Announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, iOS 18 is currently making its debut to developers, and will be offered in beta to the general public next month. The new version of the operating system dedicated to iPhone will therefore be subject to improvements over the months until its final availability announced in the fall, that is to say at the same time as the expected iPhone 16 series. at the same period.
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The new features included in iOS 18, which we have summarized in this article, are accompanied by Apple Intelligence, the signature AI, which however will only be included in beta, and accessible – which Apple justifies by the fact that it requires the use of a latest generation Apple A chip – only on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, only in American English. All other eligible iPhones will be entitled to improvements to Messages, Photos, but also to a new password manager.
And we know exactly which smartphones are eligible. Good surprise, the list published by Apple has not changed one iota if we compare it to that of iPhones which had access to iOS 17 in 2023. The oldest models able to benefit from theupdate are therefore the iPhone Xs and Xr, which brings their software support to six years. It should be remembered that the Cupertino company has never committed to updating its mobiles over a specific period of time, but fluctuates between five and six years depending on the versions of iOS.
This good news is part of a trend towards increasing the duration of smartphone software updates, itself supported by the European Commission. Google and Samsung stand out in this area, both offering, on part of their catalog, seven years of upgrades, while Europe intends to impose a minimum of five years on all manufacturers from the summer 2025. Apple, which controls its products both in terms of software and hardware, since it equips its terminals with its own chipsets, will therefore have no difficulty in complying with the requirements of the Old Continent. Let us also point out that, recently, the American brand has officially indicated that it provides at least five years of security patches for its smartphones.
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