Apple has released the iOS 17.2 update for newer iPhones. New features include spatial video recording and a Journal app that generates prompts designed to get users writing about their lives based on data running through the phone. The 3D spatial video can also playback on 2D on any device but is optimized for dimensional viewing on Apple’s Vision Pro headset, due for release in 2024, starting at $3,500. The Journal app, unveiled at June’s WWDC, is described as a health and wellness feature (that oddly does not yet integrate with the Apple Watch).

While The Verge found the Journal interface “a little basic when we tried it out in beta for ourselves,” it adds that “its superpower is its ability to recognize ‘Moments’ based on your phone’s data, including locations you’ve visited, photos you’ve taken, or workouts you’ve done.” It then offers writing suggestions that riff on Moments.

Spatial video got an enthusiastic review from CNET, which says “the videos look great and the 3D is compellingly realistic” when viewed on a Vision Pro headset. At that price point, however, The Verge concedes “most people won’t buy anytime soon.”

Apple’s strategy is apparently to get developers who are blown away by Vision Pro’s extraordinary capabilities to use it to create content that can simultaneously issue in 2D, seeding the market with material that can be at the ready as the headset’s pricing eventually declines.

That could also be the approach to Apple’s reported plan to incentivize musical artists to record and mix in Dolby Atmos, which will no doubt play nicely on Vision Pro. Beginning in 2024, Apple plans to offer higher Apple Music royalty payments for tunes that use Atmos, according to an unconfirmed report on Bloomberg.

“Listeners wouldn’t necessarily have to play the Atmos version of a song for artists to benefit. It only matters that the song is offered in that format,” Bloomberg writes, adding that the new policy will also be in effect for remixes of older tracks.

Regarding spatial video, the new $1,000 and up iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphones use “both the main and ultrawide cameras when recording. This is then saved as a single file within a new album in the Photos app titled ‘Spatial,’” writes TechCrunch, noting the spatial videos (captured in 1080p at 30 fps) will “sync across devices with iCloud.”

Apple explains the capabilities of spatial recording and how to use it in a Newsroom post.