iOS 15 Extras

iOS 15 is Not His Year
iOS 15 is Not His Year

Here we are again: I have found myself compelled to comment on the latest numerical iteration of Apple, Inc.’s mobile operating system - the platform we can all agree, surely, that should definitively represent the peak of ease-of-use in consumer technology. It was first announced at perhaps the very last entirely-virtual, pre-shot World Wide Developer Conference in yet another extremely-produced, lustless series of presentations. Since I’ve gone deeper than ever into iOS, this year, I made an equally forceful effort to feed off the hype from every one of the new, Apple-specific social channels I’ve subscribed to. Somehow, I even survived the appearance of a motherfucking Back to the Future reference in the very first few frames of the live stream.

https://twitter.com/mattcassinelli/status/1401969109613441026

Instead of echoing greater professional tech media on this release, except much too late, I thought I would focus on analyzing iOS 15 from two very specific perspectives: what my family needs to know and what Bluetooth keyboard x iPhone users need to know. When I first began fumbling with the grand editorial considerations of tech media five years ago, Extratone’s Technology Editor would often comment on the various articles, features, and essays I’d contribute to show notes for Futureland - very often from The Verge, yes, to the point it became an ongoing joke - that the publications I thought of as technology publications were in fact fundamentally not about technology. It’s not that I dismissed this critique at the time, but I certainly didn’t assimilate it fully until very recently (embarrassingly.) The factor she was getting at has only been amplified in the time since, and it has finally become abundantly clear to me that sites like The Verge have become what used to be called Business Media. The fundamental issue with this transition is its comprehensive subjugation of any/all relevance or function of the content for the End User (read: most people… regular people.)

Separate the existential/ideological argument, the cognitive dissonance among the people in the bylines adorning these publications exhibited in their continuation of traditions originated when they were still usefully technology-oriented - like reviews of new iOS releases, for instance - is especially hard to watch for someone like me. As I have since I first started writing about tech, myself, I will be embedding and hyperlinking to these reviews, but I’ve prefaced with my commentary on them for a very specific argument: keep in mind as you read and watch their work that these journalists no longer judge tech products by their quality, but by their market viability. This is a general statement and it is by no means a universal truth, but I believe it’s especially important for the vast majority of those who will receive this update on their devices in the Fall.

Control Center Decibel Meter
Control Center Decibel Meter

That said, we’ve all hopefully grown accustomed by now to the particulars of “reviewing” a free, non-negotiable iteration of a mobile operating system. We’re not here to talk about whether or not you should upgrade, but rather to best prepare you for the change. We are no longer reviewing a product… We are in fact writing its documentation.

I’ve been noticing a distinct lack of the indisputably most important person in consumer technology: the goddamned user. Unfortunately, this negligence is blatantly present in the continued development of this - the most user-friendly operating system ever devised. I wanted to emphasize for my family because so much of iOS 15’s additions are in fact for nobody but people like me: iOS “powerusers” - a term which I still maintain is an oxymoron. I have plenty to say on this topic which I can’t imagine being all that useful to you, but essentially, I would encourage you to voice as loudly as you can any/all gripes you have about this truth, remembering that you are addressing the wealthiest company in the history of the world and that you are their customer.