iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia: A New Era of Apple Software

8 features you need to try first when you upgrade to macOS Sequoia

If you're surprised that macOS Sequoia is already here, you're not alone. The latest update hit the best Macs yesterday, Sept. 16, and it's the earliest macOS update to be released in the last decade. Of course, the elephant in the room is that many of the best macOS Sequoia features won't be available to the public until later, when Apple Intelligence debuts. Still, you can download the update today -- it's roughly 15GB in size -- and try out plenty of new features. To help you out, we've rounded up the eight top macOS Sequoia features you can use immediately after installing the upgrade. From well-known tools like iPhone Mirroring to more subtle changes in Notes and Safari, this list covers it all. Related macOS Sequoia hands-on: Apple finally figured out how to snap windows macOS Sequoia is like macOS Sonoma, but with window snapping built-in. 8 Presenter preview Video conferencing just got easier ... again The new screen sharing preview in macOS Sequoia. For the past few years, macOS has been the best operating system for video calling. It has plenty of built-in tools and useful privacy features, and with macOS Sequoia, it gains another one. Presenter preview will show you exactly what you're about to share with others before they see it -- eliminating any fears about sharing the wrong thing. There's also something called Play preview that helps you figure out where your content or presenter notes will be, making sure they're on the right display and in view. You can pick a virtual background at the OS-level for use with all your video conferencing apps. This isn't new to Apple, because Microsoft has been doing this for a while, but there's a chance macOS does it better. You can try all these features by starting a video call, sharing your screen, and following the on-screen prompts. Related 4 reasons macOS is the best OS for video calls Video conference calls have become ubiquitous in 2023, and there's no OS better at them than macOS Sonoma. 7 Notes & Calculator upgrades Collapsible sections will help you organize your digital life We all probably know that Apple infamously added a Calculator app to the iPad with iPadOS 18, and it unlocked new features like Math Notes. However, you might not know that Apple's new auto-completing equations made their way to every macOS Sequoia text field. If you type out an equation anywhere in the OS, whether it's Notes or Messages, you'll get the solution automatically. Additionally, the Calculator app for macOS Sequoia got a visual overhaul that matches iOS and iPadOS 18. Notes got a few big upgrades of its own, including audio recording and live transcription. You can record audio right from the Notes app, and view summaries and transcripts in the same place. For organization, there are now collapsible sections and advanced highlighting tools. When you add a Subheading in the Notes app, there will automatically be an invisible option beside it to collapse or reveal it. You can start recording in any note by clicking the new wavelength icon in the toolbar. Related OneNote vs. Apple Notes: Which note-taking app is right for you? Pick an ideal digital cabinet to store your ideas and thoughts 6 Safari improvements Reading websites and watching videos just got a lot easier Close Safari got a massive upgrade with macOS Sequoia, and it's going to make reading articles much easier. Highlights replace the usual Reader icon, and while it still includes a reader mode, there's much more now. You can click this icon to the left of the address bar and learn more about the site you're viewing, including a summary and other key points. There's also the Video Viewer, which lets you pull out an in-page video to watch it in the center of the screen. Related I tried the upgraded Safari 18 beta without installing macOS Sequoia, and you can too You can run the next version of Safari on macOS Sonoma and Ventura today Speaking of distractions, Safari in macOS Sequoia will actually let you remove distracting in-site elements, like ads. Click the Reader icon and then select Hide distracting items. From there, you can pick website elements at will and make them disappear to improve your browsing experience. This one might be a game-changer, and it should be one of the first things you try. 5 Messages upgrades New formatting styles and Send Later highlight a suite of improvements Source: Apple If you're an iMessage user, you'll notice one big feature on your Mac after upgrading to macOS Sequoia: Send Later. With this feature, you can pick a time to schedule send an iMessage to someone straight from your Mac. It works by sending the message to Apple's servers -- in encrypted form, of course -- and holding it there until the scheduled date and time. That way, it can reach the recipient even if your Mac loses connection to a network or powers down. Messages for macOS Sequoia gets all the features that came to iOS 18, like new text formatting options. Aside from the classic bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough options, you can also use Text Effects. These are dynamic text formatting options that can make your message shake or explode, for example. They're must-try features this year. Related These are the 4 best ways to use iMessage on Windows You don't have to give up the Apple ecosystem's biggest perk if you use a Windows PC or laptop. 4 Shared notifications Notifications are supercharged in macOS Sequoia with iPhone Mirroring and more Finally, Apple's Continuity features reach peak ecosystem integration in macOS Sequoia. After you set up iPhone Mirroring -- we'll get to that flagship feature in a bit -- you can receive your iPhone's notifications on your Mac. They'll appear right in the macOS Notification Center, just like all your other system notifications. This is useful on its own, but notifications will get even better when Apple Intelligence comes out. You'll soon be able to see notification summaries and more tools that use AI to streamline your notifications. 3 Passwords app We now have a true Apple password manager -- sort of Close Apple Passwords is a standalone app in macOS Sequoia that works like a password manager. It's not cross-platform, unfortunately, but it's a much better way of interacting with your iCloud Password Keychain. After trying out the app itself, you'll want to open the Passwords settings and add the app to your menu bar. In that menu, you'll find a toggle called Show Passwords in Menu Bar. After adding the Passwords app to the menu bar, you can click the Passwords icon to reveal a menu bar window with your saved passwords, or type in the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + P. This makes it easier than ever to find the passwords you need. Simply click the menu bar icon, authenticate with Touch ID or your password, and search to find the password you need. They're all right at your fingertips, and are all accessible from anywhere in macOS Sequoia. It's especially helpful for apps where autofill isn't available, or when you need to type in your password manually on another device. Related Guide to the Passwords app in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia The new Passwords app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac provides a secure place to store all your passwords and passkeys, and has neat security features, too. 2 Window tiling A long-overdue addition to macOS is finally here I've been envious of the Windows 11 window management features for ages, most notably window snapping. Well, Apple finally heeded the advice of many macOS power users and stole window snapping straight from Windows. It's called window tiling on macOS Sequoia, but it's effectively the same thing. If you drag a window on macOS to the sides or corners, it will snap into place. By default, macOS Sequoia will leave a weird gap between snapped windows, but you can disable this in System Settings. As simple as it is, window tiling is my favorite macOS Sequoia feature. Related 4 features I wish Apple would steal from Windows Apple granted my wish with window snapping, but I want more 1 iPhone Mirroring This is the highlight of macOS Sequoia, and I love it Close Last, but not least, is iPhone Mirroring. It's the flagship feature of macOS Sequoia, and it lets you access your iPhone straight from your Mac. After setting it up (we have a whole guide on that below), you'll be able to use your iPhone in windowed form just like you would typically. This feature is clever and could be a game-changer for people who have iPhone-exclusive apps they depend on. It's easy to use, it's secure, and it's simply cool. Apple took Sidecar, the iPad and Mac feature, to the next level with iPhone Mirroring. Related How to use iPhone Mirroring in macOS Sequoia Want your iPhone notifications on your Mac? Now you can have that and more with iPhone Mirroring. As I mentioned earlier, the best part of iPhone Mirroring is that your iPhone notifications can appear on your Mac after setting it up for the first time. This is the subtle highlight of iPhone Mirroring, even if you only set it up once and forget about it. You can also add iPhone widgets to your desktop, which is amazing. It's just that convenient. The features we're still waiting for Apple Intelligence is set to debut on macOS Sequoia later this year, which will bring Writing Tools and a supercharged Siri to the Mac. However, you shouldn't count on those features until if and when they arrive. For now, enjoy the eight new features you can use today on macOS Sequoia. If you do want a preview of how Apple Intelligence will change the Mac, I went hands-on with the beta in the article below. Related I tried 5 new Apple Intelligence features in macOS Sequoia, here's how it went The flagship features aren't available yet, but I'm already impressed by the Apple Intelligence beta.

