WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.340 It's that time of year when all your Apple devices get the notification. 00:00:04.340 --> 00:00:07.700 There's a new OS! 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:12.180 It is exciting because every year Apple adds handy features to their apps and services 00:00:12.180 --> 00:00:17.620 to make the devices more useful. And there are quite a few announced at WWDC this year. 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:22.500 But it is also scary because what if you're on the tail end of that OS support, running 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:26.820 the oldest and slowest devices? Will the update make them worse? 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:30.820 To find out, I downgraded. 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:37.700 Yes, I'm going to be switching to Apple's slowest supported devices, not the oldest. 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:42.020 So that means I'm using the Core i5-powered Mac Mini with only 8GB of memory, rather than 00:00:42.020 --> 00:00:46.380 a still quite powerful iMac Pro, which is getting the update and technically older. 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:53.140 I'm also switching to the 2020 i5 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM, the 7th generation iPad 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:58.580 and the iPhone XR. This should be interesting. 00:00:58.580 --> 00:01:03.340 Here's a list of all the new features that Apple is promoting in their new OS updates. 00:01:03.340 --> 00:01:06.900 The biggest one, of course, is their Apple Intelligence AI features. 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:10.900 They won't be available when these operating systems roll out, but that doesn't matter 00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:15.580 because Apple Intelligence won't work on any of these older devices anyway. 00:01:15.580 --> 00:01:20.420 Neither will any of these features, like live audio transcription in phone call recordings. 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:23.900 Then there are a few more announced features that are coming eventually but won't be 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:27.860 arriving at launch either, like mail categorization. 00:01:27.860 --> 00:01:33.900 And finally, there's the region lock features. There are still a lot of features left, but they really don't deserve equal billing. 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:39.180 Safari video picture in picture, so what? And so, I updated. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:45.140 Using the iPhone XR with iOS 18 Public Beta 5, after a few weeks with previous reversion 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:50.060 installed, I can't say that I noticed it worked any slower than before. 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:55.540 Every life still seems to be the same, too, which is bad because this iPhone is 6 years 00:01:55.540 --> 00:02:01.060 old now. As for new features, the most important, in my opinion, is RCS support. 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:05.540 Even if Apple spent so little time announcing this back in June, I almost missed it. 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:09.620 In case you're wondering, RCS stands for Rich Communications Standard, and it basically 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:16.340 brings green bubbles into the 21st century. So all of the features you're used to with blue bubbles, read receipts, typing indicators, 00:02:16.340 --> 00:02:20.460 reliable group chats, are available, except encryption. 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:24.820 You can see if a chat is in RCS in the typing box, though I kind of wish they made RCS have 00:02:24.820 --> 00:02:31.580 teal bubbles. It really is exciting, but I have one group of friends that all use Android phones. 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:35.220 RCS means we should finally be able to set up a reliable group chat. 00:02:35.220 --> 00:02:39.860 Yet, two of them don't have RCS working properly, which is surprising to me because I thought 00:02:39.860 --> 00:02:43.420 Google was advocating so hard for RCS adoption. 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:47.420 And even when everyone gets it set up, the experience is inconsistent in terms of what 00:02:47.420 --> 00:02:50.620 the iPhone user sees and what the Android user sees. 00:02:50.620 --> 00:02:54.780 RCS isn't the only thing Android users have that is finally coming to the iPhone. 00:02:54.780 --> 00:03:00.180 There's also T9 dialing, and the ability to not only place Apple icons anywhere on the 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:08.620 home screen, but recolor them as well. I don't mind the dark mode icons, but I really find the app icon tinting unacceptable. 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:13.740 Ugh. Hideous. So should you update your iPhone? 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:17.180 Yes. But I'll explain more a bit later. 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:22.780 Alright, now to the iPad. The slowest supporting iPad contains an A10 chip. 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:25.980 This chip is two generations older than the iPhone XR's. 00:03:25.980 --> 00:03:29.020 In fact, it's from the iPhone 7. 00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:35.420 Surprisingly, despite this, I found the iPad to be perhaps the least impacted by updating. 00:03:35.420 --> 00:03:40.260 Maybe I'm less demanding of my iPad than of the other devices, but I kind of find it 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:44.460 amusing that the oldest chip-wise is the most robust. 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:48.060 So no downsides. So what are the upsides of updating? 00:03:48.060 --> 00:03:53.860 A calculator app. I love how the basic calculator looks like those giant calculators you'd buy your parents 00:03:53.860 --> 00:04:03.460 as a gag gift. And this even gets math notes too, though I'm going to need some help to figure that out. 00:04:03.460 --> 00:04:11.740 You guys do math, right? Yes. So there's a new math feature on iPadOS where you can just write out math problems and calculate 00:04:11.740 --> 00:04:18.660 them. Just put in a formula, a problem you're working on, you just write it out. 00:04:18.660 --> 00:04:21.660 Unknown symbol. What's the unknown symbol? I don't know. 00:04:21.660 --> 00:04:24.740 Maybe my writing's too bad. Do I have to tell it to factor it? 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:32.900 No, but it did it right, though, right? Well, it tells me that's the equation, but I want it to factor it into... 00:04:32.900 --> 00:04:35.980 That is the symbol. It's getting it right. Why is it saying it's unknown? 00:04:35.980 --> 00:04:39.980 I don't know. I don't use Apple products. 