Friday 6 March 2015

Cooling Solutions to Prevent Your PC From Overheating

Heat Sinks

A heat sink is a passive cooling system that cools a component by dissipating heat. For example, your CPU probably has a heat sink on top of it — that’s the large, metal object.

CPUs don’t just have heat sinks — if you have a dedicated graphics card, your GPU probably has a heat sink as well. Other components on your motherboard may have their own heat sinks, too. Heat moves from the heat-generating component to the heat sink pressed against it. The heat sink is designed with a large surface area, exposing a large amount of its surface to the air to dissipate heat more efficiently.

Thermal Compound

CPUs and GPUs generally have a thermal compound between them and the heat sink. This may be called thermal grease, thermal gel, thermal paste, heat sink paste, or many other things. This material is smeared on top of the CPU, and then the heat sink is pressed down on top. The thermal compound fills any air gaps between the heat-producing component and the heat sink allowing more efficient transfer of heat. Be careful when applying this stuff, as you don’t want to use too much — you just want enough to fill in the air gaps between the CPU and heat sink, not so much that it will ooze out the sides and make a mess.

Some heat sinks ship with thermal pads on their undersides. This makes them easier to install, but the pads are less effective at conducting heat than typical paste. An included thermal pad may be good enough for running a CPU at its stock speeds, but isn’t ideal for overclocking.

Thermal compound can deteriorate over time. If your CPU is generating more heat than normal and you’ve dusted out your heat sinks and fans, you may sometimes need to reapply fresh thermal

compound.

Fans

Fans force air to move, so the hot air is blown away from heat-generating components and expelled from the desktop or laptop PC‘s case. Fans typically blow hot air outward, but you could set up a system of fans to suck cool air inward on the front and blow out air out the back. Fans are an active cooling solution — they require power to run.
A typical desktop PC may contain multiple fans. The CPU itself often has a fan on top — so the CPU is inserted into the socket on the motherboard, thermal paste is applied to the top of the CPU, and the heat sink is attached to the CPU. The fan is placed on top of the heat sink, ensuring the hot air is blown away from the heat sink and CPU. Dedicated NVIDIA and AMD GPUs often have a similar setup, with heat sink compound, a heat sink, and a fan of their own.
Fans are also integrated into desktop power supplies. On laptops, they’re placed so they can blow hot air out of a strategically placed air vent. On desktops, they may be placed to blow air out of the desktop’s air vents. When building your own PC, you’ll want to think about how air will travel so the PC will stay cool. This isn’t necessary if you’re building a power-efficient PC that generates little heat, but it is a concern if you’re building a gaming PC with a powerful CPU and GPU — especially if you’re be overclocking them.
Dust build-up can clog heat sinks, fans, air vents, and your computer’s case, blocking air flow. This is why it’s a good idea to regularly dust out your computer’s case. You should also ensure your PC’s air vents aren’t blocked or the air will have nowhere to go and the computer will overheat.

Water Cooling

The above methods are the typical types of cooling solutions you’ll find in most PCs, although some power-efficient PCs are designed to work without fans. Still, enthusiasts sometimes opt for more extreme cooling solutions.

Water cooling, or liquid cooling, was originally for mainframes. Enthusiasts who want to overclock their hardware and push it as far as possible like water cooling because it’s more effective at cooling than fans, so a water-cooled PC can be overclocked further.

Water cooling involves a pump that pumps water through tubes that travel throughout your PC’s case. The cool water in the tubes absorb heat as it moves through your case and then leaves your case, where a radiator radiates the heat outward. This is only necessary if you need to deal with an extreme amount of heat — for example, if you’re overclocking more than typical cooling solutions can handle.

You can buy water cooling kits, so this isn’t as hard to set up as you might think, but these kits do cost hundreds of dollars. They also consume more power and are more complex. If a tube springs a leak and starts spraying water inside your running computer, you’d likely have a disaster on your hands.

