In the latest iOS 16.1 beta, Apple has added a new toggle to the App Store's settings that allows apps to automatically begin downloading their in-app content after they're downloaded and before a user launches them for the first time.
"Automatically run apps in the background to download content before you first launch them," the description of the toggle says. With the new option enabled, after a user installs an app from the App Store, it'll automatically begin running in the background to download their in-app content so that when the user opens the app for the first time, it's ready to go.
The new toggle was added in iOS 16.1 beta 3 and macOS Ventura beta 9. Also, in the latest macOS Ventura beta, Apple has a new dynamic version of its Ventura marketing wallpaper.
Thursday November 5, 2026 12:59 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is launching five new products on Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models.
The following new products will be available from today:
iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip
iMac with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip
14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen
16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...
Friday November 6, 2026 3:27 pm PST by Juli Clover
When the iPhone Duo launched, we shared a list of some of the fun apps developers created for the new form factor. Two weeks out, developers are continuing to come up with fresh ideas, so we thought we'd share some of our favorites.
Games
Marbles Unhinged ($2.99) - Marbles Unhinged is a marble maze designed for the Duo. When you fold it, the floor turns into a ramp. If you stand the top...
Apple plans to merge the iPhone's Action button with the Camera Control starting next year, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker claimed that a single press of the combined button would open the camera, while a long press would trigger the function assigned to the Action button. They explicitly clarified that the dedicated Action button would ...
This is a sneaky way for us to enable Background App Refresh for new apps, considering most people turned BAR off a long time ago after realizing we only use it to track users and it provides the user nothing.
I can't recall the last time an app required an additional download after installing. Does anyone have any examples? The only ones I can think of are games.
Wow, those mobile games will definitely use this feature EXTENSIVELY after every month‘s maintenance. Aside from that, I dunno who will benefit too much from it. Just did a quick test and Genshin took advantage of that very well. O_O
I can't recall the last time an app required an additional download after installing. Does anyone have any examples? The only ones I can think of are games.
Content streaming apps. One of the first things I've had to do with a new phone is launch Spotify and let it start downloading the many GB of music I've saved to play offline. Same would apply to stuff like HBO Max that also lets you locally cache content for offline use. Could maybe apply to something like Dropbox to preload pinned files.
But yeah, even considering the above it's not like I'm getting a new phone every week and need to keep doing this. Whatever, might save some time at some point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
