At the 2024 edition of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), the tech behemoth unveiled a slew of exciting new features and updates. Among them include the iOS 18, availability for the Apple Vision Pro in more countries, and cool features brought to you by the company’s new machine learning system – known as Apple Intelligence (AI for short), which was teased last month during the launch of Apple’s latest iPads.
Without further do, here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s latest key developments. Brace yourself, there’s a lot to unpack.
What’s new in iOS 18?
The Home Screen can be customised by arranging apps and widgets in any open space. Users can choose between a light, dark, or tinted look. Users can customise their preferred colour theme for app icons too. App icons can take on a larger appearance for a bold, minimalist look.
Home screen customisation: Users can now apply themes for app icons, place them anywhere on the screen, and automatically tint them to match Dark Mode. This provides a more personalised and flexible user experience.
Controls Gallery: The Control Centre in iOS 18 has been revamped with a multi-page layout that allows third-party developers to offer widgets for the Control Center, thus enhancing its functionality. For the first time, users can also switch controls at the bottom of the lock screen, replacing the flashlight and camera icons.
Privacy updates: Security has also been enhanced, offering users the option of locking individual apps behind Face ID. This ensures that sensitive information within apps remains protected, even if the phone is shared with others.
More features in the iMessage app: Users can now better express tone by adding formatting like bold, underline, italics, and strikethrough. Tapbacks have also been expanded to include any emoji or sticker, rather than being limited to only a few options. Plus, users can compose a message and schedule to send it at a later time.
Mail app enhancements: The app introduces new ways to manage an inbox with categorisation that includes Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions, enhancing privacy and efficiency.
Safari updates: With the new Highlights feature and redesigned Reader experience, users can easily browse key information about a webpage. For example, users can review a summary to get the gist of an article; quickly see the location of a restaurant, hotel, or landmark; or listen to an artist’s track directly from an article about the song or album. On the other hand, the redesigned Reader offers even more ways to enjoy articles without distraction, providing a summary and table of contents for longer articles.
Passwords gets its own app: Building on the foundation of Keychain, which was first introduced more than 25 years ago, the new Passwords app makes it easy for users to access their passwords, passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords, and verification codes. The app also includes alerts for users regarding common weaknesses, such as passwords that are easily guessed or used multiple times and those that appear in known data leaks.
Easier payment systems: Users get new ways to pay with Apple Pay, including the ability to redeem rewards and access instalments from their eligible credit or debit card. Meanwhile, the Tap to Cash feature allows users to send money to friends instantly by bringing their phones close together, similar to AirDrop. Other enhancements to Apple Wallet include better support for rewards cards and deeper integration of event tickets, providing more detailed information like seat numbers and shortcuts for directions.
iOS 18 will be supported by all the same devices as iOS 17, including all models from the iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone XR and later. The first beta will be released following Apple’s keynote, while a public beta will arrive in July. Meanwhile, the public release is expected in Fall this year.
What’s up with Apple Intelligence (AI)?
For the unacquainted, Apple Intelligence, or aptly named AI for short, offers generative AI-powered features within native applications, as part of the latest operating systems for selected Apple products. Specifically, it will be available on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad, and Mac with M1 and later. Here are the new AI features at a glance:
Siri can now retrieve information from messages, emails, calendar and photos, as well as third party apps, to answer a wider range of queries and accomplish tasks. Users can also interact with Siri via text.
ChatGPT integration: Apple is incorporating the technology so that its systems can better understand images and documents. Users can also use the feature to compose and edit text messages.
Clean up tool: This new tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo, without accidentally altering the subject.
Private Cloud Compute: This new system will handle more complex tasks on Apple’s servers, so data is not stored and is only used to fulfill your requests.
Apple Vision Pro is coming to more countries
…but Malaysia is not on the list. Whether or not this will change remains to be seen, but customers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore will be able to pre-order Apple Vision Pro from June 14; while customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K. can pre-order on June 28.
ICYMI: Apple unveils the Apple Vision Pro at Apple Event 2023
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