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iOS 16.5 Is Out, but You May Have Missed These iOS 16.4 Features

When it was released, iOS 16.4 brought plenty of new features to your iPhone.

Apple is set to release iOS 16.5 soon, and though that update will likely bring a few new features to your iPhone, you may’ve missed some of the added features that iOS 16.4 brought. 

Your iPhone is in need of an update if you still haven’t downloaded iOS 16.4 — not to mention iOS 16.4.1 (a) or iOS 16.4.1. Apple released iOS 16.4.1 (a), the company’s first rapid System Response update, and iOS 16.4.1 to patch security vulnerabilities and squash some bugs. These updates didn’t have any added features, but their predecessor, iOS 16.4, includes several new features in addition to updates and security fixes

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Below are some of the biggest additions to your iPhone with iOS 16.4. And here’s how to download and install the update if you haven’t already. For more, here’s everything to expect from the next major iPhone update, iOS 16.5

31 new emoji

The iOS 16.4 update brings 31 new emoji to your iOS device. The new emoji include a new smiley; new animals, like a moose and a goose; and new heart colors, including pink and light blue. 

9 of the new emoji, arranged in a grid on a pink background: peapod, hair pick, goose, hand, smiley, gray heart, maracas, donkey, wifi signal 9 of the new emoji, arranged in a grid on a pink background: peapod, hair pick, goose, hand, smiley, gray heart, maracas, donkey, wifi signal

Some of the new emoji released in iOS 16.4.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The new emoji all come from Unicode’s September 2022 recommendation list, Emoji 15.0

Voice Isolation comes to cellular calls

Voice Isolation was introduced with iOS 15 in 2021, and at the time it worked only on FaceTime calls. Now with iOS 16.4, you can use the feature on your cellular calls too.

When enabled, Voice Isolation can help the person you’re on a call with hear you more clearly by muffling background sounds, like kids playing in the other room or construction outside your window. It could therefore cut back on the number of times you have to repeat yourself in a phone call because the other person can’t hear you.

Easily find photo duplicates across shared albums

In iOS 16.4, you can easily find duplicate photos in shared albums in Photos. If you share photos with family or friends via iCloud, iOS 16.4 will show you all the duplicates across albums. You can also Merge these duplicate photos. 

Support for PlayStation 5 controller

According to MacRumors, iOS 16.4 adds support for the PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge Wireless Controller. You can use the controller to play controller-enabled games from services like Apple Arcade — a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick — on your iPhone.

Apple Books update

The page-turn curl animation is back in Apple Books with iOS 16.4, after it was removed in a previous iOS update. Before, when you turned a page in an ebook on your iPhone, the page would slide to one side of your screen or it would vanish and be replaced by the next page. You can still choose these other page-turn animations in addition to the curl animation.

Music app changes

The Kid Cudi album Man On the Moon artwork with the track list below The Kid Cudi album Man On the Moon artwork with the track list below

A small banner appears at the bottom of the screen when you choose to play a song next in Apple Music in iOS 16.4.

Zach McAuliffe/CNET

The Music interface has been slightly modified in iOS 16.4. When you add a song to your queue, a small banner appears near the bottom of your screen instead of a full-screen pop-up like in previous iOS versions.

Also, if you go into your Library in Music, you can organize your Library by Artist and tap into an artist, across the top of your page you will see an icon for that artist. A search bar used to be at the top of this page. Tap the artist’s icon and you will be taken to that artist’s Music page. 

Apple Podcasts updates

Apple Podcasts also gets an update with iOS 16.4. Now you can access a Channels tab in your Library, which shows you different networks you follow. Tap into each channel and you can see the shows you subscribe to and other shows that channel produces. 

See who and what is covered under AppleCare

With iOS 16.4, you can go to Settings > General > About > Coverage to check who and what devices are covered on your AppleCare plan. That way, if your AirPods break, you can easily check whether they’re covered. You can manage your coverage from here too.

Focus Mode filters added

If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, iOS 16.4 lets you enable or disable the always-on display option with certain Focus Modes. When creating a new filter, scroll down to the bottom of the edit page, tap Focus Filter, then tap Always-On Display to enable or disable the display for that Focus Mode.

