iPhone 2.2 Hidden Features: Google Street View, Emoji, Auto-Correction Off
It seems that Apple is taking further care in hiding new iPhone features in their beta releases. The most recent firmware beta seeded to developers listed "compatibility testing" in its release notes as the only change.
We've since heard of a couple of new features buried within the iPhone 2.2 beta. Apple has apparently made underlying changes to the iPhone's frameworks that are not yet exposed to the end user. These findings include:
- Support for Japanese emoji icons (screenshot) -- a popular feature for Japanese phones. The lack of emoji support has been blamed as part of the reason for slow iPhone adoption in Japan.
- Support for Google Street View for the Google Maps application. Street View allows users to view panoramic street level photographs in select cities within the Google Maps application. The feature was recently demoed on Google's Android phone.
Finally, Apple has also addressed one common request within the iPhone's Keyboard settings, allowing users to disable the iPhone's auto-correction.
Apple has not yet announced when the iPhone 2.2 firmware will be available.
Popular Stories
Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event that it will be releasing iOS 27 sometime tomorrow – Monday, September 14.
iOS 27 won't be the only release on...
As noted by Nicolas Lellouche, who writes for the French tech website Numerama, Apple has updated its tech specs pages for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max to clarify which models are equipped with its new C2 cellular modem and where.
Apple now says the iPhone 18 Pro has a C2 modem worldwide, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max uses the chip in every country except for the U.S.
According...
Production theater company IMAX has responded in a mixed way to Apple's embrace of a 1:1.4 aspect ratio on the iPhone Duo's inner and outer displays. The boxier ratio happens to be very close to the classic "full-frame" IMAX 1.43:1 aspect ratio, which comes from the geometry of the company's original 15-perforation/70mm film system.
In response to an X post from someone wondering if we'll see...