Dynamic Island Interactions are Backwards
I was listening to the latest episode of The Talk Show this morning and Nilay Patel laid out exactly what bothers me about the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pros: the interactions are backwards.
I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was that was bothering me until he said it and then it made sense. When I touch on an app in the Dynamic Island, I believe it should open the smaller, interactive widget version of the app that is currently only accessible with a long touch. The point is the island is to have quick interactions with running apps that need your attention. The best way to do that is by a simple touch. Instead, as a Pro Max user, I have to adjust my hand for balance and a long touch to interact with the island. It’s not exactly convenient.
In Patel’s review on The Verge he says:
Here’s where I think Apple missed the mark a little: in the keynote and all the ads, the island is shown as a thing that’s worth interacting with — it’s always moving around and going back and forth between the main view and the expanded view. In reality, well, it’s not like that at all.
The island isn’t a primary interface element; it sits over whatever app you’re actually using, and apps are still the main point of the iPhone. In fact, tapping on the island doesn’t open that expanded widget view; it just switches you back to whatever app that controls the widget. To get the expanded widget that’s shown in all the ads, you have to tap and hold. This feels exactly backwards to me. I think a tap should pop open the widget, and I also think you should at least be able to choose between the two behaviors.
I hope this is something they consider changing, or at least a toggle, because it’d be much better if touching opened up the mini app and a long touch opened the app itself.
Hit the Island is a fun game that uses the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island.
Random thought rewatching a show from 2000s: the era of TV where every character had a cell phone pre-smart phone was incredibly short.
You should really subscribe to Andy Daly’s blog. Funny Twitter-like thoughts as well as longer posts, including behind the scenes of the latest Comedy Bang! Bang!
Today has been going so slow. I need to stop working at 6 AM.
Watched a video about old timey boxing and why they stand the way they do. In a conversation about rules changing from the old days the host talked about a match in 1983 that lasted 111 rounds. I was born in 1983. I feel old now.
I think I managed to avoid any post-booster issues other than a sore arm.
Off to get a flu shot and a booster. Hopefully the booster won’t kick my butt.
Handsome boy.
I love how when you get a new phone and restore from a backup or transfer from another phone and everything goes smoothly and then you’re given the iWork suite and Garage Band and iMovie all over again.
I think I may watch Confess, Fletch tonight. 🍿
I was using a medication tracking app that I didn’t really like but was the best out there that I could find. I love that I was able to delete it now that iOS16 has pill reminders built in.
iOS Screenshot Trick
Why didn’t anyone tell me about this iOS screenshot trick?
Ramal Media posted a video on TikTok this week showing how you can easily hold down on scribbles you make on iPhone screenshots to make circles look perfect or arrows look like actual arrows instead of a mess.
I had no idea this was a thing either. Now I may actually use the drawing tools.
How is there STILL not an icon for HomePod minis in the shortcuts app?
It’d be nice if shortcut widgets on the lockscreen didn’t have to first open up the shortcuts app to run.
I wonder if I can make it through the day without turning the air conditioning back on. It was so nice not having it on for the last 3 days.
They are adding 1080 Snowboarding to N64 on Switch Online. I cannot wait to play it.
Friendly reminder to remove the beta profiles if you don’t want to get updated to iOS 16.1 now that 16.0 is out.
Happy tail.