14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Apple greeted both developers and end users with a series of must-have updates fixing important bugs while also adding new functionality to their devices. This week has seen far less releases, but there still are a few things worth looking into if you’re a photographer or a developer selling apps in the iOS and Mac app stores.
Just three important updates were released this week, followed by a brief announcement that credits people who have reported potential security issues in Apple's web servers. All in the paragraphs to follow.
Aperture and iPhoto get new RAW Support
Via a small update dubbed Digital Camera RAW Compatibility 6.02, Apple this week beefed up RAW image support in its two photography apps, Aperture and iPhoto.
According to the release notes accompanying the download, the 7.5MB download adds RAW image compatibility to Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11 for the following set of cameras: Canon PowerShot G7 X, Canon PowerShot SX60 HS, Fujifilm X100T, Nikon 1 J4, Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7, Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GM5, Sony Alpha ILCE-5100.
The update targets Yosemite systems with iPhoto 9.6 and Aperture 3.6 installed. The Mac maker directs Yosemite customers to a document that describes all the supported digital camera RAW formats in OS X 10.10.
New betas of iOS 8.2 and Xcode 6.2
A few days later, Apple seeded the latest iOS and Xcode betas for testing and development purposes. iOS 8.2 beta 3 brings back some lost functionality from the Health app, and includes brief descriptions for the data points tracked by the app, including blood sugar (glucose), calorie intake, and others.
The firmware is labeled as Build 12D5452a and goes onto iPhone 4S and newer, iPad 2 and newer, and iPod touch fifth-generation. It’s a free download for anyone with a registered developer account.
Xcode 6.2 beta 3 is the latest release that continues to emphasize the WatchKit framework for developing watch apps, so that early adopters actually have something to do with their newly-acquired Apple Watches in spring. Listed as Build 6C101, the new Xcode beta addresses some known bugs, but still requires a lot of maintenance to reach a stable status.
Apple Web Server notifications
This week Apple updated a support document describing potential security issues in Apple's web servers, while crediting the people who reported these flaws.
The latest issues were apparently reported throughout November and the beginning of December.
For example, a cross-site scripting issue was addressed thanks to Dhruva Sharma. A clickjacking issue was addressed thanks to the findings of Aniket Pratap Singh. Also, an SSL configuration issue was addressed based on input from Ayoub Nait Lamine. You can check out the full list of addressed issues right here.
