Technologies

iOS 17 at WWDC: Everything Apple Is Adding to Your iPhone

The iPhone software adds new features to the Phone app, FaceTime calls and iMessage chats.

Apple’s debut of iOS 17 is going to change to how you call, text and glance at information on your iPhone. iOS 17 will bring updates to FaceTime, Messages and the phone app to make your iPhone feel more intuitive and personal, the company revealed Monday during its Worldwide Developers Conference.

Last year’s software update, iOS 16 introduced the ability to edit or «unsend» messages you send via iMessage, Apple Pay Later, a major overhaul to the lock screen, revamped notifications and Live Activities. These additions didn’t all come out at once and were actually scattered over the course of smaller iOS software updates throughout the year.

We can expect the same for iOS 17, which will likely be released just before the rumored iPhone 15 goes on sale.

Contact Posters

Three iPhones, each showing a different Contact Poster — Contact Posters aim to make your contact cards more compelling.

Apple

Last year we got customizable lock screens in iOS 16. This year, iOS 17 has a similar change for your iPhone’s contact cards, to make them look more eye-catching. Contact Posters are beautiful treatments for contact photos and emoji paired with slick-looking fonts that show up when you get calls and for other services on your phone where you communicate and share.

You can customize your Contact Poster similar to how you personalize your lock screen. Pick a photo, font and color and that’s it.

AirDrop gets easier to use

iOS 17 brings an overhaul to AirDrop. You just need to bring your iPhone close to someone else’s to share a Contact Poster, photos, videos or kick off a shared activity using Share Play. Of course, being Apple, there’s a word for sharing your Contact Poster with someone new: NameDrop. What’s nice, is that you can choose what contact info is shared. NameDrop works between iPhones or with an Apple Watch, too. It reminds me of «bumping» a contact in the early days of the iPhone.

Standby turns your iPhone into an Amazon Echo Show

An iPhone with its Standby screen active — iOS 17 adds an attractive screen that shows photos, widgets and info when your iPhone is charging.

Apple

One of the biggest additions in iOS 17 is for when your iPhone isn’t in your hand. When your iPhone is on its side while MagSafe charging, you get a new full screen experience with glanceable information. The feature is called Standby and mimics what many smart home devices can do, such as the Amazon Echo Show.

The new screen shows the time, photos, widgets and Live Activities; nearly all of which can be personalized. It’s a bit of a cross between the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display and nightstand mode on the Apple Watch.

Watch this: WWDC 2023: Here Are All the Major iOS 17 Features

06:31

When you swipe to the side on the Standby screen, you can look at your favorite photos or moments. iOS 17 will also automatically shuffle images to find the one that take the best advantage of the screen.

Standby can also show glanceable widgets. For example, you can see the weather, your Apple Home smart controls or your favorite third-party widget. With support for live activities, you can also see the score of sporting events or the status of a food delivery.

One of the more curious features is that Standby can remember your preferred view «setup» for each place you charge via MagSafe.

The new Journal app

iOS 17 brings a new Apple app called Journal that creates personalized suggestions to inspire writing. These suggestions are curated from information on your iPhone, like photos, location, music and workouts.

Journal gives you the option to select a moment, like «morning visit, Ocean Beach,» and start writing. You can also schedule notifications to remind you to write and get new prompts. You can flag important moments so that you can reflect on them later.

Live Voicemail

Another new talent iOS 17 has involves your voicemail. When someone calls you and leaves a message, you’ll see a live transcription in real time as they speak. The new service is called Live Voicemail and it kind of feels like the days of answering machines, when my dad would screen a call. For Live Voicemail, you’ll see the voicemail right on your screen so you can decide whether to step out and take the call. The feature is powered by your iPhone’s neural engine in order to preserve your privacy. Live Voicemail seems identical to Call Screen on Google Pixel phones which isn’t a bad thing.

FaceTime messages

iOS 17 will let you record a video message in FaceTime. It’s a heavily requested feature that will ensure you can document and share important moments, even if someone misses your call.

Messages Check In

iOS 17 comes with a new location-sharing tool called Check In.