I've been using iOS 18 for three months -- here's my favorite new features

Since Apple wrapped up its WWDC 2024 keynote in early June, I've had iOS 18 on the brain. Apple previews its annual iPhone software update every year at its developer conference, before rolling out a beta featuring those changes and enhancements. It's usually my job to dive deep into that beta, so I can fill the void with profiles, how-tos and assessments of all the changes heading to everyone's iPhones in the fall. And that's what happened this year with iOS 18. Right after the keynote ended, I installed the iOS 18 developer beta on one iPhone to get an early look at the features Apple previewed during WWDC. By mid-July, I was putting the public beta through its paces. By the time Apple was ready to release a full version of iOS 18 -- that happened this past Monday (September 16) -- I had some form of the operating system update running on four different devices, including the latest beta on the iPhone 12 I use as my every day phone. What I'm trying to say here, is that I'm pretty familiar with the ins and outs of this update. You can get my thoughts on the new iPhone software in my iOS 18 review. But if you can't block out the time you need to make it through that tome -- no, Tom's Guide does not pay me by the word -- I've prepared this quick-ish summary of what I like about iOS 18 and what I think needs some fine-tuning via the updates Apple will inevitably make to its software. So if you're ready to download and install iOS 18 and wondering which of the new iPhone features to try out first, here's an overview of my main takeaways from spending the last three months in iOS 18's company. Most of the time when you fire up your iPhone after installing a new OS, everything looks about the same, even if Apple has introduced significant new features. You cannot say that about iOS 18 Photos, which undergoes a significant redesign -- the biggest in the history of the app, Apple says. So substantive are the changes to Photos in iOS 18 that the version of the app appearing in the version released to the public doesn't even look like the one in early versions of the iOS 18 beta. Initially, Apple included a carousel at the top of the Photos app; when you swiped left or right from the default view of your photos library, you would see a collection of photos. But around iOS 18 beta 5, Apple ditched that feature to keep the focus on the photo library, apparently reflecting feedback from the beta process. That wouldn't have been the feedback I would have given. While I thought early versions of iOS 18 Photos could have made it more apparent that there was something on either side of the photo library should you happen to swipe, I like that the carousel highlighted my favorite thing about Photos -- discovering images I might have otherwise forgotten about. Some of that sense of discovery is missing from the current iteration -- or at least, it's been relocated. The basics of the Photos redesign are still in place. Launch the app, and your photo library fills up the top half of the screen while other collections take up the bottom half. A downward swipe takes you deeper into the photo library, while an upward one lets you explore different collections, albums and memories. It's a look that takes getting used to. I've been using iOS 18 for months, and I'm still not used to it. But at least you have some say in configuring the order in which all those collections, memories and albums appear. Just scroll to the very bottom of the app and tap the Customize & Reorder command. The new version of Notes introduces a handful of significant changes, but each one proves to be better than the last. If you're not using Apple's built-in app to jot down ideas or organize your thoughts, the iOS 18 version should be the one that prompts you to give Notes a try. Math in Notes is going to draw the most attention because it's flashy -- you can scribble down a math formula, and the new built-in calculator will come up with a solution. Honestly, though, it's hard to use this particular feature on a 6.1-inch iPhone screen with your finger as the primary input tool -- it works better with an Apple Pencil on an iPad-sized display. Still, Math in Notes also lets you type out formulas, such as a running tally of expenses. As you change the data inputs, Notes will update the total. It's a very clever way of making sure your notes are up to date. It's the other additions in Notes that really impress me. I like the collapsable sections Apple aded because they help me better oranize my notes. And I think it's great that you can now record an audio note directly in Notes, instead of linking to a recording from the Voice Memos app. The auto-generated transcripts are helpful, too, though not always as accurate as I would like to see. I've written elsewhere about how much I've used the Fitness app since iOS 16 made it possible to track your steps without also requiring you to where an Apple Watch. It's really helps encourage me to move, though sometimes the app's constant prodding tries to get me to move when I should be giving my body a rest. Just like the watchOS 11 update Apple just released, iOS 18 modifies the Fitness app to let you pause activity streaks, so that you can take a day off to recover from injury or illness without losing your progress toward a new badge. (In fact, you can pause your streak indefinitely if you really need some extra recovery time.) Even better, you can adjust your daily move goals for each day of the week, recognizing that some days are going to be more intensive than others. The iOS 18 version of Fitness finally recognizes that we all approach exercise and movement in different ways and at different times. Of all the customization tools Apple added in this update -- and there are a lot of them -- this one is the best. I don't hate the Highlights feature in Safari, which seeks to pull out quick bits of vital information from the web pages you visit. I just don't think it's serving up helpful data in its current iteration, and finding the feature is not very intuitive. Highlights is supposed to serve up info on places, people, movies, shows and songs, though right now, places seems to be the most consistent thing that pops up. That info tends to be the location of that place on a map, and its hours of operation -- information that's arguably easier to look up in the Maps app. And that assumes you'll even know there are Highlights to be seen in the first place. A tiny purple AI icon in the address bar is supposed to clue you in that there's more to be seen here, but it's very easy to overlook. Really, all the additions to Safari in iOS 18 feel like they could use a bit more time in development. The most polished feature is the summaries that appear in the Reader view of Safari to give you the gist of the article you're about to read. But by their nature, they only really scratch the surface. A Hide Distractions tool lets you banish distracting elements from a web page with a simple tap, but you do this as you scroll down the page, which feels equally distracting. Better to just look at the page in Reader if possible. Customization is a big theme in iOS 18. You can change the look of your home screen, placing apps wherever you like instead of in a strict grid. You can even customize the control shortcuts that appear on your lock screen, and several apps let you reorganize things to your own liking. I think this is a great step for Apple. If anything, I'd like to see the company take it even further. For instance, as part of the home screen customization tools, you can change the color of app icons. That's great -- except that every icon has to have the same tint. I would have liked the ability to assign different colors to different app types for an easy visual cue as to what kind of activity is on each home screen I set up. But that's not an option yet in iOS 18. Similarly, I like the newfound ability to remove certain interface elements from the Fitness app main screen. But I also would have appreciated the ability to reorder sections of the summary screen, which doesn't seem to be a real option. As I noted in my review, Apple Intelligence are missing in action in the version of iOS 18 that Apple just released, though that's by design. Apple is planning to release the first Apple Intelligence features in October as part of the iOS 18.1 update. If you've got a phone capable of running Apple Intelligence -- that's one of last year's iPhone 15 Pro models or any of the new iPhone 16 devices hitting stores this Friday (September 20) -- that's when you'll be able to try the new writing tools and image-generation features. Several Apple Intelligence features will arrive in subsequent updates. We may be seeing additions to compatible phones well into 2025, according to some reports. By necessity, I've been focusing on the main iOS 18 update, though I've dabbled a little bit with the iOS 18.1 developer beta where you can test out initial Apple Intelligence features. As someone with a complicated relationship with Siri, I'm most eager to see how the revamped digital assistant works in daily usage thanks to Apple Intelligence's added smarts. I have a slight stammer that's made past it difficult to communicate with Siri in the past, so I'm especially eager to see if claims that Siri isn't rattled by you correcting yourself mid-sentence are accurate. Natural language searches for photos also sounds appealing. It should make it much easier to find things using simple language rather than hoping that I've hit upon the right combination of keywords to turn up what I'm looking for. And I'm eager to see whether memory movie -- in which you can piece together a slideshow of videos and still images just by using some language prompts -- can produce an engaging video. As you might have guessed from iOS 18 review -- you've read it, right? - I'm fairly bullish on the new software update, though a lot of how I ultimately feel about it will depend on how powerful those Apple Intelligence features turned out to be. With the initial iOS 18 release now out in the opening, I can roll up my sleeves and dig into iOS 18.1 to see how the rest of this software update pans out.

