5 nit-picky changes I want to see in iOS 14
Some people have ideas that would push iOS forward. Make it a better, richer, more nuanced platform. Something that will enrich both your personal and professional lives.
Not me.
My grievances are smaller. Some would say more intimate. People may dismiss them as “petty”. To them I say “You lack the courage to sweat the stuff that, really, doesn’t matter.”
Here are my 5 nit-picky – nay, brave – changes I want to see in iOS 14.
Edit snooze time
Occasionally I want to snooze my alarm. But I want to snooze for a period other than 9 minutes. That’s what the iOS alarm snooze is set to – 9 minutes – and it can’t be changed.
And it’s set that way for arcane reasons: apparently it’s because of the hardware limitations of the first clocks with a a snooze function.
Surely we’ve transcended our love of the failures of yore? Apple certainly haven’t, in the software-clock department. Don’t keep sleeping on courageous change, Apple. Let us set our snooze time.
Preview wallpaper on both lock and home screens
You can have different wallpapers on your lock screen and your home screen. Mine are always different. But you can only preview a new wallpaper on your lock screen. A travesty.
Sometimes my choice for the home screen clashes with my app icons. That just won’t do. A preview would save me a lot of time.
This, however, is dangerously close to be a good idea.
Swap snooze and stop buttons for alarms
I want an alarm to get me out of bed when willpower won’t. And willpower never will. Right now, the iOS alarm is letting me down.
Design is about prioritisation. You make the things you want your audience to do more prominent. Apple wants you to stay in bed. When your alarm goes off, the snooze button is front and centre and brightly coloured. The stop button? Small and tiny and grey.
Apple wants you to snooze. Sure, it might be the more commonly used button. Sure, accidentally pressing the off button has more downside than accidentally pressing the snooze button. But Apple needs to take a stand for standing up in the morning.
Don’t indulge my stay-in-bed bullshit, Apple. Indulge my overly-opinionated-about-buttons bullshit. Swap the snooze and stop buttons.
Pick whether the time on lock screen is light or dark
iOS changes time and date on your lock screen would to black text if you have a light enough wallpaper
It’s inconsistent and weird.
If you have dark text and you preview a new wallpaper, you’ll see black text. But! If you then set that wallpaper and Apple doesn’t think it worth that dark text, it’ll revert to white. Even if you prefer it the other way.
I want to experience photos of my white cat being an absolute weirdo on my lock screen. I also want to see the time on my lock screen in a comfortable way.
Let me decide if I want to make the time on my lock screen black. Give me that option.
View time as analogue clock
I have a passion for making choices that make my life more difficult in a small, meaningless way. It’s usually for aesthetic reasons.
Thus: let me display the time as an analogue clock. Not on the lock screen. In the top left-hand corner of the phone when it’s unlocked.
Now, I admit, this would be noticeably less useful than a digital clock. I understand this. But, Apple, you let me view the time as an analogue clock in macOS’s menu bar.
It’s daft. It helps no-one. But I can do it. And I like the way it looks. Bring it to iOS. I make like noon and bring my hands together in prayer.
Published on • Whisper any comments into a leaf and let it float away on a breeze
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