iPhone 16, iOS 18

[Aaron]

Just pre-ordered (haha) the new iPhone 16. I was due for an upgrade from the 12, so I’m basically just paying the sales tax and fees and that’s it, for the trade-in.

The 16 is supposed to have a lot of AI things like creating your own emojis and such.

iOS 18 release date is September 16th

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I am debating. Don't really care about AI. When the cyborgs come to get me I don't want my phone turning against me. I have an iPhone 11. I think it will take iOS18 but I may use some of my Christmas bonus to buy a new phone. If I don't do it this year, I would have to upgrade to the 17 as the 11 would not get iOS19. The biggest thing I would get would be 5G and a much better camera. The downside is that I have a tonne of lightning connectors which would now be useless.

 

[Aaron]

iPhone 16 expected to arrive on Friday. In the meantime I updated the 12 to iOS 18.

Took Apple 20 years, but with iOS 18 you can finally put the apps where you want them and not always stacked towards the top left.

My phone will look like this in October.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I updated my iPhone 11 to 17.7.

 

[Aaron]

I got the new iPhone yesterday. Physically it does not look much different than the iPhone 12 except for the noticeably larger camera. It seems to operate more quickly and battery life is going to be so much better than I had with a 4 year old phone.

The install was relatively painless. Backed up from iCloud and everything came back okay. Just had to re-login to a lot of apps, thank goodness for the passwords app.

The camera 48 mp seems to be super sharp.

All the fun Apple Intelligence features will become available in updates this fall.

 

[Aaron]

The downside is that I have a tonne of lightning connectors which would now be useless.

Yes! This is annoying

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

So how do you like it? I don't see much difference between the 15 & 16 (no pro, plus just the plain one). So thinking of just jumping to the 15. But want to hear your experience as a part of my decision making process.

 

[Aaron]

I’m loving the 16, it was a nice upgrade from the 12. Does it do tons of things the 12 didn’t? Not really. But it works faster, and battery life is great so far. From what I read the 16 basic model isn’t much different from the 15. Sounds like the 15 will never get the Apple Intelligence but you don’t seem very fond of AI lol.

I got the beta iOS 18 so I’ve got early access to some of the AI. Pretty cool so far, but will take some time for it all to be released.

 

[Aaron]

I like how easy it is now to use Apple Pay. I ordered the case for this phone from an online retailer because Amazon didn’t have one I wanted that was the same color green as this phone.

In the past I’d have had to either create an account with the company, or make a purchase as a guest. Either way would have been a 5 to 10 minute process, entering the credit card and shipping address. Now it’s just click the Apple Pay option and confirm, and done.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

How is that different than the Apple Pay that's been here for a while?

 

[Aaron]

I’m thinking it’s probably the same, or maybe with the iOS update it’s more engrained with payment options? Or I just don’t remember it being so easy to use with website purchases.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Now that I got my bonus, I looked again and the price difference between a 15 & 16 is about $100 CAD. So I decided to do the 16. When I tried to update my iPhone11 to iOS18.1.1 it said it had to delete apps in order to have room. It alleged it would reinstall but I just cancelled that exercise. My iPhone 11 is 256Gb. So I was now looking at 512GB but now looking at 1TB. Which puts me now into the 16 Pro category. I am thinking I will rebuild this phone as new. My old phone has managed to corrupt some contacts (duplicates). Restoring from backups preserves this corruption. The only thing I have to decide is when.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

What is the action button? There is no more silent switch?

 

[Aaron]

It’s customizable so you can have it be the silence button or something different entirely.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

It’s customizable so you can have it be the silence button or something different entirely.

I found some videos including the Apple showcase event when they were treating it like a complete revolution in smartphone design.

 

[Aaron]

I doubt that lol but I do like the options to personalize more things and to finally puts apps wherever you want to

 

[Wolf]

I currently own the iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 18.2. Basically, the upgraded iPhone 16 has faster hardware, better camera and the camera button. Which I currently use as my action button.

I currently don't use the locate apps where I want to. I have been trying to play with the new playground app. The results are slow and after a while, I just move on. I plan on trying again soon.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I pick up my Natural Titanium 1TB iPhone 16 Pro tomorrow.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

So I am now on the new phone. It transferred everything (including duplicate contacts) directly from the old phone. I had to do a couple things manually due to security restrictions (Microsoft Authenticator for example which I use for work). I think my speakers on my old phone are not working as well as this phone is louder. I turned off AI for now. I like the size. The screen is super clear. I don't like the little block of black at the top which is sometimes visible. I like the 5G. Battery life seems really good. There a lot of things different but that is mostly iOS18 which I am also getting used to.

I had to rebuild and repair my watch as the migration did not work for it. Fortunately it remembered the old settings.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

One thing I am having an annoyance with, the screen keeps dimming. It has the new always on dim mode but when it returns to normal the brightness keeps going down. I assume if I turn off that mode, the brightness will become stable. But despite not being used to it, i kind of like that mode.