Following a number of delays, including the hacking of Apple’s Developer website, the company released the iOS 7 Beta 4 to developers yesterday before the big launch at a yet-undetermined time later this year – most likely it will coincide with the launch of new iPhone devices.
The 300MB update was pushed to the iPhone, iPod touch iPad and iPad mini.
While the update includes a number of bug fixes and changes, the most striking change is a redesign of the Lock Screen. “The iOS 7 beta 4 includes a slightly re-vamped lock screen with a new arrow for slide to unlock and flat bars for the NotificationCenter and ControlCenter,” wrote Gotta Be Mobile.
The official release note for iOS 7 Beta 4 is fairly lengthy, but users will also notice that Find My iPhone has an added feature. “Activation Lock, a new feature of Find My iPhone, is turned on automatically when Find My iPhone is enabled on any device running iOS 7. Activation Lock requires users to enter their Apple ID and password to turn off Find My iPhone, sign out of iCloud, erase the device, or reactivate the device after an erase,” Apple revealed.
In terms of added security, Apple revealed that “iOS now requests user consent for apps to use audio input on all iOS 7 devices. For devices sold in China, iOS will also request user consent for apps to use the camera hardware. The operating system will present the consent alert when you set the category of the instantiated AVAudioSession.”
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
