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Future Apple Watches could have more delicate finger tracking.

Apple Watches monitor activity and biorhythms using sensors on the smartwatch’s underside that press against a user’s wrist. But future versions of Apple’s wearable could use sensors in the watch band to track hand gestures too, a new patent suggests.

When an Apple Watch wearer makes a hand gesture, muscles and tendons in the wrist shift, sending electrical signals that could be tracked by electrodes threaded through the watch band, the patent proposes. Figures show the range of movement such a band could track, including palm up and down, rotating the wrist clockwise or counterclockwise, and lateral motions (like when waving).

Apple Watches already have accessibility features that allow users to control their watches by pinching a thumb and finger or clenching their fist, as pointed out by AppleInsider, which reported earlier on the new patent. Increasing gesture recognition capability could expand accessibility in general.

Having more ways to track body movement could lead to improvements in fitness and health monitoring, too, by using your flexed arm position for more precise workout measurements. If the gesture detection is sensitive enough, it could lead Apple to find ways for its wearables to control other devices, whether to play games or navigate around Apple TV menus.

That’s far in the future, when — or if — such a sensor-laden wristband ever makes it to production. While Apple has been able to include more sensors and harness existing ones in its smartwatches to track more metrics like blood oxygen level and skin temperature, it remains to be seen whether they can make a flexible band that can add more bio-tracking to the Apple Watch’s body-monitoring arsenal. We’re still years away from getting smart wearables that function well enough to replace our existing wardrobes.

Google is now requiring Android app developers to implement controls that let an app’s users delete their account and data either in the app or outside it, via the web. Developers must comply with the policy by May 31, 2024, the company said in a Wednesday blog post.

The web requirement means data deletion isn’t limited to people who still have an app installed on their devices. Folks won’t have to re-download an app just to request that their data be removed. Instead, Google is requiring that developers link to a data deletion request form on an app’s Google Play Store listing page.

Google is also putting data deletion information in a more prominent location on an app’s Play Store page, in the form of a new badge in the app’s data safety section.

The search giant says the moves are meant to empower people and build consumer trust.

After major data breaches over the years, including Meta’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Equifax data breach and Marriott’s data breach, governments around the world have stepped up enforcement of data protection.

The EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in 2018, and used it to push hefty fines on tech giants for not complying. Congress has called for privacy regulation in the past and grilled TikTok CEO Shou Chew last month over privacy concerns, but so far it hasn’t passed any major legislation. The US Senate did introduce the Restrict Act earlier this year, a bill that would give the government powers to restrict a wide range of products coming from China, but the move has online civil liberties organizations concerned.

In recent years, Apple has been pushing a marketing message saying it cares deeply about user privacy. Apple changed how apps dealt with user data by making it an opt-in feature versus opt-out. This meant that if the Facebook app wanted to share or track a person’s data, the app would have to ask permission first. Before, the option may have been tucked away in the settings. Following the change, one analytics company suggested that users had decided to opt out of tracking 96 percent of the time.

Android users too are feeling concerned about their data, with one survey showing that 49% say they prefer switching to an iPhone because of concerns about security and privacy. Considering that the iPhone has overtaken Android in the US for the first time in over a decade, Google’s more privacy-forward policies and messaging may make sense.

Exclusive: Motorola executives discuss foldables, rollables and more on the 50th anniversary of the first cellphone call.

Fifty years ago today, Motorola’s Martin Cooper — widely regarded today as the father of the cellphone — made the first cellphone call. To say that phones have changed since then would be an understatement. While making a simple phone call was an accomplishment back then, today’s devices can stream movies, run console-quality games and capture nearly professional-level photos.

But the smartphone as we know it has largely remained the same for more than a decade. While their processors have gotten faster, their displays have grown larger and their cameras have become more sophisticated, the smartphone’s overall shape hasn’t varied.

Motorola and its rivals are seeking to change that by looking beyond the traditional phone, hoping to uncover the next major evolution of the mobile devices. Motorola’s latest efforts were on full display at Mobile World Congress in late February, where it showcased a concept phone with a rollable display that can expand and contract with the press of a button. It also announced a new version of its Razr foldable flip phone in August 2022, although it’s only available in China.

