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Want New iPhone Controls? Here’s the Latest From iOS 18.4

One control in particular brings Apple’s Visual Intelligence to more iPhones.

Apple released iOS 18.4 on March 31, and the update brought bug fixes, new emoji and a new recipes section in Apple News to all iPhones. The update also brought a handful of new controls to your iPhone’s Control Center, including a control that brings Visual Intelligence to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

When Apple released iOS 18 in September, the update remodeled the Control Center and gave you more, uh… control over how the feature functions. With iOS 18, you can resize controls, assign some controls to their own dedicated page and adjust the placement of controls to your liking. Apple has also introduced more controls to the feature, making it a central hub for all your most-used iPhone features. 

With iOS 18.4, Apple continues to expand the number of controls you can add to the Control Center. If you have the update on your iPhone, you can add ambient music controls, and Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones get a few AI controls in the menu, too.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18

Here’s what to know about the new controls and how to add them to your Control Center.

Ambient Music controls

Apple gave everyone four new controls in the Control Center library under the Ambient Music category. These controls are Sleep, Chill, Productivity and Wellbeing. Each of these controls can activate a playlist filled with music that corresponds to the specific control — Sleep, for example, plays ambient music to help lull you to bed.

Some studies suggest white noise could help adults learn words and improve learning in environments full of distractions. According to the mental health company Calm, certain kinds of music can help you fall asleep faster and improve the quality of your sleep. So these new controls can help you learn, fall asleep and more.

Here’s how to find these controls. 

1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your Home Screen to open your Control Center. 
2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of your screen. 
3. Tap Add a Control. 

You should see a section of controls called Ambient Music. You can also search for «Ambient Music» in the search bar at the top of the control library. 

Under Ambient Music, you’ll see all four controls. Tap one (or all) of them to add them to your Control Center. Once you’ve added one or all the controls to your Control Center, go back to your Control Center and tap one to start playing music.

You can also change the playlist for each control. Here’s how.

1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your Home Screen to open your Control Center. 
2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of your screen. 
3. Tap the Ambient Music control you want to edit.
4. Tap the playlist to the right of Playlist

A dropdown menu will appear with additional playlists for each control. So if you’re in the Sleep control, you’ll see other playlists like Restful Notes and Lo-Fi Snooze. If you have playlists in your Music app, you’ll also see the option From Library, which pulls music from your library. Tap whichever playlist you want and it will be assigned to that control. 

Apple already lets you transform your iPhone into a white noise machine with Background Sounds, like ocean and rain. But Ambient Music is actual music as opposed to more static sounds like in that feature. 

Both of these features feel like a way for Apple to present itself as the first option for when you want some background music to help you fall asleep or be productive. Other services, like Spotify and YouTube, already have ambient music playlists like these, so this could be Apple’s way of taking some of those service’s audience.

Apple Intelligence controls

Only people with an iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max or the iPhone 16 lineup can access Apple Intelligence features for now, and those people got three new dedicated Apple Intelligence controls with iOS 18.4. Those controls are Talk to Siri, Type to Siri and Visual Intelligence. 

Here’s how to find these controls. 

1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your Home Screen to open your Control Center. 
2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of your screen. 
3. Tap Add a Control. 

Then you can use the search bar near the top of the screen to search for «Apple Intelligence» or you can scroll through the menu to find the Apple Intelligence & Siri section. Tap any (or all) of these controls to add them to your Control Center.

While Talk to Siri and Type to Siri controls can be helpful if you have trouble accessing the digital assistant, the Visual Intelligence control is important because it brings the Apple Intelligence feature to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

Originally, Visual Intelligence was only accessible on the iPhone 16 lineup since those devices had the Camera Control button. Visual Intelligence was only accessible through that button. 

With iOS 18.4, Visual Intelligence is now accessible on more devices and people thanks to the titular control in Control Center. But remember, Visual Intelligence is like any other AI tool so it won’t always be accurate. You should double check results and important information it shows you.

For more on iOS 18, here are all the new emoji you can use now and what to know about the recipes section in Apple News. You can also check out everything included in iOS 18.4 and our iOS 18 cheat sheet.

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Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, April 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s NYT Mini Crossword looked daunting, with those extra Saturday clues the puzzle has every week. But I found the clues pretty easy, and 1-Across even put a familiar childhood song in my head. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Subject of a song that ends «Next time won’t you sing with me?»
Answer: ABCS

5A clue: Play at a loud volume
Answer: BLARE

6A clue: Totally convinced of
Answer: SOLDON

7A clue: It wrote this clue: «Virtual assistant with the gift of gab (4, 3). Let me know if you’d like any tweaks!»
Answer: CHATGPT

8A clue: Mascara targets
Answer: LASHES

9A clue: Place to make a lifelong promise
Answer: ALTAR

10A clue: Best coast for sunsets
Answer: WEST

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: The whole package, so to speak
Answer: ALLTHAT

2D clue: Honey ___, animal that «don’t care» in a meme
Answer: BADGER

3D clue: Makes smaller, as a photo
Answer: CROPS

4D clue: Like emails you can’t take back
Answer: SENT

5D clue: Acts like a braggart
Answer: BOASTS

6D clue: Rock that easily fractures
Answer: SHALE

7D clue: Grabber of stuffed animals in an arcade
Answer: CLAW

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

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Kia Is Bringing an Electric Truck to the US: What We Know So Far

Kia is joining the EV pickup segment. Here’s everything you need to know right now.

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