iOS 10 Beta Reactions: Photos Memories, New Unlocking Method, Sleep Analysis, and More

[jetho]

What's the point of faster TouchID, if you first have to press the home button to wake the screen (or raise the phone with iOS10) and then press it again to unlock the phone with your fingerprint? I get that Apple's intention is to enable users to make use of the enriched lock screen and make sure no one accidentally bypasses the lock screen with fast TouchID, but it still doesn't make sense to me.
With iOS10 you have several possibilities to wake your phone without unlocking it:

• press the power button (kind of the only use for it besides turning the device on/off)
• press the home button with an unregistered finger (or your fingernail)
• raise to wake !?

I really hope Apple changes this in upcoming betas or reverts back to the old behavior.

Also, while I like the idea of widgets on the lock screen, what if I don't want strangers to have the possibility to view certain information in those widgets? I get that you can just deactivate the whole widget, but an option to differentiate between widgets displayed while locked and unlocked would be best. Or is this already implemented?

 

[baryon]

• press the power button (kind of the only use for it besides turning the device on/off)

• press the home button with an unregistered finger (or your fingernail)

• raise to wake !?

Yeah there are so many ways to show the lock screen without unlocking the phone.

Also maybe this could also work, if Apple implemented it:

- Touch the TouchID to just show the lock screen and the time, without unlocking the phone
- Press the TouchID to instantly unlock the phone in one step.

Wouldn't that be a better way to do this? I mean in addition to "raise to wake", not instead of it.

That way you don't have to raise the phone, if it's say, already on a desk and you don't want to move it, just check the time.

 

[tennisproha]

And for my totally scientific reaction, I think the features are mostly a great welcome. However the design changes are very un-iOS. Lots of big and bold that has no business being big and bold.

Finally, a couple critiques of the lock screen. Change press to unlock to tap to unlock. no press is needed. Bring back camera icon.

 

[Cuchulainn]

Presumably the Photos Memory feature will work with iCloud Library and not just locally stored photos?

 

[Gudi]

And for my totally scientific reaction, I think the features are mostly a great welcome. However the design changes are very un-iOS. Lots of big and bold that has no business being big and bold.

Scroll up! What do you see?

The title of this forum is very big and bold, because it's the most important thing to read on this page. The same is true for the body of a notification and the name of the current playing song. This stuff grabs your attention on purpose. Why did you even open the music app, if you don't care what's on!

 

[poppy10]

As for GPS, no, we don't need a replacement as I fear it will just be charged for, GPS is kinda free, not sure how it works but I imagine tax's in some way pay for all those satellites up there? But if there was a free GPS alternative then yeah fine.

There's already the Russian alternative to GPS, GLONASS, which is supported by iPhone since the 4S

 

[GamerBoredom]

No joke, this caught me by surprise when I parked yesterday. A very welcomed surprise.

 

[Type4O]

The notification with the font looks like the UI from TV shows so the camera can read the phone screens.

LOL, when I see that on TV on an iPhone I think Apple must be cringing. Apparently not.
[doublepost=1465994158][/doublepost]Part of the beta process I like is seeing the refinements and tweaks as we get closer to release time. Although I intensely dislike the look of the notifications, and I'm not too keen on the in-your-face fonts, I'm staying optimistic that I'll look a whole lot nicer come September.

 

[ftaok]

Colour me old-fashioned, but I use my memory to remember where I parked my car. However, I appreciate that Apple is providing assistance to those who have memory issues or who lack spatial awareness.

Yeah, I know. Also, why do we need a Contacts app? I mean, I use my memory to remember everyone's name, phone number, email address, real address, children's names, birthdates and everything else.

And while I'm at it, why do we need a Calendar app? Why can't people use their memory, like me, to remember all of their appointments. And if you need to know what your spouse and children are up to, why not just ask them and it'll be in your memory too? Sheesh, all this technology is making society lazy and forgetful.

</joke>

 

[BlankStar]

Assuming the 'Parked Car' feature uses GPS, how exactly is that going to work in 90% of multi story concrete and steel car parks? I'm confused about this one?

When the GPS has bad reception you'll get a notification if you want to save your car's location. Maps will open en you can slide the map around to get the "car-pin" on the correct location.

When the GPS has good reception, the location will be saved automatically.

