Apple has rolled-out its hotly-anticipated iOS 13.2 operating system update for iPhone and iPod Touch owners. As well as the usual bevy of performance improvements and bug fixes you’d expect from any iOS update, the latest software contains a number of exciting new features, especially for those with the latest hardware.
Remember during the iPhone launch event last month when Senior Vice President Phil Schiller teased a forthcoming update to the iPhone camera technology that was, in his words, nothing short of “computational photography mad science”? Well, Apple has finally shipped the upgrade in iOS 13.2.
Dubbed Deep Fusion, the new system is designed to offer a monumental step forward for indoor photography and situations without ideal lighting conditions.
iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro can capture a huge amount of detail in bright outdoor conditions, and boast a dedicated night mode to eke out huge amounts of detail hidden in the gloom – Deep Fusion is designed to cater for all the lighting conditions in-between these two.
The main camera will use Smart HDR – which is already available in the iPhone 11 range – for brighter scenes, night mode for gloomier shots, and Deep Fusion handling medium to low light. Interestingly, the telephoto camera will use Deep Fusion almost constantly, with night mode only kicking in during the darkest shots and Smart HDR during the brightest sunlight. The ultra-wide camera will not use Deep Fusion or night mode, since it only supports Smart HDR.
Unlike night mode, which has a small icon in the top left-hand corner of the iPhone 11 camera app, Deep Fusion will quietly work its magic in the background without smartphone owners even knowing its there.
Apple told The Verge it decided to hide all of the clever new computational technology in the background as it doesn’t make its users to have to think about how to take the best photo – something trawling through a plethora of different modes and options inside the settings menu of a camera app will undoubtedly force you to do. Apple just wants the camera to automatically sort it for you.
If you own an iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max, download iOS 13.2 right now to dramatically boost your indoor or dusk photographs to astonishing new levels.
If you’re not yet the owner of one of the latest iPhone models, don’t worry – there is still plenty to like in this new iOS 13.2 upgrade. Apple has added a staggering 230 new emoji (when you include all of the possible combinations and skin tone tweaks available) in the new software update.
The latest characters are part of the Emoji 12.0 standard from the Unicode Consortium. These are decided by the industry at large, so that iPhone owners aren’t using a completely different set of emoji than those on Android, or vice versa.
Among the 200 new characters are people in wheelchairs and also the ability to change the skin tone for people with their hands crossed.
There is also emoji for a sloth, a waffle, a yawning face, a skunk, a garlic clove, a yo-yo, and a flamingo.
There’s also an otter, a ringed planet, and a hand pinching for the first time, too. Apple has also updated how its built-in keyboard works, so that you can change the skin tone of the individual characters in the groups of characters. That means you’ll be able to tweak the character so the parents in the family emoji have different skin tones for the first time.
This is a huge step forward in terms of representation and should allow more people to create an accurate depiction of their own family set-up to send to friends and loved ones.
New emoji are one of the biggest reasons iOS users rush to update to the latest operating system.
And with 200 new characters to pick from, iOS 13.2 should be no different. But with more and more choice in the iOS keyboard, it would be nice to see an option to search for characters to be added to the keyboard. Currently users have to scroll through the endless options to find the emoji they need.
If you’re using the default Apple keyboard, it will suggest emoji based on the word you type. So, if you’re looking for the star emoji, the fastest way to find it might be to just type the word “star” in the standard QWERTY layout and tap the emoji suggestion that appears above the keyboard before you hit the space bar, rather than head straight for the designated emoji picker.
Still, it’s a bit of a workaround. Hopefully, Apple will tighten all of this up in iOS 14.
To update to iOS 13.2, head to Settings then tap General, and then Software Update. If you’re not running the latest version of the mobile operating system, it will appear in this submenu with the option to upgrade your smartphone by tapping Download and Install.