Apple followed up with iOS 4. Also like iOS 3, iOS 5 introduced so many new features that it's difficult to keep them all straight. So many, in fact, you might say that in the current smartphone battle, Apple's hardware is the anvil and iOS 5 is the hammer the company is using to forge a permanent and sizeable marketshare.

Available only on the iPhone 4S, Siri replaces Voice Control with a "virtual assistant" that is able to do more than just connect calls. Siri allows you to ask it questions and give comments in natural language with hooks all over the OS and the web. Siri communicates with everything from your calendar to WolframAlpha. Apple launched Siri as a Beta, which is unique for the company. Often, Siri deserves the tag: it sometimes is unable to connect to the web to perform either voice recognition or transcription, other times it returns strange results.

Still, as a natural user interface, it's one of the more promising things we've seen come along in some time. Notification Center. With iOS 5, Apple did something to make sense of the barrage of notifications coming in to the typical iPhone with Notification Center. Similar to the way Android works, there is a persistent pull-down drawer that lists all of your recent notifications along with the ability to clear them out by tapping a tiny "x" for each app.

Notification Center is also Apple's first, tiny foray into the world of ambient information, with weather and stock widgets built-in. There is also a large and depending on how many apps you have installed, somewhat daunting section within settings for managing which apps can notify you and how.

Within these settings you can also decide which notifications appear on the lock screen. One final notification feature is the option to have notifications appear as transient banners at the top of the screen rather than as interruptive, modal pop-ups.

The jury is still out on whether or not Apple can improve on Notification Center, but at the very least we now have an entirely new area within iOS beyond the homescreen, lockscreen, and individual apps. With iOS 5, Apple has begun encroaching on some carrier revenues and also the hardcore BlackBerry Messenger fanbase with its own system for sending short messages.

Like BBM, it is capable of showing deliver receipts and sending multimedia messages. Unlike SMS, it's entirely free. It's tied to either an Apple ID or a phone number and in both cases it can automatically detect whether your recipient is capable of receiving iMessages. When they are, iOS automatically converts your text message into an iMessage, which is sent to all iOS devices that user has registered and active.

This system is convenient and invisible for most iPhone users, but that convenience is possibly offset by potential confusion for people who switch phones on a regular basis. So far, iMessage hasn't quite captured the popular imagination in the same way BBM did, but it's still early days for the system and we'll have to see how much pickup it gets going forward.

No PC required. Perhaps most importantly, Apple removed the requirement that iOS devices be physically tethered to a computer via USB in order to be activated. Theoretically, an iPad or iPhone could now become somebody's sole computing device. That's a significant change and while it could portend bigger things for the iOS platform in the future, for now it's more of a necessary condition for a mobile computing revolution than a sufficient one.

It says something that a feature like Wi-Fi sync is so far down on the list of features for iOS 5. The syncing here works quite well and is set by default to only operate when the device is charging.

You might be tired of reading this by now, but once again Apple waited until it got the feature right rather than launching before it was ready.