Immersion Cooling

Immersion cooling is less common, but even more extreme. With immersion cooling, a computer’s components are submerged in a thermally conductive, but not electrically conductive, liquid. In other words, don’t use water for this! An appropriate type of oil will typically be used for this.

The computer’s components generate heat, which is absorbed by the liquid surrounding them. The fluid is more efficient at absorbing heat than air. The surface of the fluid is exposed to the air, and the heat dissipates from the surface of the fluid to the air.

In other words, imagine filling your entire computer’s case with oil and leaving your components submerged to cool it. You’d obviously want the appropriate type of oil and a case that won’t leak!

Some enthusiasts do go this route, but it’s much more rare than water cooling systems. This technique is used to cool some supercomputers.

Best Social Engineering Exploit Techniques

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1) Familiarity – This is one of the best and is a corner stone of social engineering. In a nutshell, you are trying to make it appear perfectly normal to everyone that you should be there. Making yourself familiar to those that you want to exploit helps to lower their guard. People react differently to people they know, have talked to or at least seen around a lot. People are way more comfortable responding and carrying out requests by familiar people than they are with complete strangers. A familiar person, in the eyes of your mark, is perfectly normal, doesn't set off alarm bells in the brain of "who is that and why are they here". Once you become familiar then you strike. Tailgating into a secure area behind someone who is familiar with you works often.

2) Creating a hostile situation – People withdraw from those that appear to be mad, upset or angry at something or someone other than themselves. For example, if you are on the phone and fake having a heated conversation with someone people around you will absolutely notice you but they will go out of their way to avoid you as well. You can create a hostile situation in a ton of different ways; just don't create a hostile situation between you and your marks. This rarely works. Instead you want the hostile situation to be between yourself and your phone, your accomplice, or mumbling to yourself as if you just had a huge argument with someone.
If you find yourself in a situation where you need to go through areas with people that are otherwise likely to stop and question your presence this technique comes in handy. If you are angry, people are much, much less likely to stop and question you. In fact, people are much more likely to obey your wishes when you are angry as well. People just want to get rid of angry people, so it works well for asking people to open doors for you or give you information on the location of things, etc. A good real world example of this is my buddy wanted to sneak some alcohol into an amusement park. The park has a guard station to check the bags and a wand to detect metal. My buddy started up a heated fight with his wife before they walked up and the guards just waved them by the checkpoint without checking or wanting them!

3) Gathering and Using Information – When it comes right down to it the key to being a successful social engineer is information gathering. The more information you have about your mark the more likely you are to get what you want from him or her, obviously. Good places to gather this info:
a. Parking lot – Cars that are unlocked (or are easily unlocked) might have security badges, uniforms, paperwork, intel, smart phones, wallets, all sorts of goodies you can use.
b. Online site like Linked In, Google, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
c. Things in their workspace area (posters, pictures, books, etc.)
d. Asking their friends and colleagues. Pretend to be a manager from another office or branch.
e. Tail them home or to their favorite watering hole. Try to figure out their patterns, interests, places they frequent. These are all good data points you can use to help make a personal connection to the mark.
f. Dumpster diving. Sure going through their trash is nasty but the gems that will be there are invaluable.

4) Get a Job There – If the reward is worth it, just get a job at your target and grab all the information you can. Most small-medium size businesses do not perform even simple background checks on new hires. Most large companies will but they are typically not very extensive. HR and hiring managers are almost never trained on how to spot warning signs they might be hiring someone with malicious intent. Once you are on the inside you become way more trusted, even if you are a lowly clerk. Social engineering a co-worker is usually a piece of cake given the assumed trust you'll have as a fellow employee.

