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The new operating system for the iStuff is here. It won’t work on my old iPad3, but it does work on my daughter’s iPad Mini, and it also works on my iPhone 6, so I have been able to get an idea of how it works across a few of the platforms.
So, how’s it fare? The new notifications style isn’t too bad, just different. The new lockscreen, where you swipe right to get the basic notification center — mine has weather, reminders, and the calendar, for instance; swipe up to get the controls and down to get the notifications you have missed; and swipe left to get to the camera without unlocking. This latter bit is really useful; you can get the camera into action faster, lest you miss that shot.
That said, the new two step home button is a pain in the ass: you have to hold your thumb down to get unlocked, then you have to press the home button to open the phone. It’s crap, Apple. Lose it on the next update. For those devices with the fingerprint reader, this is an easy fix — go into General, then Accesability, and there is a Home Button option. Go flip the toggle and now it will unlock and open like it used to. However!…if you are on an old device, you don’t get this option. You have to press the home button to get in. Period. End of line.
Once open, there’s some cosmetic changes in some of the apps. Health has been buggered with, so if you used to use your favorites to track weight, blood pressure, etc…? You’re SOL, my friend. Sure, you can go to the “today” tab and see today…but you have to go into everything — weight, blood pressure, distnce walked, etc. individually, if you want to look at the week or month. So no — you can’t compare how your walking amount, exercise, or whatever is doing to your weight, BP, or other measurements. It’s a terrible move and makes the app (for me) pretty bloody useless. It’s also still not syncing with MapMyRun, which chaps me a bit.
There are a few improvements and additions to Notes, Messages (including a cute drawing ability), and Reminders that are nice but not necessary. There’s a new tab in the Clock to help you sleep. Meh. The addition of the Universal Clipboard to Pages, etc. is really nice and which allows you to cut and paste between iOS 10 and macOS is really nice, and supposedly Apple Music is improved, if you use it (I don’t.) It does seem to run faster on the iPhone and the old iPad Mini than iOS 9 did, but that could just be me. I like the new open and close sound effects.
So, should you upgrade? Eventually, when you get around to it. If you want to do the cut and paste between platforms, then YES. It’s a really nifty feature. Otherwise, it’s a bit underwhelming.