iOS 18 review: Customizable, but missing Apple Intelligence

It's the fall, and that means Apple has released a new operating system for the iPhone. For 2024, the new device range is the iPhone 16 family, while iOS 18 is the software running on it. However, following the last few years of updates, we're now at a point where most of Apple's changes could be considered quality-of-life improvements. You wouldn't expect it to be groundbreaking, but there's usually something interesting for users to enjoy. It's safe to describe a lot of the changes in iOS 18 in this way, except for one very important and absent collection. The iOS 18 section that Apple is certainly leaning on as the big feature to watch out for is Apple Intelligence. It's Apple's attempt to catch up on a tech sector infatuated with artificial intelligence and generative AI. However, the big problem is that no one will actually be able to enjoy it at the initial release. The features are not being made available as part of iOS 18 itself. Instead, users will have to wait until iOS 18.1 before seeing some of the initial elements roll out. The first wave, at least according to the beta testing of iOS 18.1, includes a collection of writing tools that will handle things like proofreading and rewriting your text. It's like a built-in version of Grammarly, without the subscription. Then there are things like the imaging capabilities, such as Clean Up for Photos. It can remove unwanted bits from your photographs with relative ease, using generative AI to fill in the gaps. Image Playground will also be very useful, with images generated from prompts and insertable into various iOS apps. Genmoji will work in the same way, giving even more flexibility to how users graphically communicate in iMessage conversations. These and a lot more features are on the way with Apple Intelligence. The problem is that it's not part of the main iOS 18 release, despite arguably being the biggest and most important part. It's not going to be complete when it does arrive, if betas are to be believed. The betas had the text editing features at first before Clean Up for Photos, but at the time of publication, Image Playground and Genmoji hadn't appeared. And we haven't even discussed Siri yet. Aside from a new multi-colored and glowing interface, Siri is supposed to be smarter than ever before. In part, it will be because it will understand personal contexts, namely the relation of you and others in messages, emails, photos, calendar events, files, and more. This analysis should allow it to understand complex queries such as "When will Mom's flight land" using elements of prior communication with her. Siri will also be able to perform actions in first and third-party apps, such as basic photo edits. It will be able to understand what's onscreen and answer some queries based on that. Along with more resilient query handling, Siri should also provide additional benefits with an integration with ChatGPT. It's probable that when Apple does release it, it won't come all at once. This isn't entirely new for Apple software releases, as it has frequently shipped iOS features long after the milestone release. For smaller features, this has been acceptable to users for a long time. However, the problem here is that Apple is putting its marketing might behind Apple Intelligence. The fact that Apple's making a big song and dance about it so long before iPhone users can actually use it all may be infuriating to some. When people are marketed major software features alongside a new device launch, such as the iPhone 16, they expect it to be out alongside it. Then there's the fact that it's not going to be available to everyone when it actually arrives either. Owners of the iPhone 16 will be fine as their devices will support it. So will iPhone 15 Pro owners, since their hardware was able to try it out in beta. There's also the problem that anyone with an iPhone that's older than those models will not be able to benefit from Apple Intelligence. They could still install iOS 18, but those features will simply not exist, unless they upgrade. When Apple Intelligence eventually arrives, it will help users feel as if iOS 18 has actually moved forward a considerable amount as an update. The issue is being teased about it, and still having to wait. What does arrive with iOS 18 is an increase in the amount of customization options that are available. This has been a pattern for the last few generations, but iOS 18 brings it to a more granular level than ever before. This starts with the Lock Screen, the first thing you see when you unlock your iPhone. Before, you were stuck with the flashlight and the camera icons, so you could quickly load each of them up without fully unlocking the iPhone. Now, as part of the usual customization options for the Lock Screen, you can change those buttons for something else. Apple includes quite a few different options by default, so you could instead get quick access to the Apple TV remote or the Translate app, for example. Having instant access to the flashlight has been extremely useful in the past. But being able to change it for something else entirely is a much better result. The customizations continue to the Home Screen itself, specifically where you can place icons on the screen. There's still a grid that everything aligns to, but now you can be more exacting with your positioning. Sure, there's still the icon shuffle when you move your selected app into a group of others, but placement now takes into account spacing. You can leave gaps in the grid where an icon would usually shift up and to the left to fill automatically. The grid still shuffles if you pull out an icon from the group, so you can't just make a gap in a nearly full grid. But, you can pull icons away and segment them from the group, creating a gap in the process. This gives users the ability to place icons practically where they want them to be, with a little work. If you have a background featuring an element you want to see and not be blocked by icons, you can certainly create enough space to keep it visible. Family or pet photos as backgrounds will no longer be littered with icons and widgets covering faces, unless you let them. If you don't want to have labels on your apps, you could do away with those too. A new large mode increases the icon square while simultaneously hiding the associated name. It's an aesthetic choice, but one that could be beneficial if you primarily look for apps by the icon rather than the name. This could be an issue if you have similar-looking apps, but in most cases, it's fine. Continuing the app customization, the Dark Mode option of iOS is now improved with extra icon options that change how they appear. Light and dark versions of icons are now available. For many of Apple's apps, they change to a much darker layout with colored highlights of the elements that make up app logos. This also applies to third-party apps too, such as a predominantly white icon having the background changed to black. In some cases, the colors also invert, such as a white logo on a bright orange background changing to a black background and an orange logo. For those who want a more unified color scheme, there's the option for tinted icons. These take the form of being similar to the dark variants, except that the other colors of the app icon can be changed to a specific color. For multi-colored icons, this highlighted color is still used, but with different shades, so that the icon is still recognizable. It even affects widgets, so they all match up to your selected color scheme. This feature is certainly one that will appease people who want a clean aesthetic for their smartphone screen. However, you do lose the ability to recognize an app by color, which could be a problem for some users. Control Center, the section that brings up a list of essential controls for your iPhone, has been overhauled in iOS 18. Sure, you could customize your controls a bit in iOS 17, but this time you have way more ways to change how everything appears than ever before. For a start, it's been turned into a multi-page feature. You can create multiple pages that you can swipe up and down through, so you can better organize all of the elements. For example, you could have the top-most page consist of your essential controls, followed by a second containing your Apple Music controls. A third could contain widgets for a HomeKit installation, while a fourth could be all of your connectivity settings, such as for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. You can set Control Center with up to ten pages, which would be overkill for most iPhone users. Even so, the option to do so is a great addition, especially from an organizational standpoint. As for the elements you can place into the pages, Apple also makes that a lot easier than before. Now, users need only to hold a finger down to enter a layout editing mode, just like the home screen. This time, the icons for the Control Center elements do have a minus symbol in the top-left corner if you want to remove them. In the bottom right is a curved element, so you can turn icons into larger widget-style versions. You can also re-order the page like Home Screen apps, with a press and drag moving them from one place to another. Again, you can create gaps in the layout if you want. Adding options to Control Center is just as easy, as there's an "Add a Control" option at the base of the editing screen. This brings up a list of controls and widget-style collections that you can add to the Control Center, covering a very large number of functions. This is divided down to type, such as Clock functions, Display & Brightness, and Wallet. This section also includes quite a lot of Accessibility functions, including sections for hearing, motor, and vision accessibility functions. While the accessibility functions are still managed within the Settings app, the option of accessing them quickly within Control Center is a fantastic move for those who need it. That list isn't just going to be for Apple's selection of apps and iPhone functions. Third-party controls are also supported, so developers can further extend the utility of their apps using Control Center. This could well become an interesting element in the future as more embrace the opportunity. Since many Control Center controls can also be accessible from the Lock Screen thanks to other personalization changes, this could be an even more useful feature change in the future. One of the biggest divisive points of the iOS 18 update is probably the Photos app. The iOS 17 iteration was easy to navigate, with a base navigational tab system that made it simple to get to the right section for what you wanted to do. That's gone now, obliterated by the new app that opts for a unified interface. Yes, you're greeted by a neat grid of your photographic history, but after that, expect a lot of scrolling. Swiping down brings the full grid into view, with search at the top and filtering and reordering options at the bottom. Select Months or Years and to discover your media grouped up by date, with a tap of a year bringing you to the Months view for that period. If you want anything else other than immediate access or time-based division of your image archives, you're going to be swiping up. Instead of having an easily accessible menu, Apple put all of the elements below the grid. When you first access it, you're gonna see collections like Recent Days, People & Pets, and a selection of pinned collections, for example. After scrolling past memories and featured photos, you eventually stumble upon the Media Types options, Utilities, and Albums. You can fix this by scrolling right to the bottom, where there's an option to customize and reorder the Photos app elements that exist below the grid. You may want to move Media Types up higher, or things like Recent Days and People & Pets lower in the list, depending on how you value Apple's suggestions. You can also disable some elements from appearing full stop. If you're not one to go visit other countries, then you may not want to see Trips on the list at all. Reorganizing the list does help, but it doesn't take away the need to scroll through the app to what you want. It only shortens how much scrolling you need to do. Users of iPadOS 18 will, mercifully, still be able to use a sidebar to access their pinned collections and essential options. It's a shame that there's no similar swipe-in sidebar to do the same for iOS 18's version. What has definitely improved is how Photos can automatically group collections of images for easier sharing. It will generate collections based on your trips, your recent days of photography, and groups under the People & Pets category, for example. Its ability to create a montage of events as Memories is also useful, with the automation now matching a story arc instead of sticking to chronological order. It's also pretty good at titling and adding music to the pieces. The app is also capable of giving you more options to personalize your iPhone Home Screen. It will make wallpaper suggestions, with a quick tap taking you to the Lock Screen edit dialog to make it a reality. Apple does include a lot of smart elements in Photos, but there are some elements still left on the table. With the release of Apple Intelligence, it will include a natural language photo and video search, so you can look up images of a "white cat on a chair" if you want. The Clean Up tool will also eventually arrive to eradicate photobombers and unwanted other elements from images. Memories will also be boosted by Apple Intelligence, creating a memory based on a description. Alas, these aren't coming for a while. The ever-reliable Messages hasn't changed much over the years. After seeing the overhaul of Photos, texters are probably breathing a sigh of relief since