Archive: Business & Technology

It is mandatory for companies like Apple to hype the features and benefits of their latest/greatest to create buzz and boost sales.  That's fair.  The truth is that most major iOS upgrades have improved an already good product, but haven't actually been as earth shaking as the hype would imply.  The hype builds up the product to be knocked down when reviewers who aren't swept away by all the excitement realize that the so-called life-changing big things are really not so big in the context of everyday use.  The knock-down is also artificial, since the product, pretty great before the upgrade, is still pretty great, but with new little pieces of greatness added.

iOS 11 launched Tuesday around 1pm Eastern Daylight time.  As it downloaded and installed I had two questions: would I still be able to do all the things I am used to doing?  What new features will make my everyday experience better?  In that order, because I still needed to use my phone, but didn't have much time before my next appointment to learn a whole new operating system.

First thing's first.  The iPad seems to have gotten more of the 'great little bits' than the iPhone this time around.  The dock has new functionality.  Multi tasking is still severely more limited than on computers, but drag and drop between apps has been added, a good start, at least.  From a daily functioning point of view, the Control Center has seen the most significant changes.  I have read that Apple wants the iPad to replace laptops, so they do seem to be concentrating on that platform with iOS 11.  I replaced my laptop with an iPad Mini years ago, and while I don't think it is there yet, I do think it will get there.


Apple has also made a first attempt to make the Control Center customization.  If you click 'Control Center > Customize Controls in the Settings app you are given a limited number of apps that may be added to or removed from your Control Center.  At this time only the build-in iOS apps are included, but it's a start.

After playing around with the new Control Center for a short while I was fairly certain that my work flow wouldn't be trashed because of trying to figure out how to accomplish common tasks.  Except for one thing -- where was Airplay?  The old triangle and rectangle was nowhere to be found.  Instead concentric circles bound the triangle, denoting 'Airplay 2'.  Honestly I don't know what the '2' is about, but from a functional standpoint it works the same once you know to look for the new icon.  I suppose the old icon was supposed to represent pushing something onto a computer screen, but you really had to think about it to figure that out.  The new icon immediately evokes pushing radio waves, which is, more or less, what Airplay does.  So I like the new icon better, now that I know there is a new icon.


Siri is still not entirely a voice assistant, but she seems less snarky and a little more helpful.Siri, Siri, Siri... how do I hate you?  I never bonded with Siri because I found the voice annoying, especially when it returned snarky replies to my admittedly provocative questions.  The new Siri is supposed to have a more natural sounding voice, and at first look it seems like she has toned down the snark as well.  I asked Siri how old she is, and she replied, "I feel like I was incepted yesterday."  I asked her a second time, and she said, "Well, I'm old enough to be your assistant."  Then I asked, "Why are you better than (Amazon's version of Siri) Alexa?"  She replied, "Well, I am older... so I've had more time to practice corny jokes."

Somehow the edge has been taken out of the new voice, which is recognizable as Siri without feeling like she is giving me a hard time.  After all, silly questions deserve silly answers, but not the kind of derision I felt she directed at me in previous versions.  It also seems to me that she is audibly answering questions more than she did.  She still puts answers and additional information on the screen, and in some cases she simply puts the answers on screen even if I ask her to say them out loud.  Then again, I asked "How do you get to Ithaca from here?" thinking that it might be the kind of thing I would ask while driving and not wanting to look at the screen.  She said she was looking up the route, opened the Apple maps app, loaded the route, then audibly gave me the first direction.  So it's not entirely assisting by voice, but it does seem like some critical things at least don't require you to take your eyes off the road.

Speaking of which, you can turn on a 'Do Not Disturb While Driving' feature if you don't want to be tempted by irresistible texts when you're in your car.  Seems like one of those good ideas a lot of people will ignore, but, hey - it's a good idea.

