Apple started rolling out the iOS 10 public beta, or second version of the developer preview, late last week. After a bit of contemplation I have decided to take the plunge and upgrade the iPhone 6s Plus to the latest version of the Apple mobile OS.
Over the next few days I will chronicle my experience with iOS 10
The upgrade
My phone had over 50GB of data, and hadn’t been backed up after a point — my iCloud is on the free 5GB limit. So after I decided to upgrade, the first thing I had to do was a backup. As suggested by some experts, I chose to opt for the encrypted backup, this way it’s easier to recover the phone if things go wrong.
The entire beta download process on Apple is smooth and very easy to understand. Go to the page, download the profile and restart your phone. Then you will start seeing the new update in your software updates tab.
On my 8Mbps Wifi connection the 1.7GB download took close to an hour. The installation that followed lasted nearly 15 minutes.
The phone sprung back to life with my Slack and Whatsapp notifications buzzing on the lock screen. My data and apps were all untouched. I was happy.
First Impressions
The first thing that hit me was the lock screen and notifications screen. This seems to be Apple’s answer to Google Now. Everything you need to know is here from weather to calendar and news. It’s all very easy to navigate and comprehend. The search bar is on top and the only thing missing are the Siri apps. For that, we might have wait till Fall, when the full release is rolled out.
Notifications come wherever you are, as a card that can be easily dismissed or acted on. You can pull down the notifications like before, but the cards are better sorted now.
One of the first new features I ended up using was in the clock app. There is now a Bedtime tab that sort of decides when you should sleep and sends you an alert before this time. It does this based on the time you want to wake up and the expected hours of sleep. If only life what was simple.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon