New: Export Everything (PDF), in Settings > Data & Backup. One PDF of your whole lab: cultures with their history, experiments, notebook, tasks, freezer, reagents, cell lines, equipment, protocols, plate layouts, recipes, sequences and the Logbook. It replaces the Lab Handover Pack. Restoring a backup now brings back everything it should: - The Logbook. - Cell counts and viability logged on a culture. - Links from freezer items, tasks and Logbook entries to your reagents. - Your own media and buffers in the Media and Buffer Recipe calculators. Also fix: - The Lab page counted some experiments twice. - Lab Notebook: every Logbook entry now lines up on the left. - Importing a CSV file the app cannot read now says why, instead of "No new items imported". - Delete All Data now also clears the task list on your Apple Watch. - With the largest text sizes, icons are no longer cut off, and rows, buttons and grids make room for the text, so far fewer words are split across lines. - Lab Bundle is gone: Export Backup (CSV) already includes everything it had. - Backup files edited in Excel on Windows now import. - A mycoplasma test reminder that rings the day after it was due now says how late the test really is.

Several Fixes: - Backups now include the step-by-step record of a protocol run (when each step was done, step notes and deviations). - Restore Example Data no longer brings back freezer boxes or reagent lots you had deleted, and it now restores the example freezer items straight away. - Moving the split confluency or titer expiry slider now updates reminders and widgets at once. - Backups with very long text fields import much faster.

The app now opens your data only after iOS has fully started it. Before, iOS could quietly close the app while it was preparing it in the background.

Bug Fixes & Improvements -Backups: after restoring a backup on a new phone, your photos now stay. Photos in notebook entries, scanned notebook pages and Colony Counter plates also stay attached to their entries after a restore. -Delete All Data now keeps your settings, including the freezer expiry rules, and no longer leaves a stopped timer on the Lab Timers widget. -The example experiment can no longer send you a real reminder. -Clearer wording in Settings: how to turn off iCloud for Lab Assistant, what the iCloud card can actually tell you, and the freezer expiry colours. Plus small layout and VoiceOver fixes.

Bug Fixes & Improvements -Backups: Photos are now preserved when restoring a backup. The app also warns you during backup creation if the backup may be too large to restore later. -Freezer: Group counts now reflect the actual contents of each group. Freezers containing only antibodies, plasmids, or lysates can now be renamed and edited. -Reminders: The mycoplasma reminder setting has been moved to the correct reminders section so it is clearer which settings can trigger notifications. -Settings & Accessibility: Improved wording throughout Settings and added VoiceOver labels to all switches.

A polish and speed update. • Easier to read: darker small text, clearer status pills, black numbers in Lab Reference. • A cleaner look: matching input boxes, icon tiles and cards across the app, and bigger Pause and Remove buttons on running timers. • Faster and lighter for labs with many photos and a long history. • Better on small iPhones, on iPad, on Apple Watch and at large text sizes. Thank you for using Lab Assistant. Feedback is always welcome from the Library tab.

A stability update. Over 150 small fixes. • Example data appears within seconds on a fresh install, and the short guide to the walkthroughs shows right after the welcome screens. • Undo works properly for splits and reactivations. • Frozen vials, virus stocks and freezer items can no longer be used past zero, and expiry rules switch off when you clear them. • Timers show seconds correctly (1m30s) on the phone, the widget and the Watch. The Watch complication ring counts down live, and the Watch no longer taps your wrist for old timers. • Master Mix, qPCR, WB loading and the other calculators show and log exactly what is on screen. • Backups keep every detail of splits and thaws, and large photo backups restore again. • Notebook, experiments and protocols keep their notes and steps on the right day and on every synced device. • Saved photo annotations look like the preview. • Many small wording, plural and accessibility fixes throughout. Thank you for the reports. Please keep them coming through Library > Send Feedback.