Another thing Siri can do is translate.  I tried it, and she both spoke and wrote the words I asked her to translate.  I can't tell you how good her accent is because I don't speak Mandarin.  I do love Mandarin food, though.  Maybe I should ask her to order for me next time I go to a Chinese restaurant?  If the food turns out to be good I might even start liking her!

One thing I already like is the ability to take a picture, edit it, and send it to another app or even save it on Dropbox or Box or whatever, and then choose whether or not to save it on your phone.  I loved that today as I took screen shots for this article.  I saved them to Dropbox then told the phone not to save them to the Photos app.  So I didn't have a bunch of phone screenshots that i don't want to look at on my phone, but I did have the illustrations I wanted for the article.  That feature is also going to be a big boon to people who have almost reached their storage limit, but love to take a lot of pictures.  It's a fast way to get them onto your computer as well.

One new item Apple s touting is Augmented Reality.  The screen shot they use shows a dinosaur on a shore road.  I like the idea, so I tried to buy the app they used from the new App Store.  It wouldn't let me buy the app, because it said it didn't support my iPhone 6.  No dinosaurs for me -- it's not worth buying a new phone just for that.  Oh well, my Action Movie app still works on iOS 11, so I can still make the star ship Enterprise swoop down my driveway, or a Star Wars droid attack a tree in the woods...


Yeah, that's not from iOS 11, but the app, from JJ Abrams, still works
on the new operating system, and it is still fun.
Why did I say it 'still works'?  Because apps that have not been upgraded from 32-bit to 64-bit aren't compatible with 11.  I had a great panorama app that I loved better than the built in capability in Apple's Camera app, but evidently the developer has abandoned it, so I either have to find another one or live with the Camera app version (which is fine.  It works well enough that I don't plan to buy another app.  I just really liked the old one).

The 'All New App Store' is just the App Store, organized differently.  So far, so good.  I very quickly browsed to the dinosaur app, even though I couldn't buy it.


The new QuickType keyboard is something that seems small at first, but turns out to be a huge improvement.  Most keys have a grey number or symbol.  Touch the key and you get the letter or symbol in dark black.  But swipe the key down and you get the gray number or symbol.  Typing is much faster than the old keyboard with the toggle between three versions of the keys.  This keyboard still does that, but for most typing you no longer need it.  I am only on my second day with iOS 11, but I can see how much faster typing will be once I get used to this.

Of course there is a big list of changes or new features, but let's face it -- we use what we use.  Apple is promising we can transfer money to a friend or family member using Apple Pay, but it's not enabled yet.  Another thing that is 'coming soon' is mall maps in Apple maps.  That could be handy, but I wonder if our community is biog enough that there will be a map of our mall, and I wonder how often they update them as stores come and go?

I don't think I will ever want to subscribe to Apple Music (or any subscription music service), but I continue to see in-your-face subscription come-ons on my phone.  It used to be that you could see other music by an artist you like in the store, but now it just tries to get you to sign up for Apple Music so you need to do your own store search.  I'm not really sure how AirPlay 2 is different from the original AirPlay besides the change in its icon, but it isn't going to change the way I use it as far as I can see (and I do use it a lot).

Apple pioneered the idea of free operating system upgrades, and it does make things simpler for them to make more sales of apps, music, books... you name it... so I think it must be worth giving it away for the company.  For me it feels like I am getting a present every time they do it (and by the way the new macOS 'High Sierra' comes out Monday), and who doesn't like presents?

The question is, don't we all like new toys better than a tie or a shirt?  For me this version is somewhere in between.  A lot of the improvements will begin showing up in new apps because new capabilities have been built into the operating system that third party developers can take advantage of.  That's when we'll see more toys.  But it's not all shirts.  The new keyboard and Control Center are very nice upgrades.

Should you upgrade your phone?  If your devices are compatible, I don't see why not.  Here I am, 28 hours after installing it, and I am still using my phone like I always did, and slowly adding new features to my repertoire.  No dinosaurs, but otherwise it's OK.

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