Well, Apple just flipped the switch and is now pushing their latest mobile OS to users. "Big whoop Scyne," you say from your green bubbled, highly customizable powerhouse android device, "how does that affect me?" Well, frendo, Apple is debuting a few new ways of doing everyday tasks and for the first time in a long time is making mobile computing magical again. The thing is when a company comes out with a cool new feature it usually flows to the other platform. It's always been my stance that one system is not better than the other, just different, but today Apple is really trying to prove its case. Here's some of their new new:
Finally a Haptic Keyboard
For as long as the iPhone has existed, the iOS keyboard has remained an unyielding alphabet stuck to a glass screen. The late Steve Jobs famously stated that the now standard design of an all-screen device with no physical keyboard allows for infinite interface options. While that is true, we are creatures of habit and when you push a button, part of that is the tactile feedback. In my opinion, I think it's why I see more typos on iOS devices. That lack of feedback has always made the keyboard feel flat. You'd think this would have come sooner seeing as they are the company that invented the non-mechanical, all-glass trackpad for their MacBooks, but better late than never.
Lock Screen Widgets
Pretty much just straight lifting the complications that they have built for the Apple Watch, iOS 16 gives you the ability to add widgets to The lock screen. Nothing new for an Android user but the widgets are super flexible and can even blend into the image you set for your lock screen. Through the use of their focus mode feature, you can create pages of different lock screens giving you the ability to quickly change your little pocket dashboard's layout and recall it as needed.
A Way Out
While I have never personally experienced abuse in a relationship I know people that have been hurt by the ones they trusted and loved. People in such situations are a lot of times stuck, their channels of communication closely monitored and controlled by their abuser, making it feel impossible to get help. iOS 16 new "Safety Check" can be helpful to users whose personal safety is at risk from domestic or intimate partner violence by quickly removing all access they’ve granted to others. It includes an emergency reset that helps users easily sign out of iCloud on all their other devices, reset privacy permissions, and limit messaging to just the device in their hand. It also helps users understand and manage which people and apps they’ve given access to.
Apple Will Now Finance Your Toaster
When apple came out with the Apple Card everyone laughed, including me... but then I got one. There's something kind of refreshing about a credit card that tries to be as open as it can be with fees. If you are in the Apple Ecosystem your money being tied to your account is the ultimate way to keep you locked in, but it's so goddamn convenient I had to bite. Apple's going a step further now with "Apple Pay Later," which lets you spread a purchase out over the course of 4 regular installments with 0 fees and 0 interest, pretty much undercutting every "Buy-now, Pay-later" app out there. This is ecosystem lock-in at its finest but man, if you have the credit for it, Tim Cook will help you make the best hard bread money can buy.
And More...
That's only a handful of the features in the new update, not to forget that they have just announced new phones, including some that for the first time ever (even counting Android devices) have an always-on display that is actually always on and not just a few pixels. It might not be worth switching but either way you look at it, Apple finally decided to try that whole "innovation" thing again.
