Apple releases iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 with Freeform and Apple Music Sing on board

A few hours ago the latest versions of Apple's mobile operating systems started going out to all supported devices. We're talking, of course, about iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2.

With these releases, Freeform makes its debut. This is a new app that is designed for "creative brainstorming and collaboration", according to Apple. It lets you organize and visually lay out content on a "flexible canvas", with sharing and collaboration options built-in. "A wide range of files" can be added and previewed inline without ever leaving the board. Freeform boards are stored in iCloud, so they sync across devices.

Additionally, Apple Music Sing, the previously announced karaoke feature, is built into these releases too. There's a new option expanding the total number of iCloud data categories protected via end-to-end encryption to 23, including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos, new settings letting you hide the wallpaper or notifications when Always-On display is enabled on iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, new Sleep, Medications, and Activity widgets, and SharePlay support in Game Center for multiplayer games so you can play with the people you are on a FaceTime call with.

You also get a bunch of bug fixes and various improvements, including better search in Messages, news articles in Weather relevant to that location, Participant Cursors in Notes letting you see live indicators when others update shared notes, AirDrop automatically reverting to Contacts Only after 10 minutes to prevent unwanted requests to receive content, and Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and 14 Pro models.

The iPads get external display support for up to 6K resolution on iPad Pro 12.9" (5th gen and later), iPad Pro 11" (3rd gen and later), and iPad Air (5th gen), the ability to drag and drop files and windows to a connected display and back, and support for using up to four apps on the iPad display and four on the external one.

An issue that caused multitouch gestures to become unresponsive while using the Zoom accessibility feature has been fixed, and Tracking Notifications now alert you if an AirTag separated from its owner is nearby and has recently played a chime to indicate that it's moving.

These updates also address more than 30 security vulnerabilities, which makes it even more important to install the new software as soon as you can. Given that Apple doesn't generally do staged rollouts, iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 should be available to all already. If you haven't received a notification yet, you can manually check for an update and it should immediately start to download.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via 1 | Via 2