At WWDC 2018,Apple took the wraps off the latest version of its iOS operating system. iOS 12 introduces quite a bit of changes — visually and under the hood — but there are still some basics that it doesn\u2019t address. Here are my five picks for what Apple should address either in iOS 12 before it\u2019s officially released, or maybe in iOS 13.<\/b>
\nDear Apple: Thanks for the Memojis and all. You created tools to let us stop wasting our time on our iPhones and then gave us an even sillier way to spend our time. But no matter: In general, the iPhone is a perfectly-crafted piece of hardware.
But that software? Mmmm\u2026 It\u2019s getting a little funky, my friends. Despite all the fanfare at Monday\u2019s WWDC event in San Jose where Apple announced iOS 12 \u2014 which promises to make your iPhone faster and less annoying \u2014 there\u2019s still a bunch of basic, obvious stuff that\u2019s wrong with the iPhone.
Here\u2019s my list of five glaring failures in the platform that iOS 12 won\u2019t do a darn thing about. Should I hold my breath for lucky 13?
Every morning, I get on the subway and try to log on to the public Wi-Fi system. Every day, it\u2019s a crapshoot. The Control Center makes it easy to turn Wi-Fi on and off, but that\u2019s really only half the battle, isn\u2019t it? I need to select a network and join it. Walk into a hotel and try to get on the network, and you\u2019ll have to unlock your phone, open the Settings app, invariably back out of whatever submenu you were in, scroll to the Wi-Fi section, wait for it to populate, and finally click to select a network.
What the hell.
Siri can detect that I order the same mocha Frappuccino every morning and proactively help me order one, but the iPhone can\u2019t let me quickly access the Wi-Fi menu?
And speaking of the Settings menu, why is it so miserably designed? Each individual app has a submenu within the Settings menu, but most also have settings built into the apps themselves, and in general those are far more useful. Still, features replicate. Take the Facebook app, for example. Want to hush Facebook notifications? You can do it either from the app\u2019s settings menu or the iPhone\u2019s main Settings app. Or from the Notifications subsection of Settings, which takes you to the same place as the app. Do they all do the same thing? Who knows?
The Settings menu is grouped into sections, but the groupings are just weird to my eyes. Gray bars separate subsections, but Apple doesn\u2019t name them \u2013 that would be too easy. The first big group is clearly \u201cNetworking,\u201d but beyond that it devolves quickly into \u201cstuff we connected for some unclear reason.\u201d Sure, Notifications and Control Center go together, I guess. \u201cControls.\u201d Under that is really common stuff? Toward the bottom is the third-party apps you\u2019ve installed, but some Apple apps are ghettoized there too. Like I said, weird.
Up late and bored a few nights ago, I grabbed my iPhone X to check the news. The insomniacs among us likely share a similar routine: In the Control Center, I turned the volume to zero. Then I clicked that little half moon icon: Don\u2019t disturb me, but far more important, don\u2019t disturb my wife, who\u2019s fast asleep. Then I flipped the little hardware switch on the left side of the phone, which sets the ringer to silent. Three different ways to turn off the volume. Three. Different. Ways.
Feeling safe, I popped open the browser and hit my favorite news site, and followed a link in a story. YouTube opened. A video started playing. Loudly.
I\u2026 I don\u2019t understand.
The 3D touch settings feature that Apple created adds really interesting functionality. Press and hold the camera button and you\u2019ll get the option to rearrange icons \u2013 and the same holds true for every icon on the home screen. Deep press the icon and you\u2019ll get a neat submenu with some common features. It\u2019s cool, but you\u2019d have no way to know it\u2019s there other than randomly trying.
The Control Center is a key issue here. If you were trying to find the mystery shortcut to Wi-Fi (which I\u2019m still convinced exists somewhere), you might consider deep pressing the Wi-Fi button. Do so and you\u2019ll stumble across a handy submenu with some extra features. That doesn\u2019t work on the Do Not Disturb icon, however. The Timer and Flashlight submenus actively make me want to use these features; the Alarm menu is nonexistent, despite how obviously useful it could be.
Apple: Give us a little icon to show when there\u2019s more down there. Please.
I know, I sound like a cranky old man when I complain about text messaging, but that\u2019s my whole point: Things that ought to be no brainers with the iPhone at this point have been over-engineered and over-designed to the point that the simple has become complex. Take iMessages. Say your ex sends you a boozy message or 18 at the crack of dawn \u2013 something really classy. To delete it, you can swipe left from the main screen, but this will delete the entire messaging history. Maybe you want to save one or two?
Click a message to enter, long press an individual message, find the \u201cmore\u201d menu at the bottom of the screen, and you can delete individual messages or all of them. Why not a Force Touch? Who knows? Why is it multiple steps like this? Who knows? Why is that person still texting you, anyway?
My point is, the basics should be obvious. How to make a phone call. How to turn the volume on and off. How to silence an annoying notification. And too often, iOS buries them through complications that have us jumping through hoops. I\u2019d love to see the simple things addressed, before Apple continues development on animated dancing icons.
I\u2019m holding my breath until iOS 13 comes out. I\u2019m looking forward to some notifications about it. If it can find them.<\/p>\n

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Similarity rank: 11<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0<\/div>\n

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