5) Reading body language – An experienced SE will read and respond to their mark's body language. In the eyes of the master SE, Chris Nickerson, body language, used effectively, is one of the most powerful connections you can make to a person. Breathing when they breath, smile at the right times, recognize and adapt to their emotions, be friendly and polite but not to much so, if they appear nervous make them comfortable, if they are comfortable then exploit them, etc. etc.
Reading body language, if done well, can be your ticket to the crown jewels in a corporation. It makes people WANT to help you and feel good about doing so, an act of kindness on their part. And not only will they want to help you but they won't go back later and analyze what they did "Hey now that I think about it, why did I let that guy into the datacenter today?" Instead they will dwell the on the help and goodwill they provided for you.

How to Easily Recover Deleted Photos on Your iPhone or iPad- Find Out Below

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If you're running iOS 8, and it's been under 30 days since you deleted the photo, you can easily get it back. Here's how!

How to recover deleted photos on your iPhone or iPad

Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or later.
Tap on the Albums tab in the bottom navigation.
Tap on the album titled Recently Deleted.
Tap on the photo you'd like to recover and tap on Recover in the bottom navigation.
Tap on Recover Photo in the popup menu.

Accidentally delete a photo on iPhone or iPad? Here's how to get it back!

How to recover multiple deleted photos on your iPhone or iPad

Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or later.
Tap on the Albums tab in the bottom navigation.
Tap on the album titled Recently Deleted.
Tap on Select in the top navigation.
Tap on all the photos you'd like to recover — or tap on Recover All at the bottom to recover all deleted photos.
Tap on Recover in the bottom right hand navigation.
Tap on Recover Photos in the popup menu.

Alternatives

If you aren't using iOS 8 or it's been more than 30 days, here are some other things you can try:

Check Messages or Mail. If you ever sent the photo to someone else, it might still be in the message.
Check your social networks. If you ever shared the photo on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. it's almost certainly still there.
Check your other devices. If you sync via iCloud or Dropbox or any other service, the photo might have ended up on your computer and might still be there.

I hope this helped, and I hope you got your photo back!

Developing iOS 8 Apps with Swift course from Stanford now live on iTunes U

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Stanford has just launched their new iOS 8 course on iTunes U and this year it's focused on Apple's brand new programming language, Swift. Taught by professor Paul Hegarty, two sessions and accompanying slides are online — Logistics, iOS 8 Overview; and More Xcode and Swift, MVC.

Updated for iOS 8 and Swift. Tools and APIs required to build applications for the and iPad platforms using the iOS SDK. User interface design for mobile devices and unique user interactions using multi-touch technologies. Object-oriented design using model-view-controller paradigm, memory management, Swift programming language. Other topics include: animation, mobile device power management, multi-threading, networking and performance considerations.

If you're an aspiring iPhone or iPad developer, and you want to skate to where Apple's going to be, check it out.

Free - Subscribe now

iOS 8.2 beta 5 is now available for developers to download. Go Get It

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Apple has just released the fourth beta version of iOS 8.2 for software developers and others who have signed up to participate in the iOS 8 beta program. The over-the-air update should also be available from the Apple Developer Center.

To download the update over the air, simply go to Settings > General > Software Update on a device already taking part in the beta process for iOS 8.2. There's no word yet on what beta 5 contains, other than bug fixes and improvements. iOS 8.2 includes the WatchKit SDK, which will allow developers to make apps that will work on the upcoming Apple Watch.

Source: 9to5Mac

23:03 No comments

iOS 8 adoption rate ticks up to 72%

Apple's latest App Store distribution numbers show that iOS 8 has now been installed on 72% of all compatible devices as of Feb. 2, 2015. iOS 7 now stands at 25%, with all the older versions claiming a total of 3% of installs.

While the new stats represent a 4% gain compared to the iOS 8 adoption numbers from January 7, 2015, they are still behind the installs of iOS 7 at this same time a year ago, when it claimed 85% of all compatible devices. Clearly some iPhone and iPad owners have yet to make the change to iOS 8, although there could be several reasons for that decision.

iOS 8 launched in September 2014, so getting a 72% adoption rate in about five months is still pretty solid. By contrast, Android 5.0 Lollipop has only been installed in 1.6% of all Android devices since it launched in November 2014.