the changes are much smaller this year. The most obvious and probably most used will be text effects, which provide formatting options for your messages. You have your usual collection of bold, italics, underline, and strike-through text, as well as some animated versions. Making the text bigger or smaller, exploding letters, or making them jitter can certainly make the conversation more interesting. At least from a text standpoint. Tapbacks gain the ability to use any emoji or sticker, adding even more ways to respond to a message, other than using text. This is quite handy, as Apple's previous tapback options were quite basic, and this can at least allow for memes to become responses. A less sexy but essential change is the introduction of Rich Communication Services or RCS. This will make it so you can send more iMessage-style messages to other people who don't use Apple products, but it won't solve the Blue-Green Bubble war. Following Apple's previous success with satellite-based emergency features, it also brought in some more normal Messages functions. Messages via Satellite enables you to get messages out to others, without necessarily needing a phone signal or Internet access. Off-grid users can also use SMS over Satellite, or even iMessage over Satellite with end-to-end encryption, emoji, Tapbacks, and replies. This is certainly a great addition to the previous emergency-focused satellite-based features. Though more for the ability to ping family that you're OK while camping, less for the emoji usage. For iPhones with a Dynamic Island, there's now a Live Activity for iMessage over Satellite that tells you if you're connected via the space-based system or not. Again, this is very handy for an at-a-glance notice, as you can sometimes get spotty satellite access depending on where you are in the world. Probably the best feature but likely to be under the radar for most users will be Send Later, which will let users choose a time for their message to go out. There are the obvious message types this could cover, but you could easily imagine this being handy from a care perspective. Sending a message to a loved one to take their tablets on time could be a great option if you're not there to help them remember. The release also incorporates another big initiative that changes a fundamental bit of Apple's ecosystem: Passwords. The keychain was known as the main storage place for credentials, and one that worked across the Apple ecosystem if you had it set up right. The problem was that it was not obvious for typical users to actually manage for themselves, short of appropriate prompting by the operating system. With the Password app, it gives users an easier way to access their account passwords, including Wi-Fi passwords, all in one place. It's also one that automatically works across multiple devices, and even on non-Apple products thanks to accessibility under Windows. There are even options to share passwords and passkeys with members of a user's Family group, if required. The shift to Passwords as an app may help convince some users not to take up the services of third-party password apps. It may be a redressing of what Apple already offered to users, but it does so in a more user-forward and understandable way. While Passwords as an app is a great move forward for user privacy, Apple also offers a few other security and privacy improvements, including app-specific changes. You can add locks to apps, making them inaccessible unless you unlock them first with Face ID. This seems counterintuitive since you have to unlock the iPhone in the first place, but it makes sense if someone access your iPhone after you unlocked it. If you're the kind of person who hands your iPhone off to a child to entertain them with YouTube or games, the last thing you want is for them to sign into your work email. Likewise, it could help to prevent a nosy colleague from trying to check out your most recent photographs. You can go one step further and fully hide apps from view. Not only are they locked off from access by others, but they're completely hidden, even without any visible notifications. The apps are accessible within a hidden apps folder, which itself is locked up. While this can be handy to fend off snooping friends, it also offers a more serious protective measure. In cases such as abusive relationships or when specific apps may be considered an issue in some cultures or regimes, it does give another line of defense. It seems like a trivial thing to add, but it is a big thing for those who need it. As usual, Apple did introduce more security features, such as Communication Safety's blocking of sensitive content from children's eyes unless the Screen Time password is entered. Since apps can easily take advantage of your contact lists, such as by passing the details off to marketing data collectors, Apple has also helped to minimize that sort of collection. Rather than sharing the entire contact list with an app, you can elect to only hand over specific needed contacts. This data limitation also extends to Bluetooth, with a new accessory setup process that allows for device pairing. One that also limits the data being passed on to leave out other nearby Bluetooth devices. To cap it all off, Apple's made it a lot easier to manage the privacy settings on a per-app basis. Inside the new Settings app, which itself has been refreshed in appearance and shifted the lengthy apps list to its own page, the Privacy & Security settings has been given a big update. Now it's much easier to see the types of data being shared with apps. It's also easier to disable specific types of data access for individual apps, such as disabling access to the camera or HomeKit. Apple did pride itself on privacy and security before, as it's spent years campaigning to maintain it as much as possible. It's just a lot easier for users to manage now. There are quite a few edits made to Notes that make it more usable for off-the-cuff digital scribbles. For a start, there's a lot going on with audio recordings. You can record audio and store them alongside your written and drawn notes. This can certainly help your later re-reading and re-hearing of what you said, especially since it's so much easier to listen to some information but to see other types. The audio recording isn't just limited to your own notes, as you can also record phone calls. Recording for your own purposes is great when it's to someone where words count, like a lawyer, and it even handles the legalities of telling all parties that the call is being recorded. Even better, both audio recordings and phone calls can be live transcribed, giving you a text that is in sync with the audio itself. This is useful for quickly scanning an audio recording for a soundbite, since you can follow along with the text. For college students, it's easy to imagine that this will make lecture recording and note-taking much easier. To further enhance long stretches of text, highlighting now offers five colors to choose from. It sounds excessive, but color-coding text is a great way to study. Connected to this is the ability to collapse down sections of text in an extremely long passage. One element of Notes that is an interesting one for homework purposes is Math Notes. Accessible within Notes and via the Calculator, it's possible to write expressions and equations and to see results offered straight away, even graphs. This Math Notes functionality even extends to assigning and understanding variables in equations. On the Calculator, aside from note-taking entries, you also gain histories, unit conversions, and editable expressions. You can even use a scientific calculator in a portrait orientation, without needing to go into landscape for it. Some of these pretty useful mathematics elements can also be accessed elsewhere. If you're in Messages or Mail, you may see suggestions from Math Results you had previously worked on that you can insert into a conversation. Increased mathematical functions may seem like an odd thing to enthuse about, but everyone can do with immediate access to math in their lives. Apple did make browsing a bit more smoother, especially for a cramped screen used to browse mobile websites. For a start, Highlights can seek out and detect the most useful details on a page for you, such as how to get to a location or contact details. With the ornately designed modern websites that exist today, sometimes users really do need help finding that bit of info on the page. Speaking of design, Apple also includes a feature called Hide Distracting Items. As the name suggests, you select the tool in Safari, then tap on the bit of the website you're viewing that you don't want to see anymore, and it's removed from view. This is a thing that could worry advertisers, but Apple has previously said it won't work that way as it resets when the code changes. It is more useful if you're on a website with a banner or a UI element covering the bit of the page you're trying to look at. Reader View will also offer you a table of contents and, when Apple Intelligence eventually rolls out, a summary of the articles. Maps didn't get a massive update this time around unless you're really into hiking. The 2024 release includes new topographic maps, which tell hikers what hills are on their potential march through the wilderness. The hiking kick also includes creating and saving walks and hikes for later, complete with custom routes that are accessible offline. If you're in a U.S. national park, you also have thousands of premade hikes at your disposal. All of said trails have turn-by-turn navigation, which is very handy when you may be far off the beaten track. If you're more of a homebody and prefer to game on the iPhone, then Game Mode will be very useful. Automatically kicking in when you launch a game, it performs multiple tasks to improve your gaming experience. For a start, it reduces the amount of background activity, so more resources are made available to render and play the game in the first place. With more AAA titles gradually making it onto the iPhone, every resource available will be needed for optimal gaming. At the same time, it also makes wireless accessories more responsive, including game controllers and AirPods, which also gain Personalized Spatial Audio for gaming. While these are changes that will certainly be more useful for competitive gamers, they'll also be welcomed by those with more casual pursuits. HomeKit received quite a few new additions for iOS 18, with a lot of them being a big step closer to a fully automated future home. For a start, the hands-free unlock with Home Keys is a great idea. It's surprising that it's not been a thing that Apple has considered before for use with smart locks. Connected to that, providing guest access to HomeKit-enabled devices like locks, garage doors, and alarm systems is also another logical leap that should've already existed. The addition of logging 30 days of guest activity at least alleviates any worries about providing said access to sensitive security elements of your home. Matter pairing for devices without a hub is also a big deal. With Matter and Thread supposed to be used in more smart home devices in the future, it makes sense for Apple to prepare for that eventuality. Another obvious and previously missed opportunity is robot vacuum support in the Home app. It now means your Roomba can be part of an entire scene called "Urgent cleaning session," or at least you can now yell at Siri to clean your spillages. The slightly oddball addition to HomeKit this time is the ability to see the electricity usage and rates for your home. It does become more logical as you think about it, since knowing your usage and therefore costs allows you to tweak how your home operates to be more efficient. Alas, this is only really available to customers of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company at the moment. It's a handy feature, but it remains to be seen how useful it could truly become. Outside of the house and in the domain of CarPlay, the expansion of Spatial Audio into an infotainment system is certainly something that makes sense. If you have spent good money on a multichannel audio setup for use while on the move, Spatial Audio should help give you some mileage from that investment. As usual, there are way more features added to iOS 18 than can be covered in a single review, but the changes do touch practically every part of the Apple ecosystem. Everything from a redesign of iCloud settings to navigational improvements in Freeform, to even Apple's extensive rebranding of Apple ID to Apple Account. There's, as always, a lot to explore and to take into account with the latest release of an Apple operating system. And for the majority of it, we can say it's either very useful additions or a thing that can help users personalize their experience even more. However, there's always that main feature update that gets everyone excited. The main reason most users cannot wait to try out the latest release as soon as possible. That thing for 2024 was supposed to be Apple Intelligence. Apple's certainly marketing it in that way, as it could be a big transformative moment for Apple's hardware sales. The marketing effort is certainly mobilized, but well ahead of when anyone will reasonably be using it. It won't be an Apple Intelligence party until OS 18.1 arrives, and even then it'll be a muted presence. Let us be clear. The release of iOS 18 is Apple's best operating system for the iPhone ever. There's no doubt about that. It's just that the celebration is well in advance of Apple Intelligence's proper public introduction. No one likes arriving at a party early. This rating is based on iOS 18's content, not what is available in iOS 18.1. Had the Apple Intelligence features been included, that rating would be a lot higher.

