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iOS 17.5 Features: New iPhone update available to download now
In This Article
Apple has dropped the iOS 17.5 update, which brings another game to the News+ service and greater protection against stalking via item trackers.
The relatively minor update for UK users is a bigger deal in the EU where Apple is nowallowing apps to be side-loaded from the developer’s website, in order to adhere to the Digital Markets Act across the bloc.
Here’s what’s new for everyone else…
Apple News+ gets game
Apple is looking towards the New York Times model for increasing engagement with its news content. The News+ service now includes a game called Quartiles which is a “new and original daily word game”.
Essentially, it sounds like Apple’s attempt to have a Wordle-like pull to the News app every day, where users can build streaks.
In a post on the AppleNewsroom blog, Apple explains the game “challenges players to form words by selecting tiles containing two to four letters, and users collect points based on word length. New puzzles are available each day, and players can also choose to share a Quartiles puzzle with other News+ subscribers.”
iOS 17.5 also includes a new Puzzles Scoreboard where users can keep tabs on their records in Quartiles, as well as the daily crossword and mini crossword Apple added to the News+ proposition in iOS 17.
Elsewhere, News+ gets an Offline Mode in iOS 17.5 where subscribers can access “recent and personalised News content” when they’re not connected to the web.
Cross-platform anti-stalking
Apple has finally added the key piece of the puzzle to allow its Find My network to play nice with trackers designed forGoogle’s equivalent Find My Device platform– and vice versa. This meansiPhoneusers will be alerted when a non-AirTag tracker is following them, for example.
iOS 17.5 release notes
The full iOS 17.5 release notes are as follows:
Apple News
Tracking Notifications
This could be the last major update beforeApple reveals iOS 18 at WWDC next month.
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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He’s based in South Florida, USA. …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
