THE NEWS WRAP: Apple makes iOS 8 download available to public

Apple has released iOS 8 to the public, making the download available to all users who have an iPhone 4S or later.

iOS 8 contains the same general design elements introduced with iOS 7 with several technical improvements, including several continuity features designed to connect the iPhone iPad and Mac like never before.

Developers are warning users not to update Apple’s new iCloud Drive feature just yet. The feature allows users to store and access files stored in iCloud on Mac, Windows and iCloud-enabled iOS 8 apps, but won’t be available for Macs until later this year. That means upgrading now will cause syncing issues for apps that previously used other methods of syncing between Macs and iOS devices.

Easel to shutdown

Nine months after being acquired by GitHub, web design tool Easel is closing down, the company announced in a blog post.

The company will be refunding all paying customers for the previous month of service.

“This is a bittersweet day for us,” the statement says.

“We love Easel, and we use it daily. We are extremely thankful and appreciative of our loyal users. To those of you who continue to depend on easel.io, we are very sorry. Shutting down easel will allow us to focus on our current efforts.”

Airbnb to collect taxes in San Francisco next month

Airbnb will collect taxes from its hosts and pay them to the City of San Francisco starting October 1, Re/code reports.

The addition of the city’s transient occupancy tax will push up the price of Airbnb-coordinated stays by 14%.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 24.88 to 17,156.85. The Australian dollar is currently trading at US90 cents.