New ways to log and find things, timers that are hard to miss, far more useful widgets, and several fixes. CULTURES AND CELL LINES • Split one flask into several at once, each with its own ratio and vessel, and note why. Every new flask is linked to the culture it came from, and a culture thawed from the freezer shows the vial its line started from, through every split. • Thawing a vial asks which vessel and where it goes, instead of always making a T75. T150 flasks are in the list. • Cell lines take any base medium, plus a (+) list of supplements and antibiotics, such as Pen-Strep or a selection antibiotic, that new cultures carry into their medium. • Custom media and buffer recipes can be edited from the recipe screens. TIMERS THAT RING • Lab timers longer than 5 minutes can ring like the Clock app, heard through silent mode and Focus (iOS 26 or later, with your permission). A ringing timer offers Snooze 5 min. • The Dynamic Island keeps the app's own countdown with Stop and Finish for every timer. • Siri can stop one timer by name ("stop the trypsin timer in Lab Assistant") and say what is still running. WIDGETS • Lab Timers shows every running timer, with a Stop button on each row at medium and large sizes. • Today shows what is actually due: culture, equipment, reagent and stock alerts plus tasks, most urgent first. A row opens its record. • Timer Presets starts a preset with one tap, and Culture shows one flask's passage, last feed and split, and next feed. • The app keeps these up to date from anywhere. LOG A NOTE, GET AN ENTRY • Type or dictate "split 1:4, 80% confluent, fresh DMEM, P12" on a culture and the app fills in the event for you to check. Nothing is saved until you tap Save, and the reading happens on your device. SEARCH THAT UNDERSTANDS THE QUESTION • Ask something like "HeLa vials frozen more than a year ago" in the Lab or Library search. The app turns it into a filter, shows how it understood it, then finds the rows itself, so nothing is invented. It says when it is reading a question and why it could not, and words it ignored are named. SEQUENCES • Share a plasmid map as a PNG or vector PDF, or a selected range as FASTA, and import another file without closing the sheet. • Primer sites across a plasmid's origin are found, reading frames that run off the end are labelled incomplete, feature locations that cannot be drawn exactly are flagged, and the digest warns for enzymes which Dam or Dcm methylation blocks in plasmid DNA from ordinary E. coli. A NEW ICON, AND A BETTER iPAD • The icon is rebuilt in layers for proper light, dark and tinted versions, and on iPad the Lab hub and culture list sit in a readable column. YOUR DATA • Closed a rare case where a failed read could empty a list and copy that emptiness to iCloud. • Re-importing an edited notebook CSV no longer clears that day's entries, and restoring a backup no longer leaves stray freezer boxes or duplicates. • Undoing a photo edit restores the original everywhere, and Delete All keeps the settings it should. CALCULATORS • Fixes include the titer exponent sign, the split ratio, the primer molecular weight (now the 5'-OH value your vendor prints), the two-tube advice for single-tube transfection reagents, and calcium phosphate, which names its 2 M CaCl2 stock and takes the volume from the tube. • Very large numbers no longer close the app. Plus better support for large text and VoiceOver, faster photo imports, and many smaller repairs.

Your sequences are now part of your backups, and three crashes are fixed. BACKUP • A full backup (Settings > Data & Backup > Export Backup) now includes your Sequences: every imported plasmid or Sanger file, its saved alignments and the original file. Restoring on a new phone brings them back exactly as they were. • The import preview shows how many sequences a backup carries and warns if an original file is missing from it. FIXES • Lab Reference: the Fluorophores and Molecular Weights pages could close the app on some iPhones. Fixed. • Molecular Weights: tapping a reagent now opens the Molarity calculator with its weight already filled in, from anywhere on the row. • Timers: a rare crash of the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island countdown is fixed. • Fixed a rare case where the app could rebuild its database and start empty after several silent background launches. Plus reliability improvements.

The Colony Counter (Beta) got much better at real plates. COLONY COUNTER (BETA) • Detection was rebuilt and checked against real photos of agar plates and plaque wells: plates that used to come back empty now count, and crowded plates are counted more completely. • Finds the edge of the dish more reliably. If it still gets it wrong, a new Radius slider with −1 % / +1 % buttons lets you set the circle yourself. • Handles touching colonies better. A clump the counter cannot split is kept as one orange marker for you to check, instead of quietly disappearing. • Long-press any marker to see why it has that colour and how big and round it is, then remove, restore or keep it. • Start a count straight from the CFU/mL and PFU/mL calculators ("Count colonies from a photo"). • The camera shows a circle to help you fill the frame with the dish or well. • Leave the screen and come back: your count in progress is still there ("Continue where you left off"). • Clearer marker rings at every zoom, one name everywhere ("Colony Counter"), a step-by-step guide in How the app works, and the calculator search finds it with "plaque", "PFU", "agar" or "camera". • Still Beta: very crowded plates with fused colonies and very faint colonies are under-counted. Please check the markers before you save a count. Plus reliability improvements.

A new Lab home, a Library tab, and a much stronger Sequences (Beta). LAB AND LIBRARY • The Lab tab is now one place for everything you work with: Experiments, Cultures, Lab Notebook, Inventory, Protocols, Plate Layouts and Sequences, as big cards. • The Reference tab is now Library: Lab Reference formulas and guides, How the app works, Settings and feedback. SEQUENCES (BETA) • Import several files at once, including .dna, GenBank, FASTA and AB1, and verify AB1 reads against a DNA reference on one numbered grid with chromatograms and trimming. • Plasmid maps label every feature, outline pale colours, keep the ruler readable and group crowded enzyme names ("BamHI +4"). • Select a range of bases by tapping: length, GC, primer Tm, copy, reverse complement and a translation with a frame picker; amino acids appear under the bases for a selected CDS. • Restriction analysis: your own enzyme set, cut-count and inside/outside-feature filters, single cutters in bold on the map. • Digest simulation with a virtual gel against five common ladders, shareable as an image. • Add, edit and delete features with qualifiers. The imported file itself is never changed. • SnapGene files import without a needless warning, records are named after your file, the list sorts naturally, duplicates are refused, the ORF list shows one frame per stop, and the iPad detail page uses the full width. Plus reliability improvements.