Source: Apple; Via: 9to5Mac

NEW iOS8 FEATURES - YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO KNOW

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While our main iOS 8 roundup focuses on the major changes announced by Apple, this iOS 8 roundup highlights some of the more interesting but smaller additions and refinements made to Apple's mobile operating system throughout the beta testing period.

Apple released iOS 8 to the public on September 17, 2014, two days ahead of the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Prior to the public launch, the software went through five developer betas before a golden master was released on September 9.

The current version of iOS 8 is iOS 8.1.3, a minor update released on January 27 with several bug fixes and performance improvements. Prior to iOS 8.1.3, Apple released iOS 8.1 with several new features like Apple Pay and SMS Call Forwarding. Apple has seeded several iOS 8.2 betas to developers, with the WatchKit SDK and a few other bug fixes. iOS 8.2 could be released in March. iOS 8.3, which adds features like Wireless CarPlay and a new emoji picker is also in development.

Here is a collection of the more interesting ones, followed by a more comprehensive list.

Coming in iOS 8.3

Wireless CarPlay - iOS 8.3 introduces wireless connectivity for CarPlay. The CarPlaysetting in the image below is located in the General section of the Settings app, below Siri, Spotlight Search, and Handoff & Suggested Apps. Currently, iPhones are only able to connect to CarPlay via the Lightning port.

iCloud Photo Library - iCloud Photo Library is no longer in beta in iOS 8.3.

Emoji picker - iOS 8.3 introduces a new emoji picker, much like OS X 10.10.3, released to developers on February 5. The new emoji picker organizes emoji into categories in a scrollable list, but it does not appear to include placeholders for new emoji or an option for selecting new skin tones.

Google two-factor authentication - iOS 8.3 adds support for Google two-step verification when logging into and adding Google accounts on iOS, removing some of the need for app specific passwords.

Apple Pay for China - According to the iOS 8.3 release notes, Apple Pay may be available in China in the near future. iOS 8.3 introduces support for the China UnionPay network as previously rumored.

Passbook - In iOs 8.3, Passbook, divides Apple Pay credit/debit cards and other cards into sections labeled "Apple Pay" and "Passes."

Photos app - In Photos, albums display an icon overlay to indicate which type of picture is contained within. For example, the Panoramas album is denoted with a stretched panorama-style icon. There's also a new screenshots folder.

New in iOS 8.1

Apple released iOS 8.1 to the public on Monday, October 20, bringing many new features and bug fixes. The update enabled support for Apple Pay, activated new Continuity features, and enabled iCloud Photo Library. A few other minor changes were introduced as well, outlined below:

Camera Roll - With iOS 8, Apple removed the camera roll that included an overview of all pictures taken. Due to popular demand, the Camera Roll feature was returned to iOS with iOS 8.1.

Siri - Siri is now able to open credit and debit cards added to Passbook for use with Apple Pay.

Continuity - With iOS 8.1 and the OS X Yosemite, Continuity features like SMS Forwarding and Instant Hotspot now work.

Cool iOS 8 Features

Send last location to Apple before your battery dies - If you've ever lost your iPhone, this new feature allows your iPhone (or iPad) to send its last known location to Apple when the battery drains to a critical level. iCloud presently holds this information for 24 hours, but this new setting will allow Apple to access location information for a lost device for a longer period of time.

Identify songs - Siri now includes Shazam integration. If you ask Siri, "What song is playing?", it will cause her to listen to the ambient sound, using Shazam to identify music. Shazam integration in Siri was removed in the iOS 8 golden master, but it will be returned for the public release according to the GM release notes.

Credit card scanning - In iOS 8's web browser (Safari), you can utilize the camera to scan in credit card numbers when making online purchases, rather than manually entering your credit card number.

