Apple’s new iOS 18 and iPadOS 18
On September 16, 2024, Apple released the latest operating systems for the iPhone and iPad, called iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. There are some very nice new features included in this year’s update, and there’s also a lot of stuff that is still not included yet, but will be added over time in upcoming updates over the next few months. Most of what wasn’t released with the initial release has to do with the new Apple Intelligence features (or AI tools) that Apple has announced they would incorporate gradually into iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 over the next few months. Some of those new features are coming as soon as October 28, with the release of iOS 18.1.
Two of the biggest selling points for Apple with this new release and the new iPhone 16 is the inclusion of what they call “Apple Intelligence”, which is simply their name for new Artificial Intelligence tools. And the fact that they are finally allowing far more customization of your iPhone’s screen look and design, with more placement and color options for your apps and widgets on the homescreen.
There is also plenty of other new features which I will cover below.
The Apple Intelligence announcements have been grabbing the headlines and generating plenty of excitement, but unfortunately, there’s a couple of big limitations regarding those.
For one, they’re not available yet, and they’re also not going to work unless you have one of Apple’s latest iPhones or iPad. In order to use Apple Intelligence on iPhone, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or one of the iPhone 16 models that just came out. On the iPad, you need either an iPad Air or iPad Pro with the M1 chip or later. So, generally speaking, a whole lot of people with older iPhones and iPads simply will not be able to use Apple intelligence until they upgrade to a newer device.
New features that are available now:
Home screen customization: You now have far more control when it comes to the placement and coloring of the apps and widgets you choose to place on your iPhone’s home screen. While your App icons must still remain on a grid, you now have far more freedom as to where exactly you can place each app, as shown in the picture example below. This allows you to highlight a background image which will no longer be covered up by a bunch of app icons and widgets.
You also get additional customization options for Control Center, which is the page you can swipe down on in order to quickly access certain tools you may use often, such as the flashlight, screen brightness, focus modes, or for connecting to various bluetooth devices. Control Center has been around for years, but Apple chose how it looked. Now, you have far more control and can choose your own layouts for Control Center, which is now also organized on multiple pages.
The first page contains your favorites. The second page is fully customizable and can be populated with controls for any 3rd party apps you have on your iPhone. The third page is for controlling your Music or Podcast apps. The fourth page is for controlling Home devices such as TVs, HomePods and other devices and appliances you may have in your home. And the fifth and final page is filled with connectivity controls, for turning on or off things like WiFi, Bluetooth, or Airplane mode.
And then you also have a cool new option to swap out the lock screen buttons. The lock screen buttons are the two buttons at the bottom of your screen when it’s locked. Traditionally, those were the flashlight on the left, and the camera icon on the right. But now, you can swap those out for whatever you like instead. So for example, maybe you like to use a 3rd party camera app instead of the default Apple camera app. You can now swap out the default camera icon and replace with your chosen camera app instead. Or maybe you use the hotspot function a lot, and the flashlight not so much. You can now make the hotspot button quick and easy to access on the lock screen. I’m a big fan of this new option.
The Photos app redesign:
This has been a far more controversial change, which not everyone is happy about. Apple has changed some of the layout and controls for the Photos app. For the most part, what Apple has done is create pre-made groupings for you that make it easy to find photos by certain criteria. Your main library stays at the top, as it was before. Then, you’ll find different prebuilt sections, such as Recent Days, People & Pets, Pinned Collections and more. This is Apple using machine learning, or artificial intelligence to create these different collections for you. You can fully customize these personalized collections however you want them to appear. So for example, you can choose to have your Featured Photos show up right below your main library instead of the Recent Days collection. Overall, I think the new changes make a lot of sense, and once you’ve played around the Photos app for a little while, it all works well.
The Passwords app:
Another important addition in iOS 18 is the inclusion of a stand-alone app that can hold your passwords. Previously, Apple has allowed you to store website passwords and wi-fi network passwords in Safari, and eventually also in a Passwords section of your settings on your iPhone or Mac.
But now, there is a dedicated standalone app which allows you to easily access your passwords and will synchronize easily on all your Apple devices.
This first version of the app is fairly basic and easy to use. There’s currently a few different categories in the app which includes All (all of your passwords), Passkeys, Wi-Fi and codes. Then you have a category that shows you Security recommendations and a Deleted category. You can also create Shared Groups, which gives you the ability to share certain passwords with family members or loved ones for example.
Since some of the most well known password management apps (such as LastPass) have had security breaches over the last few years, I do think that using one of password management tools from Apple or Google makes a lot of sense. And if you’re already invested in the Apple ecosystem, this new Passwords app makes a lot of sense.
Other new stuff:
There’s plenty of other new features included in iOS 18. There’s a new Tap to Cash option which allows you to tap iPhones together to pay someone using Apple Cash. Unlike some of the other options our there such as Venmo or Zelle, this is a little more private since you do not have to share phone numbers or list what the purchase was for. And it is securely authenticated by Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode. So, there’s less likelihood for scams paying this way.
And then, there’s a bunch of other small other improvements across a variety of apps, and you can check those out on the Apple page where they list everything out, which you can find here.
I will cover the new Apple Intelligence features as they come out over the next few months. And if you’re in the Atlanta area and need any help learning how to get the most of these new tools, get in touch with me.