Sequences (Beta): • Reads with changes or indels near the start now align correctly. • Long reads can now align even if they extend beyond a shorter reference. • Reads covering an entire circular reference now show 100% coverage. • “Show in sequence” now jumps directly to the selected feature. • Rotating or resizing keeps your search, filters, and results intact. Plus general stability improvements.

Sequences (Beta) is easier to explore on iPhone and iPad. • Improved plasmid map layouts, including a more compact iPhone view and better use of the iPad screen. • Faster access to Sanger alignment review and saved-alignment actions. • Restriction enzymes can now reveal every exact cut position. • Clearer feature filters, sequence labels, and chromatogram details. • Better VoiceOver and large-text support across maps, bases, features, and chromatograms. Plus general stability and interface improvements.

Sequences (Beta) is more reliable in this update. • Saved Sanger alignments now reopen more accurately and appear immediately after saving. • Circular alignments crossing the plasmid origin are now displayed clearly. • Better handling of damaged or unusual AB1, SnapGene, and GenBank files. • File-opening problems now show a helpful error. • Backup screens now clearly explain which Sequence data is not included. Plus general stability improvements.

Sequences (Beta) is now smoother and more reliable. Plasmid and sequence maps now appear at the top of each record and display correctly on both iPhone and iPad. The map layout is more compact, shows the appropriate circular or linear view, and no longer prevents page scrolling. This update also improves Sanger alignment validation, handles ambiguous matches more clearly, and adds further stability improvements.

NEW: SEQUENCES (BETA) - Open plasmid and sequence files (GenBank, FASTA, EMBL, ApE, SnapGene .dna) and Sanger .ab1 chromatograms from Files, Mail or AirDrop. - Circular and linear plasmid maps, sequence view with search, feature list, ORFs, translation, restriction sites, GC% and molecular weight. - View a chromatogram and align a Sanger read to your plasmid: mismatches, insertions, deletions and coverage, saved on the plasmid. - Viewer only in this beta. Your files stay on your device and in your private iCloud. FREEZING AND CULTURES - Viability and "frozen by" are saved when you freeze from a culture. Bank vials and keep the flask active, or reactivate a frozen culture without losing its history. - Thawed vials get feed reminders from day one. Culture rows show when the next feed is due. A freshly thawed culture reminds you to passage it once before an experiment. - The split sheet shows typical trypsin and medium volumes for your vessel and can hand the count straight to the Seeding calculator, which now remembers what you used last time. - Low vial stock warning per cell line (threshold in Freezer settings). Storage incidents can be edited after logging. CALCULATORS - New: qPCR delta-delta Ct (Livak), buffer pH designer (Henderson-Hasselbalch) inside Buffer Recipes, rotor balance map inside Centrifuge. - IC50/EC50 now uses a real 4PL fit when you have enough points and says which method it used. - Fixes: C1V1 no longer mixes %, x and cells/mL; ELISA 4PL needs at least 4 standards; calcium phosphate transfection shows 2x HBS, not Opti-MEM; Master Mix and Media Recipe refuse empty or impossible inputs; impossible buffer recipes cannot be copied or logged. RECORDS - Lab Handover PDF lists your active cultures first. Notebook PDFs name the period they cover and keep every detail line. - Protocol runs keep per-step times, notes and deviations. Experiments list all their deviations in one place. Timers that finish while the app is closed still reach your notebook. - Mycoplasma: a reminder when a test comes due, and an exportable test log per culture. - Backups can include your photos. LAB REFERENCE - Selection antibiotic working concentrations, codon reverse lookup with copy, ladders drawn as gel lanes, VoiceOver labels throughout. TIMERS AND REMINDERS - Snooze a timer notification for 5 minutes. A new Scheduled Reminders list shows everything the app will remind you about. No more double alarm when a timer ends with the app open. AND - Correct plurals, DD/MM/YYYY dates everywhere, an honest "Last synced" time, confirmations before clearing tasks or deleting a reagent category, proper "no results" screens, and privacy manifests for the widget and Watch.

