Technologies
iOS 16.4 Is Out. How to Download the Latest iPhone Update
Added features include new emoji, voice isolation for better cellular calls, Safari website notifications for the lock screen and more.

This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2023, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product.
Apple has just released iOS 16.4. The latest software update for the iPhone brings several new features to iOS 16, including 21 new emoji, including the pea pod, light blue heart and jellyfish, and voice isolation for cellular phone calls, which blocks out ambient noises to make your voice clearer.


iOS 16.4 also adds Safari-based push notifications, duplicates album support for the iCloud Shared Photo Library, crash detection optimizations for the iPhone 14 series, VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app, bug fixes, security updates and more.
Read on for a step-by-step guide to the process of putting iOS 16.4 on your compatible iPhone. You can also check out some of the best existing features on iOS 16 and a few hidden features we were surprised to find. And if you recently got a new iPhone, here are the best iPhone 14 cases so far.
Before you start, is your iPhone even compatible?
Not every iPhone will receive the iOS 16.4 update. You need at least an iPhone 8, which was released back in 2017, to run iOS 16. That also includes the iPhone X, iPhone 11, iPhone SE (second generation and up) and the new iPhone 14.


The iPhone 14 comes preinstalled with iOS 16.
James Martin/CNETNext, back up your iPhone
Getting your hands on new software can be exciting, but there are precautions you should take before updating. You may not be happy with some of the features that iOS 16.4 has to offer (although you can fix some of the most annoying ones), so you need to be able to downgrade back to an earlier version of iOS 16 for whatever reason — and that requires you to back up your iPhone before you update.
By default, your iPhone should back itself up every time it’s connected to power and Wi-Fi during your regular sleep hours. However, if this backup feature is disabled, you can go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud > iCloud Backup and then hit Back Up Now to back up your device.


You can (and should) also back up your iPhone on your Mac.
Screenshot by Nelson Aguilar/CNETAdditionally, you can back up your iPhone via Finder on your Mac. Simply connect your device to your computer, open Finder, choose your device and then create a backup. Apple also recommends archiving your backup, so that it’s not overwritten by other backups.
Also, make sure to do these three things
You want the download and installation process to go as smoothly as possible, and the best way to do that is to do the following:
- Make sure your iPhone is connected to power. You won’t be able to download iOS 16.4 if you’re under 50% battery, so it’s best to just plug in your phone while you update. And even when you’re plugged in, the battery needs to be over 20%.
- Connect to Wi-Fi. You also won’t be able to download iOS 16.4 with cellular data, so connect to a stable Wi-Fi network.
- Clear up enough storage space. If you’re running out of storage, you’ll need to clear some up before you can download and install iOS 16.4. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to delete large files and apps.
Here’s our guide on how to get more iPhone storage.
How to download and install iOS 16.4
Now once you have all that set, open your iPhone and go to Settings > General > Software Update, wait a few seconds (or minutes) for the update to appear and then hit Download and Install for iOS 16.4.


You can also use Finder on your Mac to download iOS 16.4 on your iPhone.
Nelson Aguilar/CNETYou should then see a loading bar, along with a rough estimate of how long the download process will take. Once the download is complete, reboot your device and wait for iOS 16.4 to install. When your iPhone boots up, follow any prompts and you should then see iOS 16.4 downloaded on your device.
For more on the new OS, here’s a look at our iOS 16 cheat sheet and some of the most annoying features and settings on iOS 16 (and how you can fix them).
Technologies
Bill Gates Has Published the Original Microsoft Source Code
It’s «the coolest code I’ve ever written,» the Microsoft co-founder says.

If you want to see the original source code that started Microsoft, Bill Gates is now sharing it. On Wednesday, the Microsoft co-founder posted it on his Gates Notes blog, reminiscing about the company’s early days for its 50th anniversary. Gates has written plenty of code in those five decades but he called this «the coolest code I’ve ever written.»
Sharing a photo of himself holding a huge pile of paper showing the code, Gates wrote that he was inspired by the January 1975 copy of Popular Electronics magazine. The magazine had featured a cover photo of an Altair 8800, a groundbreaking personal computer created by a small company called MITS.
The 19-year-old Gates and his Harvard pal Paul Allen reached out to Altair’s creators and told them they had a version of the programming language BASIC for the chip that the Altair 8800 ran on. Such software would let people program the Altair.
«There was just one problem,» Gates wrote. «We didn’t.»
Micro-Soft is born
Gates said he and friends «coded day and night for two months to create the software we said already existed.» Gates and Allen then presented the code to the president of MITS, who agreed to license the software. «Altair BASIC became the first product of our new company, which we decided to call Micro-Soft,» Gates wrote. «We later dropped the hyphen.»
And the rest, as they say, is software history. You can download that 50-year-old code from Gates’s post. «Computer programming has come a long way over the last 50 years, but I’m still super proud of how it turned out,» he wrote.
Read more: Best 16 Xbox Games Right Now
Melinda Gates: new book
Also making headlines this week was Gates’s former wife, Melinda French Gates, whose new book, The Next Day, comes out April 15. As that date approaches, she’s opening up about the end of her marriage to Gates.
The couple divorced in 2021 after 27 years and three children. According to People magazine, Melinda French Gates wrote in the book that in 2019 she was «having nightmares about a beautiful house collapsing all around her — and then waking up in a panic night after night.»
She acknowledged what Bill Gates has publicly stated — that he wasn’t always faithful in the marriage — and said she was also disturbed by Gates’s meetings with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Gates has since said he regrets meeting Epstein.
Melinda French Gates said her bad dreams would eventually change into images of her family on the edge of a cliff where she «plummeted» into a void. «I knew, in that moment, that I was going to have to make a decision — and that I was going to have to make it by myself,» she wrote, according to the People article.
Technologies
The Zelle App Has Shut Down. Here’s How You Can Still Send Money Digitally
The digital payment service has killed its free app, but many banks still support sending money with Zelle.

There are tons of digital payment apps for sending money to friends, family or for paying for services, but if you’ve been using the Zelle mobile app, you’ll need to find something new. The service decided to shutter its free app on April 1.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use Zelle altogether. Zelle has only discontinued its standalone app, so you can still send money using Zelle if your bank belongs to the Zelle network. You’ll just need to do it through your bank’s app or website. You also have other services to choose from. Here’s what you need to know about this change and your options moving forward.
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Why the Zelle app is shutting down
When Zelle launched in 2017, only about 60 US financial institutions offered the service by the end of that year. Today, that number exceeds 2,200. As a result, less than 2% of Zelle transactions occur through the standalone app. Zelle has been phasing out the ability to make transactions on its mobile app since October 2024.
«Today, the vast majority of people using Zelle to send money use it through their financial institution’s mobile app or online banking experience, and we believe this is the best place for Zelle transactions to occur,» Zelle said in an October 2024 press release.
In December, Zelle was in the spotlight when the Consumer Financial Protected Bureau sued the company and three of the largest US banks for failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud on the peer-to-peer payment network. The lawsuit has since been dropped.
Other ways to send money digitally
You can still use Zelle through your bank’s app or website if it belongs to the Zelle network, which includes Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, TD Bank, PNC Bank and Citi.
You can also switch to another digital payment app, such as:
- Apple Wallet
- Cash App
- PayPal
- Venmo
Take some basic precautions when using Zelle or any other digital payment service. These apps are a frequent target for scammers, and Chase Bank has started blocking some Zelle payments it believes could be fraudulent. Only send money to people you know and trust, and watch for red flags like an urgent message claiming to be from your bank or an online ad for concert tickets that seem impossibly cheap.
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