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iOS 16.1: These iPhone Features Just Landed on Your Phone

Live Activities in Dynamic Island, a cheaper way to use Apple Fitness Plus and more features to check out.

Apple’s iOS 16.1 was released in late October, about a month after iOS 16 was released. While iOS 16 came with a way to unsend messages, further lock screen customization and more, iOS 16.1 brings new features, tweaks and fixes to compatible iPhones (and iPads with iPadOS 16).

Here’s what’s new in iOS 16.1 and what each feature does. If you haven’t downloaded the update yet, we show you how to do that here. Looking to take a deeper dive into your iPhone? Check out all the best hidden features and setting changes that’ll optimize your device.

iCloud Shared Photo Library

Sharing photos with your friends and family after a night out or a vacation can be a hassle. But with iCloud Shared Photo Library, you can easily share photos and videos with up to five other people.

Anyone who has access to the Shared Photo Library can add, edit and delete content within the library. You can upload photos directly from your iPhone’s camera to the library, and you can add photos to the library when you are physically with others who have access to the library.

However, you can’t participate in two shared libraries at once, and if you move photos from your personal library to the shared library, those photos aren’t duplicated and can only be found in the shared library.

Live Activities in Dynamic Island and Lock Screen

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max‘s Dynamic Island and lock screen get a boost with Live Activities. With Live Activities, your Dynamic Island and lock screen display notifications from third-party apps for things like sports games and flights.

Apple Fitness Plus without an Apple Watch

With iOS 16.1 you no longer need an Apple Watch to access Apple Fitness Plus. With an iPhone 8 or newer, you can track your fitness progress and goals right from your phone.

Battery display updates

iPhones from the XR up to the latest models now have the option to display the battery percentage in the battery meter icon. The font used for the battery icon has also slightly increased in size, making it easier to read.

Wallpaper and lock screen updates

Apple made it a bit easier to customize your wallpaper in iOS 16.1. From the Settings > Wallpaper menu, the option to add a new wallpaper is now more visually distinct, and you have the option to swipe through existing wallpapers. Also, when editing your wallpaper from the lock screen, you’ll now have the option to customize either your lock screen or your home screen (instead of just the lock screen).

Screenshot editing tools interface updated

When you edit a screenshot using the editing menu, the delete, save and copy options are now displayed across the top of your screen in a smaller, less intrusive menu. Previously, these options were at the bottom of your iPhone’s screen.

Wallet app upgrades

You can securely share car, hotel room and other Wallet app information with Messages and WhatsApp. Apple Card customers can also grow their Daily Cash by putting their savings into a high-yield savings account. You can also delete the Wallet app from your iPhone if you want.

Smart home connectivity via Matter

Matter, the new smart home connectivity standard, is now supported. That means you can control smart devices like Alexa and Google Assistant from your iPhone.

Clean Energy Charging setting

A new Clean Energy Charging toggle has been added to the Battery section in Settings. The setting could help reduce your carbon footprint when you charge your iPhone. With Clean Energy Charging on, your iPhone will selectively charge when lower carbon emission electricity is available. This setting seems to be toggled on by default, but you can turn it off if you want by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and tapping the toggle next to Clean Energy Charging.

Apple Books interface upgrade

If you read books on your iPhone, your reader controls will automatically be hidden when you open Apple Books.

Bug fixes

Apple also addressed a handful of bugs. These fixes address issues like deleted conversations appearing in Messages, some Dynamic Island content not appearing when using Reachability and CarPlay not connecting when using a VPN app.

For more iOS news, check out the iOS 16 cheat sheet, how to download iOS 16.1 now and hidden iOS 16 features you should know about.

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Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color

Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.

Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.

Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.

«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.

Making the case for a caseless color iPhone

I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.

My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.

Pros can be bold, too

Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).

Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.

In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.

And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.

Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.

And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.

Apple never got ahead by being beige

I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.

But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.

Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.

If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.

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Astronomers Say There’s an Increased Possibility of Life on This Distant Planet

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are working to confirm potential evidence of life on a distant exoplanet dubbed K2-18b.

Astronomers are nearing a statistically significant finding that could confirm the potential signs of life detected on the distant exoplanet K2-18b are no accident.

The team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (which has only been in use since the end of 2021) to detect chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which they say can only be produced by life such as phytoplankton in the sea. 

According to the university, «the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.»

The findings were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and point to the possibility of an ocean on this planet’s surface, which scientists have been hoping to discover for years. In the abstract for the paper, the team says, «The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere.»

Not everyone agrees, however, that what the team found proves there’s life on the exoplanet.

Science writer and OpenMind Magazine founder Corey S. Powell posted about the findings on Bluesky, writing, «The potential discovery of alien life is so enticing that it drags even reputable outlets into running naive or outright misleading stories.» He added, «Here we go again with planet K2-18b.Um….there’s strong evidence of non-biological sources of the molecule DMS.»

K2-18b is 124 light-years away and much larger than Earth (more than eight times our mass), but smaller than Neptune. The search for signs of even basic life on a planet like this increases the chances that there are more planets like Earth that may be inhabitable, with temperatures and atmospheres that could sustain human-like lifeforms. The team behind the paper hopes that more study with the James Webb Space Telescope will help confirm their initial findings.

More research to do on finding life on K2-18b

The exoplanet K2-18b is not the only place where scientists are exploring the possibility of life, and this research is still an early step in the process, said Christopher Glein, a geochemist, planetary researcher and lead scientist at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute. Excitement over the significance of the research, he said, should be tempered.

«We need to be careful here,» Glein said. «It appears that there is something in the data that can’t be explained, and DMS/DMDS can provide an explanation. But this detection is stretching the limits of JWST’s capabilities.»

Glein added, «Further work is needed to test whether these molecules are actually present. We also need complementary research assessing the abiotic background on K2-18b and similar planets. That is, the chemistry that can occur in the absence of life in this potentially exotic environment. We might be seeing evidence of some cool chemistry rather than life.»

The TRAPPIST-1 planets, he said, are being researched as potentially habitable, as is LHS 1140b, which he said «is another astrobiologically significant exoplanet, which might be a massive ocean world.»

As for K2-18b, Glein said many more tests need to be performed before there’s consensus on life existing on it.

«Finding evidence of life is like prosecuting a case in the courtroom,» Glein said. «Multiple independent lines of evidence are needed to convince the jury, in this case the worldwide scientific community.» He added, «If this finding holds up, then that’s Step 1.»

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