Entertainment
iOS 18.2 beta 3: 4 Apple Intelligence features you can test now
The full suite of Apple Intelligence features isn’t quite ready for primetime yet, but you can at least test some of them out prior to their proper launch.
Apple launched the third beta for iOS 18.2 this week. If you’ve gotten past the Apple Intelligence waitlist, this beta lets you get a taste of the new AI-powered features. It should be noted that these features actually entered the public beta last week and the latest beta release is mostly dedicated to bug fixes.
iOS 18.2 beta: 4 new Apple Intelligence features
Apple Intelligence introduced its highly anticipated image-based AI tools in earlier betas, but with iOS 18.2 developer beta 3, you can keep experimenting with the following:
Image Playground
First up is Image Playground, Apple’s standard text-to-image generative AI tool.

Credit: Apple
It works how you’d expect: Type some text into a box describing what you want to see, and eventually, an image will pop up that should, theoretically, depict what you wrote.
That said, it’s not that basic. The software will make suggestions for things to add to your photos and you can even use existing photos as inspiration for your creations. You can, of course, share your creations through the Messages app.
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Genmoji
Next up is Genmoji, or AI-generated emoji.

Credit: Apple
You can use text descriptions or existing photos of people to create custom emoji.
Visual Intelligence
On the more practical, though less creative side, is Visual Intelligence.

Credit: Apple
This feature allows iPhone 16 users (yes, it is exclusive to the newest iPhones) to open up the Camera app, aim it at something, and have AI give you some pertinent information about what you focused on.
For instance, aim your camera at a business, and you might get service hours or user reviews. Visual Intelligence can also do dirty work like detecting phone numbers and addresses in images to add to your contacts list. Oh, and it can copy and paste text, which will most likely be the most useful thing about it.
Siri with ChatGPT
Finally, Siri’s upcoming ChatGPT enhancements are available via the iOS 18.2 beta. The way this works is that if you ask Siri a question and it can’t come up with a satisfying answer on its own, you will be prompted to optionally consult ChatGPT instead. Siri will present the answer, but ChatGPT is where it comes from.
Oh, and unlike the web version of ChatGPT, you don’t need to make an account to use this feature. Take notes, OpenAI.
You can download the third developer beta of iOS 18.2 by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Beta versions of iOS can be rough around the edges, so don’t forget to make a backup.
Entertainment
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Entertainment
BookCon 2026: Authors Rachel Reid, Stephanie Archer talk hockey romance and how it could change the sport for the better
With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there’s a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the “You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance’s Hottest Genres”, authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.
Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre “escaped containment,” like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, “what [the players] are doing seems impossible.” Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.
But there’s more to the genre’s success than the tropes. “It has to be said,” Rath argued, “that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism.” She went on to say that straight, white women’s voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.
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Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, “I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene.” A similar sentiment came up during Reid’s Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, “No, you can’t skip the sex scenes. You’re missing so much character development if you don’t go on the journey with them.”
The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. “We’re writing the world as we want it to be,” Rath said.
Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. “People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen.”
With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there’s a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.
Entertainment
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Credit: BJ’s Wholesale Club
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