By Dan Moren
June 26, 2018 8:48 AM PT
iOS 12 public beta is out for all
Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
That’s my iPad running the iOS 12 public beta. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that it doesn’t look too different from iOS 11; about the only obvious cosmetic change I can see there is that the date is now featured in the top left, alongside the time. (A welcome change, if you ask me.) A handful of new apps got added to my home screen—Stocks, Voice Memos, and Measure—but they’ve been filed away where they belong.
I’ve only dipped my toes into iOS 12 so far, and since I’m installing it on my iPad, not my iPhone1, I don’t have access to a number of the new features, like Memoji, Portrait Mode improvements, or other enhancements to Messages. Certain features, like the Siri Shortcuts app, aren’t yet available either.
In my brief time with iOS 12, I will note that it feels zippier in some respects—granted, however, that this is on a 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which isn’t exactly a slouch in the performance department. But bringing up the multitasking interface on the iPad seems much more responsive and fast—I’m curious to know how it’s improved older devices.
There will be plenty more iterations of the beta to come, and we’ll be playing around with the features and talking about our impressions throughout the summer. If you’ve got questions, you know where to find us.
- The former being not nearly as critical to my day-to-day life. ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the supernatural detective story All Souls Lost, is out now.]
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