Hide images from Photos app - Images and videos in the Photos app can now be hidden from the Moments, Collections, and Years view in the Photos app. Holding your finger on a photo will bring up an options menu and selecting "Hide" will keep it from being visible in those sections. Hidden photos are still visible in the albums view, however, in new "Hidden" album.

Phone calls over Wi-Fi - iOS 8 includes an option for WiFi calling, allowing you to place phone calls over WiFi when connected to a WiFi network, which is handy when your carrier signal is low. Several carriers,including T-Mobile, have already announced support for the feature. As of iOS 8 beta 3, this feature is available for T-Mobile users. In beta 5, when WiFi calling is enabled, it is labeled T-Mobile WiFi at the top of the iPhone screen.

Find which app is using the most battery life - iOS 8 includes a new Settings option that allows you to view battery usage by app, monitoring the battery drain of specific apps so those that draw a lot of power can be shut down. As of beta 2, it also displays how much battery is drained when there's no cellular coverage.

Get Tips on Using iOS 8 (beta 4) - iOS beta 4 brought a new Tips app, which was first hinted at during WWDC. The Tips app offers iOS 8 users information about all of the new features in the operating system.

Real Time Talk-To-Type (beta 4) - In iOS 8 beta 4, the Talk-to-Type option on the keyboard used in apps like Messages and Notes began displaying spoken text in real time rather than waiting for an entire spoken line to be completed before displaying text.

Even More iOS 8 Features

SIRI

Faster voice recognition - Siri now displays what is being spoken on the iPhone or iPad display as it is said, allowing users to get immediate feedback on what the voice assistant is hearing.

Voice activation - Saying "Hey Siri" while an iOS device is plugged in will activate Siri, allowing users to give hands-free commands.

Download Apps via Siri - Users can now ask Siri to download an app from the App Store, which will initiate an App Store search. Currently Siri cannot open the App Store.

PHOTOS

New smart Photo Albums - The Photos app has received new organizational options, including two albums for "Recently Added" and "Recently Deleted." The Recently Deleted section temporarily displays images that have been removed from the app in case of accidental deletion and in iOS 8 beta 3, a timer was added to display the amount of time remaining before a photo is deleted. The date and time a photo was taken is also displayed.

Black and white smart adjustments (beta 3) - The smart editing tools in the Photos app were updated to add a section for black and white adjustments in iOS 8 beta 3, letting users choose from several black and white presets and adjust Intensity, Neutrals, Tone, and Grain for a customized look.

iCloud Photo Library (beta 4) - It's now possible to select a length of time when pausing iCloud Photo Library in the iCloud section of the Settings app.

iCloud Photo Library Beta (GM) - Apple demoted iCloud Photo Library back to beta status ahead of the release of iOS 8 and has added a beta tag to the feature in the Settings app. Some users have also reported seeing the removal of iCloud Photo Library from the Settings app entirely.

Migration from iPhoto (beta 4) - Users with iPhoto are being notified that they will need to transition their iPhoto data to the new Photos app that will be built into iOS 8. Users will not be able to migrate Journals, Book Layouts, or Slideshows from the iPhoto app.

Last Updated (beta 5) - Photos now displays a "Last Updated" notification to let users know when images were last synced to iCloud. There's also an iCloud Photo Settings option to store full resolution photos solely in iCloud while keeping device-optimized versions available on the iPhone to save storage space.

Photo location (beta 5) - As of iOS 8 beta 5, the Photos app displays the location where a photo was taken above the photo itself. Photo below depicts photo bar before iOS 8 beta 5 was installed and after.

CAMERA

Time-lapse photography - The Camera app has gained a new Time-Lapse mode, which captures a series of images and then compiles them into a time-lapse video. There are also new manual exposure controls, which allow exposure to be selected when taking a photo, and a self-timer mode that can be set for three or 10 seconds.

Panoramic mode for iPad - Panoramas, previously only available on the iPhone, can now be captured with the iPad with a new Panorama mode in the Camera app on the iPad.

