iOS 8 Beta 4 Released to Devs with a New Tips App and No Backdoor to Security

Apple CEO Tim Cook Introduces IOS 8 — Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the IOS 8 operating system during his keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California Reuters/Robert Galbraith

The iOS 8 beta 4 is finally rolled out to developers through over-the-air updating. This new rollout is much more stable than other developer builds of the iOS 8, despite the seemingly fast rollout of the beta, which is just 2 weeks after the third iOS 8 version.

According to ZDNet, the iOS 8 beta 4 has one new first-party app for this version. Called "Tips," which was first introduced at the WWDC, this new app is very self-explanatory.

In order for users to do more with their devices, Apple will be giving it to them straight as tips through "Tips." Once the iOS 8 is launched, there are six initial tutorial tips, as outlined by the report.

Quickly respond to a notification—How to reply directly inside a notification
Notify me when there's a reply—About Mail's new notification feature for important emails
Hey, Siri—About Siri's new, hands-free, voice activation feature
Send a spoken message—Messages' new audio messaging feature
Quickly manage your mail—New swipe gestures to flag, mark read, and delete messages in Mail.app
Be in the shot—Camera's new shutter timer.

Tips is an app that is set by default with no option for uninstallation. And as an added interactive, Tips can be shared and "liked."

Apple Confirms No Backdoor in iOS

Now that the latest version of the iOS 8 is already out for developers, security issues are being explored by a number of security hackers. And it seems one hacker has found vulnerabilities in the iOS, this time pointing to a potential backdoor.

9 to 5 Mac reports security hacker Jonathan Zdziarski has supposedy found a backdoor access point to the iOS, something which is supposed to be locked off and encrypted.

Considering this is a misconduct on the part of Apple, the report has now gotten the side of the company, with a comment that denies any hints of the backdoor supposedly found.

The quote from Apple is as follows, care of a tweet from Tim Bradshaw:

"We have designed iOS so that its diagnostic dunctions do no compromise user privacy and security, but still provides needed information to enterprise IT departments, developers and Apple for troubleshooting technical issues. A user must have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer before that computer is able to access this limited diagnostic data. The user must agree to share this information, and data is never transferred without their consent."

"Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services," Apple continued in the statement.