-Safer backups: a damaged backup file can no longer harm your photos. -Deleting a cell line, protocol, or virus stock now always cleans up its linked tasks and reminders. -Small fixes to the MOI, hemocytometer, and DNA/RNA calculators. Thanks for using the app. Feedback is always welcome via Send Feedback on the Reference screen.

Lab Reference is now searchable. Type RIPA, DAPI or PMSF and you land on the right card. Long-press anything in Lab Reference to copy it. Six reference topics now open the calculator that answers the next question. MOI calculator: see how many of your cells actually get infected, with charts. Corrected several reference numbers, including the NEB P7719 protein ladder. Fixed Delete All Data leaving every protocol in one folder. Fixed a blank screen when typing one letter into search. The Today screen now warns you if iCloud storage is full and syncing has stopped. Thank you for using the app. Feedback is always welcome: use Send Feedback on the Reference screen.

-See a whole year of work on one screen, next to Day, Week and Month. Step back through previous years, and export the whole year as one text file, spreadsheet or PDF. -On iPad, the Scan-a-document button could disappear from the Lab Notebook when the toolbar ran out of room, for example in portrait or in Split View. It stays visible now. The same fix applies to Scan-to-find and + in the freezer, and to Export in the plate layout editor. -The Colony Manager announcement no longer opens by itself. It is still there whenever you want it, on the Reference screen. Thank you for using the app. Any feedback is welcome, big or small: use Send Feedback on the Reference screen.

This update makes everyday lab work easier, with new counting tools, better tracking, and simpler imports. -- Colony & Plaque Counter (Beta) -- Take a photo of a plate or stained well and let the app count colonies or plaques for you. Review the result, correct any mistakes, and send the confirmed count to the CFU/mL or PFU/mL calculator. Beta: automatic detection can make mistakes or miss objects, so always review the result and confirm the final count. -- Import spreadsheets -- Already have your freezer or reagent list in a CSV? Bring it straight into the app. The app matches your columns, shows you a preview, and only imports after you confirm. -- Track storage incidents -- Record freezer problems such as power failures, open doors, temperature rises, or empty LN2 tanks, and record which samples were affected. -- Add experiment deviations -- Something didn’t go according to plan? Add a note to the step with what happened and why. It stays with your experiment record. -- Record observations faster -- Use quick observation tags such as granular, clumped, detached, or overgrown when recording cultures. Your observations are easier to find later. -- Spot unusual growth -- The app can now flag when a culture is growing much slower or faster than its usual pattern. -- Also improved -- Better file importing, more reliable syncing, smoother performance, and many smaller fixes and accessibility improvements. Thank you for using Cell Culture and Lab Assistant!

- Notifications now stack by type, so feeds, tasks, timers and equipment reminders no longer pile up as one long list on your Lock Screen. - Lab Alerts on the Today board are grouped into Cultures, Equipment, Reagents and Virus stocks, with the most urgent group first.

- Updated the contact e-mail address used for feedback and support. - Internal cleanup.

- Alert switches now control notifications only: turning one off no longer hides those items from your Today board. - The Control Center button now opens your Timers page, so you can start any timer with one tap instead of a fixed 5-minute one. - "Enjoying the app?" now opens the App Store review page directly.

This update makes reminders and timers more reliable: - Timer alarms now break through Focus and Do Not Disturb. - Reminders work across your devices: tasks created on one device now remind on the others, and deleted items stop reminding. - Apple Watch: start, pause and stop timers even when the iPhone app is closed, and feel a vibration when a timer finishes on screen. - Siri timers no longer ring twice, and timers stopped from the Lock Screen stay silent. - Completed tasks and finished maintenance no longer trigger reminders, and resuming an archived experiment brings its reminders back. - The example data never sends reminders, tapping a reminder opens the right screen, and time labels stay exact.

SCAN A PROTOCOL Photograph a kit insert, SOP, or paper’s methods section—or import a PDF—and turn it into a runnable protocol, step by step. Review every step, duration, and volume before anything is saved. Requires an iPhone with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or newer). SCAN INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK Photograph handwritten bench notes, instrument printouts, certificates, or import a PDF. The original page becomes your notebook record, filed under any date you choose. Its text is recognized in the background, making your records searchable months later from both the notebook and iPhone Search. Works on every device. SMARTER REAGENT ENTRY Point your camera at a reagent label and tap the printed lot or catalog number instead of typing it. On newer bottles, scan the square barcode to fill in the lot and expiry automatically. With Apple Intelligence, photograph the entire label and let the form fill in the name, vendor, catalog number, lot, expiry, and storage conditions—with every value shown for review first. LIVE TEXT ON YOUR PHOTOS Select and copy text directly from any saved photo in the photo viewer. BETTER DICTATION On iOS 26, notebook dictation uses Apple’s newest on-device speech engine for improved accuracy, especially for longer entries.