Focus controls - iOS 8 separates focus and exposure, allowing users to swipe up or down on the focus box to change the exposure of photos when taking pictures on the iPhone or iPad.

Timer mode - There's a new timer function for photos that can be set for three or 10 seconds.

Recover deleted photos - In the camera app, when the small preview icon at the bottom of the screen is tapped, it opens up a view that allows previously deleted photos to be recovered. A photo can be retrieved by tapping on the trash can (delete) icon. This menu can be cleared by emptying the new "Recently Deleted" album in the Photos app.

SAFARI

Request desktop site in Safari - Safari now includes an option to "Request Desktop Site," which will load the desktop version of a site rather than the mobile version.

More private search - Users can now opt to select DuckDuckGo as their default search option in Safari. DuckDuckGo is known for its anti-tracking stance, opting not to profile its users.

RSS feeds - The Shared Links section in Safari now allows users to add RSS feed subscriptions.

App Store ad blocking (beta 2) - According to the release notes, Safari will now block ads fromautomatically redirecting to the App Store without user interaction. Safari also includes a new pinch to tab view.

Bookmarks icon (beta 4) - In beta 4, Apple slightly tweaked the look of the Bookmarks icon in Safari.

MUSIC

Swipe to delete albums - It is now possible to delete albums from the music app with a left swipe. In iOS 7, it was not possible to delete an album. Left swipe delete also works in Songs and Artists.

Add songs to Playlists from other Playlists - Users can now add songs to Playlists from already existing Playlists. In iOS 7, it was only possible to add content from the Songs, Artists, Albums, Composers, and Genre tabs.

MESSAGES

Automatically delete messages - Along with several improvements to group message management, there are now options to remove stored messages after a set period of time of 30 days or one year, which will allow users who have extensive iMessage threads to free up valuable space.

Storing photos and videos (beta 3) - iOS 8 beta 3 added a new option to automatically save the quick audio and video messages that were introduced with the new OS. Normally, these messages are deleted after a short period of time to save space. And in beta 4, photos and videos save settings were split into two separate options.

Quick access to recent photos - When adding an image to a message, there's a new feature that displays recent photos for quick insertion.

Icons (beta 2) - Icons for the camera and the microphone in Messages are now gray rather than blue and there's a new setting to mark all messages read.

Batch save attachments - A new Details menu for contacts within Messages shows displays all of the photos and attachments that have been sent in a conversation. It's possible to save/delete all images at once by holding down on a single image to bring up a "More" option that allows multiple attachments to be selected at once and saved or deleted.

WEATHER

The Weather Channel - Apple is now using weather data from The Weather Channel instead of Yahoo.

Longer forecast - The Weather app now displays a nine day weather forecast, up from the previous five day forecast.

More weather information - There's a new weather summary at the bottom of the Weather app, along with info on sunrise/sunset times, humidity, wind speed, visibility, UV index, pressure, and more. In iOS 7, only humidity, wind, rain chance, and "feels like" are available. In iOS 8 beta 3, the Weather app saw a slight redesign to make this extra information more streamlined.

OTHER APPS

Add photos to Notes - Photos can be inserted into the Notes app from the Photos app for the first time in iOS 8. Notes has also gained rich text editing.

iBooks Features - iBooks now comes preinstalled on iOS devices with iOS 8. Previously, it was a separate download in the App Store. There's also a new auto night mode and an organization option to group books from a series together.

Mail notifications per thread - Swiping left on an email message in the inbox of the Mail app will allow users to delete/archive it, flag it, or access a "More" tab that includes an option to receive a push notification whenever a reply is sent to that particular email thread. These new Mail gestures gained a setting that allows them to be changed in iOS 8 beta 4.

Calendar - There are new options for alternate Calendars, including Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic. There's also an option to display week numbers. Calendar events can also be declined with a comment.

FaceTime - FaceTime has a different look on the iPad, with the preview window now located on the right side of the screen instead of the left side, along with a new look for contacts. FaceTime on iPhone also has a new look, which does away with the Favorites, Recents, and Contacts bar on the bottom.