iOS 18 is now available, but Apple Intelligence will arrive later

Apple has finally released iOS 18 to the public, introducing many changes to the interface, but not Apple Intelligence. Following its June WWDC introduction and months of beta testing, iPhone owners can finally update their devices to iOS 18. Installable via the usual software update process, the new operating system can be downloaded to devices around the world. However, while users will expect to try out the headline feature of Apple Intelligence, it won't be available at first. Beta testers have been trying out some of the functions, which the public should be able to start using from the iOS 18.1 update. This isn't entirely uncommon for Apple as features for its operating systems are often not included in the initial release, but do appear later in the year. Even so, there are still many changes in iOS 18 to keep users excited. A big part of the changes is the user interface, which now gives even more flexibility to users than ever before. For a start, users can more easily arrange apps and widgets on the Home Screen, including their positions. For example, you could leave strategic gaps in your icon layouts to keep a part of the wallpaper uncovered. App icons also get a new Dark mode, which will make them much darker to match the rest of the operating system's Dark Mode interface. You can also tint the icons to any color you want, so they can also match like a single cohesive color scheme. In case you want to preserve your privacy for some apps, you are able to lock apps. They can be reopened using Face ID, as an extra security step. You can go a step further and actually hide select apps. Again, this prevents anyone from accessing the app, but crucially they won't see you have certain apps you may want hidden, such as bank or dating apps. The increased control also extends to Control Center, which has been updated to make it easier for anyone to add or move around elements or resize them at will. A Controls Gallery will show all of a user's Control Center icon and control options for addition to the page. Lastly, you can finally change what controls are included on the Lock Screen. The Photos app has been overhauled, making it a lot easier to access content quickly. This starts with a large grid that can fill the screen with photographs. There are also collections of elements from a library that are immediately accessible, including things like Recent Days, Trips, and Pinned Collections. The app will often change what is shown here, depending on how you use it. While not included in the iOS 18 release, Apple Intelligence will make it easier to create memory movies from prompts, as well as to search for collections of images based on their content. Apple Intelligence will also power editing elements, such as Clean Up to identify and remove background objects in an image. Apple will be introducing new text effects to Messages, so users can animate what they write. This can include letters being blown up ad away, expanded in size animatedly, or for emoji to move around. Tapback, Apple's quick response feature, will now work with any emoji or sticker, which includes Live Stickers created by the user. Messages via Satellite will let owners of the iPhone 14 or later to send an iMessage or SMS via satellite, if they're not within cellular or Wi-Fi services. The messages will benefit from end-to-end encryption, and will still retain features like sending and receiving messages, emoji, and Tapbacks. Users can also schedule for messages to be automatically sent at a specific time. Following a long campaign from Google, Apple is finally also bringing support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) messaging to iOS. Mail will benefit from on-device categorization, which will organize messages for the user into Primary, Transactions, Promotions, and Updates categories. The Primary category will handle time-sensitive messages, as well as emails from friends, family, and colleagues. Transactions will hold receipts and orders, Promotions will deal with marketing messages, and Updates will handle newsletters and any other content. Emails can also be configured to be grouped together by sender, further aiding organization of messy inboxes. The Safari browser is gaining Highlights, which will offer users quick access to helpful information on a page. For example, it could highlight directions to a business, or offer links to find out more about important elements of a product or a TV show. A new Reader view will make it easier to understand a page thanks to summarization. It will offer a brief gist of the article before the user reads the article itself, potentially saving them from having to read it in its entirety. Replacing the well-known Keychain, the Passwords app aims to simplify how passwords are dealt with across the Apple ecosystem. The app offers quick access to stored passwords, including verifications and security alerts, though a more public-friendly interface. This includes being able to filter and sort accounts by when they were created, the type of credential, and if it is in a shared group. The app is also available across major platforms, including iPhone, iPad Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and on Windows using the iCloud for Windows app. The Maps changes are pretty much made for walks in nature. For a start, there are topographic maps with detailed lists of trail networks and hikes, including some in all 63 U.S. national parks. Hikes can be saved for offline access, and it's also possible to modify them for your needs. For example, you can add to walking routes with a few quick taps, and even route as a one-way trip, out and back, or as a loop. A new mode for iOS 18, Game Mode kicks in whenever a player starts a game up. Game Mode works to minimize the background activity, so more resources are available to handle graphics and gameplay. It also reduces the audio latency when AirPods are in use, as well as improving the responsiveness of wireless game controllers. AirPods also gain from a few other changes, including Personalized Spatial Audio for gaming. Siri Interactions for AirPods Pro Gen 2 will allow users to nod or shake their head to provide yes or no responses to Siri. This means you can silently decline an inbound call while in a public place and with your hands full. Voice isolation will also use computational audio to minimize loud background noise and improve voice clarity in calls using AirPods Pro. The call recording feature in iOS 18 will create an audio recording in the Notes app for future reference. The audio will also generate live transcriptions that can be searched after the fact, and even summarized. Collapsible section headers in Notes will make it easier to view only the most immediately useful content, hiding others from view. A highlight style tool will also make it easier for you to highlight sections for your notes. There's also some mathematical smarts in Notes. You can enter expressions into Notes, which can be immediately solved on your behalf. The Journal app gives users a way to monitor their state of mind over the long term. Prompted every so often by the app, they can record how they are feeling, which will be recorded in the Health app. The app also gives views for writing streaks, existing calendar entries, and other statistics to encourage you to journal even more. There are also widgets for writing prompts and monitoring streaks. When watching Apple Original content via the Apple TV app, InSight will offer more information about what you can see. If you use the iPhone as a remote control for an Apple TV 4K, you can see details about actors, music, and other visible elements that you can further research from your mobile device. Enhance Dialog lets users more easily hear what's said in the app. Using machine learning, it can detect speech and improve that audio element, even if loud sound effects and background noises are in use. For a HomeKit home network, users can check out their electricity usage, if they are using a compatible energy company. At launch, this will be supported by Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Smart Locks also get a lot of love from the Home app this time around, with Guest access allowing you to permit access to various smart home accessories from their own device. Hands-free unlock will also automatically unlock smart locks when the home owner's iPhone or Apple Watch is nearby. Finally, a future update to the Home app will enable support for robot vacuum cleaners. You'll be able to instruct Siri to clean a room, as well as incorporate the cleaning into automations and scenes. Apple's privacy updates start with an improved Privacy and Security settings menu, making it easier to determine what data you actually share with apps. It's also now possible to be even more granular when sharing your contacts with an app. Instead of offering up all contacts, you can now select specific contacts to provide to an app. For Bluetooth, developers can use a new method to pair accessories with devices and apps. This can limit the amount of information an app could glean about other nearby Bluetooth devices. Also inbound to iOS 18 is Math Notes in Calculator, which also gains unit conversion, history, and a portrait orientation for the scientific calculator. Shareplay will allow you to draw on someone else's screen, so you can more easily direct others in how to perform actions on their own hardware. You can also take control of their screen, and vice versa. Calendar has a redesigned month view. You can also create, edit, and complete reminders stored in the Reminders app from within Calendar. Freeform gains new navigational options, snap-to-grid, and sharing via links. Apple Fitness+ is redesigned to make it easier to get into a personalized workout selection. This includes the For You tab surfacing workouts based on often-followed trainers, music styles, durations, and the type of workout. Emergency SOS gains a live video function, so you can now share a video feed or photos with participating emergency dispatchers. The Phone app adds a call recording and transcription feature, as well as an easier call history search, SIM card swapping. While Apple Intelligence is the big draw for iOS 18, the vast majority of users won't actually be able to try it out. For a start, you must have at least an iPhone 15 Pro or later iPhone in order to use it. Secondly, Apple didn't include the major Apple Intelligence features in its iOS 18 beta testing. It did include it for its iOS 18.1 developer beta, which is ongoing, meaning the features won't be available until the iOS 18.1 update releases to the public. Even then, not all features of Apple Intelligence will be available. So far, the developer beta has included elements involving Siri and the new writing tools, but bigger features involving generative AI image functions have yet to be tested. Apple says iOS 18 will be compatible with a large number of iPhone models, going as far back as the iPhone Xr and the iPhone SE Gen 2. The full list of compatible models that can be updated follows:

iOS 18 Is Here and It Brings These New Features to Your iPhone

I've used the operating system since it was released in beta after WWDC. In that time, I've explored the features Apple mentioned at its event, and I uncovered a few other features the company didn't mention. Here's what you should know about the new features and improvements iOS 18 brings to your iPhone. You've been able to customize your iPhone's home and lock screens with widgets and different backgrounds, iOS 18 lets you customize your home screen's apps and layout, as well as your phone's lock screen functions. During the WWDC Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, showed how iOS 18 lets you arrange your iPhone's apps and widgets on your home screen however you want. Previously, these icons would fill your home screen from top to bottom, sometimes obstructing backgrounds you might like. iOS 18 lets you arrange your icons around your background or in any way you want -- something Android has offered for many years. You can also easily customize the appearance of your app's icons. You can give your icons a dark mode filter, or tint your icons to match your wallpaper. The operating system also lets you swap out the camera and flashlight functions on your iPhone's lock screen. That way you aren't accidentally turning your iPhone's flashlight on while putting it in your pocket -- but you might open another app instead. Apple also announced at WWDC that iOS 18 updates your iPhone's Control Center. With the operating system, you can access more controls for things, like whatever music you're listening to and specific apps. You can also change which apps you see, as well as their size, so you have quicker access to the buttons you use more often. Your iPhone's Messages app also gets an update with iOS 18. With the latest operating system, you can schedule messages to send later, react to messages with more Tapbacks and format messages and specific words in your messages with text effects. If you want to emphasize something in a text, you can bold it, underline or use other effects to get your point across. The OS also brings Messages via satellite to many iPhones. The feature works similarly to Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite feature introduced on the iPhone 14 and 15 series. Emergency SOS is for making an emergency call even if you don't have a signal, but Messages via satellite will let you send a message to anyone, even without a signal. So you can message your spouse or parents to let them know how your camping trip is going. Apple also brings RCS -- rich communication support -- to Messages, so your iPhone will play nice with your friend or family member's Android device. Read more: Messages via Satellite Is iOS 18's Most Underrated Feature Letting someone borrow your iPhone can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially if you don't want them to see or access certain apps. iOS 18 lets you lock and hide apps. If you lock an app, it will then require your Face ID or passcode to unlock and access it. If you just don't want someone to know you have a certain app on your iPhone, you can stash it in a Hidden apps folder in your App Library. This is similar to removing apps from your home screen without deleting them from your iPhone, but it arranges all your hidden apps in one place. It can be fun to look at memories in your Photos app, but navigating through the app can be challenging if you take a lot of photos. So Apple redesigned your iPhone's Photos app in iOS 18. The redesign should make it easier to find specific photos by organizing your photos in more ways, like in categories like Recent Days and Pinned Collections. Photos will also be organized by theme, so if you're looking for photos from a trip, you should be able to find them faster. The updated Photos app in iOS 18 also lets you filter out receipts and screenshots so they don't clog up your Library. Read more: Apple Photos Redesign Will Help You Find That Specific iPhone Image Apple also introduces a new setting for your iPhone's Camera app with iOS 18. The new setting is called Controls Menu. To find it, go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings. "Preserve the previously used camera tool when expanding the controls menu, rather than showing the list of camera tools," the setting's description reads. Apple turned its password keychain feature into a full-blown app called Passwords. According to Apple, Passwords safely stores all your credentials in one place. It can also sync your passwords across your Apple devices. That way if you change your Netflix password on one device but not on another, the password will follow you so you don't forget it. Read more: Apple's New Password Manager App Will Sync Across Devices and Platforms Apple announced that it's rolling out Apple Intelligence, its spin on generative AI, in iOS 18. However, Apple wrote on its website that these improvements will be available only on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max for now. Apple already released the first developer beta of iOS 18.1, and it brings some Apple Intelligence features to the iPhone's developers. Apple Intelligence will bring improvements to Siri to make the assistant more capable and helpful, it will allow you to create new images called Genmojis and it will bring new writing tools and capabilities to those iPhones. Read more: iOS 18 Might Not Bring Apple Intelligence to Your iPhone With iOS 18, if you're wearing the second generation of AirPods Pro, you'll be able to interact with Siri by nodding or shaking your head. So if you need to be quiet because the baby is sleeping or your partner is on an important phone call, you can keep Siri working without saying a word. Apple's iOS 18 also improves your Notes app. The app gets live audio transcripts, collapsible sections to keep the app organized and the ability to highlight certain phrases. You can also solve mathematical problems in the app while you type. These upgrades are similar to the Notes app upgrades Apple announced for iPadOS 18. Read more: Apple's iPadOS 18 Gets New Controls, Handwriting Features and Math Notes According to Facts and Factors, mobile gaming as an industry is expected to grow by over 13% by 2030. And Apple seems to recognize that with the introduction of Game Mode in iOS 18. Game Mode will minimize background activities on your iPhone to improve your game's performance. It will also have improved responsiveness with AirPods and wireless gaming controllers, Apple says. With iOS 18, iPhone users with a Mac can access their iPhone remotely from their Mac. Apple is calling this feature iPhone Mirroring, and it will work in conjunction with the upcoming MacOS Sequoia. So instead of sending a file from your iPhone to your Mac, you'll be able to just access the file right on your Mac without any extra steps in between. Read more: How Apple Says iPhone Mirroring Will Work SharePlay was introduced with iOS 15 in 2021 and lets Apple users share their screen with other people via FaceTime. And iOS 18 is giving SharePlay an upgrade. "With enhanced screen sharing capabilities, you can draw on someone's screen so they can see what they can do on theirs, or control their screen and take actions yourself," Apple wrote online. Apple said that with iOS 18, your iPhone's Mail app will organize your emails better. Your app will have new categories for things like receipts, newsletters and more. That way you don't have to dig through your emails and find an invitation to a party you forgot to respond to. However, Apple wrote online that these features won't be available at iOS 18's launch. With iOS 18, it's easier to send cash to your friends and family with Tap to Cash. With this feature, you can send Apple Cash directly to others by bringing your iPhones close together, similar to how you can quickly AirDrop a photo or message to someone, or NameDrop your contact information to others, by bringing your iPhones close together. Speaking of cash, your Wallet app gets an upgrade in iOS 18, too. In the app, you can view your rewards or points balance, and you'll be able to redeem those points with Apple Pay online or in one of your apps. The app also lets you access any installment financing options your bank might offer. Apple also brings new features to your event tickets in Wallet. Apple wrote online that the new features include, "an event guide combining helpful information about the venue with recommendations from Apple apps." Wallet also now lets you easily add a chipped debit or credit card to the app. To do so, go into Wallet, tap the plus sign in the top right corner, tap Debit or Credit Card, then tap Continue and Wallet will ask you to bring the chipped card near your iPhone to add that card. If your card doesn't have a chip though, you can tap Enter Card Details Manually across the bottom of the screen. With iOS 18, your iPhone's Safari app can detect important information on some webpages and highlight it for you. For example, directions and quick links to people and movies should be highlighted and easily findable. Reader will also provide a table of contents and summaries of articles in Safari. Safari also gets a new feature called Distraction Control in iOS 18. This makes it easy to block banners, some pop-ups and more on websites you visit frequently. Read more: Safari's Find on Page Function Has a New Home in iOS 18 When Apple introduced iOS 17 in 2023, it brought offline maps to your iPhones Maps app. With iOS 18, your iPhone's Maps app will get topographical information, too. Maps also gets detailed hiking trail information, including routes from over 50 US national parks, so you can plan your next hike. You can also create your own custom hiking or walking routes in iOS 18. And when you create a route, you can download the route and section of the map to your iPhone for use offline, that way you'll always have a map of your area on you when you're out in nature. Apple also said iOS 18 brings some changes to your iPhone's Journal app. The app will let you log your state of mind, as well as help you track your goals. It will also give you certain stats, like writing streaks. You can search within Journal for previous entries so you can find older thoughts and more, too.

