What the Tech: Check out new features from Apple
By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter
Apple has announced a bunch of new features for iOS and other platforms. The biggest news was the introduction of AI on Apple devices. It’s one of the biggest announcements about Apple’s software since it introduced Siri 13 years ago.
Here are some of the highlights.
First off, iOS 18 is bringing updates to the iPhone home screen and control center, so you can customize how they look and work. You’ll be able to change the color of the home screen and even the color of app icons.
There will be more control in Control Center with the ability to add many other apps to the page. You’ll also be able to mirror your iPhone on a Mac, even if it’s locked and in another room.
There’s a new “Hidden Apps” folder to keep your private apps, well, private. If you hand someone your phone they’ll only be able to see the folder by unlocking it with Face ID.
They’re also adding satellite messaging and texting for when you’re off the grid.
The Mail app has a ton of new features and will summarize long emails for you. Plus, you can now send Apple Cash to someone else with just a tap.
Apple introduced a new Passwords app that stores all passwords across devices (including Windows) which will make it easier for someone to create, save, and remember difficult and more secure passwords.
In Messages you can create your own “genmoji” if an emoji isn’t personal enough. You can even create a personalized genmoji using a contact’s memoji. For example, if you send someone a “Happy Birthday” message, you can attach an image showing that person, or yourself, blowing out candles on a birthday cake.
The Photos app is getting a makeover too, making it easier to organize and find photos. It’ll even create memory movies for you, complete with music and transitions, without any editing on your part. The example they gave was by asking Siri to “create a memory movie of my son’s first fishing trip”. The smart assistant searched through the photos library looking for photos and
videos of the son fishing.
The Memory Movie even chose songs from Apple Music to put behind the finished video.
The iPad is finally getting a calculator that is much more powerful than the iPhone’s calculator. Math Notes allows a user to write on an iPad using an Apple pencil any math problem and the calculator computing the answer. You’ll also be able to change any of the equation on the fly to get updated answers.
Writing on an iPad with an Apple pencil will be improved with Smart Script. If you have terrible handwriting, Scratch Pad will improve your writing to make it more legible. But the real star of the show is Apple’s integration of ChatGPT, which they’re calling Apple Intelligence.
Along with Apple Intelligence, Siri is getting a fresh logo and a major upgrade, acting like a real personal assistant.
Using generative AI, you’ll be able to continue a conversation with Siri rather than starting over after asking it something. If you ask Siri about any plans you have with someone that day, Siri will search through emails and text messages to show a summary of what you have planned.
Then you can ask for details on driving directions and traffic.
Siri will use Apple Intelligence across all apps. You can ask Siri to find and edit photos, summarize meeting notes, and even fill out forms. An example they Apple showed was a form that needed to be filled out with the person’s driver’s license number. Asking Siri to do that showed the assistant searching through the photos library for that person’s Driver’s License photo and inputting that number into the form.
And the best part? All of this uses ChatGPT privately, so your information stays secure.
Apple unveiled a ton of other features in iOS 18, but many of them will only be available on iPhone 15 and later models. I’ll be trying these out myself in the next few weeks and will share how they work, so stay tuned!
