Owners of iPhones and iPads are being warned that some apps may experience glitches because Apple only gave a day’s notice of the release of a major update to its mobile operating systems.

Chief executive Tim Cook revealed on Tuesday that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 would launch on Wednesday.

Last year, Apple announced the release date more than a week in advance.

Developers have complained they do not have enough time to check for bugs and submit their products to the App Store.

It has advised players to delay installing the new operating systems until later this month.

Apple declined to comment.

Mr Cook described the updates as being a “huge release that transforms the core experience” of using its mobile devices.

But within minutes of the announcement, developers started posting on social media that they had been blindsided by the timing,

One prominent voice in the developer community told the BBC he was “shocked” by the announcement.

Apple had failed to “give developers any notice, or final tools to submit their apps,” said Steve Troughton-Smith.

“It’s definitely possible that some apps might not work correctly.”

Even apps that do not exhibit obvious problems may still lack planned features that were supposed to have been ready in time for the upgrade.

Although developers have been able to test their software running under “beta” versions of the new operating systems for months, the final “golden master” versions have only just been released.

Some developers have also reported problems trying to rush their products through Apple’s app review process to meet the deadline.

The development threatens to worsen relations between Apple and developers.

Many in the community have already complained about the 30% cut the firm takes from sales and its sometimes “opaque” review process.

The issue overshadowed Apple’s WWDC conference earlier in the year, when it became involved in a high-profile public row with the creators of a new email app called Hey.

More recently, a clash with the games developer Epic has led to Apple device owners being unable to get the latest version of Fortnite or install the game at all from scratch.

Apple’s restrictions on third-party games platforms have also been criticised by Microsoft, and led to iPhone and iPad users being unable to play Xbox games on the devices, despite them being made available to Android.

Apple, however, justifies its actions on the grounds that its policies provide security to users and let it invest in support for the wider app economy.

Some people’s devices are set to auto-install Apple’s mobile updates.

In general, this can be a good idea to ensure that the latest cyber-security protection and features are automatically added when a device is plugged in overnight and connected to wi-fi.

However, this facility is limited to “point releases” and not the major “round-numbered” updates, like the move from iOS 13.7 to iOS 14.

In this case, the new code will still be downloaded in the background on devices running versions 13.6 and above, but will not install without first seeking the user’s express permission, which can be declined.

Owners can check if this will happen by:

Those who dare to become early adopters face a significant overhaul to Apple’s mobile operating systems.

Widgets can be added to home screens to display the weather, time, stock prices or other information at a glance, and the selection can be set to change according to the time of day.

Apps can be automatically arranged into themed folders to make it easier for users to find their favourite services.

And videos and Facetime calls can be made to appear in a small box that floats above the app in use, rather than taking up the full screen.

IPad owners also gain new features for the firm’s Pencil stylus, including the automatic conversion of handwriting into text and shape recognition.

“Users will no doubt value the substantial changes to the user experience in iOS 14, improving utility and productivity,” commented Simon Forrest from the consultancy Futuresource.

He added that developers would also benefit from the extended access Apple had given them to its processors’ “neural engines”, which should make it possible to carry out more AI tasks on-device rather than relying on remote computer servers.

PCs Amy Taylor and April Cooper of Cambridgeshire Police posted clips of themselves “shouting offensive language” in a police car and dancing inappropriately in a police station.

The officers told the hearing the videos were “to boost morale”.

Both officers were given final written warnings.

Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the clips have damaged the reputation of this constabulary.”

They were reported by a member of the public who had seen the videos and felt they were “unprofessional”.

In one video both officers were in uniform “dancing in an inappropriate way utilising fire marshal tabards”.

In another video clip PC Cooper was seen in uniform shouting “coronavirus” down a phone with the caption “when calling in sick at work and they ask what’s up”.

Chief Constable Dean said in his ruling: “This clip was made in the height of a pandemic which is still ongoing yet you appear to be insensitive to the many thousands who have suffered and the vital role that emergency services and other agencies played in this outbreak, and continue to do so.

