Category: iOS

about those new iphone 12s

whbeebe

The virtual roadshow introduction of the newest iPhones has come and gone and the pixel dust has finally settled. I’ve decided to give the 12 a pass. I currently have an 11 Pro Max. It has one critical feature I am loath to give up: it doesn’t have 5G support. I’m quite happy not to have a handset with 5G radios that will suck up extra power out of the battery and extra cash out of my wallet. I don’t believe a single word that any of the major providers are saying about their 5G networks. The radios are in place in their networks to be sure, but there’s nothing of significance demanding I drop more money on 5G. I’m more than satisfied with 4G and WiFi, and I don’t see that changing for some number of years to come.

One feature that might be of interest to me is the LIDAR sensor in the camera cluster on the back of the iPhone. It showed up in the last iPad that was also released with Apple’s A14 processor. That’s supposed to provide a “better” Augmented Reality, or AR, experience. But of course, my iPhone was supposed to provide a wonderful AR experience when it was released. Problem was I quickly ran through the AR example apps, and found them all to be gimicky at best, a solution in pursuit of a problem. Sorta like VR…

I’m also not crazy with Apple’s high-handed handling of the App Store, not just here in the US, but around the world. I know I’m the guy who just dropped six grand on a new 16″ MacBook Pro, but that was for a project I’m currently supporting. The Mac’s a far more open platform than the iPhone that will run any tool I can currently imagine. I can do creative work on my MacBook that I can only dream of doing on either the iPhone or the iPad.

The final straw for me was the multiple emails I got from Apple to pre-register so that I could pre-order the iPhone 12. Nope. Nada. They just really annoyed the crap out of me. Even if I wanted to buy a 12, I’m not one to rush out that quickly on something that new. The notable exception to that rule was the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and that’s because I recognized it was the end of a product cycle, the last of the 4G phones, and the one I had has a huge battery that can get me through multiple days on a single charge, especially now that I’m retired. And I haven’t been all that enamored with iOS of late. If you’re curious you can read about my discontent in earlier posts. No, I’m sitting this one out, happy to have what I have, and let the others dive headlong into Apple’s latest iPhone tech. I’m sitting back and watching for the time being.

ios 14 — the today view, a.k.a. the “widget screen”

whbeebe

Two posts back I wrote about adding speed dialing back to the “widget screen.” I knew that Apple probably had a formal name for it, but I’d never learned what it was. It turned out that I had a digital “manual” in my Apple Books app about iOS 13. Thumbing through the book I found the page (which you can see above).

I bring this up in part to correct my terminology, in part to point out that it may be going away in the future. How soon, with what version of iOS, I couldn’t say. But with the ability to place widgets on any screen on the iPhone, there is no longer any need for a specific “widget screen.” Which is going to be problematic for me as I noted earlier I don’t like the wasted screen real estate on Apple widgets, especially the speed dial widgets via Shortcuts.

I can do one of two things; either give up on the notion of speed dial widgets, or else go look for a third-party widget product that does a better job of gathering the speed dial widgets together (i.e. reduce screen real estate wastage). I’ll try the second option first and look for something in the app store that might do a better job. Otherwise, I’ll give up that feature. Like I had to give up the 3.5mm headphone jack with the iPhone 7…