OS Updates: iOS 16.4, MacOS 13.3, WatchOS 9.4, tvOS 16.4, and More

I’m linking here to Michael Tsai’s roundup of links pertaining to iOS (and iPadOS) 16.4, but Apple has pretty much released updates to all of their platforms, all the way down to HomePods and the Studio Display.

Some of the features that particularly interest me:

  • Mastodon links now get unfurled preview cards in Messages, Mail, and Notes, just like Twitter links.

  • The new “architecture” for the Home app is available again, after being briefly available but then pulled due to bugs in iOS 16.2. It’s a one time upgrade for any homes you’ve set up in Home that is supposed to make everything you do faster and more reliable.

  • New emoji, but still no “chef’s kiss”. We need to band together and make a chef’s kiss emoji happen.

  • “Voice isolation” — a feature previously available to VoIP apps like FaceTime and WhatsApp — is now available for regular old fashioned cellular phone calls on iPhone. I’m not sure how normal people would ever discover this, though — the interface to turn it on or off is in Control Center, when you’re on a call. Seems to me it ought to be in the interface for the call itself in the Phone app, like the controls for switching the audio output.

★ Tuesday, 28 March 2023