One of the things I look forward to each summer is upgrading my iOS devices to each of the developer beta drops. It is always an exciting time, usually with lots of bugs and problems. For some reason this summer was different. The upgrades were simple, they didn’t cause a lofty of problems, and not once did I lose all my passwords and configurations.
As we look at the devices which were just announced, we learn the new features that were right in front of us during the beta, but we could not see. I enjoy seeing this, as it comes as the “one more thing” that you didn’t see all summer during testing the beta. This Wednesday there were a few interesting one more things, 2 for iOS and 1 for Watch OS3.
The first “one more thing” is the update to the camera on the new iPhone 7 Plus. I specifically call out the iPhone 7 Plus since it allows the new zoom feature enabled by the 2nd camera lens. The software feature in iOS10 that I am looking forward to is depth of field in portrait mode. I don’t take a lot of portraits, and while I will do a new selfie every so often, I am not a bit fan of selfies. But I am looking forward to testing this feature out. More so for close ups of inanimate objects. Expect at least one review of this feature when my new iPhone arrives.
The second “one more thing” is attached to yet another non-surprise, the loss of the headphone jack. The software feature that looks really amazing is how much easier Apple has made pairing the Airpods with you iPhone and Apple Watch. While I will probably not go for Apple’s new Airpods, since the shape of them doesn’t fit well with my ears, I do hope that Apple opens up this feature for third party headphones.
The third “one more thing” is the swim mode of the Apple Watch series 2. I have really enjoyed the updates to WatchOS3 this summer, the spead increase by keeping certain apps in the dock has made a huge difference to the usefulness of the Apple Watch. I’ve also noticed that the battery usage has not been adversely impacted by this feature. I have been using the three rings and the workout app this summer, a lot. But when I do my swim workouts on the weekends, I’ve had to swap out to Garmin Swim watch. The Garmin doesn’t integrate with the activity rings on the Apple Watch. So I am so happy to see this update both in hardware and software. Now I just need wireless earbuds that work with the Apple Watch Series 2, so that I can not only capture my workout, but also catch up on podcasts while I swim too!
Stay tuned for updates after I play with the new hardware and these new software updates! I can’t wait.