Over the last several weeks, a number of reports on social media have surfaced from iPhone users claiming their alarms don’t properly play a sound. Apple has since confirmed that it’s aware of this problem, and says it is working on a fix.
Apple confirmed the problem to the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern this morning. The company said that it is aware of a problem causing some iPhone alarms to not play the expected sound and working on a fix.
Today Show called me last night and said iPhone alarms aren't working! I hadn't heard that but Apple confirmed this AM that it is aware of an issue causing some alarms not play a sound and that it's working on a fix.
My iPhone alarm woke me up right on time at 6:50AM! Anyone out…
On social media, some users have found that the problem relates to the Attention Aware features on iPhone. This feature is designed such that if you’re looking at your device, it will lower the volume sound of your alerts.
Social media users speculate that the Attention Aware feature is incorrectly detecting attention and lowering the volume of alarms, even when the iPhone user is asleep. Apple hasn’t confirmed whether this is actually the cause of the problem.
To disable Attention Aware Features, open the Settings app, tap Face ID & Passcode, then toggle off Attention Aware Features.
A news report from the TODAY Show below highlights the problem below.
Gurman writes that alongside the slate of artificial intelligence features, iOS 18 will include updates to most of the popular built-in apps on the iPhone, including overhauls for the Photos, Mail, Notes and Fitness apps. The Calculator app will be updated with new features, and made available on the iPad for the first time.
iOS 18 has been described as one of the biggest iPhone software updates, ever. Users can expect new features across the OS. We have previously heard about new features coming to Apple Maps for instance.
Corroborating previous reports, Gurman also says that the iPhone home screen will get some new capabilities. Users will be able to freely place icons for the first time, not aligned to the grid.
The overall OS will reportedly get a bit of a facelift with Gurman expecting a series of design tweaks, although not as dramatic as the iOS 17 transition. Specifically, he says that the design changes will make the app designs more “modular” and “easier to update and customize”.
This is speculation, but it sounds like Apple is working to standardize the library of UI components it uses across its apps, which will make it easier for the engineering teams to update them over time, especially as increasingly they are made available as universal apps spanning iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, tvOS, and visionOS.
We’ll know for sure when Apple officially announces iOS 18 at its WWDC developer conference, in June. The keynote announcements will kick off at 10 AM PT on June 10. Nearer term, Apple will hold a spring product event on May 7 where it will unveil the new iPad Pro and iPad Air lineups.
We’re not far from the first official look at iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 on June 10. Whether you’d like to test out the new OS as soon as the dev beta is available or you’ll wait for the public beta or public launch, follow along for when to expect the iOS 18 release date.
Apple historically reveals its major updates of iOS during the WWDC keynote and launches the first developer beta within hours.
Next, the first free iOS public beta usually launches about a month later with the official public release coming shortly after the fall iPhone event.
The upcoming major new iOS release is expected to come with big AI upgrades including on-device processing, a revamped version of Siri, smart integration with Messages, Apple Music, iWork, and more.
Other changes should include RCS support, new customization options for the Home Screen and the Calculator app finally landing on iPad (and Mac).
iOS 18 release date: When does iOS 18 come out?
TL;DR
iOS 18 developer beta – expected June 10 release at WWDC
iOS 18 public beta – expected between the end of June and mid-July
iOS 18 public release – expected in mid to late September
iOS 18 release date: Developer beta
Apple has made a tradition of releasing the first developer beta of each major iOS update on the same day as the yearly WWDC keynote.
WWDC kicks off with the keynote on June 10, expect the first iOS 18 developer beta to be released shortly afterward unless Apple switches things up
Here’s a look at the past five years of dev beta releases:
iOS 17 developer beta 1: June 5
iOS 16 developer beta 1: June 6
iOS 15 developer beta 1: June 7
iOS 14 developer beta 1: June 22 (delay due to pandemic)
iOS 13 developer beta 1: June 3
Public beta
The first iOS public beta typically arrives four to five weeks after the first developer beta launches in June. Historically that’s been between late June and early July.
Here’s a look at the last few years:
iOS 17 public beta 1: July 12, 2023 (after June 5 developer beta release)
iOS 16 public beta 1: July 11, 2022 (after June 6 developer beta release)
iOS 15 public beta 1: June 30, 2021 (after June 7 developer beta release)
iOS 14 public beta 1: July 9, 2020 (after June 22 developer beta release)
iOS 13 public beta 1: June 24, 2019 (after June 3 developer beta release)
Official public release
It’s likely iOS 18 will come out in mid to late September unless Apple throws us a curveball
If Apple has its iPhone 16 event between September 9-17, we could see iOS 18 officially launch between September 16-23.