Used it 5 times since yesterday and works like a charm so far.

And as mentioned: you can add a picture and some personal notes. "2nd floor, spot 211" for example is a nice note when in a concrete/steel car park ;-)

 

[MacBergin]

As someone who at one time loved the iPhone, I honestly have to ask how you people have not jumped ship yet? Once I switched to Android around 4 years ago, I never looked back. The iPhone is a complete and utter joke. iOS is an abomination. And even the hardware is lacking waaaaay behind. How is it 2016 and the iPhone still has no IR blaster!?!?

HAHA that's the best you could come up with??? IR Blaster...oh let me jump to Android so I can sit on my ass and control my cable box from my phone...hahahaha I left Android because it was buggy and the phones don't last. Glad I did because it sounds like in your world the universal remote is high technology.
[doublepost=1465997358][/doublepost]

The new font size is my favorite feature thus far.

Agreed
[doublepost=1465998325][/doublepost]

Winding up zealots be like

(I actually like both, shockingly. This year's updates were definitely a lot of "we've done what Google did" though)

HAHA we'll let you have your fun trolling...i mean you are an android user so we have to feel sorry for you.
Once in a while Apple adds a feature that Android already has like notify you where you parked your car. It's sooo much bigger than say copying the entire iphone itself.

 

[Zirel]

All those features will not help you find your car without GPS.

Yes, they will. If you don't understand inertial navigation, well, it's a shame.

 

[djlythium]

I pretty much agree with all of these.

The bumped up fonts on Apple Music seem like they were made by someone who really dislikes iPhones and wants to design their own OS.

Word. I feel like Apple is experimenting with a new design language, and testing user reactions, because Music is the only place we see this change. It seems out of place, and disunifies the OS.

 

[macduke]

At first I thought press to home was a thing to save battery life, but for the life of me I can't figure out how:

• Lift to wake, screen is already on, just like if you hit the sleep/wake button or quickly tap home
• Navigate widgets, control center, etc, just like before
• In both methods, the metal detection ring should be turned on, looking for a finger

The only thing I can figure is if lift to wake accidentally comes on in your pocket, it would activate the Touch ID ring looking for a finger—BUT there's no chance of your leg accidentally unlocking your iPhone since it's not a finger, and I doubt that ring drains much power compared to the display. And lift to wake shouldn't ever come on accidentally in a pocket because of the proximity sensor. So what's the deal here?

Well, it's simple: They don't want people to forget how to press to unlock when a future iPhone doesn't have a home button. Allow me to explain: Say the iPhone 8 has no home button, but TouchID is integrated into the display. How would you prevent yourself from accidentally unlocking your iPhone? You would 3D Touch on the lock icon (perhaps home circle) at the bottom of the display. Raise to wake is definitely a move towards having a device with no sleep/wake button or home button.

Furthermore, if they wanted to provide a way to reset the device with a physical button in the case that it gets stuck, they could put a pin or something in the bottom of the lightning port and you could use a paperclip or something to reset it, just like you can to swap a sim card. It's not something you're likely to need to do, so they can abstract it away. And of course, you can always reboot your phone, when it's responsive, using a software method. This would be over 99% of the time. I consider myself a somewhat higher-end user and have been known to push my devices to their limit and can only think of a few times an iOS device has just completely locked up, and I'm pretty sure most of those were during beta trials.

As for the memories app, I'm really looking forward to using that as I have a young, soon to be expanding family. I'm really glad that it integrates with the Apple TV so we can easily enjoy our memories. Right now it's a chore to put something together, so even if this isn't perfect it's better than nothing! I'm often bad about not recording as much video (although 4K is killing my space right now, lol, can I get a quick 4K toggle in the camera app Apple, maybe even with 3D Touch?), but I'll try to record more when out the the kids. I'm also looking forward to this smart searching capability as I have a huge camera roll dating back to at least 2009 (even though I'm a day one iPhone user), and that makes it really difficult to find the photo I want as I often can't even remember what year a specific thing happened. Yeah, I'm getting older.

I think the typography size looks ok to my design-trained eyes. It establishes a clear hierarchy. I'll have to see it on my device to tell if it's perhaps too big, but just from the looks of it, they could definitely bump it down a few points and still be effective.

