Apple yesterday introduced the newest version of iOS, iOS 12, which is currently available to developers as part of a beta test. We thought we'd take a closer look at iOS 12 to give MacRumors readers who aren't yet able to download the beta an idea of what to expect from the new software. play iOS 12 has some enticing new features that iOS users have been wanting for several years. Grouped notifications, for example, cleans up your notifications list, while new Do Not Disturb features give you more granular control over when it turns on and when it turns off. Screen Time, a new feature, lets you know how much time you're spending on your iOS device with detailed statistics, including how much time you spend using each app and how many times you pick up your iPhone during the day. Group FaceTime is here and supports calls with up to 32 people, and on the iPhone X, there are new Animoji and customizable Memoji. You can also use fun new camera effects in both Messages and FaceTime, and those aforementioned Animoji are also available in Messages and FaceTime on iPhone X. Siri is much smarter in iOS 12 thanks to a new feature called Shortcuts, which has been built on the Workflow app. Shortcuts let you build automations with first and third-party apps that can be activated with Siri commands. ARKit 2.0 brings improvements to augmented reality that include persistence, so AR environments will stay the same across multiple sessions, and multiplayer support, so two or more people can interact with the same augmented reality environment on separate devices. Apple has also focused heavily on performance, working from top to bottom to make iPhones faster and more responsive, including older iPhones. Apple has introduced optimizations for all devices, and iOS 12 will work on all iPhones and iPads that are able to run iOS 11. For more detail on iOS 12, make sure to check out our iOS 12 roundup, which is in development. We'll also be sharing additional videos covering iOS 12 features, so make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors and subscribe to our YouTube channel.<doc-sep>Apple has unveiled iOS 12, the new software for its iPhones. But it didn't reveal everything. The new operating system includes a whole host of features, many of them useful, that weren't actually shown off by Apple. Many are just useful as the features that took up stage during its announcement. But they have been discovered since it happened. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. 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March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty Here's a rundown of some of the hidden features that will become available in iOS 12. The software will be available properly later this year – and it can be downloaded already, though it is not recommended. Accidental screenshots Screenshots are incredibly useful. Apple has made them even more useful over the last year, with new ways of taking them and dealing with them once you've done so. But accidentally taking screenshots isn't so useful, and is very common. So the company has looked to deal with that. To try and stop all of those mistaken grabs, Apple won't let people take a screenshot until a few moments have passed. That means that you won't accidentally take one while you try and unlock your phone. Many faces The iPhone X's FaceID technology has been widely praised. Apart from one particular thing: only one face can be used to unlock the phone. Now that has gone, with the option to add additional faces into the app. That means that people will be able to add their partner, for instance, so that they can get into their phone. Or people will even be able to add themselves twice over, if there's a reason you look especially different at different times. iPhone X gestures on iPad Apple has finally unified some of the gestures across the iPhone and the iPad. That should make using them both much easier. When the iPhone X came out, Apple had to move around many gestures and tools. For instance, it was no longer possible to have the control centre slide out from the bottom, so it was moved in the corner. But that didn't happen on the iPad. That made it a little confusing to use both, since there's now the same experience across the different platforms. A similar change has happened in the menu bar at the top, too. The time has moved over to the slide, in keeping with where it shows on the iPhone. (Taken together, this has been taken to suggest that Apple could be working on an "iPad X", with the same notch and FaceID tools present in the iPhone. That's probably true – but for now it also means more consistency.) New gestures on iPhone X In a similar way, gestures on the iPhone X have been improved, too.