“This clearly shows a lack of respect and sensitivity to those that were suffering or indeed their families and friends.

“The respect shown to your colleagues in behaving this way demonstrates a lack of respect for them and a lack of self-control by you both.

“It cannot be said that this was a momentary lapse of concentration.”

The hearing was told the reach of the videos on social media had been extensive before they were taken down.

US tech firm Oracle has confirmed that TikTok’s owner has formally proposed it become a “trusted technology partner” to the video-sharing app.

Full details of the tie-up have yet to be disclosed, but the aim is to avoid President Trump’s threat to shut down the Chinese-owned service in the US.

Trump has cited national security concerns, suggesting users’ data could be accessed by Beijing under current arrangements.

Current owner Bytedance denies this.

Oracle is a database specialist without experience of running a social media app targeted at the general public.

Earlier in the day, the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the Trump administration had been contacted by the American firm to discuss plans to make TikTok a US-headquartered company. He said the White House intended to review the idea this week.

Bytedance has yet to comment on the latest development.

Oracle’s shares were trading about 7% higher in mid-morning trade in New York.

“While I can see the upside for Oracle from a cloud perspective, it is hard not to think how much of this deal rests on politics rather than tech,” commented Carolina Milanesi from the Silicon Valley-based research firm Creative Strategies.

Oracle’s chairman, the billionaire Larry Ellison, is a supporter of Mr Trump and in February held a fundraiser at his California home to aid the Republican leader’s re-election campaign.

The White House is also taking a harsh line against other Chinese tech companies – including Huawei, Tencent and a number of artificial intelligence start-ups – restricting what business they can do with US counterparts without the administration’s approval.

President Trump had given TikTok’s owner Bytedance until this week to secure a deal.

Failure to do so would have seen US companies prevented from doing business with it from Sunday, and Bytedance being forced to give up TikTok’s US operations one way or another by 12 November.

Oracle was not the favourite to buy or otherwise link up to TikTok’s US arm – Microsoft was the early frontrunner.

But as time wore on, Microsoft became increasingly concerned about what it would be acquiring.

It became clear that China might attempt to block the sale of the technology behind the app’s powerful algorithm.

Privately there were concerns too that Microsoft was about to create a rod for its own back by becoming involved with a mass market, youth-focused social network – it already owns LinkedIn, but that caters for a very different audience.

Political bias, child safety issues and right-wing militias are just some of the problems TikTok has had to deal with in the last few months.

Even so, TikTok’s hundreds of millions of users make it an attractive proposition in a sector where size is everything: if all your friends are on a platform, you too are more likely to join.

Oracle has decided it’s worth the risk.

The big questions now are what exactly is Oracle’s involvement, and will the tie-up be approved by the US and Chinese authorities.

March 2012: Bytedance is established in China and launches Neihan Duanzi – an app to help Chinese users share memes

September 2016: Bytedance launches the short-form video app Douyin in China

August 2017: An international version of Douyin is launched under the brand TikTok in some parts of the world, but not the US at this time

November 2017: Bytedance buys lip-synch music app Musical.ly

May 2018: TikTok declared world’s most downloaded non-game iOS app over first three months of the year, by market research firm Sensor Tower

August 2018: Bytedance announces it is shutting down Musical.ly and is moving users over to TikTok

February 2019: TikTok fined in US over Musical.ly’s handling of under-13s’ data

October 2019: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg publicly criticises TikTok, accusing it of censoring protests

November 2019: The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) opens national security investigation into TikTok

May 2020: TikTok hires Disney executive Kevin Meyer to become the division’s chief executive and chief operating officer of Bytedance

June 2020: India bans TikTok among dozens of other Chinese apps

July 2020: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and then President Trump, say TikTok might be banned

August 2020: Microsoft and Oracle make rival approaches to acquire or otherwise operate TikTok in the US and three other markets. Mr Meyer announces he is leaving the company because the “political environment has sharply changed”

September 2020: TikTok says it has more than 100 million active users in Europe. It recently said it had a similar number in the US, and has been estimated to have more than 800 million engaged members worldwide

Software giant Oracle is believed to be the frontrunner in the bidding war for short-form video app TikTok.

