I really think we take the operating systems of these magical devices for granted. People get caught up in the new hardware even when it’s not all that new, so they can show it off at the bar that night.
Truth is the OS updates provide much more for the user experience than the hardware ever will. But it’s much harder to show that off.
So since I’ve been using iOS 11 for a few weeks now I thought I’d share some of my favorite and not so favorite features that you can expect as the OS releases publicly today.
Updated Control Center
This was a very welcomed update as now you can customize the items that fall within control center. This is really the first time Apple truly takes advance of 3D Touch in my opinion.
Screen Recording
If you’re like me and are constantly showing people how to use their devices, you can now record the actions you perform on your phone alone with in the moment voice over. This will be huge for people that want to show off their apps functionality. Long overdue update.
Screen Shots
You no longer need to save every single screen shot to your camera roll. You can edit them right after taking them send them off to a friend a number of different ways and just remove it as soon as you’re done. Android has had this function for years. About time Apple stole it.
Drag and Drop from App
This really only works with iPad using split screen but you can now drag a photo or text from safari and drop it right into iMessage.
The Dock (iPad)
Finally you can add more than 6 apps to the bottom of your iPad screen. Cleaning up your desktop. Because you know you have crap all over it.
Peer to Peer Apple Pay
This hasn’t released just yet and we expect it in a future release of iOS 11 but Apple is going up against apps like Venmo to dominate the Peer to Peer currency exchange. With Venmo being cross platform it’s going to be difficult to see how well this will work but one advantage is if you use Apple’s wallet and ApplePay technically you can use the money right away. Venmo is typically one business day to your checking account.
Dark Mode?
Not really… Apple’s attempt at a dark mode, buried in the accessibility features seems great for everything Apple related but any 3rd party apps like Facebook and Instagram just aren’t “Smart” enough. Yet.
File Management System
By far the most disruptive part of the Apple Ecosystem in years is their hybrid local/cloud based file management system. I have toyed around with this but not gone full boat yet. This means you’ll be able to sync many different types of files between macOS and iOS using iCloud. This is going to be a MAJOR change and rely heavily on how much iCloud storage you pay for each money. I’m just using 100Gb of my 200Gb per month plan but I know that would need a hefty upgrade once I start using this.
That sums it up. It’s been running pretty much bug free since the gold master version released so if you’ve got a newer device you should have a pretty seamless experience. Let me know what you love and hate about it.