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How to Add These Hidden Music and Apple Intelligence Controls to Your iPhone

One control can Apple’s Visual Intelligence to more devices besides the iPhone 16 lineup.

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 the iPhone Control Center, including one that brings Visual Intelligence to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

When Apple released iOS 18 in September, the update remodeled the Control Center to give you more 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 also introduced more controls to the feature, making it a central hub for all your most-used iPhone features.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18

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. Here’s what you need 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 instance, 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’ll 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.

Here’s how to change the playlist for each control.

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. If you’re in the Sleep control, you’ll see playlists like Restful Notes and Lo-Fi Snooze. If you have playlists in your Music app, then you’ll also see an 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 whenever 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, iPhone 15 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.

Visual Intelligence was originally only accessible on the iPhone 16 lineup because those devices have the Camera Control 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 everything you should to know about the recipes section in Apple News. You can also check out all the features included in iOS 18.5 and our iOS 18 cheat sheet.

Technologies

With Apple’s Siri AI Overhaul Delayed, Google Might Help It Catch Up

Siri’s long-delayed overhaul could end up powered by Google’s Gemini AI, a move that shows how urgently Apple is trying to close the gap with rivals.

Apple is reportedly weighing up a potentially major change to its digital assistant: powering a revamped Siri with Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence tool. 

According to Bloomberg, the companies are in early discussions about a partnership that could reshape Apple’s AI strategy for the iPhone, iPad and Apple’s other products. While no agreement is in place, the talks signal Apple’s growing urgency to keep up in the generative AI race.

Siri, once a pioneer, has lagged behind its voice assistant rivals. Apple had planned to roll out a smarter, AI-driven Siri in 2025 as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative, but executives delayed the launch until spring 2026, admitting the early version wasn’t reliable enough to ship. That setback has left Apple at a disadvantage while Samsung, Microsoft and Amazon push ahead with AI assistants that are more conversational and capable.

Apple has long prided itself on controlling the technologies that make its products distinct, but generative AI has proven harder to master internally. To bridge the gap, Apple has leaned on partners: today’s Siri can already route certain requests to OpenAI’s ChatGPT when its own models fall short, and later this year, Apple Intelligence is set to upgrade that integration with GPT-5. You’ll be able to call on ChatGPT for writing help, image understanding and complex questions directly through Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence.

That reliance underscores the fact that Apple’s own models aren’t yet competitive at the same scale as its rivals.

Apple is reportedly exploring additional options, including Anthropic’s Claude and, most prominently, Google’s Gemini. A deal with Google wouldn’t just inject advanced capabilities into Siri, it would echo a long-running partnership between the two companies. Google already pays billions annually to remain the default search engine on Safari, and a Gemini deal could extend that relationship into Apple’s core AI experience.

If the talks advance, we may see a very different Siri emerge in the coming years: one less constrained, more conversational and powered by the same AI that underpins Google’s own products.

Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

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US Government Makes $8.9B Investment to Take 10% Stake in Intel

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 23, #804

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Aug. 23, #804.

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


The NYT Connections puzzle is often tough, but today’s is next-level tough. The blue category went wild with long, almost archaic vocabulary. See my rant below when I spoil the blue category for you. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Cars get thirsty too.

Green group hint: Place to play.

Blue group hint: Trickery.

Purple group hint: Who thought of that?

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Liquids you put into cars.

Green group: Arena.

Blue group: Skulduggery.

Purple group: Modern inventions.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is liquids you put into cars. The four answers are brake fluid, coolant, fuel and oil.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is arena. The four answers are bowl, coliseum, hippodrome and stadium.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is skulduggery. The four answers are chicanery, deceit, legerdemain and subterfuge.

OK, first, «skulduggery» is one heck of a word, but then … legerdemain? Seriously? The dictionary defines that as «skillful use of one’s hands when performing conjuring tricks.» New one on me.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is modern inventions. The four answers are crypto, podcast, smartwatch and vape.

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