The partnership should address US security concerns but not be a complete sale, sources told the agency.

Oracle sells database technology and cloud systems to businesses. It was one of the first companies to help clients structure their records in this way.

Co-founder and current chairman Larry Ellison named the company after the codename given to a project for its first customer, in 1975: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The firm was founded two years later and went on to complete contracts for the CIA, Navy Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence and the National Security Agency.

News site Gizmodo has detailed Oracle’s involvement with US government intelligence community, and says it is relationship that has been “frequently ignored by people who like to pretend Oracle was just another humble Silicon Valley start-up”.

But its clients and cloud-based services now extend far wider, from serving auto-makers including Mazda and Yamaha to retailers such as the UK’s Co-op and Debenhams chains.

Oracle’s technologies can be used to keep track of everything, Mr Ellison has said.

“The information about your banks, your checking balance, your savings balance, is stored in an Oracle database,” he said in Jeffery Rosen’s 2004 book The Naked Crowd.

“Your airline reservation is stored in an Oracle database. What books you bought on Amazon is stored in an Oracle database. Your profile on Yahoo! is stored in an Oracle database… Privacy is already gone.”

The US administration claims TikTok and other Chinese apps are national security threats which is why – given its history in intelligence – Oracle might be considered a trustworthy option.

“On the surface, Oracle and TikTok don’t seem like bedfellows,” said Chris Stokel-Walker, author of a forthcoming book about the platform.

“Oracle is a relatively boring business-to-business company, whereas TikTok is a youth-centred, casual app.

“But there is underlying geopolitics. If [US President Donald] Trump’s fears around TikTok are rooted in security, the company would be a safer bet.”

The president had previously said he thought Oracle was best placed to seal the TikTok deal.

“I think Oracle is a great company, and I think its owner is a tremendous guy,” Mr Trump said last month. “He’s a tremendous person. I think that Oracle would be certainly somebody that could handle it.”

Oracle has been accused of hostility towards China, after firing 900 staff from its team in the country last year, in the same week additional tariffs on Chinese goods were introduced in the US.

Employees blamed tensions between the US and China for the cuts.

It is understood that Oracle’s involvement in TikTok will not be an outright sale but instead a “tech partnership”, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters report.

That suggests the US firm’s control over the business would be limited.

Two weeks ago, China announced new government restrictions on tech exports. They mean some technologies involving artificial intelligence techniques need government approval before any sale to a foreign entity takes place.

Many view the way TikTok decides which videos to recommend to whom and when as being its key asset, and it may be that Oracle will not be allowed to know exactly how it works or make use of it for other purposes,

But another expert thinks the partnership could work.

“The security element with Oracle could ease tensions, but it can also help TikTok be a bit more mature in its outlook,” said Tamara Littleton, founder of The Social Element consultancy.

“TikTok is struggling to control its content at the moment, and its revered algorithm can work against it sometimes. Oracle’s experience could help to fix some of these problems.”

TikTok and Oracle both declined to comment when contacted by the BBC.

Thousands of “counterfeit Apple AirPod earbuds” seized entering the US by customs officials appear to be genuine wireless earphones made by OnePlus.

“That’s not an Apple,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tweeted.

And an accompanying press release lauded “the vigilance and commitment to mission success” of the officers.

But the photograph tweeted by CBP clearly shows OnePlus-branded earphones. And OnePlus simply replied on Twitter: “Hey, give those back.”

“CBP officers are protecting the American public from various dangers on a daily basis,” the New York field operations director added.

But OnePlus’s earphones sell for less than half that amount.