Apple releases iOS 18.3 update with several AI-focused improvements
What's the story
Apple has pushed its latest software update, iOS 18.3, bringing changes to the AI notification summaries on iPhones.
However, the tech giant has disabled these summaries for news and entertainment apps, temporarily.
The move was first spotted in the iOS 18.3 beta and comes after BBC flagged an issue where a headline was incorrectly summarized by the feature.
New features
New firmware activates Apple Intelligence by default
The latest update also enables Apple Intelligence by default on supported devices such as iPhone 15 Pro and above, iPads and Macs with Apple Silicon M1 or above, and the latest iPad mini.
iOS 18.3 also brings new capabilities such as using Visual Intelligence to add events to the Calendar app from posters or flyers, and a simple way to identify plants and animals.
Improvements
The update enhances notification management and security
The iOS 18.3 update also brings changes to Macs with the macOS 15.3 update, including Genmoji support and similar changes for notification summaries.
Notification summaries will now show up in italicized text to distinguish them from regular notifications, and new settings will let users manage these from their lock screen.
The update also fixes an actively exploited vulnerability, offering key security enhancements and patches for vulnerabilities including a fix for a CoreMedia vulnerability that was actively used by bad actors on OS versions older than iOS 17.2.
Security fixes
iOS 18.3 update patches over 20 different security vulnerabilities
The iOS 18.3 update also patches an actively exploited vulnerability on older iOS versions, and security issues that permitted unauthorized Bluetooth usage and granted root permissions to apps.
Other security fixes include patches for Accessibility vulnerabilities, privacy issues with time zones, an out-of-bounds read issue in SceneKit, and a LaunchService issue that permitted apps to fingerprint the user.
The update also prevents unauthorized Bluetooth access and fixes kernel security issues.