This spring, iOS 11.3 will deliver exciting new ways to experience augmented reality on iPhone and iPad, new Animoji on iPhone X, the ability to view health records in the Health app, and new battery & power management features.
Batteries and Performance
iOS 11.3 adds new features to show battery health 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.
These features will be coming in a later iOS 11.3 beta release.
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. Apple continues to innovate on this exciting technology, bringing ARKit 1.5 to developers to provide even more immersive AR experiences that better integrate with the world and giving them the tools to power a new generation of AR apps.
In addition to horizontal surfaces like tables and chairs, ARKit can now recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces like walls and doors, and can more accurately map 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.
Messages Gets New Animoji and More
Animoji have been a hit with iPhone X users, who’ve used their voice and facial expressions to record and send Animoji messages and even create Animoji karaoke videos. iOS 11.3 introduces four new Animoji, giving iPhone X users the ability to express themselves as a lion, bear, dragon or skull. Working with the A11 Bionic chip and TrueDepth camera in iPhone X, over 50 different facial muscle movements are captured, analyzed and then animated, allowing users to send Animoji messages as one of 16 different characters.
Business Chat is a new way for users to communicate directly with businesses right within Messages. This feature will launch in Beta with the public availability of iOS 11.3 this spring, with the support of select businesses including Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo. With Business Chat, it’s easy to have a conversation with a service representative, schedule an appointment or make purchases using Apple Pay in the Messages app. Business Chat doesn’t share the user’s contact information with businesses and gives users the ability to stop chatting at any time.
Health Records in Apple Health App
The new Health Records feature brings together hospitals, clinics and the existing Health app to make it easy for consumers to see their available medical data from multiple providers, whenever they choose. Patients from participating medical institutions will have information from various institutions organized into one view and receive regular notifications for their lab results, medications, conditions and more. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with a passcode.
Additional iOS 11.3 Features:
• Apple Music will soon be the home for music videos. Users can stream all the music videos they want without being interrupted by ads. They can also watch the hottest new videos, the classics or ones from their favorite artists back-to-back in new music video playlists.
• Apple News now 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.
• 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.
Availability
The developer preview of iOS 11.3 is available to iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today, followed by a public beta preview available at beta.apple.com. iOS 11.3 will be available this spring as a free software update for iPhone 5s and later, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation, iPad mini 2 and later and iPod touch 6th generation. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available on all devices or in all regions or all languages. Not all features will be in the beta releases.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: This’ll be a big point update!
Apple should provide a toggle switch in Settings where users specify if they’d like to keep running at high processor speeds even if it means rapid shutdowns or if they’d like to run at lower processors speeds to accommodate an aging battery that requires replacement. — MacDailyNews, December 27, 2017
SEE ALSO:
Tim Cook: ‘Maybe we should have been clearer’ over throttling iPhones with aging batteries – January 18, 2018
China consumer group seeks answers from Apple over batterygate – January 16, 2018
South Korean consumer group considering criminal case against Apple over iPhone batterygate – January 11, 2018
French prosecutor launches probe into Apple planned obsolescence – January 8, 2018
Apple’s design decisions and iPhone batteries – January 8, 2018
Apple now faces over two dozen lawsuits for ‘purposefully’ or ‘secretly’ slowing down older iPhones – January 5, 2018
Why aging batteries don’t slow down Android phones like Apple iPhones – January 5, 2018
Apple’s $29 replacement batteries expected to hurt new iPhone sales – January 4, 2018
How to see if Apple’s throttling your iPhone – January 4, 2018
Brazilian agency requires Apple to inform consumers on batteries – January 3, 2018
Analyst: Apple’s ‘batterygate’ solution may mean 16 million fewer iPhones sold this year – January 3, 2018
An Apple conspiracy theory blooms – January 2, 2018
Apple clarifies policy on $29 battery replacements: All iPhone 6 and later devices are eligible – January 2, 2018
I like the Health app a lot and use it regularly, but find it frustrating that there appears to be no way for users to export their health data into some other format, such as a spreadsheet or text document. I hope that this is something which they will fix as it greatly limits the usefulness of the Health app.
Here ya go. http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/06/10/how-to-export-import-health-data/
Sorry, old instructions. New version: Launch Health app. Tap Health Data. Tap profile icon in upper right. At bottom of screen is “Export Health Data”.
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that, but it produces a zip file which expands to become two .xml files.
Nothing on my Mac seems to want to open them and if I open them in a text editor, there is so much other junk amongst it that extracting useful data is extremely tedious.
All I wanted to do was to be able to print the last couple of weeks of blood pressure readings to give to a nurse. It’s too much data for a screen grab, but it seems absurd that the quickest way to do it is to look at the screen and type those readings into a spreadsheet.
This looks better. Free App and you can pick date ranges and it’s in Excel friendly CSV format.https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qs-access/id920297614?mt=8&ign-itsct=920297614-920297614&ign-itscg=0177&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
We have to wait until Spring after the battery fiasco ?
FAIL.
Seriously, they couldn’t at least have ported the battery status code into 11.2.x to release it earlier ?
And i have to wonder how detailed the information provided will be. I expect it to show how many charge cycles etc. not just generic info like “your battery is OK for now”