Plex for iOS gets total redesign, video chapter support, now free

By Mike Flacy Published August 11, 2015

plex-for-ios — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Available on iOS as of this week (version 8.1 and higher), Plex has completely re-built the Plex mobile application to improve the user interface as well as provide new features such as faster mobile syncing, video chapters with thumbnails and the Rotten Tomatoes score when browsing movies. According to the announcement post on the official Plex blog, the app has been designed to showcase content with rich media browsing, somewhat similar to the Netflix user interface.

Interestingly, Plex has shifted to a free model for the initial download. Prior to this point, users had to pay $4.99 to download the Plex app. While the $4.99 fee is still required to unlock content streaming from a Plex Media Server to an iOS device, anyone that’s using the free version will be able to use the app as a remote control when playing content on another device as well as fling photos from a camera roll to a Plex player.

Recommended Videos

Incidentally, Plex has also added the ability to upgrade to the Plex Pass premium subscription within the app. Prior to this point, that could only be accomplished through the Web interface. With a Plex Pass subscription, users will gain access to the popular mobile sync function, a feature that lets users transfer content from a Plex Media Server to an iOS mobile device for consumption when a Wi-Fi or LTE signal isn’t available.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

According to Plex, the mobile syncing feature has been significantly upgraded in terms of transfer speed. In addition, support for partial sync has been added. This would be ideal when you don’t have time to finish a sync completely. You can halt the syncing process at any time and still take advantage of the content that was downloaded to the device prior to the stopping point.

On top of that, Plex has added support for video chapters. However, it doesn’t matter if chapter data is absent. Plex can pull chapter data from ChapterDb.org as well as display thumbnails of those specific chapter points in movies.

Topics

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Mobile

I hate the new Photos app in iOS 18

Photos app on iOS 18.

When Apple launched the iPhone 16 line, it also released iOS 18 to the masses after months of betas. Though the biggest feature of iOS 18 is Apple Intelligence, which didn’t actually launch until the iOS 18.1 release, there are plenty of other things that iOS 18 brings to the table. That includes RCS messaging, more home screen customization, a revamped Control Center, and more.

One app that got a significant redesign in iOS 18 is the Photos app. After around a decade of mostly the same design and what I would call muscle memory, the new Photos app is, well, quite jarring — and I'm not a fan.
The new Photos app is messy
The old Photos app Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

Mobile

A hidden iOS 18.1 upgrade made it harder to extract data from iPhones

A person holding the Apple iPhone 16 Plus.

Apple Intelligence was the most notable upgrade that arrived on iPhones with the iOS 18 series of updates. But it seems Apple reinforced the security protocols in the background that could prevent bad actors from gaining unauthorized access to iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a while by their legitimate owner.

Earlier this month, 404Media reported that law enforcement officials are troubled by iPhones that are mysteriously rebooting. Citing a report courtesy of officials in Michigan, the outlet notes that the reboots are hampering the ability to access what’s stored on the phones through brute-force unlock methods.

Mobile

Apple quietly nixed this Apple Intelligence feature from iOS 18.2

Image Playground on iPad.

One of the most highly anticipated features of Apple Intelligence, Image Playground, has finally launched in the iOS 18.2 developer and public betas. This artificial intelligence tool, announced in June, enables users to create cartoon-like images from text descriptions. Unfortunately, at least in the beta version, one of Image Playground's announced features is missing.

As first noted on X (formerly Twitter) by @nicolas09f9 (via MacRumors), Image Playground was once expected to feature three design styles: Animation, Illustration, and Sketch. For whatever reason, the latter isn't a choice in the beta.