New Apple Wallet features

You can add three new order-tracking widgets for Apple Wallet to your home screen with iOS 16.4. Each widget displays your tracking information on active orders, but the widgets are different sizes: small, medium and large.

No Active Orders displayed in the Apple Wallet widget No Active Orders displayed in the Apple Wallet widget

The medium-size Apple Wallet order tracking widget takes up two rows on your iPhone’s screen.

Zach McAuliffe/CNET

More accessibility options

The update also adds new accessibility options. One new option is called Dim Flashing Lights, and it can be found in the Motion menu in Settings. The option’s description says video content that depicts repeated flashing or strobing lights will automatically be dimmed. Video timelines will also show when flashing lights will occur. VoiceOver support has also been expanded to the maps and Weather apps. 

Apple ID and beta software updates

Text that reads You can sign in with a different Apple ID that is enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program or the Apple Developer Program Text that reads You can sign in with a different Apple ID that is enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program or the Apple Developer Program

The latest iOS update lets you sign into another Apple ID to access other beta software.

Zach McAuliffe/CNET

With iOS 16.4, developers and beta testers can check whether their Apple ID is associated with the developer beta, public beta or both. If you have a different Apple ID, like one for your job, that has access to beta updates, iOS 16.4 also lets you switch to that account from your device.

New keyboards, Siri voices and language updates

This iOS 16.4 update also adds keyboards for the Choctaw and Chickasaw languages, and there are new Siri voices for Arabic and Hebrew. Language updates have also come to Korean, Ukrainian, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu. 

Here are Apple’s release notes for iOS 16.4.

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

• 21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard.

• Notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen.

. • Voice Isolation for cellular calls prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you.

• Duplicates album in Photos expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo Library.

• VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app.

• Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected.

• Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent’s device.

• Addresses issues where Matter-compatible thermostats could become unresponsive when paired to Apple Home.

• Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models.

Curious about what else is new with Apple? check out what might be coming to your iPhone with iOS 16.5 and how to enable Voice Isolation in phone calls.

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Watch this: Apple’s Classical Music App: The Highs and Lows

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Technologies

The Impressive Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e Bluetooth Headphones Drop Below $300

You can save more than $100 on these high-end, previous-gen Bowers & Wilkins headphones.

Bowers & Wilkins headphones are among the best, and right now you can grab the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e Bluetooth headphones for only $297. That’s a nice $102 discount and just $3 more than the lowest price we’ve seen. But this deal won’t last long, so be quick to lock in this price.

The newer PX7 S3 headphones have earned a place on our best headphones roundup, but those also come in at $479. However, if you aren’t worried about having the latest model, you can take advantage of price drops on previous-gen models, like this one.

Our audio expert, David Carnoy, appreciated the original PX7 S2 headphones when they debuted, noting their comfortable fit, sound quality, noise cancellation and voice-calling performance. So these PX7 S2e headphones are an updated version with refined internal tuning and a more controlled base, but they still have the same design and offer up to 30 hours of playback, just like the original.

Not quite what you’re looking for? Check out all of our best headphone deals for more options.

Why this deal matters

Any chance to save over $100 on a pair of high-end headphones is a deal worth paying attention to. This model isn’t the current flagship, but it still offers exceptional sound and comfort, and now you can score a pair for under $300.

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Technologies

Watch Out, Meta. I Tried Alibaba’s Qwen Smart Glasses and They’re Mega Impressive

These AI-focused smart glasses are available now in China but will roll out internationally later this year.

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona might be a European tech show, but for the past few years, the event has largely been dominated by Chinese phone companies such as Xiaomi and Honor. This year, they were joined by tech giant Alibaba, which launched its Qwen smart glasses at the show — and having tried them, all I have to say is, Meta should watch its back.

The Qwen glasses are among the first wearable devices Alibaba is building on top of its Qwen AI family of large language models, and the company brought two different models to the MWC. 

