Alchemy by Leban Hyde | UX + Branding

Week 38

7 screenshots demonstrating the customizable lock screen for iOS 16

iOS 16… was made available to the general public last week. The next big version brings with it a customizable lock screen complete with widgets and redesigned notifications. Trusted tech writer Federico Viticci gives us an in-depth review of the mobile OS. You can also check out this walkthrough of all the new features plus some how-tos to get you started. It’s a lot to take in, so I welcome the additional hand-holding!

watchOS 9… was also made available to the general public. As per usual, Apple released the updates for Apple Watch simultaneously with the iOS update. New features include new watch faces, enhancements for Workouts, and a redesigned Compass app. However, we’ll still have to wait for iPadOS 16 to drop.

iPhone 14 Pro. Hands-on reviews started rolling out, focusing on the Dynamic Island. Not surprising, considering it’s one of the biggest design changes we’ve seen since the release of the iPhone X and Face ID in 2017. Admittedly, aside from the updated camera, the Dynamic Island was my main motivation for upgrading from my iPhone 12 Pro. But someone with a discerning eye might point out that for features like Always-On Display, Android did it first.

Surface Event? With device launches popping up left and right, Microsoft may be joining the fun. Likely looking at the second week of October, said event is rumored to announce the Surface Pro 9. With an already tight market for high end tablets ands upgrade cycles that tend to lag, the next 2-in-1 may not face the same competition thanks to Windows. I’m just hoping for a public release of the Windows Subsystem for Android™ (which is currently only available on the Windows Insider channel aka beta).

Figma. Adobe announced plans to purchase Figma for ~$20 billion. I never made the transition from Sketch + InVision to Figma (although I’ve considered it a few times), so I don’t really have a dog in this fight. But several of my of friends & teammates have, so it felt like I should include it re: Mobile Design.

From the desk of…

Thanks to my wife, I was lucky enough to get in early on the iPhone 14 Pro pre-order when it opened up the week prior. On Friday, both of our iPhone 14 Pro’s arrived, prompting the usual backups and data transfers that come with a device upgrade. I’ll eventually do a write-up of my experience with the new features as I spend more time with them — especially the Dynamic Island. In the meantime, I’ll just simply say I like them so far and I’m genuinely happy with my purchase.

If you’re still waiting for yours to arrive (or haven’t set it up yet), I can offer some things to beware of as you go. In my case, I prematurely erased my old device after completing the transfer to my new iPhone — the system prompts you to do so (but of course you can decline). Two things I should’ve checked before tapping “yes”: Confirm that my cellular services fully transferred to the new eSIM (they had not) and review in encrypted messaging apps for additional steps for transferring message history (Signal has this due to security).

I’m sure there are other things to look out for, but those were the two big ones that caused me a bit of grief (cellular services were recovered, but my message history was not). Hopefully, my mistakes will save you some frustration.

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