Apple has finally released the long-awaited iOS 15.4 update, allowing iPhone users to unlock their smartphone while wearing a mask.
The update also includes 37 new emojis, including a pregnant man, motorcycle tire, slide, disco ball, club troll, coral, bean, and low battery.
There’s also a new “gender-neutral” voice for the Siri smart assistant named Quinn, recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“iOS 15.4 brings the ability to use Face ID while wearing a mask, a new Siri voice option, expanded language support for visual search, new emoji, and more,” Apple said in a statement.
Here are the main features of iOS 15.4, which is already available on iPhone 16s or later.
Apple has finally released the long-awaited iOS 15.4 update, allowing iPhone users to unlock their smartphone while wearing a mask.
How to unlock an iPhone with a mask
UNLOCK WITH MASK
Nearly two years after the start of the Covid pandemic, Apple is finally allowing iPhone users to unlock their iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask.
Face ID, Apple’s facial recognition system, has finally received a major update as part of iOS 15.4.
“iPhone will now include an option to allow users to unlock Face ID while wearing a mask,” Apple said.
“Once enrolled, iPhone can recognize unique features around the eye area for authentication.
“A masked Face ID can be used to authenticate when unlocking an iPhone, making Apple Pay transactions, and autofilling passwords in apps and Safari.”
However, while iOS 15.4 is available for all iPhone models starting with the iPhone 6s, the ability to unlock your smartphone while wearing a mask will only be available to those with an iPhone 12 or later.
At the end of January, 37 new emojis were revealed to be coming to the iPhone, from a pregnant man to a biting lip.
NEW EMOJI HIGHLIGHTS
– Pregnant man
– Pregnant person
– Troll
– Coral
– Nest with eggs
– Mirror ball
– Low battery
– X-ray
– Bubbles
NEW EMOJI
At the end of January, 37 new emojis were revealed to be coming to the iPhone, ranging from a pregnant man to a biting lip.
The pregnant man and pregnant woman acknowledge that “pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people,” says Emojipedia, which is part of the California-based Unicode Consortium, the central bank for all approved emoji.
But the two new pregnant emojis could also potentially be used as “a tongue-in-cheek way of showing a baby with food,” a very full stomach caused by eating a large meal.
iOS 15.4 also includes seven brand new emojis, including Melting Face, Dotted Line Face, Tears Holding Back Face, and Diagonal Mouth Face.
“Users can now select separate skin tones for each hand in the handshake emoji,” Apple added.
Other additions include a motorcycle tire, slide, disco ball, club troll, corals, beans, and a dead battery.
The Unicode Consortium formally approved emoji 14.0 candidates last September.
The new emoji arrived on iOS as part of the first iOS 15.4 beta. These include a melting face, a pregnant man, a mirrored disco ball, and multiracial handshake emojis.
HOW TO CHANGE SIRI’S VOICE AND ACCENT
To change your smart assistant’s voice or accent:
1. Open settings
2. Tap Siri & Search.
3. Tap Siri Voice.
4. In the Variety section, select American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish, or South African.
5. In the Voice section, tap options and choose your favorite
But companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft are applying stylized versions of the consortium’s designs to their own operating systems.
Apple were revealed by Emojipedia in a blog post published on January 27, the same day that iOS 15.4 went into beta.
GENDER-NEUTRAL SIRI
While Siri is best known for its original female voice, with iOS 15.4 users can opt for a new “gender-neutral” voice called Quinn.
The tech giant confirmed that the new voice was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community, but did not provide any further details.
“Siri now has a new voice for English speakers, giving users more options to choose the voice that speaks to them,” Apple said.
“The new Siri voice uses Neural Text to Speech technology for an incredibly natural sound.”
While the new voice is simply called “Voice 5” on the iPhone, its filename refers to the voice as Quinn, according to an iOS developer. Steve Moser.
Users who choose American Siri can choose from five voices for their smart assistant.
A video posted to Twitter by The Verge reporter John Porter shows various voices in action.
While Siri is best known for its original female voice, users will soon be able to select a new “gender-neutral” voice named Quinn. Apple launches new voice in next iOS update
Voices 1 and 3 are low male voices, while voices 2 and 4 are higher female voices, and the new voice 5 is not clearly male or female.
This happened a little less than a year after Apple stopped defaulting its original female voice and launched two new options.
Other updates to iOS 15.4 are immunization records in the Health app and the Apple Card widget in Today View.
APPLE INTRODUCES NEW IPHONE SE 5G, IPAD AIR WITH M1 CHIP AND MAC STUDIO
Apple has introduced new versions of its low-end iPhone and iPad devices that use the same processors as the top models.
The iPhone SE will go on sale for $429 starting Friday and will ship with the Apple A15 Bionic processor found in the iPhone 13, a 12-megapixel camera, and 5G connectivity.
Apple has confirmed that it will be able to run about 26 times faster than the iPhone 8 and includes “Live Text” allowing users to copy text found in a picture.
The firm also released a new iPad Air that features the M1 processor found in the iPad Pro, a faster USB-C port for faster video transfer, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera on the front of the device.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, also announced a new Mac Studio computer with a new high-performance M1 Ultra processor and an Apple-designed Studio Display with its own built-in A13 Bionic chip and built-in ultra wide-angle camera.
Read more: Apple unveils new 5G iPhone SE, M1-chip iPad Air and Mac Studio