Apple/GIF by Arielle Burton/CNET

Apple is expanding and simplifying its location sharing via Messages. The new feature, called Check In, is for letting a loved one know you made it to your destination safely. Whether you’re walking home after dark or going for an early morning run, you can start a Check In with a family member or friend and as soon as you arrive home, it will automatically let your friend know. But if something unexpected happens, it can recognize that you’re not near your destination and check in with you. If you don’t respond, Check In can automatically share your current location, the route you took, your iPhone’s battery level and cell service status; all of which is end-to-end encrypted.

Messages get a handful of fixes and additions

A message thread showing an audio recording and its transcription — The Messages app will get transcriptions for audio messages in iOS 17.

Apple

The tried-and-true Messages app gets a handful of updates, including a visual overhaul of your iMessage apps which will no longer live above your keyboard and instead be accessible via a plus sign on the bottom left.

Searching through your Messages becomes a lot easier on iOS 17 with the addition of filters. When you start a search in the Messages app, you will be able to add terms to narrow the results.

Another welcome addition is transcription for audio messages. If you’re someone who has friends or family members who send you audio messages, you’ll be able to read a transcription of the recording right in the Messages app.

There’s also a new «catch up arrow» in Messages. It sits in the top right of your conversation and lets you jump to the first message you haven’t read. This could be a killer feature for managing group chats. Apple also made inline replies faster. In iOS 17, you’ll be able to just swipe to reply on any message bubble.

Apple fixes ‘ducking’ autocorrect

Autocorrect will become more intelligent and can fix more grammatical mistakes. Reverting words back to what you typed is easier. And apparently, autocorrect will learn and let you use curse words. Duck, yeah!

An iPhone with the Stickers drawer in Messages open — Messages adds a bunch of Sticker features.

Apple

iMessage stickers get a new drawer to bring all the stickers you’ve used into one place. And now emoji are stickers. You can peel and stick an emoji sticker to a message bubble, rotate and resize it. Last year in iOS 16, Apple introduced the ability to lift a subject from the background of a photo as part of Visual Lookup. With iOS 17, you can turn a photo’s subject into a sticker in Messages.

The Stickers drawer also has a Live Stickers tab that lets you create a Sticker animation (aka a GIF) from a Live Photo. Stickers can be accessed system wide in things like Tapback, Markup and third-party apps; basically anywhere you can access emoji.

Watch this: Apple Reveals iOS 17

16:43

But wait, there are more iOS 17 features

As is typical with WWDC, there are a lot more additions and improvements to iOS 17 than Apple showed during the keynote. Some notable highlights include:

Triggering Siri by just saying, «Siri» instead of «Hey, Siri»
Download offline maps in the Maps app
New profiles for Safari and your passwords
Auto retrieval of one-time verification codes from the Mail app
Interactive widgets (which was featured in-depth during the iPadOS portion)

iOS 17 will be out in full this fall and work on the iPhone XS, XR and newer, including the 2020 iPhone SE.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Aug. 14

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Aug. 14

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.

Today’s Mini Crossword isn’t too tough, and it has some fun movie and TV references. Just remember that «poster» can mean a couple of different things — it’s not always that photo of Def Leppard hanging on the wall. Want help with today’s NYT Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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: Animals holding «Eat Mor Chikin» signs, in a classic ad campaign
Answer: COWS

5A clue: Suffix with Beatle or Wrestle
Answer: MANIA

6A clue: «Au revoir!»
Answer: ADIEU

7A clue: Ugly poster?
Answer: TROLL

8A clue: Be likely (to)
Answer: TEND

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Core group
Answer: CADRE

2D clue: Vegetable combined with celery and carrot to form «mirepoix»
Answer: ONION

3D clue: Handle, as a sword
Answer: WIELD

4D clue: «Better Call ___» («Breaking Bad» spinoff)
Answer: SAUL

5D clue: Damon of «Oppenheimer»
Answer: MATT

Technologies

The iPhone 17 Hasn’t Been Announced Yet, but There’s Already a Case for It

The new case makes a bold style statement, but there’s no official confirmation that it correctly reflects Apple’s upcoming phone.