Here’s a look at the last four years of iOS releases:
iOS 17: September 18, 2023 (after September 12 event)
iOS 16: September 16, 2022 (after September 7 event)
iOS 15: September 20, 2021 (after September 14 event)
iOS 14: September 16, 2020 (after September 15 event)
iOS 13: September 19, 2019 (after September 10 event)
iOS 18 release date conclusion
Since you can install iOS betas right within iPhone Settings (since iOS 16.4), it will be smooth and easy to try out iOS 18 come June.
As indicated by much of the research material Apple has been publishing in recent months, the company is investing heavily in all sorts of artificial intelligence technologies. Apple will announce its AI strategy in June at WWDC, as part of iOS 18 and its other new OS versions.
In the latest Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman says to expect the new iPhone AI features to be powered entirely by an offline, on-device, large language model developed by Apple. You can expect Apple will tout the privacy and speed benefits of this approach.
Previously someone found code references in iOS 17.4 that referred to an on-device model called “Ajax”. Apple is also working on server-hosted versions of Ajax too.
The downside to on-device LLMs is they can’t be as powerful as models that are running on huge server farms, with tens of billions of parameters and continually updating data behind them.
However, Apple engineers can probably take advantage of the full stack vertical integration of its platforms, with software tuned to the Apple silicon chips inside its devices, to make the most out of an on-device approach. On-device models are usually much quicker to respond than trafficking a request through a cloud service, and they also have the advantage of being able to work offline in places with no or limited connectivity.
While on-device LLMs may not have the same embedded rich database of knowledge as something like ChatGPT to answer questions about all sorts of random trivia facts, they can be tuned to be very capable at many tasks. You can imagine that an on-device LLM could generate sophisticated auto-replies to Messages, or improve the interpretation of many common Siri requests, for instance.
It also dovetails neatly into Apple’s stringent adherence to privacy. There’s no harm in churning all your downloaded emails and text messages through an on-device model, as the data stays local.
On-device models may also be able to do generative AI tasks like document or image creation, based on prompts, to a decent result. Apple still has the flexibility to partner with a company like Google to fallback to something like Gemini on the server for certain tasks, too.
We’ll know for sure what Apple plans to do when it officially announces its AI strategy at WWDC. The keynote kicks off on June 10, which will see the company unveil all the new software features coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Vision Pro and more.
Apple will reveal its AI cards on June 10 at WWDC, and Siri is surely going to be a key component. Generally, people want Siri to get good. You can’t just replace Siri intelligence with generative AI, however, but the two technologies make a powerful combination. What we want to see from an AI-infused Siri is actually simple.
Siri as it exists today is actually good at certain specific things.
We use Siri daily to send messages, make calls, create reminders, add things to my shopping list, play music, control lights, check the weather, check sports scores, start navigation, make voice memos, and much more.
Those are all rock solid. Siri is less reliable at summoning information. When kids ask knowledge questions all the time, and Siri should be the smoothest way to find the answer. We know in our bones that Siri is hit or miss on finding answers.
A simple test for Siri in iOS 18 is if it can eliminate punting to the web for search results as the answer. That’s where large language models excel. LLMs can be like hyper focused search engines that provide answers and not search results.
If Siri can provide more answers and less redirection, We can consider that a solid start.
Some other thoughts on this topic:
Siri is good about sourcing information when it does provide answers.
LLMs, on the other hand, will provide plausible answers that may be inaccurate.
Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant competed on feature parity before; now the competition is over how best integrates generative AI.
Humane, the startup behind the Ai Pin hardware, has shown how generative AI should work with a voice assistant.
However, Ai Pin’s limited capabilities around actions shows where Siri + AI can excel.
Separately, the Rabbit R1 bespoke AI hardware has a different approach to actions that looks competitive.
In sum, throwing out Siri and starting over from scratch is not a serious solution. Instead, Siri should maintain its functionality while using generative AI to patch its weak spots.
Last month, Apple announced a new Web Distribution offering for developers in the European Union. On April 16, 2024, the Beta launch of iOS 17.5 beta 2, that feature is now available.
Web Distribution gives developers in the EU the ability to offer their apps for download directly from their website. Here’s how it works.
