Hands on IOS with 12
Every new feature tested in our massive preview
The main focus of IOS
12 is to offer a more efficient experience to all iphone and ipad users with Apple using the tag line ‘more power to you’ to highlight this. Eye-catching statistics offer a glimpse of what to expect with
70% faster swiping to the camera, a 50% faster keyboard display and app launching speeds under heavy loads doubled. These are tasks you undertake many times every day and even if they are not noticeable when you first upgrade, the speed improvements will come together over time to make everything feel a little bit smoother than before. Add to this the fact that IOS 12 will work with all devices that IOS 11 runs on, back to the ipad Air and iphone 5s, and it becomes clear that Apple is using IOS 12 to improve the user experience rather than bloating the system with a myriad of novelty features that you will rarely use. While it may not grab the headlines, if you use an IOS device you will understand that there are many advantages in the approach of stability and performance before features.
None of this is to say that IOS 12 lacks new features and it is likely that there is more to come in the next iphone release. The additions we see in IOS 12 are sensible and restrained, and in some cases will be ones that you use often. Measure is a very clever app that can measure objects using the iphone camera and AR and which has been designed to be obvious in use from the first time you use it. Updates to Facetime, Animojis and notifications build on the improvements with subtle tweaks elsewhere that fix minor annoyances from the past only adding to an improved experience all round. You may be surprised at what else has been changed, but we will offer a preview of what to expect in what is the latest incarnation of the best mobile operating system available today.
Super-smooth
When you first use IOS 12 there is a sense that something has changed in terms of how quick it feels, but it is barely noticeable because IOS 11 was also extremely quick. Something about the animations and app opening times will feel different and it is only when you use a device running
IOS 11 that you realise there is a definite bump in performance, and one which feels buttery smooth in almost every area. With the speed improvements more obvious in older devices, this release will feel hugely positive for most iphone and ipad users for this change alone. It is not about raw power and hardware specifications, but rather the clever use of programming to align the software and hardware in the most efficient way possible and the end result is one that leads the way for future devices to feel more like tools and less like computers.
Music reloaded
Apple has chosen to leave the look of Apple Music as it was before which makes
“Apple is using IOS 12 to improve the user experience rather than bloating the system with a myriad of novelty features that you will rarely use”
sense because millions are now so used to how it works that a major change could be jarring. Instead we now see the ability to search for songs using a portion of a song lyric, as short as three words, and it works so quickly that it is hard to believe it is possible. The ‘Now Playing’ widget on the lock screen is darker than before which makes it less glaring and there are also changes to the artists’ pages and featured radio stations. Like so much in IOS 12, you would be unlikely to know what has changed if you were not told, but the lyric searching in particular is very impressive and could come in handy time and time again.
Little fixes
Attention has been paid to the minor annoyances that we can tend to accept as normal over time and in IOS 12 a number of these pinch points have been removed. For example, when you open the app switcher you no longer need to hold the app panel and then tap the ‘X’ because you can simply swipe up instead. This little timesaver is much more convenient and will feel like a breath of fresh air every time you use it. The date has been added to the ipad status bar which has also received a minor redesign and the Control Centre has been removed from the app switcher.
The way you capture screenshots on an iphone X has also been tweaked to make it less likely that accidental snaps will be taken – this is something that any iphone X owner will be aware of and the change is one that will be noticed more over time. Failed Face ID captures also rescan differently which should mean more recognition accuracy than previously and password reuse auditing means that the system will try to prevent you from using the same password in multiple locations.
None of these little tweaks will grab headlines, but they highlight how Apple looks at IOS and the sheer number of employees looking to make changes in the smallest of areas to make the bigger picture run as it should.
Facetime boost
Facetime has long been a feature that is very much focused on personal communication between individuals and families, but in IOS 12 it has the potential
to be used for business and for many other kinds of group chats that would not have been considered before. A whopping 32 people can take part in a chat and when each one speaks their panel will automatically be brought to the front so that everyone else can pay attention. The ability to add new people during the call has been added, as has answering group Facetime calls from an Apple Watch or Homepod. Add to this the ability to start group calls from a group message conversation and a host of other new tools such as filters, text effects and ringless notifications and you start to see that the feature has been transformed to be more inclusive and flexible than ever. Facetime is one of those Apple features that has become embedded in popular culture and it’s great to see it finally get the development in deserves.
A new reality
Augmented Reality is seen as the future to many people, but Apple is doing all it can to make it the present and is offering more tools to developers to help them bring this exciting technology to the masses. The new USDZ file format is designed to act as a container to distribute AR experiences and without doubt the intention is to make it the default format in the future, just like
ZIP is for compressing multiple files. Face tracking will, obviously, track your face and can now detect whether you are sticking out your tongue which has been used to good effect in the Animoji feature. Objects are now recognised instantly and more importantly the orientation of your device to them has been vastly improved to offer the best possible AR experience. With scene reflection added to allow virtual objects to reflect the scene in front of you and AR Quick Look offering augmented reality experiences in apps like News, Safari and Mail you start to get a glimpse of where this is going.
