More from Apple gets into AI: all the news on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more
It’s driven me bonkers ever since Google introduced linking to highlighted text in Chrome that I couldn’t do the same in the Safari browser. Now it seems that’s changing.
I spotted it in the most recent macOS 15.2 beta, where it appears when you right-click highlighted text. MacStories’ Federico Viticci noticed it in the iOS 18.2 beta, where you get it by long-pressing.
The feature, which was spotted by MacRumors in the second iOS 18.2 developer beta, uses Live Activities, so you’ll also see Safari download progress in the Dynamic Island (if you have an iPhone 14 Pro or later). Now give me this but for App Store downloads!
The iOS 18.2 update is expected to come in December.
To join the waitlist after you’ve updated to iOS 18.1, go to Settings, then “Apple Intelligence & Siri,” and then tap the “Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist” option.
Apple says that Apple Intelligence is “usually available for activation within a few hours of joining the waitlist.”
Apple had already said this feature was coming, but it’s now possible with the iOS 18.2 developer beta, 9to5Mac reports. In addition to the App Store, EU users can delete Camera, Safari, Messages, and Photos, too.
The redesigned Mail app will automatically sort your emails into four different tabs: your primary inbox with all your important emails, a transactions section for online orders, a promotions category for marketing emails, and an updates tab for newsletters.
The iOS 18.2 beta also adds more AI features like Genmoji and an integration with ChatGPT.
The AirPods Pro 2 will soon offer more robust hearing protection and a new hearing aid feature. But it’s the hearing test that really hooked me.
With the latest iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia updates, wired gaming with an Xbox controller is now supported, even for devices with Lightning ports (using an adapter), MacRumors reports, giving Xbox-preferring gamers a way around latency and wireless interference.
Apple devices had previously supported PlayStation controllers but not Xbox, which MacRumors notes use a proprietary USB protocol, so support for it needed to be custom, as well.
A Threads post that I recently saw opened my eyes to a fun trick with Apple’s iOS 18 iMessage effects: You can make little emoji / ASCII-style animations with them.
I lost the original post (if that was you, let me know!), but I immediately used the idea. If you’ve done this, feel free to share your best ones. Below is a gallery of mine.
watchOS 11 is nowhere near as flashy as Apple Intelligence, but it’s full of neat little moments.
Mark Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that Apple is “racing” to complete the second set of Apple Intelligence features it plans to release this year, lining up Genmoji, ChatGPT, and Image Playground for a December launch with iOS 18.2.
Meanwhile, some Siri updates could launch sooner than previously rumored with 18.3, but the “biggest” update is apparently iOS 18.4, which could arrive in March.
There’s a lot more to the iPhone 16 Pro and the Apple Intelligence-less launch version of iOS 18, but if you need a reason to consider upgrading now, it might be that confusing camera.
