Yesterday Apple held what is probably its last major event of the year. With it, Apple introduced the all-new iPad Pro with Face ID, the all-new MacBook Air featuring a complete redesign of the beloved laptop, and an updated Mac mini–a computer which has not seen an upgrade in years.
But Apple also released the first major update to its iOS 12 operating system for iPhone and iPad. But just what is new in iOS 12.1? Let’s take a look.
iOS 12.1: Group FaceTime
The biggest new feature in iOS 12.1 is Group FaceTime. Apple actually announced this feature back in June and had planned to ship it with iOS 12 in September, but they held the feature back to make improvements.
But now with the arrival of iOS 12.1 users can now make Group FaceTime audio and video calls with up to a staggering 32 people. Group FaceTime also features cool features like automatic detection of active speakers, ringless notifications, and of course are encrypted end to end so they remain private and viewable only by the participants.
iOS 12.1: 70 New Emoji
It wouldn’t be a new iOS update without support for an obscene number of new emoji. In iOS 12.1 Apple brings a whopping 70 new emoji to iOS. New emoji include softball and lacrosse, llama, mosquito, kangaroo and lobster, bagel, salt, cupcake, leafy greens and mango, and regional specialties like moon cake, red gift envelope and nazar amulet.
iOS 12.1: Dual SIM Support
When Apple introduced the all-new iPhone XS series and iPhone XR the company announced dual sim support. But instead of having two sim card slots, Apple upped the ante by making one SIM and eSim, or electronic sim. But Dual Sim support didn’t ship with the new iPhones.
With iOS 12.1 all the latest iPhones now support the feature. To use it, you’ll need to make sure one of your two carriers support eSims.
iOS 12.1: Depth Control in Camera
The last major feature of iOS 12.1 is Depth Control support for the Camera app. With iOS 12.1, users can now dynamically adjust the depth of field in real time preview in addition to post-capture, enabling more control to create portraits with a beautiful background blur.
iOS 12.1: Other Features
As usual, with any iOS update, Apple also made other small improvements and fixes to the operating system. These include:
- Improves cellular connectivity for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR
- Adds the ability to change or reset your child's Screen Time passcode using Face ID or Touch ID
- Fixes an issue where the sharpest reference frame was not always selected in front facing photos for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR
- Resolves an issue that caused messages to be merged into one thread when two users were signed in with the same Apple ID on multiple iPhones
- Addresses an issue that prevented some voicemails from appearing in the Phone app
- Resolves an issue in the Phone app that could cause phone numbers to appear without their corresponding contact name
- Fixes an issue that could prevent Screen Time from reporting specific websites in the activity report
- Addresses an issue that could prevent adding or removing family members from Family Sharing
- Adds a performance management feature to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down, including the option to disable this feature if an unexpected shutdown occurs, for iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
- Adds the ability for Battery Health to inform users that it is unable to verify if a genuine Apple battery is in iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR
- Improves reliability of VoiceOver in Camera, Siri, and Safari
- Fixes an issue that could cause MDM Device Enrollment to report an Invalid Profile error for some enterprise users
iOS 12.1 is available now as a free download.
by michaelg via Featured Articles
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