Podcasts (beta 2) - Following iOS 8 beta 2, the Podcasts app is a default iOS app that comes pre-installed on iOS devices. This means it can no longer be deleted.

Health (beta 5) - In iOS 8 beta 5, Apple's Health app was updated to collect Spirometry data. Spirometry tests measure lung function, tracking the volume and flow of air when inhaling and exhaling. The app also gained several new icons, the ability to export Health data, and a "Show When Logged" option to display Medical ID on the lock screen. Privacy settings for Health were also added to the Settings app.

LOCATION SERVICES

Quick access to apps based on your location - The App Store in iOS 8 uses location to display apps on the lock screen at relevant locations. For example, when at the Apple Store, the Apple Store app is displayed on screen, and at a Starbucks, the Starbucks app is shown. Tapping the icon for an installed app will open it, while tapping an icon for an app that is not yet installed opens the App Store.

Background location usage App notifications - iOS 8 has new popups that will notify users of apps that access Location information while running in the background. The popup asks users if they want to continue to allow the apps to access the information or turn it off, giving users more information on apps that could potentially be using a lot of battery life.

Choose when an app can use location data - There are new settings within Location Services that allow users to permit apps to access location information "Never," "While Using the App," or "Always." Previously, location services in each app could only be toggled on or off.

System services - There are new toggles for Find my iPad, Location-Based Alerts, Spotlight Suggestions, and Share My Location, all related to new features within iOS 8. Spotlight now includes location-based information like Movie times, while Share My Location allows location information to be inserted into Messages. Combined, all of the new location settings offer far more control over privacy and location sharing in iOS 8.

PASSCODE

Easier access to notifications - In the Passcode settings, there are new toggles that allow users to access Today and Notifications View on the lock screen. Previously, these toggles were located within the Notifications settings. Control Center access on the lock screen is still controlled via the Control Center menu.

NOTIFICATION CENTER

New Settings look - Several Notification Center settings have been moved elsewhere in the Settings menu, giving that section a more streamlined look. There are no longer options to disable Today Summary, Calendar Day View, Reminders, or Tomorrow Summary. Instead these are now located in the "Today" section of the Notification Center itself, which allows users to access an edit function to control what's displayed.

Allow Notifications (beta 2) - There's a new "Allow Notifications" setting available for each app, which works as a sort of global mute to let users to mute notifications from an app on an individual basis. Previously, there was only an option to disallow apps from showing notifications in Notification Center.

ACCESSIBILITY

Grayscale mode - There are several new Accessibility options, including a new "Grayscale" mode that shifts the entire operating system into shades of black and white. There's also Improved Zoom option.

Improved zoom - There are quite a few new options within the Zoom menu, with new toggles for Follow focus, Detach Zoom Controls, and Leave Keyboard Unzoomed. There are also new options for Lens Mode (windowed and full screen) and Lens Effects (grayscale, grayscale inverted, and inverted).

Speak Screen - A new option within the Speech section of Accessibility lets users choose to Speak Screen, a function that will speak the contents of the screen with a two finger swipe gesture. Hebrew speech output is also an option as of beta 3.

Guided Access - Guided access now allows users to set a time limit on how long an iPad or iPhone can be used before shutting off, which is useful for limiting children's time on iOS devices.

OTHER

Improved Wi-Fi Privacy - iOS randomizes the MAC addresses of iOS devices when scanning for WiFi networks, which makes it more difficult for companies to track and gather location data on a customer. Each iOS device has a unique MAC address, which could previously be used for location tracking and data collection via WiFi scanning. iOS 8 will use random, locally administered MAC addresses that "may not always be the device's real (universal) address."

