Technologies

iOS 17 Should Bring These Android 14 Features to iPhone

Commentary: Apple’s next iPhone OS is expected to be announced at WWDC on Monday.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 kicks off on Monday, and Apple is expected to unveil iOS 17, the next version of its software for iPhones, at the event. WWDC comes about a month after Google I/O 2023, where Google showcased its next smartphone software, Android 14.

In the US, iPhones recently wrestled the crown away from Androids as the most popular smartphone, but this comes after more than a decade of Android dominance. And Android reigns in the global market, usually by wide margins. In South America, for example, Android represents about 88% of all smartphones, and iPhones trail with about 11%, according to the IT site SOS Support.

But for as long as Apple and Google have been fighting like Godzilla and King Kong for smartphone market superiority, they’ve also seemingly been stealing ideas from each other. For example, notification badges debuted on iPhones, and Androids had home screen widgets long before iPhones, as Popular Science notes.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra — Apple and Android have seemingly been copying features from each other for years.

James Martin/CNET

That back-and-forth continued with Android 14, as Android phones seemingly copied iPhones again with an updated Find My Device feature and added unknown tracker alerts. We don’t know what Apple has in store for iOS 17, but we think the company should incorporate some of the new Android features into the software.

Here are the new Android features I think Apple should include in iOS 17.

More lock screen customization options

Lock screen customization was one of the most substantial updates to land on iPhones when iOS 16 was released in September 2022. With iOS 17, I want to see Apple give iPhone users more customization options, like Google is doing with Android 14.

Android 14 will let users change the size and design of their lock screen’s clock — in addition to its font type and color — and the software lets users add shortcuts to their lock screen. Changing your lock screen clock is nice — you can already change the font and color of your iPhone’s lock screen clock — but I’d really like to see Apple add the ability to edit or add to the shortcuts on the lock screen.

I regularly use the flashlight shortcut, but I back-tap my iPhone to pull up the camera, so the camera shortcut doesn’t get used as much. Being able to change that shortcut to my Wallet app, or a search shortcut, would be great in iOS 17.

iPhone lock screen with temperature, AQI, Air Pods and Activity rings widgets — There are only four lock screen spaces for widgets in the current iOS.

Apple

It would also be nice if Apple added more widget spaces to the iPhone’s lock screen. With iOS 16, your iPhone has four grid spaces for widgets, and some widgets, like the Weather widget, take up two of those. It would be great if iOS 17 gave you at least four more grid spaces for widgets, giving you more ways to access your favorite apps.

AI-generated wallpapers

Android 14 will use artificial intelligence to let users create custom wallpapers. People will prompt their phone, which will use AI to generate a few wallpaper options. It would be great to see Apple roll out AI-generated wallpapers in iOS 17, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

While other companies have begun developing their own AI tools, Apple hasn’t made any public announcements about developing, or partnering with another company to produce, such tools.

«I do think it’s very important to be deliberate and thoughtful in how you approach these things,» Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said when asked about generative AI on the company’s earnings call.

It’s possible Apple will introduce more AI tools and functions in iOS 17, like AI-generated wallpapers, but I wouldn’t expect it. I’d bet Apple will integrate AI tools into functions most people already use, like Siri, first.

More emoji wallpaper customization options

Google announced at its I/O 2023 event that certain Pixel phones will let you create custom wallpapers using emojis, but this isn’t exclusive to Android 14. Users will be able to choose up to 14 emoji, the color of the background and the layout the emoji are set in. But Apple already brought this feature to iPhones.

iOS 16 lock screen with an emoji wallpaper — Emoji wallpapers are already available on iPhones.

James Martin/CNET

To create a custom emoji wallpaper on your iPhone, go to Settings > Wallpaper > + Add New Wallpaper, and under the Emoji section are some premade emoji wallpapers. Tap any of these and you can edit what emoji are used, the layout and the color of the background. However, you can select only up to six emoji.

It would be fun if Apple allowed you to use more emoji and gave you more than six layout options in iOS 17 to further customize these wallpapers.

Cinematic wallpaper

Also not exclusive to Android 14, certain Pixel phones will let Android users create cinematic wallpapers. This feature will allow people to take a photo and give certain elements of the photo a depth effect. Once you’ve applied the effect, you can shift your Android device around and the wallpaper elements will shift around as well, making your wallpaper look three dimensional.

Apple introduced a similar lock screen feature in iOS 7, and this feature morphed into Perspective Zoom in some iOS 16 betas. However, the feature is no longer available in recent iOS 16 updates. Apple does let you apply a depth effect to your lock screen, but that just places your clock behind certain wallpaper elements. Enabling this also disables your lock screen widgets.

Cinematic wallpapers on your iPhone would be a nice touch to include in iOS 17, and they’d make some wallpapers on your home and lock screen really stand out. And if Apple doesn’t allow cinematic wallpapers in iOS 17, it would be great if the company at least allowed widgets to work on your lock screen when your depth effect was turned on.

For more on Apple’s mobile software, check out what CNET’s Patrick Holland hopes is included in iOS 17, what could be coming to your iPhone in iOS 16.6 and what new features you get in iOS 16.5.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #707

Hints and answers for Connections for May 18, #707.

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle is a mix of difficult and easy. The purple category does what most purple categories do, and makes you really break down how you think about the words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

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

Yellow group hint: School days.

Green group hint: About there!

Blue group hint: Sure, let’s go.

Purple group hint: The Scarlett Letter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Tasks for a student.

Green group: Encouraging responses in a guessing game.

Blue group: Up for anything.

Purple group: What «A» might mean.

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

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tasks for a student. The four answers are assignment, drill, exercise and lesson.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is encouraging responses in a guessing game. The four answers are almost, close, not quite and warm.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is up for anything. The four answers are easy, flexible, game and open.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is what «A» might mean. The four answers are area, athletic, excellent and one.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #441

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 441 for May 18.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands will probably be easier if you have some basic knowledge about a certain type of vessel. You don’t really need to have ever been on one, since the answers show up in books and movies all the time. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Riding the wind.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: famed song by Christopher Cross.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

DULL, TILE, TILER, SEER, GALE, GALES, HAIL, SAIL, LEEK, GLUE, HALL, TALL, HEAT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

HELM, HULL, KEEL, MAST, STERN, RIGGING, RUDDER, TILLER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SAILBOAT. To find it, start with the S that’s four letters down on the farthest row to the left, then wind across, up and down.

Technologies

Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect

With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.

Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show

Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.

By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.

Google I/O: Where to watch

Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.

What to expect from Google I/O 2025

Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.

Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.

Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.

Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.

Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.