Apple iOS 18: the key features coming to your iPhone

We've rounded up everything good that's new in Apple's upcoming phone update, so that you know what you can expect when you install it. Here's every key feature that's new in iOS 18. There are quite a few goodies that you'll be able to get your hands on! iOS 18 offers customisation optionswe've not seen before and have been asking for for years. It starts with the ability to rearrange apps and widgets freely across your Home Screen, including above the dock. This newfound flexibility allows you to design your screen exactly how you like it, with dark and tinted effects available to make app icons and widgets stand out against various wallpapers. For those who prefer a minimalist aesthetic, the dark effect is a perfect choice, while the tinted effect allows you to match icons with your wallpaper colours seamlessly. Privacy gets a boost with the option to lock apps using Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, protecting sensitive information from prying eyes. Additionally, you can hide apps from search and notifications by moving them to a hidden apps folder, ensuring that even when you hand your phone to someone else, your private apps remain out of sight. The Control Center has been completely redesigned to offer easier access to frequently used controls such as media playback, Home controls, and connectivity settings. You can now add controls from third-party apps, resize them, and create custom groups, making the Control Center truly your own. Even the Lock Screen gets a makeover, allowing you to customise the controls at the bottom, choosing from various options available in the controls gallery or removing them entirely for a streamlined look. The Photos app has undergone a major overhaul, now featuring a unified view that displays your entire photo library in a single, simplified grid-based format. This makes it easier to browse and relive special moments without the hassle of sorting through multiple albums. To keep your favourite collections at your fingertips, you can pin them for quick access, ensuring that your most important photos and albums are always readily available. A new carousel view presents daily highlights, showcasing favourite photos and videos in a dynamic, poster-like display that updates daily. This feature provides a fun and engaging way to revisit past moments. Adding to the immersive experience, photos and videos now autoplay within the app, bringing your library to life as you browse. iOS 18 brings some exciting new features to the Messages app. You can now apply text effects such as bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough to any letter, word, phrase, or emoji, adding a new layer of expressiveness to your conversations. Animated effects make text elements bounce, jitter, or display other dynamic behaviours, making your messages more lively. Expressing yourself is easier than ever with expanded Tapbacks, allowing you to react to messages with any emoji or sticker. For those who like to plan ahead, message scheduling lets you compose messages and schedule them to be sent at a later time, ensuring you never forget an important communication. The addition of Rich Communication Services (RCS) support offers richer media sharing, more reliable group messaging, and delivery/read receipts for contacts not using iMessage. For adventurers and emergency situations, Messages via satellite allows you to send and receive texts, emojis, and Tapbacks when cellular or Wi-Fi connections are unavailable, ensuring you stay connected in remote areas or during emergencies. The Mail app in iOS 18 gets a significant boost in functionality. On-device intelligence now categorises incoming emails into Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions, helping you manage your inbox more efficiently by prioritising personal and time-sensitive messages. A new digest view groups relevant emails from businesses together, allowing you to quickly scan and find important information without sifting through your entire inbox. Browsing the web becomes even more intuitive with Safari's new features. Highlights automatically detect and highlight relevant information on webpages, such as directions, quick links, and summaries, making it easier to extract key information without reading the entire page. The redesigned Reader mode now includes a summary and table of contents for longer articles, helping you get a quick overview before diving into the full text. Security and convenience take centre stage with the new Passwords app. It centralises the storage of passwords, passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords, and verification codes, ensuring you have all your credentials in one place. The app also provides security alerts for weak or compromised passwords, helping you maintain strong security practices. Notifications about common password weaknesses and known data breaches keep you informed and protected. Privacy enhancements in iOS 18 include the ability to lock and hide apps, ensuring sensitive information stays private. Selective contact sharing lets you share specific contacts with apps instead of your entire list, giving you more control over your personal information. Improved Bluetooth privacy means that pairing accessories is more secure, with apps unable to see all other devices on your network. Apple Intelligence features have been supercharged in iOS 18, though this isn't rolling out quite yet - it'll come to the US during October and then localised English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK in December with Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish coming next year. System-wide writing tools allow you to rewrite, proofread, and summarise text across various apps, enhancing productivity and accuracy. The new Image Playground lets you create playful images quickly in Animation, Illustration, or Sketch styles, perfect for spicing up your messages. In Photos, you can now create customised memory movies by describing the story you want to see, with Apple Intelligence selecting the best photos and videos, arranging them into a narrative, and even removing distracting objects in the background. Siri becomes more natural and contextually aware, offering personalised assistance and integrating with ChatGPT for broader expertise and capabilities. Private Cloud Compute balances on-device processing with server-based models on dedicated Apple silicon servers, ensuring privacy while delivering powerful AI capabilities. For outdoor enthusiasts, the Maps app now includes thousands of hiking trails across national parks in the United States, which you can save for offline access and create custom walking routes. An all-new Places Library allows you to save favourite hikes, routes, and locations, along with personal notes about each spot, making it easier to plan and enjoy your outdoor adventures. Gaming on iOS 18 gets a serious upgrade with Game Mode. This feature minimises background activity to maintain consistent frame rates during long gaming sessions, and enhances the responsiveness of AirPods and game controllers. Personalised Spatial Audio provides an immersive audio experience, placing you right in the middle of the action. Apple Pay becomes more flexible and rewarding with the introduction of rewards and instalment plans from eligible credit or debit cards. Tap to Cash allows users to transfer Apple Cash by simply holding two iPhones together, simplifying peer-to-peer transactions. Redesigned event tickets in Apple Wallet now include key event information and recommended Apple Music playlists, enriching the event experience. Music lovers will appreciate the enhanced SharePlay feature, which allows multiple users to share control of music playing from devices like HomePod, Apple TV, or any Bluetooth-enabled speaker. This makes shared listening experiences more interactive and enjoyable. SharePlay also has new screen-sharing capabilities, allowing users to draw on someone's screen or control it for better collaboration. AirPods receive several upgrades in iOS 18. You can now respond to Siri announcements with simple head movements, such as nodding to say yes or shaking to say no, making interactions hands-free and intuitive. Advanced computational audio ensures clear call quality even in noisy or windy environments, and improved audio latency for gaming provides a more seamless and immersive experience. Personalised Spatial Audio enhances the audio experience in games, making it more engaging. There is also the recently revealed hearing aid upgrade for AirPods Pro 2. The Notes app in iOS 18 is a powerful tool for both productivity and creativity. You can now enter and solve mathematical expressions instantly within your notes, making it perfect for calculations and academic work. Collapsible sections allow you to manage text-heavy notes efficiently, hiding and revealing sections as needed. Important text can be highlighted with colour to stand out, making it easier to reference key points. The new Insights View in the Journal app helps users track their journaling goals with writing streaks, entry stats, and a calendar view of past entries. Sorting and searching past entries is now quicker, and Home Screen or Lock Screen widgets provide quick access to journaling prompts and streaks. The Calendar app now integrates reminders directly, allowing users to view and manage reminders seamlessly alongside their events. A redesigned month view offers a comprehensive overview of the month ahead, helping users plan more effectively. Health tracking gets a boost with a redesigned Medical ID that ensures first responders can quickly access the most important health information in an emergency. Pregnancy tracking features help users understand their health data during pregnancy, with tailored recommendations and adjustments. Emergency SOS now includes the ability to share live video or recorded media with emergency dispatchers during calls, providing additional context to help responders understand the situation better and respond more effectively. The Home app introduces guest access, allowing users to grant specific controls of smart home accessories to guests and set schedules for when guests can access the home. Hands-free unlock uses Ultra Wideband technology to unlock doors automatically when you approach, enhancing convenience. An energy category lets eligible users access and understand their home electricity usage directly from the Home app, making it easier to make informed decisions about energy consumption. Accessibility features in iOS 18 include eye tracking, which enables users to control their iPhone with eye movements, providing greater accessibility for individuals with physical disabilities. Music Haptics synchronises the iPhone's Taptic Engine with music, allowing users who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience the rhythm of songs. Vocal Shortcuts let users with severe atypical speech record custom sounds that trigger specific actions on the iPhone. The Calculator app now supports solving mathematical expressions directly, unit conversion, and history tracking. The Freeform app sees enhancements with diagramming mode, scenes organisation, and grid snapping, improving its functionality. Apple Fitness+ features a redesigned interface offering personalised workout selections and an improved search function. The Phone app now includes the ability to record and transcribe live calls, search call history more easily, dial smarter, and switch SIM cards seamlessly.