<doc-sep>After months of testing, Apple finally release iOS 12 to the public this morning. See all the cool new iOS 12 features in the video below. iOS 12 performance First up, iOS 12 brings a noticeable speed boost. Apps load more quickly, the Camera app opens faster, etc. iOS 12 generally makes my iPhone X feel a bit snappier. Thankfully, iOS 12 is making its way to a slew of older iOS devices. The basic rule is, if your device runs iOS 11, it will run iOS 12. (Apple says the iPhone 6s will see the biggest increase, with apps opening 50 percent faster.) Running a Geekbench test on my iPhone X shows a small increase in single-core performance and a pretty hefty jump in multi-core. I actually see quite a difference. And, since the iPhone X isn’t a slow phone, I can’t wait to try out iOS 12 on an older iPhone or iPad. While performance was one of the main focuses for Apple in iOS 12, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some awesome new features. Notification Center in iOS 12 Let’s start from the lock screen and work our way in. Right off the bat, you can see that Apple heard our complaints about notifications and finally grouped them together. So, rather than infinite lists of texts, Facebook notifications and offers from apps, iOS 12 stacks them together to make Notification Center and the lock screen a much simpler place. The new design organizes them by app, and also by recipient or topic. You can dismiss them one by one as always, get rid of whole groups, or clear all of your notifications at once. A new feature called Instant Tuning means you can send a notification straight to Notification Center, then hide it from the lock screen by choosing to “deliver quietly.” You can also silence notifications from certain apps right here, so you don’t need to dig around in the Settings app. New Apple apps: Books, News, Stocks On my home screen, everything looks pretty much the same (with the exception of that new iOS 12 wallpaper, of course). However, Apple did update a few of its native apps. The News app gets a bit of a refresh in terms of design — nothing too major — although the iPad version gains a sidebar that helps you see all the categories you’re interested in super-easily. Apple also dropped the “i” from iBooks, now calling its app simply “Books.” More importantly, the app got a complete redesign to make it easier and more enjoyable to use. It benefits from a brand new e-book store (which seemed to be a bit of a theme at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference), along with a new “reading now” section that shows a preview of the book you were reading most recently so you can jump straight back in. Apple also updated its Voice Memos and Stocks apps. Voice Memos has been totally rebuilt to be cleaner and easier to use. It also adds iCloud syncing, so no matter which iOS device you use, your memos will stay in sync. That’s totally handy, since the iPad now gets the Voice Memos app. Apple’s Stocks app also comes to the iPad in iOS 12. It’s been completely redesigned as well, bringing more detailed information (including after-hours pricing) alongside Apple News integration, which offers curated business stories to help you predict an upcoming rally. Photos in iOS 12 Apple’s Photos app gains some cool new search features in iOS 12. Now you can search for events, business locations and so on to really narrow down your hunt for particular images. A new “For You” tab serves up Memories, featured photos, suggested effects and suggestions for who you might like to share your images with. ARKit 2.0 and Measure iOS 12 includes Apple’s new Measure app. It takes advantage of Apple’s ARKit platform to let you measure objects, shapes and lines using the camera on your iPhone or iPad. Apple also moved the level to the Measure app from the Compass app, which makes sense. Apple demoed Measure during the augmented reality segment of the WWDC 2018 keynote alongside ARKit 2.0, which brings improved facial tracking, more realistic rendering and 3D object detection. It also brings support for shared AR experiences, which will let us enjoy augmented reality games with friends. Do Not Disturb You’ll find a ton of new features and updates within Settings just waiting to be discovered, starting with Do Not Disturb. Apple added a new Bedtime mode that hides notifications so they won’t distract you if you wake up in the middle of the night. They’ll then return to the lock screen in the morning (depending on your preferences). You can also choose when Do Not Disturb ends, so you can invoke it for an hour, until evening or the end of an event, or until you arrive at a certain location. Screen Time Below Do Not Disturb, you’ll find Screen Time. This new feature lets you specify how much time you spend inside of an app. If you’re wasting too much time in Facebook, you can set yourself a limit each day and Screen Time will tell you when you’re getting close to the end. When you hit your limit, Screen Time will prevent you from seeing the app, although you can choose to ignore that. You can also set limits for your children if you want them to unplug at a certain time each night. Your settings will sync across all your household’s iOS devices. Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12 While Siri didn’t get the big overhaul a lot of people hoped for, Apple’s AI assistant did gain a new trick — Siri Shortcuts. Now Siri can perform all kinds of actions when you say simple commands. For example, announce that you’ve lost your keys, and Siri will use the Tile app to locate them. Or say, “I’m heading home,” and Siri might load your Maps app and your favorite podcast. You can basically teach Siri to carry out a bunch of different actions triggered by custom commands. Once set up, they will work on your Apple Watch, HomePod and so on. CarPlay For Apple CarPlay users who don’t dig Apple Maps, iOS 12 brings support for third-party navigation services such as Google Maps and Waze. It’s nice to see more apps making their way to CarPlay. Face ID Face ID now supports alternate appearances as well. Within the Face ID and passcode settings, you’ll find a new entry to allow for multiple people