IOS 9 beta 3 hands on: News app, iPad tweaks and more

Apple will release the first public beta version of iOS 9 today, just one day after it pushed iOS 9 beta 3 to developers that are registered with its $99 per year iOS development program.

Click on the iOS 9 beta 3 link on the home page and select your device from the list.

Apple has teamed up with a range of publisher for its Apple News app, the company is also said to be hiring journalists for its app. This left users to do all the sorting or purchase a third-party app to do that for them.

The latest beta for iOS 9 is here, and it’s a massive one with long-awaited features such as Apple Music (for iOS 9) and the News app, in addition to new features such as separate Photos folders for your selfies and screenshots. And a new security feature called System Integrity Protection (or “rootless”) protects certain system files and folders from being edited or otherwise tampered with even if the user has administrator privileges. So regardless of whether you’re a developer or not, you can download and install the iOS 9 beta right now.

At the moment, the new two-factor authentication scheme is available only to beta users of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, but it should roll out to all users this fall. By using this you can listen music at the high quality on mobile network irrespective of signal strength. Apple is expected to release updates every few weeks to the iOS 9 while it’s still in Beta testing period.

If you want to test the new software, go for it, but don’t be surprised if you experience an issue here or there.

Cupertino has also slimmed down the operating system, and provided the App Store with a way to dramatically reduce the amount of space apps take on your devices. According to a report by TheNextWeb, “You can now browse, download and listen to audiobooks from iBooks, and play them from a refreshed Now Playing feature designed just for audiobooks”.

Connect your device to your computer and fire up iTunes.

And finally, OS X is capable of running from external hard drives and USB flash drives, albeit with lower performance than you’d get from an internal drive. Allowing you to provide a verified phone number, which is where your Apple ID details will be sent and stored while you’re waiting for your account to be recovered.

For users with devices running older versions of iOS and OS X, there may not be a popup to enter verification codes when logging into a new app or service.