It's disappointing that sleep analysis isn't as smart as it sounds. Perhaps they should set expectations differently by renaming that section, or maybe they're going to improve that section and integrate with the Apple Watch? But IDK anyone who wears their Apple Watch to bed. Mine is usually 30-40% at night—so decent—but if I wore it all night it would likely be about done by morning. Perhaps the new Apple Watch has fast charge? Though I doubt that's possible with induction. If it's a lot thinner and more power efficient, it could have a smaller battery which would charge faster. But still, I doubt my Watch is going to charge during the 30 minutes I get ready in the morning anytime soon.

My other thought is that perhaps they could expand this sleep analysis functionality during the beta, but for now it just has a manual placeholder. It would be nice to have a setting to set my bedtime automatically by counting a configurable time, say 15 minutes beyond when I take off my Apple Watch beyond another configurable time, such as 9pm. I recognize that not everyone wears it all day or every day, but for those of us who do it would be convenient. Think of it like the "mark my car" maps feature. When you disconnect your BT from your car it marks the spot. Same with disconnecting your watch from your wrist in the evening. I also hope this bedtime alarm allows me to set multiple alarms—otherwise I'll just keep using the same thing. I'm looking forward to the bedtime alarm—I've actually thought about setting one before. I have trouble going to bed at a consistent time, so multiple alarms would be nice if it detects I'm still on my iPhone or iPad like I often am in the evening, or haven't taken my watch off yet. I wish it could lock me out of certain apps after a certain point in the evening, such as YouTube, Reddit or Tweetbot that I have a hard time putting down. But knowing me I'd just go seek out the web version, or go on here.

--

I wish I could be quoted on here too someday. My biggest problem is that I write too much, so it's not very quotable. I mean just look at that mass of text above. It's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous!

 

[patrickrochon]

The new and updated features included in iOS 10 are plentiful, and Apple users and developers have already begun to voice their opinions of a number of them online. Many testers have come away impressed by new, personalized additions to old apps like Photos, the new raise-to-wake feature, and subtle but useful additions to Maps, which can now remember where you parked your car.

Of course, where there are positives, there are negatives as well, so we've gathered up user reactions on a few of the new features of iOS 10 and attempted to bring in variety of opinions on each where possible while gauging overall sentiment from early users.

Parked Car Notifications

Reaction: Largely Positive

A new feature in iOS this year will allow Apple Maps to remember where users park their cars, which should be helpful when parking in large structures and garages. One iOS 10 beta tester noted the feature popping up at their home (which should eventually be prevented once a home address is entered) with a notification on the iPhone's lock screen.

Once in the Maps app, a small Parked Car icon appears where you left your car, and a separate sheet can be filled out to add details like a photo of the car's location and even a text note to jot down a description of the area or level of the parking garage you were in. Some users call the new parked car notifications a "catch-up feature," since Android and apps like Waze have offered similar functions for the past few years, but otherwise the reaction is an encouragingly bright one.


Click here to read rest of article...

Article Link: iOS 10 Beta Reactions: Photos Memories, New Unlocking Method, Sleep Analysis, and More

[doublepost=1466002731][/doublepost]bedtime tab is obviously for upcoming Apple Watch 2 sleep tracking feature...

 

[dsgrimace]

Colour me old-fashioned, but I use my memory to remember where I parked my car.

Unfortunately, I run too many apps concurrently and my model doesn't have the ability for user-upgradeable memory
So, anything that helps offload some of the more memory intensive processes helps!

dsgrimace

 

[manhattanboy]

The parked car location has been done by Google for more than a year already. Its not really that useful as I still have a few brain cells that work, but maybe in the future....

 

[convergent]

Anyone know if the Parked Car capability is smart enough to trigger when you disconnect the phone from a CarPlay head unit? Otherwise, how does it know you've parked your car?

 

[rhonin]

I agree, I don't think taking a photo or using notes is a solution as mentioned? But we will need to wait for people to test this feature out.

As for GPS, no, we don't need a replacement as I fear it will just be charged for, GPS is kinda free, not sure how it works but I imagine tax's in some way pay for all those satellites up there? But if there was a free GPS alternative then yeah fine.

