Apple 'Digital Health' in iOS 12 to help your kids fight iPhone addiction

Addicted to your iPhone? This new iOS tool is what you need.

By Vishal

| Published: Tuesday, February 13, 2018, 13:19 [IST]

Apple is reportedly working on a new tool and will introduce it with iOS 12 slated to launch this fall. The new tool will fight iPhone and iPad addiction among children alongside a slew of new features.

Apple 'Digital Health' to help your kids fight iPhone addiction

According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple's forthcoming iOS 12 mobile operating system will bring a new tool dubbed as Digital Health, which enables parents to monitor the time their kids spend on their iPad and iPhones.

Where it all started

In January, Apple received an open letter by two of its major investors, who urged the company to fight iPhone addiction in kids. The Cupertino-based giant responded to the letter saying it will soon be implementing new parental control features with the upcoming iOS update.

iOS 12

Apple will reportedly put major features on second priority for the next two years and will try to fix current iPad and iPhone issues by adding additional changes to the operating system. Apart from the Digital Health tool, the Animojis for iPhone X users will witness improvements. The update will also fix issues with the ability to run certain iOS apps such as the Home app.

What's more interesting, the third-party apps will be able to function across iPhones, iPads and Mac computers - a feature that will involve both iOS and macOS 10.14.

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Apple's new strategy

According to Bloomberg's report, Apple's new strategy to improve both iOS and macOS is to allow its engineers to focus more on the user experience instead of only focusing on new features that don't work well due to bugs.

This will buy engineers more time to refine existing features and thoroughly test the new ones. Apple might implement the new strategy with the forthcoming arsenal of operating systems comprising of iOS 12, macOS 10.14, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5, slated to be unwrapped during the annual WWDC 2018.

Besides, Apple might be planning something innovative like a stylus, as described in a patent called "Content Creation Using Electronic Input Device on Non-electronic Surfaces." The new tech will allow users to write on any surface, and in case no surface is around, it will even be able to write on the air.

As with everything that's in the patent stage, there is no confirmation that the device will make it to mass production, as it happens with a lot of patents. But it sure does provide us with a sneak peek into Apple's vision for the small accessory.