by Alabama News Network Staff

By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter

The iPhone’s iOS 16 is available now and if you’re wondering what it’s like, look no further.

A big part of the new features, and maybe the one most people will like the most has everything to do with how the iPhone lock screen looks when you’re not using it.

iOS 16 allows users to customize the lock screen with new images, fonts, and widgets. To use this, hard press on the lock screen and tap “Customize” at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see options to change the font for the date and time, colors, and filters. This will allow you to make your phone look like no one else’s. You can choose from wallpapers by Apple or use your own photo.

You’ll also be able to add widgets to the lock screen. Instead of just seeing the date at the top of the screen, you can choose from several options to add the temperature and weather conditions. Below the time display, you’ve got 5 other areas for widgets.

You can choose to display your Apple Watch battery indicator, activity, weather conditions, stock prices, news, and calendar events. While there are 5 widget areas possible, some widgets will take up more real estate.

Apple listened and the battery indicator is back in iOS 16. Go to settings and look for “battery”, then toggle on the indicator. Now when you glance at your phone, you’ll see how much battery you have left in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

In Apple Mail, you’ll now be able to send an email later. Press and hold the send button to send later in the day or evening or set your own date and time for it to go out.

You can now copy the text in videos. I recorded a video of my bookshelf showing the titles and authors. When you play the video in the Photos app, you can hit pause and select any text that appears in the video. After you tap the screen you’ll see options to copy the text which you can paste into emails, notes, and messages.

One of the cooler features of iOS 16 is the ability to lift the subject in a photo. I have a photo in my camera roll of a deer. You can press and hold the photo to see an option to copy. Like magic, Apple removes the background so all you see is the subject, (in this case the deer).

When I go to paste the image into a text, note, or email, the image appears without the background.

Did you send a text you wish you hadn’t? Unsend it before or after they read it. Just locate the text message and press edit or delete. You’ve got 15 minutes to take it back.

How many times do you or someone else take a group photo and suddenly shoot 10-15 of them “just in case”? In iOS 16, the iPhone will search through the camera roll looking for duplicates.

Within the photos app, you can scroll down to find the option “Duplicates” which displays all photos that include the same metadata or just appear to be the same. You’ll have the option to merge the photos together which will save the best and delete the rest.

This feature wasn’t 100% accurate for me. Maybe Apple improves it in the next update, iOS 16.1 which will likely be released in the next few weeks.

What’s Right with Your Community