The biggest complaint people had about the new iPhone 16 lineup was that it lacked the very feature it was most marketed for: Apple Intelligence. When it comes to development, it quickly became clear that the new phones were Apple’s ships to show its slate of new AI features. Given that, it was especially ironic to be told that we would have to wait a few months for those features. They have finally started to roll out, as seen with the release of iOS 18.1 a few weeks ago. Now, iOS 18.2 is out of beta and is expected to be available to the public sometime in December. Here are some features that caught our attention from a long, long list.
Image Generation
This version of iOS is big on production art. With the new Image Playground app, you can create custom images based on text commands you enter. Although similar to any online AI image generator, this feature is integrated into your iPhone and is free to use. Additionally, with Image Wand, you can now add your memos to the Notes app with pictures. The ability to create custom emojis, Genmojis, gained a lot of attention during WWDC when the feature was announced. It is finally available in this iOS version. This will work in the same way as Image Playground: you will enter text information and have it converted to emoji.
Traffic Signals
iOS car animations are coming to the dynamic island. Honestly, this is a feature I’m really looking forward to as I suffer from extreme motion sickness. Motion indicators are not a new feature (introduced with iOS 18), but integrating them into the dynamic island. Using your phone during car rides makes the sickness worse, so this feature will ensure that I can easily navigate Google Maps as long as I have a dynamic island at the top of the screen in my peripheral vision.
iPhone Mirroring With Hotspot
With iOS 18.2, if you connect your iPhone to a Mac using a hotspot, it will mirror your phone, too. Previously, the hotspot didn’t have mirroring capabilities, so this will be a nice bonus feature.
Type in Siri
The other good news is that you can finally talk to Siri like a person instead of typing to her. Siri going multimodal (accepting multiple input methods) makes me happy because it doesn’t work well with all types of pronunciation. I’d be much happier if Apple had worked to be more inclusive instead, but I’ll take what I can get for now.
ChatGPT-Integrated Siri
This is old newsbut Apple Intelligence makes Siri not dumb by integrating ChatGPT directly into it. This means that all your questions will be forwarded to the AI ​​assistant now without requiring you to sign up for an OpenAI account. The ChatGPT-Siri integration also means that your results will include images in addition to text.
Volume limit
The new volume limit feature will be incredibly useful in quiet, public places where you wish you could accidentally shout a loud video or song on your phone. In iOS 18.2, you’ll be able to set a maximum volume limit for how your iPhone can play songs, media, or other content through the speaker. Thanks, this won’t work for reminders, calls, and alarms.
Automatic applications
You know how your iPhone sometimes asks you about your preferred browser to open a link? And do you have to enter preferences each time? With iOS 18.2, you’ll be able to go into the new Default Apps section in Settings and set preferences for Email, Messaging, Calling, Browser, and more. It will make a note of all your choices so you don’t have to say them over and over again.
Removes important applications
I like that the EU is slowly teaching Apple that they can’t have their own weird rules about everything and need to conform to a universal standard. This giant of Cupertino really needs to be tamed in many areas. First, it approved Apple’s universal Type-C charging standard, and now it ensures that users can remove important applications such as the App Store, Safari, Messages, Camera, and Photos. However, the main app feature is currently only available in the EU. We hope it will be broadcast worldwide soon.
Visual Intelligence
The new iPhone 16 gets the Google Lens artificial intelligence feature that will allow you to point your iPhone at any object and describe it to you. A long press on the camera control button will activate the feature, after which you have to point your iPhone at the object of your choice. Interestingly, if you target a restaurant, it will read its reviews and opening hours for you.
Writing Tools
The writing tools most associated with Apple Intelligence have already been released with iOS 18.1, but the second-generation software adds more styles and tones. Currently, the tools are limited to only three styles.
Availability
Apple has not announced that it plans to release iOS 18.2 to the public. All we know is that it will be in December. The good thing about this release is that unlike iOS 18.1, Apple Intelligence supports more than just US English in 18.2. It now covers English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. However, it is still limited to only one language, which I hope will change soon.
Source link