Amongst Steve Jobs’ many philosophies at Apple was giving clients what they want, not essentially what they need. He famously stated, “Individuals don’t know what they need till you present it to them. That’s why I by no means depend on market analysis. Our activity is to learn issues that aren’t but on the web page.”
At WWDC this week, Apple gave us a ton of options that have been already on the web page. A number of chapters again, the truth is. One of many principal options of iOS 18 is a complete new stage of customization that permeates all the interface, from the House Display structure to the Lock Display, icons, and the Management Middle. It doesn’t actually have a fancy identify, it simply falls underneath the umbrella of Customization.
On the floor, it’s all good. Apple customers have been clamoring for Android-like customization for years and Apple completely delivered it in iOS 18:
- Put icons wherever you need in your House Display
- Tint apps with a darkish look and regulate the colour
- Conceal the names of apps underneath icons
- Regulate the dimensions of apps and widgets
- Add buttons to the Management Middle
- Rearrange and resize Management Middle icons and sliders
- Swap out Lock Display controls
All of those have been on want lists for years, and for the primary time ever, your iPhone is as endlessly customizable as an Android cellphone, possibly much more so. Out of the field, you may customise the look of your iPhone’s House Screens in all kinds of the way—however after seeing what some early beta adopters have made, possibly it’s not such a good suggestion to present customers so many decisions.
In fact, as with all choices, you may ignore no matter you don’t need; however so many choices create pointless visible chaos and confusion. The place Management Middle was once a managed listing of buttons and sliders, it’s now a number of pages of choices with a considerably unclear hierarchy. We’ve been asking for this stage of customization on our iPhones for years, however now that we’ve got it, it feels low-cost, convoluted, and a bit of un-Apple-like.
It goes again to Steve’s mantra: what you suppose you need isn’t at all times what you need. The options that generated probably the most buzz—iPhone Mirroring, Safari Highlights, Math Notes—aren’t issues we knew we needed, however will possible grow to be a part of our workflow. That’s Apple at its greatest. This different stuff that lets customers change the colour of icons? Not a lot.
However that’s how it’s nowadays. Now, Apple tries its greatest to strike a stability between what customers need and what they want, whereas nonetheless delivering pleasant and revolutionary options. Tim Cook dinner has delivered some unimaginable merchandise and continues to carve out new and thrilling paths for Apple, most notably with Apple Intelligence, one other characteristic of iOS 18.
It’s unattainable to think about what Apple would appear to be underneath Steve Jobs in 2024. I’d wish to suppose he’d be on board with Apple Intelligence, Imaginative and prescient Professional, even the numerous Apple Pencils. However one factor I do know for positive—he’d by no means allow us to tint our icons.