One thing Apple is known for is delivering reliable products that do the job they are designed to do. That said, they also have form for introducing bugs in software updates. With iOS 12 here and offering some major updates, should you leap in early and download it right away or wait a while to see if there are some showstopping bugs first?
The guys here at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey run a mixture of devices. We have both Apple and Android here both as personal devices or testers and have been running iOS 12 for a few days now. So far we have to say it has been faultless in its operation.
iOS 12
Apple’s regular OS update continues with iOS 12, released a short time ago. It brings some changes to existing features, adds some new features but is mainly about improving the core operating system. Apple owners should see decent improvements in device speed and battery life when upgrading to iOS 12, according to Apple at least.
iOS 12 brings:
- Core OS improvements that should see fewer crashes.
- Better battery life.
- Faster device speeds through OS optimizations.
- Grouped notifications to better manage apps that love to tell you what’s going on.
- Siri Shortcuts, which is the Workflow app with a new name. It adds new options for Siri and third party apps.
- Screen Time, a new graphical display of how much you use your phone.
iOS 12 also introduces improvements to the camera, augmented reality, Google Maps, updates to FaceTime (but not the group call feature we wanted), Memoji – animated emoji, a new tape measure app and probably lots more besides.
Our iOS 12 experience so far
So far I would say our time with iOS 12 has been, nice. There are no Hollywood moments or showstoppers to report with this update. iPhones work faster, seem more fluid when using them, the camera opens much faster and so does the keyboard in iMessage. There have been no amazing moments but there have been no crashes or huge bugs either.
So far the new notification setup works well. Notifications take on the form of threads that are simple to track and means we aren’t being nagged constantly by our phone. Screen Time is nothing but a guilt trip designed to tell us how much we use our phone but could be useful if you’re trying to control phone use.
The changes to Siri are more noticeable. It offers to set a reminder for you if you have an early appointment or reminds you to email someone back if you haven’t responded yet. The digital assistant is capable of so much more now but we haven’t scratched the surface with it yet.
So is iOS 12 worth upgrading to right away? I would say yes it is. There have been no massive bugs or issues found as yet and our experiments with the OS have been very positive. It is worth installing for the optimizations alone but the new features are worth it too. The only downside is the new ‘Trust Score’ introduced in this update. I am going to cover that more on Wednesday as I think it’s important.
If you have any issues with the upgrade, bring your device to Dave’s Computers in New Jersey and we can take a look. We’re Apple experts as well as computer geeks!
