Thanks to Apples new Reduce Motion and Animation setting my vestibular challenged friends and I can finally enjoy some of the iPhones newest features. Yeah I know its got a super fast A7 processor, an amazing motion sensing M7 chip and eye popping 64 bit graphics. Hopefully I'll put all that stuff to use one day but for now here are the features that I'm most enjoying:
10) iCloud Event Invites
This feature isn't new but it is something I only recently began taking advantage of. Are you accustomed to the convenience of calendar sharing apps like Microsoft Exchange? You can still use those on your iPhone but in addition to that iCloud also has a calendar sharing/Evite type service. Since I'm accustomed to entering my schedule into my iPhone calendar anyway, now I can just press a button to invite my friends and if their using the service too an invitation will pop up on their phone. They can choose accept, maybe or deny. If their not using the service iCloud emails them an evite-like invitation.
9) 64 Bit, Camera Enhancements and a bunch of other stuff
The new A7 chip enables true burst-mode shooting. Burst Mode will take photos at up to 10 frames per second on the 5S, so you don't miss the best shot. You'd be surprised how much one can move in one second. This comes in especially useful when taking a photo of a child, or an action shot where timing isn't easy. For now there's not many apps that take advantage of 64 bit processing on a phone but it does open up the realm of possibilities. There's also dual flash, slow motion, larger pixels and a bunch of other new features.
8) Custom Vibration Menu
Because normal vibration is so flip-phoneish. Personally I like my phone to vibrate in reggaeton. (Beating on the phone like a drum is fun also)
7) Enhanced Block List
Got a stalker that you need to block? In the past when you blocked a person on iPhone it would ring once and the call would quickly be forwarded to your voicemail but there was no way to block their text messages. With this iOS 7 enhancement when you block an address contact now not only do their text messages float off into a black hole never to be seen or read by you ever again but when they try to call you they'll hear a fast hard dial tone.
6) Give Siri an elocution lesson
If you’ve got an unusual name, or have friends with rare surnames, you've probably laughed at Siri’s innate inability to pronounce words that aren't in the dictionary. Now you can call out when words are mispronounced and train Siri to say them correctly. Just say "that’s not how you pronounce that," run through a short exercise, and Siri should get things right from then on.
5) Siri is watching you
Giving your iPhone a little bit of information about you has a lot of benefits. I'm a little concerned about this feature (as if Siri doesnt know everything about me already) but if you tell it your address you can ask Siri to remind you to do something when you get home. You’ll also get more relevant traffic updates through the Notification Center’s Today screen. Tell it your anniversary, and your iPhone will wish you a totally genuine "Happy anniversary" when the big day is finally here.
4) Use Siri To Enable / Disable System Toggles
Launch Siri and say – ‘Turn Bluetooth on’ and Siri will turn on Bluetooth for you. Same works for Wi-Fi and other system toggles. Ask it to play back your voicemail, return your calls, control your settings,as well as any of the queries you’re used to asking of the assistant.
Also if you pick up an automobile in 2014 that incorporates Apple’s iOS in the Car features, iOS knows where you might be heading and gets you traffic info and predicted journey times.
3) Audio-only FaceTime calls
I've used Pinger, Viber, Talkatone, Google Voice, Skype and a host of other voip apps and nothing has sounded this crystal clear. To be honest its way clearer than the signal from my cell phone company.
2) Anti-Theft Feature, Activation Lock
Apparently NYPD is so excited about this feature they've been handing out notices encouraging people to upgrade to iOS 7. I wonder is this before or after they stop and frisk you? But I digress.
In iOS 7 the Find My iPhone feature has been expanded to include Activation Lock. If you lose your phone you'll still be able to locate it, remote wipe or sound an alarm like before but those features proved to be lacking because if a thief managed to wipe your phone clean and disable the find my iPhone setting before you found it they could still resell it. Now a simple enhancement requires your password before anyone can turn off Find My iPhone, erase your device, or reactivate and use your device. This also means if you were to sell your device you better remember to disable Find my iPhone first, or the phone will be useless.
1) Touch ID, fingerprint recognition
I'm one of those people who never had a passcode on my phone because I found it annoying to have to enter it every time I wanted to open my phone. In the back of my mind I knew I should though. Now I don't have to choose. The Touch ID works smoothly from any position. Just press the home button, it reads your print and bam your phone unlocks. I've registered four finger prints so far. I'm gonna try my big toe next.
So there you have it the 10 most fun things I'm doing with my iPhone right now. What are your favorite features?
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