iOS 18.4 is here, bringing with it a ton of new features. One of my favorites? A new Apple Music capability that expands the service’s reach beyond the Music app, pushing further into Control Center and more.

Ambient Music controls expand Apple Music’s reach in iOS 18.4

After you install iOS 18.4, if you’re like me you’ll probably pop into some of your favorite apps to see if anything’s changed.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone found himself confused with another man named Stone, who is also associated with the world of U.S. politics, while testifying before Congress about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Stone, the director behind the controversial 1991 political thriller JFK, was appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets on Tuesday to advocate for the reinvestigation of the assassination of President Kennedy. The annual meeting comes weeks after the National Archives released over 2,000 files related to the Kennedy assassination.

Apple spent years ignoring RCS, allowing iPhones to offer a degraded messaging experience with Android users. This made Android folks unwelcome in many a group chat, but Apple finally started rectifying this issue last year with the addition of RCS support in iOS. It has been a slow rollout, though, with Google’s mobile service only now getting support.

While Apple supports RCS messaging on iPhones now, it has not exactly been enthusiastic about it. Anyone using Google Fi on an iPhone was left in the lurch even after Apple changed course. The first RCS update rolled out in iOS 18 last fall, but it only supported postpaid plans on the big three carriers. Most other wireless subscribers had to wait, including those on Google Fi, as confirmed to Ars last year. It was a suitably amusing outcome, considering Google is largely responsible for reviving the RCS standard and runs the Jibe back-end servers through which many iPhone RCS messages flow.

It was revealed today that the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch alongside a paid app which teaches you all about the new console.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour launches on the same day as the console—June 5th—and teaches you the ins and outs of the system.

It will highlight various technical features, for example, as well as spotlight various ”secrets” about Switch 2.

Users will be able to familiarize themselves with the new mouse controls via various mini-games, one of which is based on mini-golf. HD rumble functionality will also be showcased.

It’s certainly a neat idea for an app, especially if you want to learn about what Switch 2 is capable of—but actually charging money for it seems a little off, if you ask us—but oh-so-typically Nintendo.

Some significant changes are coming to Thunderbird. Mozilla revived the free and open-source email client a few years ago and now is preparing to launch a new set of ”Pro” add-on web services designed enhance the experience of using Thunderbird. One of these additions will be the Thundermail email service.

In 2023, Mozilla developers announced they were ”remaking” Thunderbird’ssoftware architecture, aiming to modernize its crumbling and unsustainable codebase. The company later confirmed plans to add new paid professional features available to all Thunderbird users.