2021-09-24
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great little feature update. But it’s nothing huge either.
I’ve been on the iOS 15 beta since Public Beta 2, and while I’ve seen things get shuffled about, and some bugs fixed, I also have some gripes.
Perhaps the biggest, and yet smallest change in iOS 15 was Safari. In my opinion, all the address bar needed was navigation, the actual URL, and a share button.
But the people complained about it not having a reload button, so they added a reload button that fit in to the right of the URL bar. It sucked. My muscle memory broke. Never mind that you could reload with the new swipe down from the top gesture.
Eventually, Apple relented and built something very similar to the iOS 14 design, just with a navigation bar hovering above it. So now there’s a bunch of superfluous buttons, and the actual navigation bar (used for gestures) is harder to hit. Hmm.
Perhaps the best feature is extensions, which I’m only fully able to use now because Apple doesn’t let apps publish pre-releases for newer software.
This one got a lot of attention on stage, but I feel it’s still undercooked. Even on the “golden master” released a week before public release.
It’s still unclear how contacts will be permitted to send you messages, provided you allow them. Best I can tell, it’ll only do iMessage and phone calls. So you still need to whitelist the barrage of Telegram notifications.
“Smart” activation is pretty not-smart. Based on my experience, it’ll just turn on whatever focus modes it feels like, even if you have a Work profile with a fixed time window. Nope, you’re in Personal now. I turned it off within a week.
The ability to change home screens is a nice touch, though.
I’ll just quick-fire some more things:
Some new stuff is also still in the works, but unfortunately seems very US-centric:
Also, if a cop pulls you over, do you have to hand him your unlocked phone to prove you have a drivers’ license? Or does he need some fancy toy to validate your fancy toy drivers’ license? This just sounds like a recipe for disaster.
So that’s iOS 15. Some nice new features, especially in the pandemic times we’re living in. On the whole, kind of a wash.
I really don’t feel this one’s made it out of the “beta” phase yet. The other day I tried to add the Home app from Spotlight (something you can actually do now 🎉, requires two fingers) to my Work homescreen, and it removed it from my personal one. Wait until .1 or .2, is my advice.