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iOS 14 is available today

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Re: iOS 14 is available today

#221
post #7

In 10 years, this is the first time I installed a beta version. It suffered a couple of issues, but they’ve been ironed out in my case. I really love the new app drawer. My hundred barely-used apps are now neatly stowed there while I keep a single (Yes, one) Home Screen. Widgets are nice but from what I understand they’re updated only once every 5 minutes, which makes them a lot less useful.

I've always arranged my homescreen to be a single screen with folders for each category of app. makes it much easier to find things. I'm always befuddled when I see ppl with 30 pages of apps.

My homescreen is my frequently used apps and then a few subsequent screens are basically like (the now mythical) travel that include a folder for less frequently used apps in the category.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#222
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pick a manufacturer that gives you timely updates with a support duration you're happy with, and you're fine. And before you complain "it's insane that I have to do that", you've already done that: just you picked Apple. The mistake people make is in thinking of Android as some monolithic, consistent thing. It's not, and can't and won't be. Buy a Google phone, or a Samsung phone, or whatever, and stick with a manufac…

Apple updates for 5 years. No Android manufacturer does that. Google offers 3 years and Samsung does 3 years on their high end flagships (which I don't personally like). Apple is simply on a whole different level in this regard.

When the specs are the same or better on a phone that is $400 less you can actually afford to buy a new Google every 3 years and still save money.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#223
post #215

I hope they start offering something similar to the Android call screening feature https://www.androidcentral.com/how-use-call-screen-feature-p... That has been such a huge quality of life upgrade.

Not quite, but they are finally making the Phone notification a standard notification, and not a giant screaming blocking full-screen YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION NOW modal view.

https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/22/ios-14-incoming-call-ui/

I always hated that. I hate phone calls, period, and I certainly don’t want that phone call to take over my entire phone.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#224
post #41

https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13/features/ new redirects to https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-14/features/ , which seems like an unnecessary hacky way to get your SEO up. Separately: is it just me or has Apple lost its innovative edge? Widgets and app drawer, that's the huge new update? Android has had these for, like, 5+ years. Not that android has had anything super exciting lately, either. Maybe phone OSes have kind o…

Serving a 301 redirect from an outdated page to a new one the way they are doing with the iOS 13 page is the exact way you're supposed to do it, and is part of Google's guidelines. It's not an SEO trick, it's how you get rid of old pages without creating a poor user experience.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#225
post #215

I hope they start offering something similar to the Android call screening feature https://www.androidcentral.com/how-use-call-screen-feature-p... That has been such a huge quality of life upgrade.

Not quite , but they are finally making the Phone notification a standard notification, and not a giant screaming blocking full-screen YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION NOW modal view. https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/22/ios-14-incoming-call-ui/ I always hated that. I hate phone calls, period, and I certainly don’t want that phone call to take over my entire phone.

I’ve already used this after I got a spam call minutes after installing iOS 14.

It’s fantastic. So much nicer.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#226
I've just tried out the spatial audio on my iPad with AirPods Pro, with one of the (many) free first episodes on Apple TV+...

...and it's stunning. Seriously. It's actually three separate features in one. First, all the audio is outside of you rather than stuck between your ears. Second, it's surround sound so that dialog actually comes from your iPad, while music comes from all around. And third, it tracks, so if you look left the dialog all comes from your right AirPod -- and it's positively disconcerting it's so real. I thought for a second all the sound was actually coming out of my iPad and, oh crap, I have to turn it down not to bother the neighbors! Before realizing... oh my god it's actually that realistic.

So not only does it blow me away technologically, but also that I got it as a free upgrade almost a year after buying the headphones! People love to criticize Apple, but man do they do some wonderful things for their customers.

Now I'm just so disappointed the feature is iOS-only, and not for Macs. I watch all my TV on a projector hooked up to my Mac, and man... if I had spatial audio while viewing that... I can't even imagine. It would beat any movie theater I've ever been to. (And sadly, iPad HDMI output is low-quality, as it heavily compresses the output.)

My understanding is they don't support Macs because they don't have accelerometers/gyroscopes so the AirPods wouldn't know what they were relative to spatially. But man, I'd be happy just for a button I could click that says "my head is looking directly at the screen now". Wouldn't that be enough? But there's no mention of it being in Big Sur, so oh well...

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#227

In 10 years, this is the first time I installed a beta version. It suffered a couple of issues, but they’ve been ironed out in my case. I really love the new app drawer. My hundred barely-used apps are now neatly stowed there while I keep a single (Yes, one) Home Screen. Widgets are nice but from what I understand they’re updated only once every 5 minutes, which makes them a lot less useful.

> I really love the new app drawer. My hundred barely-used apps are now neatly stowed there while I keep a single (Yes, one) Home Screen.

I hop between Android and iOS every few years and was quite excited for iOS to check this basic functionality box right as I came back. Shame they had to ruin it by forcing the absolutely nonsensical categories on you with no option for a plain alphabetical list.

Just give me the UI that shows up when you tap the app drawer search button, but as soon as I swipe to the drawer and without showing the keyboard. It's right there, the functionality I want is available, but as usual Apple screws it up for power users.

In fact: do regular users like searching their app drawer for a possibly relevant category and hoping it has what they want? It doesn't help that the available categories and their ordering change every few days and/or whenever you install a new app. And worse yet is that the same application can show up in 3-4 different categories crowding out the one app you're looking for that only exists in one.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#228
One of my favorite new features in iOS 14 is an accessibility setting that allows a double tap or triple tap on the back of the phone to trigger an action. You can set this up in Settings->Accessibility->Touch->Back Tap .

In general, I love how accessibility features on iOS are so useful even for the average person who wouldn’t be considered or classified as disabled.

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#229
post #46

XCode 12 is also out, taking up over 30GB of space apparently. For reference, XCode 11 was about 10.

APFS supports on-disk compression, and the Mac App Store uses that when installing Xcode, so it can be tricky to compare storage amounts.

Xcode 11: 10.3GB on disk / 17.1GB apparent

Xcode 12: 16.9GB on disk / 30.0GB apparent

Re: iOS 14 is available today

#230

I've just tried out the spatial audio on my iPad with AirPods Pro, with one of the (many) free first episodes on Apple TV+... ...and it's stunning . Seriously. It's actually three separate features in one. First, all the audio is outside of you rather than stuck between your ears. Second, it's surround sound so that dialog actually comes from your iPad, while music comes from all around. And third, it tracks, so if y…

I came here to say the same thing. Just watched a few Star Wars and Pixar scenes on Disney+ and I was shocked how well it worked. I thought it might be gimmicky, but it's a total game changer for watching movies at night with Airpods. Also very happy my iPhone can finally display PIP as well.
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