Web Distribution in the European Union with iOS 17.5
Web Distribution is the third distribution option that developers in the European Union can take advantage of in light of the Digital Markets Act.
To use Web Distribution, developers will have to opt into the new App Store business terms, which means they will pay the Core Technology Fee of €0.50 for each first annual install over one million in the past 12 months.
Any app distributed through the web will still be required to meet Apple’s notarization guidelines. Apps can only be installed from a website domain that the developer has registered in App Store Connect. Apple will also make a number of APIs available for integration with system functionality for developers.
Web Distribution lets authorized developers distribute their iOS apps to users in the European Union (EU) directly from a website owned by the developer. Apple will provide developers access to APIs that facilitate the distribution of their apps from the web, integrate with system functionality, and back up and restore users’ apps, once they meet certain requirements designed to help protect users and platform integrity.
When a user downloads an app from a developer’s website for the first time, they will be prompted with a series of screens explaining what it means to give that developer the ability to install apps from their website.
After authenticating with Face ID to approve giving that developer permission to install apps, the user will then go through a three-step installation process for the app itself. Apple’s Notarization system means that users will see clear information about the app and how it works. This includes things like the app name, developer name, app description, screenshots, and system age rating.
Notably, users only have to give each developer permission to install apps one time.
For example, let’s say Meta ends up supporting the Web Distribution feature in the EU. The first time a user downloads an app from Meta, such as the Facebook app, they will be prompted to give Meta the ability to install apps on their device. Then, going forward, they will only have to approve each app installation itself.
Verdict
The new details provided by Apple give a good look at the actual process of using Web Distribution in the European Union – including how it is balancing security and privacy with convenience.
A viral post on social media last week, boosted by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, claimed that it would take 15 steps to install an app using Web Distribution. With the details provided today, Apple makes it clear that’s not the case.
Congratulations to Apple leadership for designing the worst app installation experience in the history of computing! Because Apple designers are the world’s best, there’s no question that this abomination is a premeditated part of a malicious European DMA compliance strategy. https://t.co/zx4aZicdEA
The first time you install an app from a developer using Web Distribution, it’s essentially an eight-step process to authorize a developer and install the first app. Each subsequent time you install an app from that same developer, it’s a three-step process.
For comparison’s sake, Android uses a one-time permission model when sideloading apps. While Android’s implementation requires fewer taps than Apple’s implementation, Apple provides users with more granular control for each developer. It also offers more details about each app prior to installation.
And, in a funny twist, Apple’s implementation of Web Distribution on iPhone is a significantly easier process than installing and using the Epic Games Store on the Mac.
While the iPhone 16 won’t feature any dramatic design changes, Apple is allegedly planning to shake up the color choices. According to a new rumor today, the iPhone 16 will be available in two additional colors compared to the iPhone 15 lineup.
iPhone 16 colors
Interestingly, the rumor specifically refers to the iPhone 16 Plus. It seems unlikely that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus would each be available in different colors, but this is something to keep in mind.
As a refresher, here are the five color options for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus:
Pink
Yellow
Blue
Green
Black
According to a new rumor posted on Weibo today, the iPhone 16 will be available in a wider array of seven colors:
Pink
Yellow
Blue
Green
Black
White
Purple
Again, this is just a rumor for the time being – and a sketchy rumor at that. Still, it’d certainly be nice to see Apple offer the iPhone 16 in a wider array of colors … and maybe some of those colors will be a bit bolder and less muted than what we have now.
Apple is alerting users to a new instance of an identified mercenary spyware attack on the iPhone. Possible victims have been sent an email from Apple describing how the attack could “remotely compromise the iPhone”. Victims are being notified in India and 91 additional countries, via Reuters.
Mercenary attacks of this nature typically cost millions of dollars, and are often useless once discovered by security researchers and patched by iOS security updates. They are often believed to be state-sponsored, due to the high cost of development to craft such complex and sophisticated attacks. However, in a notable change of language, Apple no longer says this explicitly in its threat notifications.
Apple has sent out these alerts in waves since 2021, as new attacks have been discovered. They generally target people like political activists, government officials, diplomats and journalists.
In this latest case, it seems the purpose of the attack was to install malicious software on the user’s device in order to spy on user’s data and their whereabouts.
Obviously, Apple continuously works to patch and defend against all manners of iPhone security bugs. Users can proactively help to defend themselves, by installing the latest software updates promptly, and consider enabling Lockdown Mode, which disables some iPhone system features that are particularly prone to vulnerabilities.
