Steve Smith talks about the iPhone and 6 features that make or break your experience of the iPhone itself.
Episode #7-44 released on July 1, 2017
Recently, I did an episode on the end of the 32-bit iPhone, then my iPhone 5 promptly died while editing that episode. I purchased an iPhone 6s, because it has a headphone jack, and my adventure starts here. These are six things I learned within a week of using an iPhone 6s, and what you can do to make your experience better.
High Speed Unlocking versus ability to see notifications
Using your iPhone is supposed to be useful. Turn on the screen, see your notifications, and handle business from there. With Fingerprint unlock enabled, there is an option to rest finger to unlock the phone. This feature starts reading your fingerprint the second you press the home button. The effect, virtually no realization that you have security protecting your phone. The bad news, you barely see any notifications, and probably not long enough to read them.
Which is more important to you? The ability to see notifications, or being able to unlock your phone in a moment's notice? Either way, the option is buried in the accessibility menu, under Home Button, and is called Rest Finger to Open. It is a toggle switch. Enable or disable based on your preferences.
Apple Pay
Under Settings, in the Wallet and Apple Pay menus, you have the option to enable or disable Double-click Home Button for Apple Pay to be accessible at a moment's notice with this exact method. When enabled, you can double click the home button, from the lock screen, which will launch Apple Pay, it will either ask for your finger print, or code and then allow for payment. Feeling paranoid, you can disable this option, just go to the part of menus I mentioned.
3D Touch
3D touch is something I have yet to get truly used to, and it isn't anything I have found useful, yet. Mainly because it responds to a varying amount of pressure to enable different functions of the iPhone. There are a few possible solutions to fix your experience with 3D touch. Under the accessibility menus, head to 3D Touch, you can enable or disable the option altogether, or you can change the sensitivity, too.
Skid twice, not press twice to reach top of iPhone screen
Phones are getting bigger and bigger. But, our hands aren't. The solution in Apple's case is called Reachability in the accessibility menus, and if you follow the instructions, you'd think you must press the home button twice to lower the screen. This is wrong. Simply skid you finger back and forth twice over the home button, without pressing it, and the top part of the screen will scroll down. This option, can, also, be turned off.
Lift to wake, or not
My iPhone had this on by default, and while a cool option for some, for me, not so much. Besides being a possible battery drain, I am already pressing the home button when I pull my phone out of my pocket. The screen is unlocked by the time I look at it. However, this is a useful option for those who have their phone on their desk, and want to see something on the lock screen without necessarily unlocking it. If you want to enable or disable this option on your iPhone head over to Display and Brightness, and you will find the toggle for Raise to Wake.
Hey Siri
Siri is useful, a lot more useful than Cortana, that is my personal experience with her anyway. I grew used to the idea that my iPhone had to be plugged in to ask assistance for information, request music, weather information, and setting up events. However, moving from the iPhone 5 to 6s added more functionality than I expected. For one, the iPhone didn't need to be plugged in anymore. I could call on Siri from my pocket. While, this is a cool trick, it is, also, annoying when people know that Siri can be activated this way. Head over to Siri in the setting menus, where you can toggle Access When Locked, Allow Hey Siri, and more. Just an off-topic note, I changed Siri's accent to use the British Female voice, been loving her even more since.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net