Maybe you just unboxed a shiny new iPhone, maybe your very first iPhone. Maybe you didn’t pay much attention to those iOS update notifications and finally hit the update button. (If you haven’t done it yet, do it now: open Settings, tap Generalthen Software update.)
Apples big iOS update this year It offers a bunch of huge improvements and even more landed with the point releases – the latest is iOS 16.2, which adds several welcome new features. If you’ve updated to the latest version, you should take the time to do these five things first.
Customize your lock screen
The most obvious improvement in iOS 16 is the new customizable lock screen. You can set custom wallpapers in a variety of styles, even allowing your iPhone to automatically choose highlighted photos when rotated. You can change the clock font and choose widgets from many different apps (Apple and third-party apps) to show quick information at a glance.
iOS 16.2 brought some changes to the lock screen. Most notably, the Set Wallpaper Photo shortcut can now set photos for wallpapers that use iOS 16’s new widgets and customization options. There are also new widgets for sleep and medicine, and you can customize always-on display on iPhone 14 Pro to hide wallpaper and notifications.
To access the lock screen settings, long press on the lock screen wallpaper until you see the Collections screen. Faucet Personalize to edit your current lock screen, or the blue “plus” icon to create a new one. Apple offers several wallpapers to start with, or can select your own from your photo library.
Apple
Encrypt all your iCloud data
By default, Apple encrypts some of the data you store or sync with iCloud on your device, such as health data, but other data is encrypted in transit and on Apple’s servers. the catch is, Apple has the encryption key and can decrypt and see your data if it wishes.
A new feature in iOS 16.2, which Apple calls Advanced Data Protection, will enable end-to-end encryption on much more of your iCloud data: photos, notes, iCloud backups, and more. You’ll have the key and Apple won’t, so it’s safer against hackers or overzealous government demands.
Foundry
To turn it on, go to Settings, tap your Apple ID profile at the top of the screen, then tap iCloud. Go down a bit to Advanced data protection and press it.
You will need to jump through a few hoops. First, all your Apple devices using this Apple ID must be updated to iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, tvOS 16.2, or macOS 13.1. Second, you’ll need to make some kind of backup in case you lose your password – you can add a trusted device as a recovery contact or generate your own recovery key (or both!).
Finally, if you’ve just added a new device to your account, you may not be able to activate it yet – a simple security measure to protect your data from hackers or identity thieves. If you get a warning that you can’t activate it until a later date, use Siri to set a reminder! Say “Hey Siri, remind me to turn on advanced data protection on [the date you can enable it].”
Upgrade your home
With iOS 16, Apple gave the Home app a long-term makeover. You might want to open the Home app and rearrange your rooms and screens. Try pressing some buttons rather than long-pressing them or tapping the device icon versus the whole tile. But there is something more. In iOS 16.2, Apple introduced a brand new architecture under the hood. Your devices may not have been updated yet!
Foundry
Open the Home app, then tap the menu button (…) in the top right. Choose Home settings then scroll down and tap Software update if you see it. If you see At-home upgrade available At the top of the screen, select it to start upgrading your smart home architecture. You may also need to update some other devices, such as HomePods or Apple TVs. It’s worth it, though. The new architecture allows all your HomeKit-enabled smart home objects to respond much faster and more reliably.
Note: If you don’t see the upgrade option, it’s because Apple removed it due to a sharing problem. Apple says the removal is temporary and will be reinstating the option soon.
Check out this new weather app
The Weather app is one of the most used apps on the iPhone, and iOS 16 completely changed it. It has a new look, of course, but also uses technology acquired by Apple when he bought Dark Sky to give you up-to-the-minute hyper-local predictions. But not all the new stuff is immediately obvious if you don’t dig around a bit.
Scroll through the weather page, tap on different days and tap on each of the blocks – Air Quality, Radar, Wind, Humidity… each tile in the app gives you information at a glance, but may also be used for detailed data and graphs. You might even consider adding the Weather widget to your home screen. Long-press an empty area of your home screen until everything “jiggles”, tap the (+) button in the top left and select the Weather widget.
Even if you already know it, there’s a new News section in iOS 16.2 that will show all relevant weather information for your city.
Foundry
Track your medications
We all have vitamins and medications that we take every day or every week and now the Health app can now help you follow them all, even reminding you to take them on the schedule you set. Everything is super secure (HIPAA compliant and end-to-end encrypted) and very simple.
Open the Health app and tap Browse at the bottom of the screen. Faucet Medications to start. When you press Add drugs you can search for it by name or tap the camera icon to literally scan your bottle! For each vitamin or medicine, you can set a schedule to take it and receive notifications to remind you if you wish.
In iOS 16.2 there is also a new widget for medication tracking that you can add to the lock screen. Tap Customize, tap the widget area, scroll down to Health and drag the Medicines widget onto the screen.
0 Comments