The origin of this latest attack is currently not disclosed. In addition to technical patches, Apple is also using its legal might to go after some of these spyware maker.
Israel’s NSO Group is one of the most notorious makers of such spyware. In November 2021, Apple sued NSO Group for its role in conducting surveillance attacks on Apple users. The case is ongoing.
Apple has officially started beta testing iOS 17.5 with developers and public beta users. The update brings a handful of new features and changes, and is expected to be released sometime next month. Head below for everything we know right now.
When will iOS 17.5 be released?
Based on previous years of iOS updates, I’d expect that iOS 17.5 will be released to everyone sometime in mid-May. Here’s a rundown of previous iOS x.5 update release dates:
iOS 16.5: May 18
iOS 15.5: May 16
iOS 14.5: April 26
iOS 13.5: May 20
What’s new in iOS 17.5?
While iOS 17.5 isn’t quite as big of an update as other iOS 17 updates, it still includes its fair share of new features and updates.
Web Distribution in the EU
Within the European Union, the latest iOS 17.5 update introduces the capability to install applications directly from a developer’s website. Apple unveiled this new “Web Distribution” feature last month, explaining that it allows developers to distribute their iOS apps straight from their own websites.
To utilize this functionality, developers must opt into the updated App Store business terms, which requires paying a Core Technology Fee of €0.50 for every first annual installation exceeding one million in the preceding 12 months.
guidelines. Apps can only be installed from a website domain that the developer has registered in App Store Connect. Apple will also provide a range of APIs for developers to integrate with system functionality.
While the iOS 17.5 beta 1 lays the groundwork for this feature, there are currently no developers offering their apps via this new Web Distribution feature. We don’t anticipate this changing until the public release of iOS 17.5 in May.
Design changes
iOS 17.5 beta 1 also includes a few small design changes that are worth pointing out:
The Podcasts widget has been updated to have a new dynamic color that changes based on the artwork of the podcast you’re currently playing.
In the Apple Books app, Apple has redesigned the “Reading Goal” icon in top navigation bar.
In the Settings app, there is a new glyph for the “Passkeys Access for Web Browsers” menu under “Privacy & Security.”
Find My network updates
Based on code discovered iOS 17.5 seems to incorporate a new system centered around anti-stalking capabilities for accessories like AirTags. This development follows Apple’s announcement last year of a partnership with Google to collaborate on a new “industry specification to combat unwanted tracking.”
Strings added to the Find My app reveal that iOS will be able to identify tracking accessories, even those that are not Apple or Find My certified, and assist users in disabling them.
One of the new strings states, “This item lacks certification on the Apple Find My network. You have the option to disable this item and prevent it from sharing its location with the owner. To proceed, follow the instructions provided on a website by the manufacturer of this item.”
These changes come as Google started rolling out its new Find My Device network for Android on April 8.
iOS 17.5 roundup
iOS 17.5 also includes an update for MDM users: “MDM solutions can now enforce a beta version during automated device enrollment.”
Whether Apple has more changes planned for iOS 17.5 beyond what was launched today remains to be seen. The focus is clearly on the European Union, where Apple continues to adapt to the Digital Markets Act being enforced by the European Commission.
While the iPhone 15 Pro saw the addition of the Action button, the entire iPhone 16 lineup will reportedly get an all-new “Capture button” this year. This will give users a new way to quickly take pictures using their iPhone 16 camera, with a few added bonuses. Here’s everything we know so far
The iPhone 16 Capture button’s design
The Capture button will reportedly come to the entire iPhone 16 lineup. This includes the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
According to multiple different CAD drawings and dummy units, the iPhone 16’s Capture button will be located on the right side of the phones. It will be in the same spot as the mmWave 5G antenna currently is in the United States.
While there was speculation that the iPhone 16’s Capture button might use a capacitive design, the latest reporting suggests that won’t be the case. Instead, the Capture button will have a mechanical design that physically presses in and out.
However, The Information has reported that the surface of the Capture will be touch sensitive. iPhone 16 users will allegedly be able to swipe left and right on the Capture button’s surface to zoom in and out. The Information also says that users will be able to “bring images into focus by pressing it lightly and activate the shutter by pressing more firmly on the button.”
The idea of a dedicated “Capture button” when it was first rumored for the iPhone 16. The rumors around the swipe gestures, however, make it sound infinitely more useful.
In some ways, this also takes me back to the days of the iPhone Smart Battery Case that had a built-in camera capture button. Those were good times.