The Apple Intelligence launch is a mess - don't buy the iPhone 16 or install iOS 18 based on the promise of what's to come

What a week it is for Apple fans, with the launch of iOS 18 and the release of the iPhone 16 all happening over the next few days. This particular week in September comes around every year like Christmas, giving tech lovers the chance to use a shiny new smartphone or give a lease of life to their old one. This year's no different: the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max have arrived on the scene with exciting new features like Camera Control and larger displays on the Pro models. All four models are joined by iOS 18, the next generation of the iPhone's operating system, which itself brings Home Screen customization options that let you pick any color to tint your app icons, a new Passwords app to house all your login information, and even an updated calculator app with Math Notes. I'm not even scratching the surface with iOS 18, however; there's plenty more to get excited about and the OS works with every iPhone from the XS and onwards. So, why the downbeat headline? After all, the iPhone 16 Pro looks like a solid upgrade from last year's best iPhone, adding a faster chip, camera upgrades, new buttons, better and larger screens, and even better battery life. Touted as the "first iPhones built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence", these new smartphones are propelling us into a new Apple AI future - well, sort of. You see, plastered across all of Apple's marketing for the latest iPhones, you'll find people reaping the benefits of Apple Intelligence. New commercials featuring The Last of Us' Bella Ramsey show the actor using AI to summarize emails, speak with the upgraded Siri, and make Movie Memories. All pretty cool, right? Sure, but nestled in each ad (in small white writing) is a disclaimer that Apple Intelligence won't be available at the iPhone 16's launch on September 20. Why, you ask? You just preordered an iPhone 16 because of all the cool Apple Intelligence features you've seen plastered on the London Underground or shown at the cinema before Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Well, those Apple Intelligence features - like Writing Tools, Clean Up, and new Mail categories - are coming, just not in the first release of iOS 18. It's a bit of a weird situation, to be totally honest. Apple is selling the latest and greatest iPhones based on 'what ifs?', and as consumers, we're meant to trust the process and jump on for the ride. Unfortunately, the lack of major features at launch in not only iPhone 16 but iOS 18 too means that these upgrades and updates all feel kind of lukewarm. Just check Apple's iOS 18 Preview page if you don't believe me: Apple Intelligence is the headline feature, followed by incremental updates to apps we use every day, and color customization options that should've arrived on iPhone years ago. It's all very odd - even Mail's category feature isn't available in iOS 18 initially, because it's powered by Apple AI. As an ex-Apple Retail employee, I don't envy any of my ex-colleagues who will have to explain to disgruntled customers why their fancy new iPhone can't do the snazzy things they've seen advertised. It'll even be tough for them from a demo perspective - how do you make retail customers want a product without its best features? It's an intriguing situation, but it's not a long-term one. Apple Intelligence is set to arrive in US English in October as part of iOS 18.1 and then in other localized English languages in December. If you're in the UK, like I am, you can use Apple Intelligence when it launches in Beta next month by simply changing your device's language and Siri's language. But after the arrival of iOS 18.1, Apple Intelligence tools will arrive in a scattered launch with no real timeframe of when we'll be able to use everything we were shown at WWDC 2024 in June. If current estimates are correct, Siri's on-screen awareness won't arrive until iOS 18.4, which is likely to land in March 2025, while other features like Genmoji and Image Playground are scheduled for iOS 18.2, which will begin rolling out just before the turn of the year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This is where my bigger concern lies: the promises of what's to come. I've used Apple Intelligence as part of the iOS 18.1 developer beta and I like what I've tried so far, but Genmoji, Image Playground, and the wonder of an actually useful Siri are all just pipedreams right now. No one outside of Apple has even seen these AI tools in the flesh; they aren't even in beta testing yet as part of a Developer Beta. So, can Genmoji even generate two emojis together as seamlessly as we saw on stage? Does Image Playground work as well as some of the best AI image generators? No one has a clue, we're just putting blind faith in Apple based on the company's track record of delivering in the past. This wouldn't be the first time that Apple has launched a new iPhone with promises of future features (see Deep Fusion), but it is the first time such a major selling point is just absent from an iPhone's release. In a year, if all goes well, Apple Intelligence's muddled launch will be a thing of the distant past. But if Genmoji or Image Playground turns into a replica of the AirPower fiasco, then the iPhone 16 launch could be an absolute nightmare for Apple. If you're in the market for a new iPhone, purchasing a new one based on the incredible new A18 chips, Camera Control, and any other hardware improvement will likely make you a happy camper. If you're looking at the new iPhones for Apple Intelligence, especially the features that aren't in iOS 18.1, then it's worth debating between an upgrade now versus one in a few months. With iOS 18, if you want a few new features and a more stable iPhone operating system, you'll be happy. But if you install iOS 18 expecting Apple Intelligence and everything you've been promised, then you might just feel a little disappointed. Our early iPhone 16 review, early iPhone 16 Pro review, and Apple Intelligence hands-on hint at a very exciting year for Apple. Just know what you're getting yourself into, because if you're spending hard-earned cash on the promise of future features, you might just end up regretting your decision.

