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iOS 17.1 Features: What's New in iOS 17.1
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Thanks for the article, Juli. Great taste in music by the way.
Apple today released iOS 17.1, introducing a range of new features for iPhones that run the iOS 17 operating system. While Apple outlined some of the major new additions in its release notes, there are also several hidden features that were not mentioned.
In this guide, we've rounded up all of the feature additions and changes we found in iOS 17.1.
AirDrop Over Internet
AirDrop transfers can now be completed over a cellular connection or Wi-Fi if you walk out of the range of the person you're sharing with. That means you will not have to stay close to someone if you are transferring a large number of files.
There is a new "Out of Range" toggle in the AirDrop section of the Settings menu that you can toggle to allow or disallow transfers over cellular.
Apple Music Favorites
You can favorite songs, albums, playlists, and artists in the iOS 17.1 Music app. Favorited music is added to the Library and improves recommendations. Favoriting replaces the prior "Love" system and favoriting can be done from the Lock Screen's Now Playing widget.
A star next to a track in an album means that it's a favorite, while a dot is next to the most played track. With the favorites system, the Music app now suggests songs to add to playlists so you don't run out of content.
Eventually, Apple plans to provide a Favorite Songs playlist and offer collaborative playlists, but these features do not appear to be implemented as of yet.
Apple Music Playlists
iOS 17.1 provides color-matched playlist artwork options that can be selected as a new customization option for your playlists. There are eight artwork styles that feature geometric shapes and gradients, with the colors featured pulled from the album artwork of the first song in the playlist.
Play Favorite Songs Quick Action
If you long press on the Apple Music icon on the Home Screen, you can now choose a "Play Favorite Songs" option.
Double Tap on Apple Watch
Double Tap is enabled in the watchOS 10.1 update that is also in beta testing, and the settings for it can be managed using the Apple Watch app.
Double Tap allows Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 owners to tap their thumb and index fingers together to control the Apple Watch with one hand. The gesture can be used for opening up the Smart Stack, answering/ending calls, playing/pausing music, stopping alarms and timers, and more.
StandBy Display Options
Apple added a new "Display" section to the StandBy section of the Settings app, which houses some new customization options. The display can be set to turn off automatically, after 20 seconds, or never.
The existing Night Mode function that adds a red tint and dims the screen has been relocated to this section, as has the Motion to Wake toggle. The Display section also replaces the prior Always On toggle that limited the display to turning off intelligently.
Action Button Update
In iOS 17.1, Apple changed the functionality of the Action Button to prevent certain actions from being triggered while the iPhone is in a pocket or a bag. The Camera, Flashlight, Voice Memo, Focus, and Magnifier functions will no longer activate when the Action Button is pressed if the iPhone is tucked away in a pocket.
Actions that make sense to trigger in a pocket like the mute function and a shortcut can still be activated while the iPhone is inside of a pocket by long pressing on the Action Button, but other features are disabled.
UK Bank Balances in the Wallet App
UK users can add their UK bank accounts to the Wallet app in iOS 17.1, allowing them to see their account balances, payments, purchases, and deposits.
Wallet App and Discover Cards
U.S. Discover users who add their credit cards to Apple Wallet can see their total card balance and transaction history right on the iPhone with iOS 17.1.
Books App
The "Reading Now" section in the Apple Books app has been renamed to "Read Now."
Dynamic Island Flashlight Indicator
When the flashlight is activated on an iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, or iPhone 15 Plus, there is now a flashlight icon in the Dynamic Island that lets you know that It is on. The flashlight icon for the Dynamic Island was previously limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Controller Support
iOS 17.1 includes support for the Nintendo Switch N64 Controller.
Extend Wallpaper
When you are setting up a new wallpaper, Apple has added an "Extend" option that can be used if the image does not fit the display.
Photo Shuffle
When you add a Photo Shuffle Lock Screen in iOS 17.1, you can select a specific album of ph... Click here to read rest of article
Article Link: iOS 17.1 Features: What's New in iOS 17.1
I like the Action button trigger update.
I stopped using the night mode on the phone.
Pretty substantive list of improvements for an x.1 update. Maybe one of the biggest ever? Really enjoying the Favorites and Playlists changes in Music.
I don’t see any info for my Discover card showing up. Looks the same as it did with iOS 17.0.
Because transferring data.
Which brings me to another thing that drives me mental about iPhones. The lack of a decent file system. And considering that iOS, just like macOS, is based on unix, it does actually have a proper file system, but it is locked down so that the user can't use it. I don't know if that is to stop us simple iPhone users from being confused by it, or from hurting themselves with it, or just purely for Apple control freakiness, but whatever it is, it drives me insane.
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A new feature for me is a broken weather widget. Thank you, Apple!
Slightly off-topic but since it was mentioned:
How BS is it that the threshold for free shipping at Nintendo is $50 and the N64 controller is $49.99 and tax doesn’t count. That has got to be on purpose.
But now I wonder what one could possibly want to play on iOS with an N64 controller. Emulators aren’t allowed right? Jailbroken phones? Interesting Apple chose to explicitly support this.
That controller and its layout are so weird and unique that’s why they still sell it in the first place. N64 games are very difficult to use without it, but other than N64 games what could possibly make proper use of it? Serious question, someone please tell me.
How BS is it that the threshold for free shipping at Nintendo is $50 and the N64 controller is $49.99 and tax doesn’t count. That has got to be on purpose.
But now I wonder what one could possibly want to play on iOS with an N64 controller. Emulators aren’t allowed right? Jailbroken phones? Interesting Apple chose to explicitly support this.
That controller and its layout are so weird and unique that’s why they still sell it in the first place. N64 games are very difficult to use without it, but other than N64 games what could possibly make proper use of it? Serious question, someone please tell me.
The Android side of the market is filled with USB 2.0 devices, so I'm not sure why you think it's sunshine and rainbows over there. Heck, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE shipping with 2.0 is even a *downgrade* from the S7 FE, which had 3.0 speeds.
The reality is most people use the port for charging, not data transfer.
Back on topic, 17.1 still hasn't fixed basic bugs like wallpapers being screwed up. I think it's time that the 329349203 Vice Presidents we see every WWDC to talk about every single basic feature all get fired and proper leadership is brought back to software.
More tilting. I transferred 7 photos today via AirDrop. Would USB 3.0 have helped it go any faster? Nope.
If you're really getting slowed down by USB 2.0 (which you haven't told us how/why/how often), then you pay to upgrade to a Pro. Just like you pay for a faster computer.
I hate Apple these days. You would think they could easily could apply the 80% charging option to older iPhone models as well.
...yeah, back on topic.... iOS is also a major reason for me jumping ship. Not just the bugs. The epic level of lock down.
7 photos. Yay. Try backing up 100GB+ of photos/videos from an iphone over usb 2, then have it fail too and have to baby sit it while retrying. Until now, there wasn't even an option for anything else. I think that is his point. In this day/age, there is no reason for apple to have usb 2 on a premium device regardless if people use it or not. It should be default when you pay that much for the device. iPhone SE with USB 2, sure have it.
Yeah, I just got one and very happy with it. software engineer also.
Seems pretty important for a very specific use case. Might want to consider paying the extra $200.
I always love the 'open' argument. It's nonsense but people have been repeating it for a decade regardless.
So I noticed in wallet that when I hit the plus sign to add a card, there is an option to add Discover if you have the app on your phone, which I do. Maybe if you delete the card from Wallet and it add it back from the discover app via Wallet, it would work.