Share sheet customizations - When sharing an image, website, or other type of media, users can now customize their sharing options. The list of apps where content can be shared can be rearranged and disabled, as can the media options like Copy, Print, and AirPlay. Some sheet icons also have a new look that eliminates the black border in iOS 7.

iOS to Mac screen capture - It is now possible to capture video from an iOS device directly on a Mac. A device running iOS 8 plugged into a Mac will show up as a camera, which can then have its screen recorded using QuickTime.

iTunes Radio in Control Center - When playing a song on iTunes Radio, the Control Center will now offer a "Buy" button to give users a quick way to purchase a song. The sun icons for the brightness controls have also been tweaked and are now black rather than outlines.

Control Center Redesign (beta 4) - iOS 8 beta 4 introduced a redesign of the Control Center that removes the black borders around the icons and turns icons white when activated.

Peer-to-peer AirPlay - A new peer-to-peer AirPlay feature in iOS 8 will allow iOS devices to stream content to the Apple TV without the need for a shared network connection.

Privacy (beta 2) - There's a new Home Data section within the Privacy menu of the Settings app.

Keyboards - There are new Filipino, Marathi, Slovenian, and Urdu keyboards available.

iCloud Drive (beta 3) - There's a new popup window in beta 3 giving users the option to upgrade to iCloud Drive. Introduced at WWDC, iCloud Drive lets users store any type of file. There's also a new section for iCloud Drive settings within the iCloud portion of the Settings app. Though iCloud Drive can be turned on, it does not appear to be fully functional at this time.

Handoff (beta 3) - There's a new Handoff setting in the General menu of the Settings app that allows users to toggle Handoff on and off. Handoff allows users to seamlessly transfer tasks between iOS and OS X. When a Handoff task or website is available, it is displayed in the App Switcher, accessed by double tapping the home button on the iPhone or iPad.

Suggested Apps (beta 4) - The Handoff setting in the General menu was expanded to include Suggested Apps in beta 4, which are used to offer app suggestions relevant to location.This setting can be used to show only installed apps, or both installed apps and App Store apps.

SMS Relay (beta 5) - In iOS 8 beta 5, users began getting a popup asking them to use their iPhones for SMS Relay on their MacBooks, one of the new Continuity features between OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.

Display Settings (beta 4) - There's a new Display & Brightness section that's been unbundled from Wallpaper, with options to adjust screen brightness, text size, and activate bold text. In iOS 8 beta 5, screen brightness controls were removed entirely from the Wallpaper section of the Settings app and moved solely to the Display Settings section.

Contacts in App Switcher (beta 4) - Under the Mail, Contacts, and Calendars heading in the Settings app, there's a new option to toggle off Favorites and Recents for Contacts within the App Switcher.

Emoji keyboard icon (beta 4) - The icon for Emoji on the keyboard has been updated with a happier smiley face.

iCloud icons (beta 5) - In beta 5, iCloud Drive, Backup, and Keychain in the Settings app received new icons. The overall iCloud icon has also been updated, featuring a white cloud on a field of blue.

Predictive text (beta 5) - Beta 5 added a new option on the keyboard to toggle on predictive text, also known as QuickType. Apple began referring to QuickType as predictive text during the beta testing period. iOS 8 beta 5 also saw predictive type animations speed up somewhat.

Spotlight Search speed (beta 5) - The animation for pulling down on the screen to access Spotlight Search in iOS 8 was sped up in iOS 8 beta 5.

NEW APIS FOR DEVELOPERS

Safari password sharing - iOS 8 will make it easier to set up and login to apps with a set of new APIsthat allow apps to access passwords stored in Safari. For example, if a user has signed into Gmail in Safari and saved the password, Google's Gmail iOS app will be able to access the password for one tap sign ins.

Indoor mapping - iOS 8 adds the M7 processor and iPhone motion sensors to the CoreLocation API, allowing venue owners to create indoor positioning systems that can be used to display directions and floor numbers to direct users to points of interest in areas like airports, museums, and shopping malls.

Custom cursor location (beta 3) - Developers are now able to move the cursor location with a custom keyboard in iOS 8 beta 3.