The first pair, the Qwen S1 specs, have a heads-up waveguide display etched into the lenses, and serve as a rival to Meta’s Ray-Ban Display model (minus the gesture control). My first impression of these AR glasses was that they were light and comfortable to wear — I wouldn’t have known that they were smart glasses by their weight alone. At the end of each arm are swappable batteries, which snap off easily so you can keep the glasses running for longer when you’re on the go.

I activated the glasses with the phrase «Hey Qwennie,» which it picked up with its five microphones. I then asked it to complete a range of basic tasks, including asking the device to take a photo and to tell me what I was looking at when I held a photo of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia in front of my face.

I could see a miniature version of the photo I captured in the green display, and the glasses were able to answer my architectural query both by displaying text in the heads-up display and through the bone conduction built into the arms of the S1. Perhaps my favorite feature, though, was the turn-by-turn directions. This feature felt like it could become essential for navigating a busy city, and far more convenient than using a phone or smartwatch.

I also tried out the teleprompter feature, which scrolled as I read out loud from the text appearing on the display but must confess I didn’t find it quite as easy to follow as a similar demo I tried earlier in the week on the MemoMind One glasses. With the Qwen booth assistant talking to me in Chinese, I was able to see and hear the English translation of her words on the display and in my ear simultaneously, although there was enough of a delay to prevent our communication from being entirely smooth.

The second pair of glasses Alibaba brought to the show were the Qwen G1 glasses, which lack the heads-up display present on the S1, but otherwise offer pretty much the same features thanks to the microphones, cameras and bone-conduction.

On the whole, I was impressed by the look, feel, sound quality and capabilities of these glasses, which for many people might be their first introduction to Alibaba’s Qwen AI (by way of the Qwen App, which is integrated with the specs). In China, where preorders for the glasses are already live, people wearing the glasses will be able to complete tasks such as ordering food or hailing a cab completely hands free.

Alibaba said pricing for the G1 glasses will start at around $275 (for comparison, Meta’s Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses cost $379), but didn’t say how much the more advanced S1 glasses will cost. Official sales in China will commence on March 8, with Alibaba promising an international rollout featuring integration with popular global services scheduled for an unspecified date later in 2026.

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Technologies

Softness and Brightness Blend to Stunning Effect in TCL’s Nxtpaper AMOLED Phone Display

An anti-glare screen that’s still radiant and vivid? Sign me up.

I’ve always been impressed with TCL’s easy-to-read Nxtpaper technology. Sitting somewhere between E Ink and a more traditional screen with built-in anti-glare tech, there’s a softness both to the look and feel of a Nxtpaper display that makes it a real pleasure to use.

But if I were asked whether I’d be happy to replace my regular phone with one that had an LCD Nxtpaper display, the answer has always been no, for one simple reason: brightness. The vivid colors that we’re accustomed to on most phones screens tend to look dull on Nxtpaper, and I just wouldn’t be willing to compromise on radiance, in spite of the many good qualities Nxtpaper brings to the table.

Until now, that is. Among the cool phones and weird tech on display at Mobile World Congress 2026, I saw a Nxtpaper phone that might have changed my perspective. TCL showed off an upgraded AMOLED version of Nxtpaper stopped me in my tracks. It blended the luminosity of AMOLED and the softness of Nxtpaper to stunning effect, in a way that would genuinely make me reconsider my stance on owning a Nxtpaper phone.

The screen offers 3,200 nits of brightness, and has a circular polarization rate of 90%, which means it closely resembles natural light. TCL has managed to reduce blue light emission as low as 2.9%, and the display dynamically adjusts brightness and color temperature in tune with the body’s natural circadian rhythms.

The one drawback I can see for using Nxtpaper on a phone screen is that it might not be ideal for taking, viewing and editing photos. In my brief demo at MWC, I took a selfie and noticed the colors didn’t look especially true to life. But it’s important to note that TCL is still developing this technology, so it remains a work in progress and my brief time using it likely won’t be an accurate reflection of a final product.

In all, this is real leap forward for Nxtpaper. Although TCL hasn’t announced any devices featuring the technology yet, it likely will do in due course. I’d personally like to see it on a laptop — as I spend all day staring at my screen both reading and writing, it seems like the perfect application of this tech. I can’t wait to see where it ends up.

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