We’re just weeks away from the introduction of new features on the iPhone. Here are the best.
So, the models that will suddenly become better from this fall with new features added, are iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X from fall 2017 and every single iPhone released since then. That means that by the time iOS 17 hoves into view in late 2023, some phones will have had a full six years’ support, which is pretty much unheard of in the world of Android phones.This is an attention-grabbing, head-turning development. Of course, your lockscreen can have your favorite photo right now.
You can also, and this is superbly cool, choose a favorite photo and let the software cut around the subject to lift it from the background for a layered effect. Even better, and this was not made very clear at the keynote, it doesn’t even need to be a portrait photo for this effect. You can have multiple lock screens to choose from, just as lots of Watch faces are possible for Apple Watch.This is very exciting. You know how you go to a website and you can’t remember which password you used? I mean, it’s a daily occurrence for me. Obviously, if iCloud Keychain has saved it then this isn’t too much of an issue, except that websites are hackable and so passwords may not be as private as they should be.
Passkeys are part of Safari and are unique digital keys which stay on device, not on a web server so can’t be tricked out of you by a phishing expedition or stolen in a data breach. You use Touch ID or Face ID instead of entering a password and yes, you can still use Passkeys even if you’re logging into a website on a PC or Android phone. You use a QR code and your iPhone instead. I literally can’t wait for this.
There’s also a series of updates to Visual Look Up so that, by tapping on a subject in a photo , it can lift it from the background to put it in Messages. And it will now recognize statues, birds and insects, which it couldn’t before.This will be U.S.-only when it arrives but allows you to buy something through Apple Pay and split the cost over four equal payments over six weeks. There’s a $50 minimum for these purchases and will work through Apple Wallet.