Three features I would like to see with iOS 18.
With iOS18 expected to have a radical redesign and more ambitious features, I would like to see these three features added in iOS 18 to make a more personal, consistent, and professional experience.
A journey to find a physical SIM slot iPhone 15 Pro Max.
When the iPhone 15 Pro Max launched, I was ecstatic, as I was every year. I had pre-ordered 3 different colors: Blue Titanium, White Titanium, and Natural Titanium. Black was completely out of the question. I didn’t really want a dark color at the time since I had a purple 14 Pro Max for a whole year, and I really was leaning towards one of the lighter colors.
When I got the 3 phones on launch day, I was distraught between two beautiful phones, the white and the natural. I loved the back of the natural, but I really loved the sides of the white titanium.
The slightly yellow tinge of the natural titanium looked like someone pissed on the white titanium phone.
The funny thing is, if I only got the natural phone, I wouldn’t know that the white phone would have a better sheen to it, and I would just be perfectly happy with the natural color. I don’t live close to an Apple store (about an hour away from the closest one), and I didn’t feel like waiting in line, so I had to buy them for myself to make sure I picked the color that would resonate well with me. I finalized my decision to keep the white titanium and to return the other two.
I was at the time with AT&T, and have been with them forever. I have been getting a shoddy signal at work for the last 9 years, but it didn't really bother me since I would use my company’s Wi-Fi. It would be annoying at times though when I had to either make or receive phone calls from work, and I would have to stand outside to have a conversation. I could go to Verizon and pay more money, but I didn’t feel it was worth the extra cash, especially in today’s environment where everything is already going up in price.
I thought to myself, “I have this brand new iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I get the same crap reception as my iPhone SE (1st gen) in the same building. Surely there must be a way to get a better provider for at least the same price.”
How the iPhone 15 Pro Action Button will Probably Work
As much as I would rather have a physical mute switch toggle on my iPhone, it looks like the action button will be taking its place. bring much more functionality since it can easily give you five different functions instead of just two. Here is how I think Apple will implement the action button.
The simplest and most effective way to implement the action button is to copy the power button. The power button currently has five different functions:
Press and hold - activates Siri
Press once - turns on/off the screen
Press twice - activates Apple Pay
Press three times - activates your accessibility shortcut options
Press five times - activates the emergency SOS screen
If Apple uses this approach, we can get five more custom functions from the action button. Might be too confusing initially, but eventually I think people will get used to it. Ergonomically speaking, the action button is in the perfect spot for left handed users. You can easily thumb press the action button with your left hand, and your index finger can easily activate the longer power button. Right handers will have to perform some gymnastics to be able to press the action button with their index finger, but it’s not a comfortable hold trying it out on the 14 Pro Max and even the smaller iPhone 13.
What would I do if I had five more extra buttons? Here is my action button setup:
Press and hold - unmute phone
Press once - mute phone
Press twice - activate camera
Press three times - activate voice recording
Press five times - call my wife
I need my phone to be on mute at certain times, and a simple press should do the trick. Even if I am not sure if my phone is on mute, I can simply press the action button once and voila! Plus, I would rather be on mute when not needed than not be on mute when needed, which is why I would rather press and hold to unmute the phone. Plus with this setup, it still allows me to mute the phone without putting my hand in my pocket.
The other 3 functions are in order of convenience and need. Quick camera access is a huge plus, and even voice recording might come in handy if you wanted to “jot down” your thoughts and ideas. Lastly, having the ability to reach my wife would be a great feature if I am in an emergency and my screen gets damaged. A lot of the times a damaged screen will hinder the ability to get help since it won’t register any touch input. Having a physical button to instantly call a loved one will definitely be handy.
iPhone 15 Pro Action Button
Steve Moser from MacRumors:
“The Action button, which could be similar to the Apple Watch Ultra's Action button but with more phone-focused options, is expected to be a new physical button on the next-generation Pro iPhone models that replaces the Ring/Silent switch. The Action button would allow users to quickly access various functions and settings without necessarily unlocking the device or navigating to an app.
According to the code found in iOS 17 beta 4, the Action button could have nine different options that users can customize and assign to different actions.”
My biggest beef with the new iPhone15 Pro action button is going to be its versatility in the pocket. The mute switch lever was an easy, stealthy way to silence your phone, but now you won't really know if it's silenced if you just try to press a button to silence it. You will have to think, "Did I just mute my phone or did I just unmute it?" The positioning of the mute switch lever just by feeling it would always be a tell tale sign with full confidence of your phone's status.
Apple’s markup is kind of a mess.
Apple’s markup tool is something that I use probably on a daily basis, but there are some inconsistencies that you should be aware of, especially if you are using it cross platform between iOS and macOS. Here are just some scenarios that I tried and discovered how confusing things can get.