The announcements came as Samsung flaunted its own concept devices at CES, while OnePlus and Google are expected to get into the foldable phone race this year. Taken together, these developments signal that the mobile phone is going through yet another transformation, much as the market did when it was filled with phones with slide-out keyboards in the years before the smartphone. It’s just unclear what this next era will look like or how long it will take to get there.

For Motorola, it’s all about finding ways to make the smartphone more useful and less obtrusive at the same time. That’s according to Jeff Snow, Motorola’s general manager of product innovation, and Ruben Castano, executive director of customer experience and design. Both sat down with CNET virtually to discuss where the smartphone is heading next on the 50th anniversary of the first modern cellphone call.

“I think people will look back one day and say, ‘I can’t believe that I was carrying around this 7-inch piece of glass in my pocket,'” said Snow. “The device is getting a little bit untenable for most people based on their mobile lives.”

When it comes to achieving that goal, Snow and Ruben discussed two general paths. The first is a more straightforward approach that we’re already seeing today: changing the physical design of the smartphone to become more flexible and compact. That focus on portability is part of the reason why Motorola pursued a clamshell, flip-phone-style foldable like the Razr instead of a phone that converts into a tablet-sized device when opened. Motorola considered a large-format foldable, according to Castano, although the company couldn’t discuss further details.

“There’s certainly something to that form factor, if you don’t make the user make too much of a compromise,” said Snow.

Motorola’s rollable phone, which is only a concept for now, is a different means of achieving the same general objective to make phones feel less cumbersome without taking away screen space. The prototype shown at Mobile World Congress has a display that can extend or shrink depending on what you’re using it for. When it contracts into its smaller state, the phone provides a secondary screen on the back of the device.

Castano and Snow couldn’t say when or if the rollable device would come to market. But showing the phone to a wider audience at Mobile World Congress was an important step in the development process, since it enables Motorola to gather real-world feedback.

For example, there’s one critique in particular about the rollable phone that stuck with Castano: It takes too long to access the selfie camera. That means the company may have to consider making changes to the proof of concept, such as accelerating the speed at which the display can roll or adding a hole punch-shaped camera to the front of the device.

“As much as we can think and research with consumers internally, when we put it out there, there’s just so much more that comes back,” Castano said.

The other approach is to make new types of mobile devices that relieve your phone of some of the computing burden, so that you don’t have to rely on your smartphone as much. Today’s smartwatches and wireless earbuds are already designed to help with this, but Motorola has ideas on how to take that further. Its “5G Neckband” device is one example; the neckband houses certain computing components so that devices like smart glasses won’t have to be as heavy.

Castano envisions a future in which screens are just “access points,” and the myriad sensors we may be wearing on our bodies — whether it be in the form of jewelry or a watch — take care of the computing.

“You have a pane of glass that is only an access point, because the processing is happening outside the device,” he said. “You don’t need to burden the device or every single part of your ecosystem with a chipset and a modem.”

Castano and Snow, however, couldn’t get into specific products or concepts Motorola may be working on. But its competitors are expected to show off new devices that fall under some of these categories in the near future.

Apple could announce its first mixed reality headset as early as June, according to Bloomberg, although a more recent report from noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says mass production may have been delayed. Samsung, Google and Qualcomm also announced a partnership at Samsung’s Unpacked event in February to work on a mixed reality platform together. Google, meanwhile, may launch its first foldable Pixel phone in June, according to reports from 9to5Google and WinFuture.

Apple and Google also are dominant in the global smartphone market, with the former claiming a 23% share in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the latter 19%, according to Counterpoint Research. Motorola didn’t make it into the top five smartphone vendors and is instead lumped into the “others” category, which accounted for 29% of the market during that same time period.

For now, the foldable phone is the biggest glimpse we have at where smartphones may be headed — at least from Motorola’s perspective. Snow certainly believes foldables like the Razr could be very indicative of what’s next for the smartphone, especially now that mobile devices are starting to replace our wallets and car keys.

