Public and developer beta users of Apple’s iOS 10 should now be able to check settings and software upgrade to download the official version of iOS 10. For the rest of you iPhone users who didn’t participate in the beta program, you will have to check your settings September 13th for the official worldwide release. Among the improvements and changes on iOS 10 are a new notification center and lock screen. The lock screen will no longer be swipe to unlock, you must unlock your phone using Touch ID now. Swiping the screen to the right will bring up your widgets which is handy and swiping left will access the camera.
iMessage also has a few new features in iOS 10 allowing you to send doodles, write on pics, and send heartbeats and kisses. Probably one of my favorite features is Bedtime in the clock app. It’s a basic sleep tracker that keeps your sleeping habits cataloged and works with the Health app. It’s probably not as robust as some third party apps but it gives you the basics. One of the biggest controversies about iOS 10 is the ability to “delete” native apps. Apple had first said you would be able to delete native apps but then backtracked after some investigation was done showing the apps never really get deleted. The icons are removed but the apps are still sort of stored in the phone. Apple says this is to keep other core apps from breaking.
Apple Maps and Apple Music both get an aesthetic overhaul in iOS 10 with bigger fonts and a slightly better user experience, though I would still like to see Apple Music change some of its controls around for better one handed use. Overall there are some significant changes in iOS 10 and you’ll need to poke around to find all the goodies, some of them are obvious and others are subtle. While I do enjoy iOS my hope is that the user interface gets a huge overhaul for the iPhone’s 10th anniversary next year. I would like to see the Springboard with more customization options and an unlocked grid. The ability to use third party icons and themes would really be something. All things that Android has had for a very long time and I know it’s a long shot but I’m crossing my fingers for it to happen next year.
Have you downloaded iOS 10 yet? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