Actually I use pics all the time. Here in SoCal parking towers and undergrounds are generally well labeled. Something to do with concrete, rebar, and no sky lime of site.
Take a photo and your good. GPS seldom works in these.
[doublepost=1466006975][/doublepost]

The whole raising your phone to turn on the screen and press home to unlock thing sort of seems like the home button will be gone in the future. So scenario for a future iPhone would be pick up, the screen is on, swipe around if you wanted quick access to widgets or camera but firm 3D Touch on the lock screen for built in the screen Touch ID. But I don't understand why we'd need to be clicking the home button in the current set up. Just raise phone, place finger on Touch ID and it should open. Making us click seems odd. Idk. I don't have the beta or a 6s but it still sounds like an odd process.

Curious how that will work. Does that mean it will turn on in a pocket? a backpack? a ...
For the turn on it should. Look at the sensor on the Nexus 6P. Touch and on.

 

[MH01]

Yes, they will. If you don't understand inertial navigation, well, it's a shame.

Lol , are you saying an iPhone has INS??

 

[Kaibelf]

Colour me old-fashioned, but I use my memory to remember where I parked my car. However, I appreciate that Apple is providing assistance to those who have memory issues or who lack spatial awareness.

Thanks for your condescension, so I'll add some of my own. It's amazing that you remember where you park your car all the time, but for those of us who travel and park in places like long term airport lots for business, this is useful, as well as for people who work in the field for something like multi-location consulting firms or client services of virtually any type. Congratulations on your superiority and cozy cubicle, though.

 

[ericdain]

This may be a bit off topic, but has anyone else had an issue taking a screenshot in iOS 10 beta 1? The normal method of pressing the Sleep button and the Home button at the same time brings me to the "slide to power off screen".

 

[ssong]

I pretty much agree with all of these.

The bumped up fonts on Apple Music seem like they were made by someone who really dislikes iPhones and wants to design their own OS.

Probably in part due to the Apple Music team being headed by a former beats music exec, and if I remember correctly, beats app looked a bit like an updated Zune OS app so go figure.. :/ and I think the same said exec giving the cringe worthy demo during WWDC is fairly self explanatory.

 

[apolloa]

When the GPS has bad reception you'll get a notification if you want to save your car's location. Maps will open en you can slide the map around to get the "car-pin" on the correct location.

When the GPS has good reception, the location will be saved automatically.

Used it 5 times since yesterday and works like a charm so far.

And as mentioned: you can add a picture and some personal notes. "2nd floor, spot 211" for example is a nice note when in a concrete/steel car park ;-)

Thanks for explaining that it certainly sounds a lot more useful then I first thought.

 

[dysamoria]

How does the "raise to activate" feature avoid wasting battery when your phone is being carried in your pocket or bag? Sit down and stand up: screen turns on. Walk rapidly: screen turns on? Sit your bag down and pick it up (or change rotation): screen turns on.

All these new features sound cute but I doubt I'll be using them, and the background processing sounds like more battery drain. iOS 9 is already abysmal on battery time.

The UI changes are continuing in the wrong direction. The GUI was intuitive and readable prior to iOS 7. It's been crap since. I tolerate it because Apple functionality still surpasses the alternative, but it's getting less compelling every revision. Increasing the size of the text while keeping those stupidly thin fonts as a solution to poor readability is a lazy and foolish solution. Especially when iOS 6 and earlier had perfectly readable fonts!

I don't want new features. I want bugs killed and a return to intuitive and readable GUI design. I want the control center to not come flying up when I make a drag gesture with the "123" key. I want the Safari tab and multitask thumbnails to be correct (and not blank). I want text selection to work on websites (both for copying text from a page and editing it in text boxes). I want web text pasted into Notes to appear without making me scroll the note to de-invisible it. I want spelling and autocorrect to not be broken 50% of the time on text forms like this one (and Apple's own feedback pages).

I want the countless other bugs I've reported to Apple to be fixed. New features.... I don't give a crap. I want back what sold me on this platform in 2008. That's mostly gone.

Apple's entire design language has sucked since the iOS 7 era. It's like a different company. The WWDC16 banners and slides were the right font to symbolize "coders", but the text size was tiny (on huge canvases) and the color choices were abysmal (purple on black? Seriously?? Are there no legitimate designers at Apple anymore??).

This isn't the company I moved my entire computing life to six years ago. If Windows and droid weren't so compellingly bad, I would consider moving back. I stay because the alternatives suck MORE. Boy is that a low bar for competition.