“Getting this right, it certainly could replace the modern smartphone as the predominant form factor,” he said.

Apple’s first AR/VR headset may make an appearance at this event, too.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is coming up soon. The iPhone maker revealed Wednesday that the event will kick off on June 5. The annual developer confab will showcase Apple’s latest software, including advancements to its iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, WatchOS and TVOS operating systems.

At WWDC 2023, Apple is expected to unveil iOS 17, the next version of its software for iPhones, which could launch alongside the expected iPhone 15 later this year. Apple could also unveil its long-rumored AR/VR headset at WWDC. The new mixed-reality device was reportedly demoed to executives this month.

The conference will take place online from June 5 to June 9 and is free for developers to attend. Apple will hold an in-person event at its Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, for its keynote and state of the union presentations on the first day.

At WWDC 2022 last June, Apple revealed iOS 16, a redesign for its MacBook line of laptops using the M2 chip, MacOS Ventura, and WatchOS 9.

Voice Isolation isn’t just for FaceTime calls anymore.

If you’ve downloaded iOS 16.4 to your iPhone, the update brings Voice Isolation, a handy FaceTime feature, to phone calls. Apple introduced Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum to FaceTime calls with the release of iOS 15 in 2021. However, only Voice Isolation is available for phone calls at this time.

When enabled, Voice Isolation muffles distracting background noises that interrupt your phone call. That way, if you’re on a business call or catching up with friends, you won’t be interrupted by your dog’s barking or construction outside your home.

To enable Voice Isolation, you have to be on a phone call, and you won’t find the feature in Settings. But once you turn Voice Isolation on, it will stay on for all subsequent phone calls until it’s turned off.

Here’s how to activate and disable Voice Isolation for phone calls.

How to enable Voice Isolation

1. Start or answer a phone call.
2. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to access your Control Center.
3. Tap Mic Mode near the top-right corner of your screen.
4. Tap Voice Isolation.

Pro tip: Instead of turning this feature on during a call with someone else, you can call yourself and enable Voice Isolation by following the steps above.

To disable Voice Isolation, follow the same steps above and tap Standard in Mic Mode. This will return your microphone back to its default setting.

What is Wide Spectrum?
Alongside Voice Isolation in Mic Mode is Wide Spectrum. Unlike Voice Isolation — which muffles background sounds — Wide Spectrum amplifies background sounds without affecting your voice.

Wide Spectrum is useful for calls with multiple people on one phone line. That way, everyone can be heard, not just the person holding the phone.

Currently, Wide Spectrum is only available for FaceTime calls, not phone calls. But, since the feature is still present in Mic Mode when accessed during a phone call, this feature might become available for phone calls in the future.

An old FaceTime upgrade comes to voice calls.

If you’ve downloaded iOS 16.4 to your iPhone, one new feature can help make your phone calls sound more clear. The update expands Voice Isolation to phone calls now, expanding the feature from FaceTime calls. Apple introduced Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum to FaceTime calls with the release of iOS 15 in 2021. However, only Voice Isolation is available for phone calls at this time.

When enabled, Voice Isolation muffles distracting background noises that interrupt your phone call. That way, if you’re on a business call or catching up with friends, you won’t be interrupted by your dog’s barking or construction outside your home.

To enable Voice Isolation, you have to be on a phone call, and you won’t find the feature in Settings. But once you turn Voice Isolation on, it will stay on for all subsequent phone calls until it’s turned off.

Here’s how to activate and disable Voice Isolation for phone calls.

How to enable Voice Isolation

1. Start or answer a phone call.
2. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to access your Control Center.
3. Tap Mic Mode near the top-right corner of your screen.
4. Tap Voice Isolation.

Pro tip: Instead of turning this feature on during a call with someone else, you can call yourself and enable Voice Isolation by following the steps above.

To disable Voice Isolation, follow the same steps above and tap Standard in Mic Mode. This will return your microphone back to its default setting.

