The FINANCIAL — iOS 11.3 delivers exciting new immersive augmented reality experiences, new Animoji for iPhone X users, access to personal health records in the Health app and more.
This free software update also offers customers more visibility into the battery health and performance of their iPhone, according to Apple.
New AR Experiences
The introduction of ARKit with iOS 11 put augmented reality into the hands of hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users, making iOS the world’s biggest AR platform. With iOS 11.3, apps can now deliver AR experiences that use vertical surfaces like walls and doors, in addition to horizontal surfaces like tables and chairs, and more accurately map to irregularly shaped surfaces like circular tables.
Using advanced computer vision techniques to find and recognize the position of 2D images such as signs, posters and artwork, ARKit can integrate these real world images into AR experiences such as filling a museum with interactive exhibits or bringing a movie poster to life. The view of the real world through the camera now has 50 percent greater resolution and supports auto-focus for an even sharper perspective.
Animoji
Four all-new Animoji bring iPhone X users’ expressions to life as a lion, bear, dragon or skull. The A11 Bionic chip and TrueDepth camera give users the ability to record and send Animoji messages (and even create Animoji karaoke videos) using their voice and more than 50 different facial muscle movements.
Business Chat
Business Chat is a new way for users to communicate directly with businesses using the Messages app on iPhone and iPad. Starting today, Business Chat will be available in beta in the US and top businesses in retail, finance and hospitality will begin rolling out this new messaging feature for customers. When searching for a business in Maps, Safari, Search or Siri on iPhone and iPad, users will see the option to contact the business using Messages to ask a question about a product or service, or make a purchase using Apple Pay. These conversations can be continued on Apple Watch or Mac. Users are always in control of whether they share any contact information with a business on Business Chat.
Health Records
The new Health Records feature helps patients of more than 40 health systems including Duke, NYU Langone, Stanford and Yale view their medical records from multiple institutions right from their iPhone. With the inclusion of these new institutions, patients have greater access to their medical information including lab results, medications, conditions and more. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with a passcode.
Data & Privacy
iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 introduce updated data and privacy information that makes it easier than ever for users to understand how their personal data may be used. A new privacy icon and detailed privacy information will appear whenever Apple asks for access to personal information to enable features, secure Apple services or personalize an iOS experience.
Batteries and Performance
iOS 11.3 adds new features to show battery health of an iPhone and recommend if a battery needs to be serviced. These can be found in Settings -> Battery and are available for iPhone 6 and later.
Additionally, users can now see if the power management feature that dynamically manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns, first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, is on and can choose to turn it off. This feature can be found in Settings -> Battery and is available for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Additional iOS 11.3 Features:
Apple Music now streams music videos uninterrupted by ads. Users can watch the hottest new videos, classics or ones from their favorite artists back-to-back in new music video playlists.
Apple News makes it easier to stay up-to-date on the most important videos of the day with a new Video group in For You, and improved Top Stories.
Commuters in Beijing and Shanghai can begin using Apple Pay on their iPhone and Apple Watch for an easy, fast and secure ride on Metro and bus lines.
Apple TV app, a unified place for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users to discover and start watching the best shows and movies, will launch in Brazil and Mexico. These markets join Apple TV app users in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
Brazil will gain Siri support on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV (4th generation), making it possible to search for and access movies, shows, songs, apps and more, using just your voice.
HomeKit software authentication provides a great new way for developers to add HomeKit support to existing accessories while protecting privacy and security.
Support for Advanced Mobile Location (AML) to automatically send a user’s current location when making a call to emergency services in countries where AML is supported.
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