Apple’s new update – iOS 11.3 – allows you to monitor the health of your battery
Apple has released its iOS 11.3 update, and it has multiple things to offer – from Animoji to AR experiences to a way to monitor the health of the iPhone battery. According to the company, the new update offers users “exciting new immersive augmented reality experiences, new Animoji for iPhone X users, access to personal health records in the Health app, and more”.
Users of the new iPhone X can express themselves with four new Animoji – lion, bear, dragon, or skull – for new AR experiences. The iOS 11 update brought ARKit to iPhone and iPad users, and with the new update, 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”.
For users in the US, the Health Records feature will allow patients to access their medical records, including medication and lab results from their iPhone from more than 40 health systems. To ensure security, all the data is encrypted and password-protected.
In the aftermath of the Facebook data breach, Apple too has ensured that iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 have updated data and privacy information so users understand how their data can be used. According to the firm, “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.”
End of 2017, it also came to light that Apple was purposely reducing the performance of older phones whose batteries had depleted so the phones didn’t shut down on account of extra performance. With the company admitting that it was slowing down iPhones, and facing a lot of flak for it, the company has taken care to resolve the matter and show users the health of their iPhone battery. The iOS 11.3 update not only shows the health of the battery but also shows when the battery needs to be serviced. “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,” spells out Apple’s statement.
The other good news for users is that the new update has done away with ads and now users can have uninterrupted music streaming from Apple Music.
For users across different countries, there are more updates. For example, Brazil will gain Siri support on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV, and in Beijing and Shanghai, commuters on Metro and bus lines can use Apple Pay on their iPhone and Apple Watch.