AR is an unusual technology in that it is not front and centre for most people, but the tools that Apple is offering means that developers are able to create experiences, big and small, that will eventually form a large part of our fixed and mobile computing experiences.
More secure than ever
Apple is known for a continual adherence to customer privacy and security and this has been advanced further in IOS 12. Without trumpeting groundbreaking changes, subtle additions have been built in to close the circle of keeping your data private to you in every way possible, and with a focus on making it as convenient as possible. If security is too cumbersome people tend to not bother, but in IOS 12 these changes will feel automated and in many cases invisible so you have the best of both worlds. In Safari, comment widgets and share buttons will not be able to track you without your permission and advertisers cannot collect your unique identifiers which should prevent targeted adverts following you around the web. One-time passcodes through SMS will display as autofill suggestions to save time and you can now access passwords that are stored in third-party password apps, providing the developer has used the feature, from the Quicktype bar. It is also easier to share passwords with IOS devices that are near you and this rounds off a selection of changes that make IOS 12 the most secure version yet.
In IOS 12, your camera will take clearer pictures…
A better camera
The humble mobile camera has become the device used to capture more photos than any other. Billions of photos taken each day on iphones demonstrate their huge popularity and Apple is not slowing down in matching the camera software to the ever improving hardware. Portrait mode has been improved to work more consistently and more importantly to offer cleaner results that separate the background from the subject. Also, developers can use a new API to separate layers which offers the potential to create IOS apps that can do even more with your images – a simple change that offers the opportunity to do some serious image editing no matter where you are. The iphone, and ipad, camera will always be hugely important to Apple and its users, and it is pleasing to see the developments continue and in a way that maintains the incredible ease of use that is the hallmark of mobile Apple photography.
Get some sleep!
Do Not Disturb is another feature that millions of people use every day without
“Portrait mode has been improved to work more consistently and more importantly to offer cleaner results that separate the background from the subject”
consideration, but it performs a vital task which is to allow you to get rest without interruption. It works exactly as it should and now Apple has taken the idea of sleep a little further by offering a ‘Bedtime Mode’ that hides any notifications that have been received from the lock screen. It is far too easy to wake up in the middle of the night and quickly check the time on your iphone. This is fine, but you then see a few notifications and all of a sudden you are running down the rabbit hole of scrolling through them all and jumping from app to app which after only a few minutes will make it difficult to get back to sleep.
With Bedtime Mode you only see the time and in our testing it is already proving to work exactly as it should with just a quick check followed by more sleep which can only be a good thing. It is such a simple change, but one that can offer a considerable number of health benefits and don’t forget that you can use this in meetings or during other activities when you do not want to be distracted for too
“ibooks, now Apple Books, has a slicker store and a cleaner reading interface, rivalling the Kindle app”
long. You can also now set Do Not Disturb to end automatically when at a specific location or after a set period of time.
Books, Stocks, Memos and News
The more obvious changes you will see in IOS 12 come in some of the stock apps which have received redesigns that offer a visual refresh in vital areas. ibooks, now named Apple Books, has a slicker store and a cleaner reading interface that now easily rivals the Kindle app in terms of being able to sit back and enjoy a good book on the small screen. Apple News is
extremely popular, but not often spoken about, but we are very much enjoying the subtle refresh that it is has undergone in
IOS 12. Stocks and Voice Memos are now completely different experiences and as an added bonus, the latest IOS 12 wallpaper feels fresh on any iphone or ipad. Apple’s cautious approach to visual changes in
IOS 12 may be disappointing to some, but just maybe IOS is already using the best visual interface it can and so only minor improvements are needed. If it ain’t broke and it works brilliantly, why would you fix it?
And the rest
If we were to cover all of the changes in IOS 12, this magazine would be too heavy to carry, so here’s just a few more highlights… There is a new Awards tab in the Activity app that highlights your achievements in a more obvious way. This is vital for anyone looking to improve their fitness. There are more colour options available when marking up a screenshot or photo and you can also
change the thickness and opacity of the tools you are using in Markup. In Notes you can use 3D Touch to scan documents and a few areas have been tweaked and enhanced in the Home app to give you even more control over your living environment. Favicons now display in Safari tabs and there are some very useful enhancements in Carplay such as the ability to use Waze and Google Maps as well as much improved
performance. If you use an ipad there are updated gestures to improve the overall navigation on your device such as swiping anywhere on the Dock to go to the Home screen and a simple swipe from the topright to access the Control Centre.
Overall, IOS 12 is proving to be stable and extremely quick in our early tests. Apple has improved on what is quite possibly the best mobile platform in the
world and will continue to do so next year, and the next and so on. What appear to be subtle changes are in fact hard to accomplish in an operating system that is already natural to use, remarkably stable and an essential tool for millions of people around the world to get through their days. Changes should not be undertaken lightly and Apple’s considered approach has paid off in IOS 12.