What’s Wide Spectrum?
Alongside Voice Isolation in Mic Mode is Wide Spectrum. Unlike Voice Isolation — which muffles background sounds — Wide Spectrum amplifies background sounds without affecting your voice.

Wide Spectrum is useful for calls with multiple people on one phone line. That way, everyone can be heard, not just the person holding the phone.

Currently, Wide Spectrum is only available for FaceTime calls, not phone calls. But, since the feature is still present in Mic Mode when accessed during a phone call, this feature might become available for phone calls in the future.

Select users can now quickly finance purchases up to $1,000.

Apple has thrown its hat into the buy now, pay later ring. Its long-awaited Apple Pay Later service was “prereleased” this week, but only for “select users.”

Originally, Apple Pay Later was supposed to roll out at the end of 2022, after it was announced at Apple’s WWDC event last year. However, the product’s launch was delayed due to “significant technical and engineering challenges,” per Bloomberg.

Apple’s new payment service comes at a time when many retailers are accepting payments from BNPL apps such as Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay. Here’s what you need to know about the payment plan, how it works and when it will be open to all iPhone users.

For more on iPhones, learn all the cool new features in iOS 16.4 and 22 iPhone settings you should change right now.

How do I use Apple Pay Later?
Apple Pay Later lets you break the cost of purchases into four equal payments spread over six weeks. The first payment is due when you make your purchase, and the remaining payments are due every two weeks after that.

Once Apple Pay Later is set up on your phone, you have two options when completing a purchase: Pay in Full and Pay Later. Selecting the latter option will bring up a payment schedule displaying the amount of each of the four payments and when they’ll be due.

Stores and merchants don’t have to implement any changes in order to accept payments through Apple Pay Later. Transactions occur as they did before — the only difference will lie in how back-end payments are made. Apple Pay Later will work with any merchants who accept Apple Pay.

MasterCard Installments, the credit card company’s white-label BNPL service, is providing the merchant payments for Apple Pay Later. Apple has created its own financial subsidiary — Apple Financing — that handles loan approvals and credit checks. Banking partner Goldman Sachs is the official loan issuer.

Payments for Apple Pay Later must be made with a debit card; you can’t use a credit card. You can set up automatic payments or make additional payments at any time. Each BNPL purchase will be reviewed and approved or rejected using a soft credit check.

Apple Pay Later has no plan to charge fees for late payments, though it may use late payments as an excuse to reject future BNPL loans. The minimum purchase for Apple Pay Later is $50; the maximum is $1,000.

When can I use Apple Pay Later on my iPhone?
If you’re one of the “select users” to receive an invite from Apple, you can start using Apple Pay Later now. For the rest of us, based on the wording in Apple’s press release, Apple Pay Later will likely be enabled for all Apple Wallet users in a future update to iOS.

Apple has already released four point upgrades since iOS 16 launched in September 2022. The first update — iOS 16.1 — came in October 2022; the second — iOS 16.2 in December 2022; the third — iOS 16.3 — in January 2023; and the fourth — iOS 16.4 — in March 2023.

Based on that bimonthly release schedule, all Apple Wallet users can probably expect access to Apple Pay Later some time in May 2023.

How is Apple Pay Later different from Apple Card Monthly Installments?
Apple Card Monthly Installments is an Apple program that lets you finance the purchase of certain Apple products when using the Apple Card credit card. The length of the 0% APR period for these purchases depends on the product. Installment plans range from six months to two years.

Apple Pay Later isn’t restricted to Apple products, nor does it require the use of the Apple Card. With Apple Pay Later, you can finance any purchases from $50 to $1,000 using a debit card, as long as it’s connected to Apple Wallet. Also, the interest-free installment period for Apple Pay Later — six weeks — is much shorter than the payment plans offered by Apple Card Monthly Installments.

What other Apple Wallet features were added in iOS 16?
One new Apple Wallet feature that launched with iOS 16 is Apple Pay Order Tracking, which adds the ability for merchants to provide detailed receipts and delivery statuses for purchased products to customers via Apple Wallet.