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:43.980 Ty didn't come help me. Is that even graphable? 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:47.460 Yeah. Of course it is. 00:04:47.460 --> 00:04:53.060 It's probably... Wow! That's actually pretty cool. 00:04:53.060 --> 00:05:01.820 Would this be useful? I mean, look, it's cool, but I would never use this. 00:05:01.820 --> 00:05:05.100 No way. I would never use this. Well, thank you. 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:08.260 Sorry. Thanks for the adventure. 00:05:08.260 --> 00:05:13.580 Thank you for helping. 00:05:13.580 --> 00:05:16.780 Without the new fancy chips to power the new fancy features, there's not a lot more to 00:05:16.780 --> 00:05:22.580 report about on the iPad. It gets a lot of the same buffs the iPhone gets, like a more informative and better-organized 00:05:22.580 --> 00:05:25.780 settings app. But how about a real computer? 00:05:25.780 --> 00:05:30.940 The slowest MacBook that will get macOS Sequoia is this 2020 MacBook Air that was released 00:05:30.940 --> 00:05:36.180 a mere 8 months before the Apple Silicon transition to M1. 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:39.660 If you bought one of these, I am truly sorry. 00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:44.660 The space gray Intel Mac mini has had a bit more longevity, but let me tell you, even 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:49.260 on the current OS Sonoma, these devices are showing their age. 00:05:49.260 --> 00:05:52.340 They get warm enough to keep me comfortable in the winter. 00:05:52.340 --> 00:05:56.820 And this Mac mini cannot even play back the aerial wallpaper without stuttering because 00:05:56.820 --> 00:06:00.980 the Intel graphics are at 100% utilization. 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:04.300 There is less to report when it comes to updating macOS this time around. 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:10.180 The two big additions are Windows style, Windows management, and iPhone mirroring. 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:14.420 Dragging your window to the top or side corners of the screen to get it to fit within a predetermined 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:18.020 area is great and was someone's idea for Windows 7. 00:06:18.020 --> 00:06:21.500 And 15 years later, it's finally on the Mac. 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:27.060 It works just as you'd expect it would. Dragging to the top fills the screen, to the side splits the screen, and to the corner 00:06:27.060 --> 00:06:31.900 quarters the window. Holding the option key will get you to those things more quickly, and holding the window 00:06:31.900 --> 00:06:36.580 on the edge will move you to the next desktop, which can be a bit annoying if you're slow 00:06:36.580 --> 00:06:41.180 like me. I also don't know how to feel about the margin it creates between the Windows. 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:45.460 Feels like a waste of space. iPhone mirroring is very useful though. 00:06:45.460 --> 00:06:49.460 It basically turns your iPhone into a Mac app no matter where it is in a house. 00:06:49.460 --> 00:06:53.500 It's pretty neat to be able to control your iPhone with a mouse, clicking and scrolling. 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:56.820 So you'll need a trackpad if you want to pinch to zoom. 00:06:56.820 --> 00:06:59.860 Notifications for your iPhone appear like other Mac ones too. 00:06:59.860 --> 00:07:03.660 I got a signal notification and thought for a second that I installed the app on my Mac, 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:10.420 but nope, iPhone mirroring booted up. Apple is pretty good at making sure you get notifications on the devices that you're using. 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:15.420 So even though I have teams on both my Mac and iPhone, so far every time I've received 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:20.180 the team's notification, it's opened on my Mac app instead of the iPhone mirroring. 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:25.660 Great. Which is merciful too because it does take a while to reconnect if the connection has 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:31.500 dropped. There are other oddities. It floats on your desktop as a full screen feed, but if you want to move it, you'll have 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:35.100 to move your mouse above it and wait for the border to appear. 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:40.740 It's also not resizable, which is annoying because text is a little small. 00:07:40.740 --> 00:07:46.780 These Macs are the most negatively impacted by the update. I mean, they were slow before, but now, ugh. 00:07:46.780 --> 00:07:49.940 For example, when I'm going between a lot of tabs on the Mac Mini, the computer just 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:55.940 can't manage all of it in memory. Everything just stutters and it really feels like I'm trying to run through water. 00:07:55.940 --> 00:07:59.340 Because this MacBook Air has 16GB of memory, it's not as annoying. 00:07:59.340 --> 00:08:04.220 If you have the Mac Mini with only 8GB, I recommend spending the 50-ish dollars to upgrade 00:08:04.220 --> 00:08:09.700 it because you actually can. I'm curious how much longer Intel Macs will be supported. 00:08:09.700 --> 00:08:14.460 Power PC support was removed with the release of Snow Leopard, four years after the Intel 00:08:14.460 --> 00:08:19.260 transition started. So it's nice that Apple is giving these Macs some extra legs. 00:08:19.260 --> 00:08:22.540 So overall, do I recommend updating? 00:08:22.540 --> 00:08:28.060 Yes. Even with these hardware limitations, Apple is providing the most useful features for 00:08:28.060 --> 00:08:32.540 us all. With RCS support and iPhone mirroring, the integration between these devices is tighter 00:08:32.540 --> 00:08:37.420 and more convenient. But let me tell you, if there's anything I've learned from this exercise is that 00:08:37.420 --> 00:08:40.860 downgrading devices is not fun at all. 00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:46.580 So when the time comes to upgrade to new hardware, you most definitely will feel a difference. 00:08:46.580 --> 00:08:52.740 I can't wait to go back to my old setup. Thanks for letting this Mac Address last for so long. 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:57.140 I'm curious in the comments below what the oldest Apple device you have that supports 00:08:57.140 --> 00:09:01.220 this year's operating system is and how you feel about updating it. 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:05.140 And if you want to watch another video we did, check out the one where I gave a Mac 00:09:05.140 --> 00:09:10.380 studio to a fashion designer to see how well it works with their 3D rendering software.