One of the first cases for the iPhone 17 has made its appearance. Canadian tech accessory company Dbrand announced its Tank Case for the iPhone 17 is set to go on sale in September, the same month we’re expecting Apple to announce the eagerly awaited iPhone 17.

While we don’t know the price of the Tank Case yet, Dbrand has certainly made some striking design choices in the hard black shell case, including plenty of number codes, the Freemason Eye of Providence in what looks like a center designed for MagSafe connections and what appears to be Braille. Dbrand is light on details for now, but you can sign up with your email address to get notifications about the case.

A representative for Dbrand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Patrick Holland, CNET managing editor and mobile guru, cautions that these early-announced phone designs don’t always end up making it to the release date. Holland saw that happen just last year, when some manufacturers were forced to push quick redesigns to make room for the iPhone 16’s surprise camera control button.

«It’s become a yearly tradition,» Holland said. «We see companies try to be the first out with a new case design for the latest iPhone, even though the phone hasn’t been announced by Apple.»

«For Dbrand, it’s unclear whether the Tank case is designed based on rumors, or if the company got an early look at the iPhone 17 series, or were given a dummy model,» Holland said. «The case does feature a full body width camera bump that has been heavily leaked for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. There’s one thing that’s for certain: Dbrand’s Tank case looks chunky and busy, especially for a sleek new iPhone.»

That’s why we’re also keeping a close eye on all the latest reports of iPhone 17 features, including rumors of a redesigned camera bump and a movable lens that could throw a curveball for third-party cases like this.

Social media buzz

Commenters on X shared a variety of opinions about the case. While one person wrote, «that case looks fire,» another wrote, «that case looks hideous.»

Commenters also wondered if the case design was revealing some previously unknown details about the iPhone 17.

«So the second button is basically confirmed?» one X commenter wrote. «Why would the case sport an area that looks pressable or ‘slideable’ otherwise?»

Another wrote, «Am I seeing that correctly? Three cameras on a base iPhone model finally.»

Others zeroed in on the idea that Apple likely does not want case manufacturers to reveal details about a phone before the company announces it, noting that Dbrand also unveiled a case for the Nintendo Switch 2 before that console came out.

«First the Switch 2, now the iPhone 17,» the one commenter wrote. «Yeahh, they’re never getting shit early to make cases anymore.»

Technologies

Apple Reportedly Planning AI Comeback, Complete With a Tabletop Robot

Home security cameras and a standalone smart display are also coming, the report says.

Apple wants a bigger place in your home, according to a report posted Wednesday from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While you might think of Apple primarily because it provides your iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, MacBook, AirPods and more, the tech giant reportedly hopes to use artificial intelligence to sell you a number of new smart home devices. Those devices may include a tabletop robot, home security cameras and a smart speaker with a screen.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tabletop robot

According to Bloomberg, it’s the tabletop robot, reportedly coming in 2027, that is the center of the plan. Bloomberg — and CNET — have reported on this plan before. At that time, the company reportedly had two concepts in mind: a robot that can move around the home, and a tabletop robotic device.

Now, Bloomberg says the robot «will feature a lifelike version of Siri and the ability to engage with users throughout the day.» It reportedly resembles an iPad mounted on a movable limb that can reposition itself to face you.

Former CNET senior editor Lisa Eadicicco wrote in 2024 that «perhaps the biggest challenge when it comes to a home robot is that the market is unproven.» We’ve all seen the robot maid Rosie on the old Jetsons cartoon, but do we really need or want a robotic helper in our homes?

Standalone smart display

Another item Apple is reportedly working on is essentially a smart speaker with a screen. Bloomberg calls this a «stripped-down version of the robot.»

It won’t have a robotic arm or conversational Siri, but it should be able to do such things as music playback, note taking, control home devices and video conferencing. Bloomberg says it will run a new operating system called Charismatic.

Home security cameras

Home security cameras are becoming more and more popular, and Apple wants to move into that realm as well. The company will make cameras that will anchor an Apple security system, the report says.