Apple also expanded support in Apple Wallet for driver’s licenses and identification cards. Following IDs from Colorado and Arizona, Apple Wallet plans to add support for 11 more states.

These driver’s licenses can be used at select Transportation Security Agency checkpoints. They can also be shared with other apps that require identification, such as alcohol purchases through Uber Eats.

Apple Wallet has also added support for sharing keys for locations such as hotels, offices or automobiles. New features let users share keys with friends or associates using email, text messaging or other messaging apps.

What other online services let you buy now and pay later?
Some existing online payment systems provide buy now, pay later short-term financing similar to what Apple Pay Later is offering. PayPal’s Pay in 4 program works very much like Apple Pay Later, except that purchases are limited to between $300 and $1,500.

BNPL app Sezzle also uses a system of four payments over six weeks, but permits users to reschedule one payment for up to two weeks later at no cost and postpone further payments for an additional fee.

Other BNPL apps such as Affirm and Klarna offer interest-free installment plans for short periods, or longer installment plans that add a variable interest rate.

The update brings new emoji, voice isolation in phone calls, and more to your iPhone.

The wait for iOS 16.4 is over. Apple rolled out iOS 16.4 on Monday, about a week after the company let developers and beta testers try the iOS 16.4 release candidate.

The update comes with a handful of bug and security fixes, as well as some new features. Some of the new features include new emoji, voice isolation for cellular calls, and more.

Here are some of the new features your iPhone gains with iOS 16.4.

31 new emoji
The iOS 16.4 update brings 31 new emoji to your iOS device. The new emoji include a new smiley; new animals, like a moose and a goose; and new heart colors, like pink and light blue.

Voice isolation comes to cellular calls
Voice isolation was introduced with iOS 15 in 2021, and at the time it worked only on FaceTime calls. Now with iOS 16.4, you can use the feature on your cellular calls too.

When enabled, voice isolation can help the person you’re on a call with hear you more clearly by muffling background sounds, like kids playing in the other room or construction outside your window. It could therefore cut back on the number of times you have to repeat yourself in a phone call because the other person can’t hear you.

Easily find photo duplicates across shared albums
In iOS 16.4, you can easily find duplicate photos in shared albums in Photos. If you share photos with family or friends via iCloud, iOS 16.4 will show you all the duplicates across albums. You can also Merge these duplicate photos.

Support for PlayStation 5 controller
According to MacRumors, iOS 16.4 adds support for the PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge Wireless Controller. You can use the controller to play controller-enabled games from services like Apple Arcade — a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick — on your iPhone.

Apple Books update
The page-turn curl animation is back in Apple Books with iOS 16.4, after it was removed in a previous iOS update. Before, when you turned a page in an ebook on your iPhone, the page would slide to one side of your screen or it would vanish and be replaced by the next page. You can still choose these other page-turn animations in addition to the curl animation.

Music app changes
The Kid Cudi album Man On the Moon artwork with the track list below
A small banner appears at the bottom of the screen when you choose to play a song next in Apple Music in iOS 16.4

Zach McAuliffe/CNET
The Music interface has been slightly modified in iOS 16.4. When you add a song to your queue, a small banner appears near the bottom of your screen instead of a full-screen pop-up like in previous iOS versions.

Also, if you go into your Library in Music, you can organize your Library by Artist and tap into an artist, across the top of your page you will see an icon for that artist. A search bar used to be at the top of this page. Tap the artist’s icon and you will be taken to that artist’s Music page.

Apple Podcasts updates
Apple Podcasts also gets an update with iOS 16.4. Now you can access a Channels tab in your Library, which shows you different networks you follow. Tap into each channel and you see can the shows you subscribe to and other shows that channel produces.

See who and what is covered under AppleCare
With iOS 16.4, you can go to Settings > General > About > Coverage to check who and what devices are covered on your AppleCare plan. That way, if your AirPods break, you can easily check whther they are covered. You can manage your coverage from here too.

Focus Mode filters added
If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, iOS 16.4 lets you enable or disable the always-on display option with certain Focus Modes. When creating a new filter, scroll down to the bottom of the edit page, tap Focus Filter, then tap Always-On Display to enable or disable the display for that Focus Mode.

