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We are testing iOS 12.2 beta developers since its first release in late January. Since then, we have learned that the new release includes new support for AirPods with "Hey, Siri" support, as well as evidence of rumors of the Apple News subscription service. In this article, I will highlight some of the underlying changes that may or may not be in the final version, but that are nonetheless interesting.
ECG limitation by geofencing
The ECG function is currently only available in the United States, where it has been authorized by the FDA. The release of functionality in other territories depends on the approval of local health authorities. That's why Apple limits the availability of the feature to only devices sold in the United States.
Until now, users of the Apple Watch Series 4 who bought their Apple Watch in the US could very well use the ECG function, provided that they first performed the Step on their iPhone. During this integration, the user must confirm his date of birth and also see instructions on how the ECG works.
A modification of this integration process suggests that Apple will start taking more aggressive measures to prevent the use of this feature on other territories. In iOS 12.2, a new sentence has been added at the bottom of the screen, stating that "During installation, your location will be used to verify that this feature is available in your area." Attempting to perform setup on an iPhone without an installed SIM card gave the error "Can not confirm your location. Make sure your iPhone is not in airplane mode and has a working SIM card (see picture).
This error, when attempting to continue setup on an iPhone without a SIM card, suggests that the feature will use the location data provided by the operator to verify if the user is in a region where the ECG is supported , and not the GPS itself. It is unclear whether this is a check performed only during the integration step or a constant check performed in the background and disabling the ECG if it discovers that the user is outside the supported regions. It's also hard to know if users who have already activated the feature will see it disabled when upgrading to iOS 12.2 when it's available to all users, probably later this month.
Warranty Information and AppleCare in Settings
Looks like Apple is trying to sell more than AppleCare clarify the warranty information in iOS 12.2. A new system, called "new device" internally, is designed to check the status of the device's warranty and display this information in the Settings application in the "About" section.
There is also evidence that this feature could allow users to purchase AppleCare for their new device directly from the system without the Apple Store app installed. It is currently disabled in the beta, but it looks like this will be the case for the final version of iOS 12.2.
"Activity rings" in the wallet
According to a report published by The Wall Street at the end of February, Apple would work with Goldman Sachs to create a common credit card, which will be integrated into the Wallet app and offer special features such as the ability to define spending targets.
The paper also mentioned that the team was discussing the borrowing of visual cues from Apple's fitness tracking app, such as Activity Rings. We found evidence in iOS 12.2 that Apple would actually incorporate something similar to the Wallet Rings, not only as a mechanism to display information to the user, but also as control that allows the user to define numerical values. You can see in the gif below what it looks like for the moment (clearly unfinished).
AirPower Support
In addition to supporting new AirPods with "Hey, Siri" and proof of new iPad models, including a new iPad mini, the components on iOS charged with interfacing with the AirPower charging mat have undergone changes in different beta versions still runs on the device, making sure that the software will interfere properly when it is released. As for iOS 12.2, it will probably be released just after the special Apple event of March 25th.
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