Technologies

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.

Technologies

Blue Origin Rocket Grounded After ‘Mishap’ Destroys Customer Satellite

After failing to deliver its first customer satellite into the correct orbit, the FAA grounds Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket pending an investigation.

Blue Origin‘s New Glenn Mission 3 (NG-3) was supposed to mark another step forward for the company’s long-awaited entry into the commercial space launch market. Instead, the heavy-lift rocket’s third flight ended in a partial failure and, for now, a full stop. The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the New Glenn vehicle from future missions following a «mishap» during Sunday’s launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida until an investigation into the incident can be completed.

The mission wasn’t a total loss. New Glenn’s reusable first-stage booster performed as expected and landed successfully. However, the upper stage failed at the job that mattered most for the mission: delivering its payload into the correct orbit.

That payload (the BlueBird 7 communications satellite for AST SpaceMobile, Blue Origin’s first commercial launch payload for a customer) was supposed to be deployed into a roughly 285-mile orbit. Instead, it reached only about 95 miles — far too low for the satellite’s boosters to keep it in orbit. BlueBird 7 will now be deorbited and destroyed during reentry.

The issue appears to trace back to the rocket’s upper stage. In a statement Monday, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said «one of the BE-3U engines didn’t produce sufficient thrust» during its second burn, a critical phase that’s needed to raise and circularize the orbit. Without it, the rocket didn’t have the energy to get the satellite where it needed to go.

The consequences of that shortfall begin with the FAA classifying the event as a «mishap,» which sounds innocuous, but automatically triggers a mandatory grounding of the New Glenn vehicle while a full safety review is conducted. Blue Origin will lead the investigation under FAA oversight, working to pinpoint the root cause and outline corrective actions.

Until the agency determines the issue poses no risk to public safety, New Glenn isn’t flying again. How long that process takes is uncertain and can vary wildly. The last time New Glenn was grounded, following a landing failure on its debut mission, it was unable to fly again for months.

The longer the rocket is grounded, the more friction this will apply to Blue Origin’s 2026 and 2027 plans. In the short term, ripples may delay the deployment of Amazon’s already-delayed satellite broadband network, which would rely in part on New Glenn. Further out, the company’s Blue Moon MK1 lander mission’s target may also be affected by how long New Glenn remains sidelined.

Then there’s the reputational hit. This was New Glenn’s first mission carrying a commercial customer payload, which would have been a key milestone for the heavy-lift rocket program. While AST SpaceMobile expects the cost of the satellite to be «recovered under the company’s insurance policy,» this is certainly egg on Blue Origin’s face and an opportunity for competitors like SpaceX to exploit.

AST SpaceMobile said in a statement issued Sunday evening that it expects to continue its plans to expand its satellite network with «an orbital launch every one to two months on average during 2026,» supported by agreements with multiple launch providers.

Blue Origin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 21, #575

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 21, No. 575.

Looking for the most recent regular 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 and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. If you’re struggling with it but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

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

Yellow group hint: Choosing your team’s future.

Green group hint: Olympic sport.

Blue group hint: Play ball!

Purple group hint: Initials.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: People involved in making a draft pick.

Green group: Pole vault equipment.

Blue group: First words of baseball positions.

Purple group: T.J. ____

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

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is people involved in making a draft pick. The four answers are coach, GM, owner and scout.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is pole vault equipment. The four answers are crossbar, mat, pole and spikes.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is first words of baseball positions. The four answers are center, designated, first and third.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is T.J. ____. The four answers are Ford, Hockenson, Houshmandzadeh and Watt.

Technologies

Pixel 11 May Revive the Old-School Notification LED With ‘Pixel Glow’

What’s old is new again.

The next Pixel phone may get a feature reminiscent of Nothing’s LED glyphs and old-school Android phones: a notification LED — only more interesting.

What looks to be a new feature called Pixel Glow was reported earlier Monday by 9to5Google. The name was discovered in the latest Android 17 beta 4, which was released on April 16. Pixel Glow is described as using «subtle light and color on the back of your device to inform you of important activity when it’s face down.» In essence, it’s a fancy notification LED.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It appears that Pixel Glow will work in certain situations, like when a favorite contact calls. Unsurprisingly, it seems like the feature might also work when interacting with Gemini hands-free.

While 9to5Google says the feature was referenced in previous Android beta and Canary builds under code names, the latest Android 17 gave us an official name for the feature. The progression makes it seem that the feature will debut on the upcoming Pixel 11, which we expect to be announced later this year, a few months after Google I/O in May.

The exact location where the LED array might be placed is anyone’s guess at this point. The first CAD renders that we saw for the standard Pixel 11 showed a very similar design, suggesting that the LEDs could be living in the now all-black camera bar, the «G» logo on the back, or perhaps the feature will be reserved for the Pixel 11 Pro models only.

The Pixel Glow feature will apparently also work on laptops. This cohesion also isn’t surprising, as we already know that Android and ChromeOS will be merged into a single operating system at some point to bring a robust desktop and laptop operating system.