to unlock the iPhone X. While I can’t think of many uses for why I’d want multiple people being able to unlock my iPhone, this could be handy for a future iPad. (We’ve long heard rumors of a future iPad Pro that borrows iPhone X design cues, removing the Home button and adding Face ID.) iPad UI updates in iOS 12 There’s even more evidence of a buttonless iPad when you take a look at iOS 12 on an Apple tablet, as you can now use the same gestures as the iPhone X. You can swipe up to exit an app, swipe up and to the right to bring up the app switcher, swipe down from the top right for Control Center, and bring down Notifications from the top left side. Since I own an iPhone X, this is something I’ve been praying for. My muscle memory has completely reprogrammed itself to all of the new gestures, leaving me in a mess trying to use older iPhones or iPads. They work great here and make the iPad even easier to use. If you’re not an iPhone X user, don’t worry — you’ll pick them up really quickly (and you’ll never want to go back). There are tons of other new iOS 12 features Apple didn’t mention in its WWDC keynote, such as a new automatic software update toggle within settings, a Face ID retry option, more colors for Markup, new South African and Irish accents for Siri, low-powered Siri, and favicons in Safari to name just a few. What do you think about iOS 12?<doc-sep>
Apple has unveiled all the new features heading to iPhones and iPads at its developer conference in San Francisco on Monday, including speed boost for even older devices, improved privacy and a host of new features. The look of iOS 12 will be very familiar, with the company focusing on improving the experience and the underlying software rather than simply splashing on a new coat of paint. What will it run on? The new iOS 12 will be available for any device running iOS 11 now, which means any Apple smartphone from the iPhone 5S or newer, and any iPad from the iPad mini 2 and iPad Air or newer, plus the sixth generation iPod touch. When can I get it? The developer version is available now, but the first public beta is due later in June, for those eager to test it as soon as possible. A final release will be available in September for everyone else. Speed Apple promised that iPhone users will see sizeable speed improvements across the board, including for smartphones as old as 2013’s iPhone 5S. Apps will launch up to twice as fast as before, the camera should load 70% faster, and so should the home screen after the phone is unlocked, while even the keyboard should pop up in half the time. Apple said it has improved performance all over iOS, so everything should be at least a little quicker day to day, even on older devices. Unlikely previous updates, iOS 12 looks like it will speed up your iPhone rather than slowing it down. Notifications Allow GIPHY content? This article includes content provided by GIPHY . We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Allow Notifications on iOS have lagged behind competitors for a while, but now Apple is beginning to tackle the overloaded lock screen. Notifications can now be grouped together rather than users having to deal with 10 separate notifications for each app, while others can be forced to delivered without making a sound or vibration showing up in the notification centre but not the lock screen – useful for lower priority apps and services. iPhone addiction Screen Time will track your usage of your phone so you can see how often you pick it up, which apps you use the most and for how long. Photograph: Apple Handout/EPA Following Google’s lead, Apple is also making efforts to help people curb their addictions to their phones. New tools include Screen Time, which generates weekly Activity Reports showing app usage, how many notifications you receive and how often you pick up and use your phone. You can set App Limits, which are essentially timers for app usage. The new Do Not Disturb During Bedtime is designed to clear out your notification clutter hiding them till prompted in the morning so you can wind down in the evenings without worrying about what’s happening. Parental controls Parents will be able to set limits on app usage and track how long kids spend on their iPhone or iPad as well as the apps they use. Photograph: Apple Handout/EPA Part of the phone addiction tools are new parental controls to perform the same monitoring and limiting of app usage on children’s iPhones. Parents can see their child’s Activity Report on their own iOS devices, as well as set and manage App Limits for them. Using a new feature called Downtime, parents can also set up schedules for when notifications from apps won’t be displayed on the kid’s phone and block certain apps from being used. The features work across all of a child’s iOS devices, so one rule can be set for both iPhones and iPads if they have them. More animated emoji Some of Apple’s Memoji from iOS 12, which can be personalised to represent an individual. Photograph: Apple iOS 12 is adding new Animoji to the roster available on the iPhone X, including a ghost, koala, tiger and T-rex. Users can now also generate custom emoji, similar to Samsung’s AR emoji, called Memoji, which they can make look like themselves. All the animoji can now also recognise when your tongue is sticking out. Great. Privacy and security Apple is attempting to improve the privacy and security of user data on the iPhone through several additions to iOS 12.