iPadOS 18 review: making iPad better for everyone but the pros

Depending on who you ask, iPadOS 18 is an excellent update that maintains parity with iOS 18, or it's a tragedy that doesn't address pro users' needs. The truth is complicated. Apple introduced the iPad Pro with M4 weeks ahead of WWDC, leaving users wondering if that signaled big changes were coming in iPadOS 18. As expected, that wasn't the case since Apple provided very little in terms of new exclusive features for the tablet OS. When I reviewed the 13-inch iPad Pro, I shared some of my quibbles with iPadOS and how it pertains to pro workflows -- leaving some hope for WWDC and AI. The end result is nothing really changed from that perspective, and even AI isn't the boost for iPad some thought it could be. However, that isn't to say that iPadOS 18 isn't a good update. It just won't do much for pro workflows unless those somehow involve a calculator or handwriting. I'm an iPad-first user that loves working from iPadOS and doesn't want it to turn into macOS. Apple Vision Pro is still an important part of my workflow and is what brings a Mac back into my workspace. So, now you know where I stand on these products, let's dive into the update. Visit Apple's website on iPadOS 18 and you'll find about 4 tiles out of the 40 that are exclusive iPad features. Everything else relates to Apple Intelligence, which doesn't launch until later in the fall, or features introduced in iOS 18 or macOS Sequoia. The lack of unique features for iPadOS 18 isn't an anomaly. Apple generally only provides a few, if any, platform-specific upgrades to iPad each year. The three specific upgrades to iPadOS are Smart Script, Calculator with Math Notes, and the new tab bar. Of the three, the most impactful to daily use is the tab bar, but the Calculator app is a nice addition too. Smart Script and Math Notes are a perfect pair for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro. I've never felt more motivated to actually take handwritten notes or jot down a budget freehand. A machine learning model, not AI, learns your handwriting style on the fly and automatically refines written text. It also uses the learned handwriting to create wholly new words when correcting spelling mistakes. The feature isn't always consistent, as some words just never refine on their own without using a text selection command. It also doesn't always understand word groupings outside of standard paragraph style, so randomly jotting notes in margins won't get the same treatment as in standard paragraph format. The ability to paste text into a handwritten document is very cool. Though, because my handwriting is so malformed, I don't always recognize the pasted text as something I could have actually written. Smart Script helps when writing for Math Notes. However, it doesn't always acknowledge equations or how numbers are written. One example of this was writing the example budget in the above image. The lines under the annual portion tried making it add 20, 100, and 20 -- somehow dropping a zero from 200. Of course, the feature will be improved with time, and much of my testing occurred during the beta period. Math Notes and Smart Script will be refined and are already excellent additions to Apple's built-in apps. I'm very hopeful that when Apple Journal launches on iPadOS, I'll be able to create handwritten journal entries. It would be an excellent evolution of the app. While Calculator is hardly unique to iPad, it is new for the platform. Apple didn't have to work so hard on what might have been a clone of the iPhone or Mac interface, but it did more than just port the app. Every platform gets the new Calculator app too, so it's not just iPad with a scientific calculator or Math Notes tab. Plus, there's a new history section in the sidebar. The iconic Braun-inspired calculator design is still here. If you want custom colors or buttons, PCalc is still a perfect alternative. I'm a big fan of PCalc and all the fun James Thomson has with the app. However, Apple may have won me over with the Calculator update. My ability to choose which apps I want to use, i.e. Apple defaults vs. third-party, has been made very difficult by iPadOS 18 and the new customization upgrades. Having the ability to launch PCalc from Control Center is going to be amazing. The app's customization options and whimsy might be enough to make me stick with it. However, handwritten math notes and the ability to generate a graph in the note based on a written equation is its own superpower. The two apps can exist side-by-side, of course, but choosing just one has gotten much more complicated. But that's a good thing. At least we no longer have to hear people say, "But iPad doesn't have a Calculator!" Apple didn't give the tab bar a special name or even bother capitalizing it. The interface is exactly what it sounds like, a bar that sits at the top of the screen with navigation options. The tab bar is a lot like the side bar, but it is meant to be more customizable by default. However, Apple is still forcing everyone to endure sports by making it an unremovable option from Apple TV or News. The side bar contains basically all options an app can offer for navigation, while the tab bar is more limited and user-specific. Collapsing the side bar into the tab bar adds a significant portion of UI space to an app, making content appear bigger and fuller. The tab bar appears to have a limited space for content, which means more than a couple of menu items will add a caret to move over to more menu items. It is somewhat baffling that in Apple News I can only add AppleInsider and nothing else, even though there's ample space for it -- the wiggle mode even shows more elements. In any case, the tab bar offers more customization and space for apps, even when they are in side-by-side mode. Note that the tab bar only appears when the window is at least iPad-sized, not smaller. I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about features that will be covered in depth in our iOS 18 review. Everything discussed here is ecosystem-wide features and not unique to iPad. If the iPhone's most important feature for consumers is the camera, then that must mean the most important app is Photos by proxy. Apple had left the Photos app mostly untouched for years, but the new redesign is here in iPadOS 18, and it has opinions. I'll get this out of the way first -- I really like the redesign. I know that's controversial, but the new layout really helps surface photos and events from my ever-expanding library. There is some limited level of organization available to users. The sections for photos organized by day, people, or trips are all able to be shuffled between different utility folders. I haven't landed on a perfect layout just yet, but the overall concept is nice. The top portion of the app acts as a kind of shutter where the most recent photos in the user's library are visible. Pull down and you're in the full library feed. Below that fold is all of the folders, collections, and memories offered by Photos. I could easily see this section become inhabited by third-party apps that surface different kinds of information. My biggest unaddressed complaint by the Apple Photos team is still the inability to toggle which photos should appear in the greater library feed or memories. I'd love to see a toggle in albums or smart folders to remove all images in that album from the library feed -- like screenshots or the excess images from a wedding. The UI update will take some getting used to, but it is a step in the right direction. Now Apple needs to focus on sorting and control options. iPad users didn't have to wait for iPadOS 19 to get Apple's latest customization updates. The last few iOS changes took an entire update cycle to make their way to iPad. The Home Screen updates are somewhat minimal, focusing on placement and colors. Until iPadOS 18, users had to rely on blank icons, widgets, custom icons, and other workarounds to achieve the looks possible with the update. iPadOS 18 introduces a new icon customization tool for selecting light, dark, or tinted icons. There's also a choice for icon size that rids text from below icons and widgets in large mode. The change is a bit jarring at first, and developers have to create custom icons for the various modes or face Apple attempting to force an icon color swap algorithmically. Overall, I love the concept. I do wish Apple would include icon sizes and colors in Focus Mode customization. Right now, Apple keeps icon color and system dark mode settings separate. There is no way to automatically shift icon modes. As someone that painstakingly created dark-themed Home Screens using custom icons added via Shortcuts, the ability to quickly swap all icons to a specific palette is great. I've always prioritized apps with custom app icons that give users control over how their device looked and operated. Those that like the old way of selecting icons per app will be happy to know the old way still works. Just keep your icons in light mode and select your desired icon in the app. I'm a big fan of the new larger icon option. Ridding the Home Screen of text is great, especially for widgets. However, those text labels disappear in the App Library too, so good luck to anyone relying on the near-identical-looking Google suite of apps. Control Center is now a multi-page grid of icons and widgets. Each page is a grid of 8 x 4 slots that can hold several control sizes. Users can fill an entire page with a music control, or they can organize every object on the grid to their liking. There are 15 total pages that can be added. Thankfully, Apple made it simple to select a page. When you start swiping down to get Control Center, just keep swiping to reach other pages. I'm loving the new Control Center and the variety of actions it offers. Between this and the Lock Screen shortcuts at the bottom of the display being customizable (on iPhone), it has made me reevaluate what apps I should use. Third-party apps can submit widgets for the Control Center. So, as I said earlier, I can now launch PCalc from Control Center, or Carrot Weather. The possibilities are endless. Some of Apple's default apps always had a specific advantage because of the prime real estate the Control Center controls offered. I never liked the idea of using an alternate notes app if the only notes I can access from the Control Center are Apple's. While I'm reviewing the final release version of iPadOS 18, there are still plenty of apps that haven't submitted Control Center actions. It won't be long before the App Store is full of apps offering to make the Control Center more useful. In a sense, this section is like gaining a whole new Home Screen. I've yet to fully comprehend how I'd like to tackle setting up pages of controls. I suspect Control Center will become the go-to place for control-type widgets like music, home, timers, calculators, etc. The Home Screen will be reserved for launching apps or broader information widgets. The new Control Center experience is available on iOS and iPadOS. They function identically, down to the size of the grid. I believe it is a waste of space to make the Control Center fit such a small size while simultaneously making the on-screen apps fade out and become inaccessible. The best route forward for Control Center on iPad, I think, is to make it drop down without disabling the background app like Menu Bar controls on Mac. Or, if the display must blur and the app be disabled, provide more slots for controls and bigger widgets on iPad. A dedicated Passwords app launched on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. It works as expected, bringing the former Settings menu to a separate app. Safari gains Highlights, which surfaces helpful information into an Address Bar icon and will eventually include Apple Intelligence features. Data like on-page music links, maps links, or a summary will show up here. Game Mode automatically kicks in when any game is launched, including Sudoku. Games should perform better, controllers get faster polling rates, and background activity is minimized with the new feature. Messages gains new text effects, emoji Tapbacks, Send Later, and text formatting. Though, everyone is more focused on RCS support finally arriving on Apple devices. There are more updates like new SharePlay screen sharing options and hidden apps. Apple introduced new app features and refinements across the operating system. When I wrote about the 13-inch iPad Pro for my pre-WWDC review, I wanted to treat it as a snapshot of the operating system with some hope that there would be significant changes. Instead, we got Smart Script and a Calculator app. So, here's a brief rundown of what I discussed in greater detail in that review. I still can't record the AppleInsider Podcast on iPad without expensive hardware, high-priced all-in-one app solutions, or using two pieces of hardware to record audio independent of a call. There is still no concept of audio intents or selecting audio sources in iPadOS, which impacts a lot of professions outside of podcasting. There is still no concept of a system-level tool like a universal clipboard or screenshot tool. There isn't a way to install Grammarly system-wide, or Text Expander either. Background tasks are still virtually non-existent. Leaving an app while something is being exported is a death sentence for that file. Also, the App Store is still filled with "iPad-optimized" apps despite running on the same chipset as a Mac. Pixelmator Pro can run on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro but not my M4 iPad Pro. But these grievances are all about what isn't on the iPad. There is one big problem with something that is on iPad today -- Stage Manager. Stage Manager didn't get touched in iPadOS 18, and some bugs have made the experience even worse. These bugs are so consistent and reproducible that I wonder if they are intentional at this point, especially since they all deal with working with an external display. First, bringing a new app into a stage where only one other app is present while on an external display will randomly resize the original window. This means every time I add Drafts to my Safari window stage, Safari is resized to half of its original size, and I have to fix it every time. Next, a problem that has definitely been there since before iPadOS 18 betas, the cursor doesn't know where to be. If I type in Drafts and then select a text field in Safari, sometimes the cursor just stays in Drafts. Sometimes the only way to select a text field in a different app is to minimize the app and click the app icon again to open it. Otherwise, you might see the cursor jump between the apps, sometimes in a weird way that causes the whole UI to glitch. Another oddity is with keyboard shortcuts. I can consistently open Spotlight or take a screenshot using keyboard commands, but only when the cursor is active on the iPad display. Finally, swiping between open stages is broken, but it may be an iPadOS 18-related bug that made it to the release version. If I have my Safari stage open on the external monitor and swipe between stages on the iPad, I will almost always end up sucking the Safari stage into the iPad display on the second swipe. It's incredibly broken yet somehow represented by the UI. I'm typing on my Studio Display now, but I can see the Safari and Drafts stage as an inactive window on the iPad. Stage Manager is great when it all works. I really hope these issues are just a symptom of the betas and get fixed by iPadOS 18.2. I'm not going to detail much about Apple Intelligence in this review, even though Apple revealed it as a part of iPadOS 18. The new AI features are not ready and won't begin rolling out until iPadOS 18.1 is released. We've been testing iPadOS 18 on one device and iPadOS 18.1 on another for comparison. Between the two, stability and features perform identically, other than the inclusion of Apple Intelligence on iPadOS 18.1. Users will be able to use Writing Tools, the improved Siri, and summarization features with iPadOS 18.1. Image Playground and Genmoji aren't expected until a later update before the end of 2024. There's going to be plenty of coverage from AppleInsider on Apple Intelligence once it officially launches. Despite self-proclaimed professional iPad users' best attempts, it seems Apple is immovable on iPad. The company has a path for its tablet, whether it's clear or not to us doesn't matter. Apple sands off the rough edges of iPadOS every year, but it's never quite what some pros expect. It isn't macOS and never will be, as there is no world where Apple introduces a Terminal to iPad. Instead, iPad is what it is. A naked robotic core that's amazing at many specific tasks like acting as a digital notebook, a modular laptop, or even a desktop connected to an external display. While it can't be used for web dev, it can serve as a primary computer for much of the world. And for Apple, it seems that is enough. Perhaps, you, dear niche professional, will be the next one welcomed into the circle of what's possible with iPadOS 19. Or maybe you'll be left wanting, yet again. iPadOS is an impossible system to grade without upsetting someone. I love working from my iPad despite the quirks introduced by Stage Manager and lack of niche workflows. At the end of the day, the iPad is purchased by a great deal more customers than Macs. iPadOS is built for everyone, and it does a good job riding the line between easy accessibility and pro workflows.