Technologies

iOS 16.3 Is Coming Soon: The New Features That Could Hit Your iPhone

We won’t know exactly what’s in store for the new OS until it’s released, but the latest beta gives us some clues.

Apple’s next iOS update is expected to arrive as soon as this week, and with it will likely come a handful of new features, bug fixes and some Black History Month designs for your iPhone. Public beta testers, however, have already been given access to the iOS 16.3 beta.

As always, we recommend downloading a beta only on something other than your primary device. Since these are beta versions of iOS 16.3, the features might be buggy and your device’s battery life may be shortened, so it’s best to keep betas on a secondary device.

If you’re a public beta tester, here’s what’s new in the iOS 16.3 beta software. Note that the beta is still ongoing, so these likely won’t be the only new features to land on your iPhone when iOS 16.3 is officially released.

Apple Maps helps you find nearby parking options

If you use Apple Maps to get directions to a location, you can now find nearby parking within Maps. When looking up a place to go, you can tap More (…) and tap Parking. This opens SpotHero, an online service that helps you find, book and pay for a parking spot at a nearby garage or parking lot. You can also reserve a spot through SpotHero. This feature is available only in select cities, though.

New ways to use Emergency SOS via satellite

Emergency SOS via satellite was introduced at Apple’s 2022 event in September. The new beta software brings new ways to use the service on your iPhone.

In iOS 16.3 beta 2, the Call with Hold option has been replaced with Call with Hold and Release. If you enable Call with Hold and Release, you can hold the side button and a volume button to initiate a countdown and an alarm. After the countdown, you release the buttons and your iPhone will call emergency services on its own. Before with Call with Hold, pressing the side button and a volume button would first bring up the Emergency SOS call slider. If you continued to hold the buttons, a countdown started and an alarm would go off. After the countdown ended, your phone would make an emergency call.

There’s also an option to Call Quietly in Emergency SOS. By enabling this option, when you try to make an emergency SOS call, your phone won’t start flashing or making an alarm sound.

Security keys come to Apple ID

With the beta software, users will be able to use third-party security keys instead of two-factor authentication for their Apple ID.

Security keys are a lot like keys to your home. You still use passwords, but this extra layer of security can help protect you against phishing scams and hackers.

«Hardware security keys are very, very secure,» Diya Jolly, chief product officer of authentication service company Okta, told CNET’s Stephen Shankland.

Apple’s security keys feature only works with FIDO Alliance-certified security keys.

New HomePod Handoff prompts

Beta testers who have an Apple HomePod will be shown new messages when trying to use Handoff to transfer music, podcasts or phone calls over to the speaker. The messages further explain how Handoff works with your HomePod.

One message instructs you to bring your iPhone closer to the HomePod to view controls or to transfer your audio over to the HomePod. Another message says you can bring your iPhone closer to your HomePod again later to view those same controls or to transfer music.

Those are the major new features beta testers will see in the iOS 16.3 beta. That doesn’t mean these are the only features coming to the next iOS update. Apple will likely add more features before the release of iOS 16.3.

For more iOS 16 news, check out the new features in iOS 16.2 and iOS 16.1. Here’s how to sign up to test Apple’s iOS beta software, too.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, April 7

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 7.

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.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

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 to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Informative commercial, for short
Answer: PSA

4A clue: Something you trace to draw a Thanksgiving turkey
Answer: HAND

5A clue: ___ Johnson, former Prime Minister of the U.K.
Answer: BORIS

6A clue: Opposite of include
Answer: OMIT

7A clue: Crosses (out)
Answer: XES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: City with the Notre-Dame Cathedral
Answer: PARIS

2D clue: Bad mood
Answer: SNIT

3D clue: About eight minutes of the average half-hour sitcom
Answer: ADS

4D clue: Remote worker’s office, perhaps
Answer: HOME

5D clue: Word that can follow each group of circled letters (and hints at its shape)
Answer: BOX

Technologies

NASA’s Artemis II Breaks Record With Trip Around The Moon

Technologies

In Honor of the Artemis II Mission, Explore the Moon in Fortnite Now

You might not be able to see the moon the way the Artemis II team is, but there’s an educational Fortnite simulation that will get you onto the celestial body’s surface.

You may not be able to explore the vast majesty of space in the same way that the four-person crew of the Artemis II is, but you can still get an up-close-and-personal view of the moon… in Fortnite, at least.

While you may not be able to slingshot around Earth’s own lunar body, space enthusiasts can see a little bit of what the Artemis II crew is seeing by spending time on the Lunar Horizons Fortnite map right now. The map is a creative collaboration between Fortnite’s creator, Epic Games, and the European Space Agency. Lunar Horizons was released in 2024 after extensive testing and play from ESA trainee astronauts.

If you’re looking to learn more about our own orbiting body, the Lunar Horizons map is an educational simulation of the surface of the moon’s South Pole.

It blends game mechanics with learning, as players get to build up their own sterile lunar habitat bases, interact with ESA astronauts and roll around with robotic rovers as they discover informative plaques that contain information about the moon and international space agencies. There are still dangers to navigate, too — a solar storm may strike when you least expect it.

If you’re interested in exploring the moon, we’ve got all the information you need to join in on the Fortnite fun below. And if you’re looking for a more serious livestream during this momentous human achievement, tune into NASA’s feed here.

How to join the Moon Fortnite island while you follow the Artemis II mission

The Lunar Horizons Fortnite map is a great educational simulation that shares details about ESA’s work and catalogs information about humanity’s lunar research.

These three simple steps will get you up and running (or more accurately, taking slow leaps and bounds) on the surface of the Lunar Horizons Fortnite map:

Download Fortnite

If you haven’t played Fortnite before, but you want to check out this limited-time event, you’ll have to download the game. If you’re on PC, you can download Fortnite for free from the Epic Games Store. Console players can navigate the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store or Nintendo eShop in order to download Fortnite on their devices.

Navigate the in-game menus until you reach the Search button

Once you’re in the game, scroll down past the different official Fortnite game modes and the Discover tab until you find the Search button.

Input the Lunar Horizons island code

In the search bar, you can input a map’s name or its distinct search code in order to find it in the map directory. You can search for the Lunar Horizons map or input the code 3207-0960-6428 to explore this map in time.

Correction, 3:35 p.m. PT: This story initially was in error about the features available in the Lunar Horizons map. There is no Artemis II-specific mission in Fortnite. Rather, the Lunar Horizons map is an educational simulation of part of the moon’s surface.