It’s been a busy week for Apple, and as more people get their hands on iOS 10, it’s not quite exactly slowing down just yet.
Apple had plenty to announce at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, with plenty of those new features making the stage at this year’s keynote. But of course, as is par for the course, not everything the company has built for iOS 10 (or any of its other platforms for that matter) made the cut for Apple executives to announce on stage.
Which is why, as the days have moved forward, we’ve seen new features being discovered. Apple Maps will pin your car’s location when you park and help you find it when you’re looking for it. Photographers of all levels will be able to edit (and probably capture) RAW photos. And there is plenty more.
iOS 10 feels like a huge change, and a welcomed one at that. The new rich notifications are not only fantastic on their own, but with the inclusion of 3D Touch they come to life. The same can be said for app icons, too, which can actually show real information now. 3D Touch is only a year old at this point, and it’s already coming a long way. It’s only going to get better from here.
Something else that saw an improvement is Control Center — one of my personal favorite features of iOS. Now there are panes, and the button layout has been changed quite a bit. It looks different, but familiar enough that it should still be easy to use.
I use Control Center every day, especially when it comes to music controls and switching audio sources (from Bluetooth to headphones, and vice versa). The fact that Apple has changed this feature to boast a dedicated music panel, which you have to swipe to, seems like a great idea — especially with that bold artwork right there at the top. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if adding an additional step to get to the feature I use the most is really worthwhile. There’s a lot of empty space in the middle of that pane, where the Play and rewind/forward options are, too.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets tweaked a bit over the coming weeks, leading up to the public launch of iOS 10 later this year. Or maybe that’s just me hoping with fingers crossed.
Still, all of that has me wondering if maybe, just maybe, we’re getting at least one step closer to Apple letting third-party apps get in on the fun of Control Center. And, ultimately, let us customize the experience with options that we want to use, use regularly, or even add new panes that we want to quickly access without completely unlocking the device.
I had the thought that Control Center could be expanded a bit, and actually incorporate information from apps and services, too. Specifically, it would be cool if I could pick up my iPhone and quickly slide up from the bottom of the screen, and then swipe to the left to get to a panel dedicated to sports apps, which would show me the scores of my favorite teams. I don’t mean just one app, either. Have the Major League Baseball and National Hockey League apps show me the current scores/game results of my favorite teams, right there.
That would break the idea of Control Center, so I doubt anything like that would happen, but the dedicated panes have me dreaming up all sorts of ideas.
Just being able to customize Control Center would be great. If I could put an option for Tweetbot in there, for instance. Or even swap out the stock Calculator app for Calcbot. For people who use third-party camera apps for their photography needs could swap out the stock Camera app for their preferred option.
I don’t know if we’re one step closer to a customizable Control Center, but I know I’m still hoping to see it. Oh, and how about Dark Mode in iOS? That’d be great.
Were you hoping to see Apple add a customization option for Control Center in iOS 10?
