Should I update right away? How much slower is this going to make my phone?
iOS 15 is out and the question always is should one update to it?
Are there going to be good changes? Is it actually usable? Does it look good?
Will it make my life easier? Am I going to get all the new features?
These are important questions to ask because in the past there have been updates that have been
not quite ready. iOS 8 and 13 stand out as updates that were released before they're
prime and full of bugs, and who can forget the jarring visual change that was iOS 7?
Remarkably, you don't even have to update to the latest version anymore.
Apple will still provide security updates to iOS 14 for the foreseeable future.
For those who do not like change, this is actually really great.
But for the rest of us who are open to change, is iOS 15 worth updating to?
No. And yes, starting with the iPhone, updating this to iOS 15 will probably be fine,
but I think the advice to hold off for a little while before updating still holds true here.
Some bugs need to be worked out and many app developers are still working on their updates,
but there's also the fact that a bunch of features shown back in June
aren't ready and will be coming later. Like SharePlay over FaceTime,
a feature that lets you in a group FaceTime call synchronize content you're viewing or listening
to so you can watch a TV show, listen to music, or even work out together, but not until later this
fall. And then there's Maps. You can now get future routes to plan for traffic, but the biggest
changes with more detailed 3D models and typography in map and navigation view is only available in
San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, which leads out the rest of us.
This means I can't demonstrate Apple's new AR-guided immersive walking directions,
perfect for unfamiliar cities. These fancy 3D maps along with a number of other features
also require that your device be sufficiently powerful with an A12 chip, which means iPhone 10S
slash R, iPad Air 3, and last year's 8th Gen iPad. If you've got one of those, iOS 15 offers a lot
more. Take Live Text, which you can use now. It's a feature that provides on-device live text
recognition from the camera or any images. It's pretty neat. Simply by aiming your camera at a
clump of text, it will notice words that are there and highlight them in a square. Then tap this
word recognition button and the text becomes highlightable. For printed stuff, it works pretty
well, but with my chicken scratch of handwriting, not so much. Still, it's pretty neat to be able to
scan a business card for an address when drafting an email and translating a piece of text on a road
sign when you're out in an unfamiliar city. Something you could do with Google Translate,
if you trust them. It's not just visual text recognition that the A12 affords, but auditory
as well. Yes, Siri is now processed locally. That means that Siri can understand what you're
saying when you don't have an internet connection. This is great for when you're deep into a road
trip far away from cell service, or if you've reached the limits of your data plan. And Siri
works great. The word recognition is just as good as before, and it's faster. But if you don't have
internet, functionality is limited. Siri, remind me to have a group FaceTime call in three minutes.
To do that, you'll need to be online.
I do have music saved on my phone. Play music. To do that, you'll need to be online.
Add to my notes. Siri is having trouble doing basic tasks that can easily be done on the phone
locally. To do that, you'll need to be online.
This isn't the first time the iPhone has processed voice commands locally.
The feature voice control was unveiled in 2009 on the iPhone 3GS,
and it continued to be available for those who turned Siri off. It was very basic in nature,
letting you start phone calls and music. Well, it would be nice if I could still do that.
Play music. To do that, you'll need to be online.
If you are online, Siri has become more contextually aware, letting you send things you're
looking at with the sound of your voice. Send this to Anthony.
A bunch of apps have been improved for iOS 15. The standout for me is the Weather app on iPhone.
It's much more informative now thanks in part to Apple's purchase of Dark Sky last year.
The high-low scale shows temperature trends for the week. But what I like most is the
MabView, which beautifully shows world temperature, precipitation, and air quality.
I found this quite handy during this year's smoky summer forest fires.
There may not be a ton of reasons to update to iOS 15, but there's certainly no harm if you do.
It'll be fine. But it's a bit of a different story on iPad.
Now back to the weather. Conspicuously absent from iPad is a weather app, despite this widget.
It's really informative, but when you click on it, it leads you to the Weather Network website.
Ew. Now if you are a keyboard user on iPad, keyboard options, word, prediction, shortcuts,
and dictation have been moved to this floating pill shape before they had their own space that
spanned the bottom of the screen. But now apps that don't consider this floating shelf might end
up having their lower controls covered. And some that have updated still have the gray bar, like
before. So you can move this thing out of the way, but the gray bar remains rendering this whole
interface endeavor useless. Also, I found the keyboard option floats over the send button when
I'm replying to Teams notifications. Get out of the way. But before you think that iOS 15 isn't
ready for the keyboard, it's worth knowing that there are more keyboard shortcuts that power users
can learn by holding down on their respective shortcut keys. And it's even searchable. That's
pretty great, even though keyboard shortcuts are one of those things that take forever to learn,
but make using a computer so much faster. Stylus-wielding iPad users might find quick notes
handy. Swipe in from the bottom of the screen and from there you can scribble or type a note.
And depending on the app you have opened underneath, you can add a link to that content.
They are organized in a quick notes section in the Notes app, but ultimately are saved in your
iCloud's notes list. Now, didn't I set a reminder for something right now? Oh yeah, FaceTime. Just
in time for COVID's fourth wave, Group FaceTime has some neat new functionality. When you're
scheduling a FaceTime call, you can now send links to people to join the call. This is great for
friends and family members who are sticking stubbornly with Windows and Android. Group
FaceTime also now supports spatial audio, which means that the voices of your callers should
sound like they're floating in front of you. I was expecting this to work with my AirPods,
but the spatial audio button is grayed out. It does work with the built-in speakers, though,
to a limited effect. However, more dramatic are the additional microphone filters. Voiced
isolation effectively drowns out environmental sound to a really dramatic degree. But if you do
want your listeners to hear the environmental sound, you can select wide spectrum, which enhances
everything going on around me. However, wide spectrum didn't seem to work with my AirPods,
though. And since we're in the weeds here, here are some other very specific new things I noticed
while using iOS 15 this week. Exif information is in the Photos app, finally. Safari supports
extensions now. Memories in the Photos app have been bolstered with music suggestions and easier
ways to edit. Any photos, websites, and content from Apple's media services that was shared with
you in messages will appear in those respective apps. And there's now a conversation mode in
Translate for traveling. If you're running an iPhone and find the new features that are available
today useful, I have no problem telling people to update. Now, if, however, you're a power user
on iPad who uses a keyboard, I think holding off a little bit until at least the next release
might help make sure apps are ready. Or just don't update at all. The choice is yours.
Thanks for upgrading to this Mac Address. If you haven't actually updated to iOS 15 yet,
give this a like. And if you have, why not subscribe. And for those who have, I'm curious
what iOS 15 features, because there's a lot of them you find really useful that I haven't mentioned yet.