New Apple Wallet features
You can add three new order-tracking widgets for Apple Wallet to your home screen with iOS 16.4. Each widget displays your tracking information on active orders, but the widgets are different sizes: small, medium and large.

More accessibility options
The update also adds new accessibility options. One new option is called Dim Flashing Lights, and it can be found in the Motion menu in Settings. The option’s description says video content that depicts repeated flashing or strobing lights will automatically be dimmed. Video timelines will also show when flashing lights will occur. VoiceOver support has also been expanded to the maps and Weather apps.

Apple ID and beta software updates
Text that reads You can sign in with a different Apple ID that is enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program or the Apple Developer Program
The latest iOS update lets you sign into another Apple ID to access other beta software.

Zach McAuliffe/CNET
With iOS 16.4, developers and beta testers can check whether their Apple ID is associated with the developer beta, public beta or both. If you have a different Apple ID, like one for your job, that has access to beta updates, iOS 16.4 also lets you switch to that account from your device.

New keyboards, Siri voices and language updates
This iOS 16.4 update also adds keyboards for the Choctaw and Chickasaw languages, and there are new Siri voices for Arabic and Hebrew. Language updates have also come to Korean, Ukrainian, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu.

Here are Apple’s release notes for iOS 16.4.

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:
• 21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard
• Notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen
• Voice Isolation for cellular calls prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you
• Duplicates album in Photos expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo
Library
• VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app
• Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected
• Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent’s device
• Addresses issues where Matter-compatible thermostats could become unresponsive when paired to Apple Home
• Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone
14 Pro models

For more, check out what was included in iOS 16.3.1 and features you may have missed in iOS 16.3.

The device might be unveiled to the public soon, according to Bloomberg.

Some of Apple’s top executives gathered in Cupertino, California, recently for a special demonstration of the company’s unreleased AR/VR headset, according to a report from Bloomberg.

“The demonstrations were polished, glitzy and exciting,” Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s Apple reporter, wrote.

Gurman noted that the demonstration took place in the Steve Jobs Theater, Apple’s largest venue. According to Gurman, this might suggest the headset is close to a public unveiling.

The headset will have a starting price around $3,000, and it will have an external battery that’ll need to be replaced after a few hours of use, Gurman wrote. The headset is also reportedly uncomfortable and would lack a standout app upon release.

According to the report, some Apple executives are aware of the challenges the headset and company might face, and they are trying to set realistic expectations. But executives expect interest in the headset to grow over time.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gurman also reported in his Power On newsletter that Apple’s iOS 17 will likely be a larger release than expected. Initially, iOS 17 was thought to focus on bug fixes and performance improvements. But Gurman wrote that the goal of iOS 17 now will be to bring some of users’ most requested features to iPhones.

For more on Apple, check out what else to expect from Apple’s AR/VR headset and iOS 16.4 beta features testers can try now.

Apple has been transitioning away from the Lightning port over the past few years.

Your next pair of AirPods could have a USB-C charging case. The company is planning to launch a version of its second-generation AirPods Pro with a USB-C charging case later this year, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, a highly respected industry watcher.

“I think this is likely the USB-C version of the AirPods Pro 2, with mass shipments expected in 2Q23-3Q23,” Kuo said in a tweet on Friday, referring to a report of new AirPod and charging case model numbers referenced in iOS 16.4, the next version of Apple’s iPhone software.

The company has been transitioning away from its proprietary Lightning charging port, which the current AirPods Pro 2 case includes, over the past few years. There has been speculation that the next iPhone could have a USB-C charging port instead of Lightning.

The move from Lightning to USB-C has been encouraged by the European Union. In November, the EU passed legislation that will force Apple to include USB-C charging ports in its products if it wants to sell devices in the region. The law was intended to decrease the number of cables consumers collect with their various devices and prevent e-waste.

Apple does not plan to include a USB-C charging case with the second- or third-generation (non-Pro) AirPods, Kuo said.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.