I thought the show was exciting because of how quickly Apple announced. Usually, these keynotes are two hours long where each new product or service gets enough time to be explained to the public. Apple tried to incorporate a lot of other announcements and keep the whole thing to under two hours.

There was a lot of news that came out of the show, including a redesign of the MacBook Air, the new M2 chip, and more. I have a few full-length articles up on the site that cover these announcements, and my big take from most of them is that they all feel significant. The iPad gets closer to a Mac-like experience with iPadOS 16, Ventura makes the Mac more capable when multitasking, watchOS 9 further improves the fitness experience, and the new MacBook Air is the biggest redesign of the laptop since 2008.

Like any other tech enthusiast, you are most curious about the new operating system. It is the operating system that billions of people have in their pockets. After hearing some of my tech friends say it wasn’t all that bad, I decided to give it a try. I am a man of the people and my job is to give you the scoop on the latest technologies. I downloaded the developer profile and have been using it for a few days now.

It was the first impressions of the new software.

I think the new lock screen is great. There are lots of ways to modify it, and I have had fun looking at what you can do. Given the amount of flexibility you have, I kept my very simple and almost insultingly simple. I have a stock wallpaper with the standard fonts, a weather and fitness app on the right, and a stock wallpaper with a weather and fitness app on the left. I like simplicity so this looks great to me, but I am sure many of you will find it dull.

The notifications are presented at the bottom of the lock screen instead of in the middle. Since I am able to reach them so much easier, this has improved how I interact with them. Many of you with the Pro Maxes will like the change.

You are greeted by a familiar home screen when you exit the lock screen. The old page indicator dots have been replaced by a new Spotlight search button. The button is pre-enabled out of the box if you want to. I think it is just a ploy to get more users to realize that Spotlight exists, since you can still use the search feature.

There are supposed to be improvements in Spotlight, but I haven’t noticed any that jump out at me.

There are a lot of new features in Apple’s own apps, including an edit button for texts, a new iCloud shared photo library, and reply reminders and email scheduling. I will be diving deeper into each of them to see if they are worth the upgrade, since they are all very nice-to-have features.

I am completely aware that I questioned the effectiveness of Apple’s advertised features before I told you about an unadvertised feature that could be worthUpgrading toiOS 16 for: Haptic feedback on the keyboard.

Since the stone ages, third-party keyboards have been available on the stock keyboard, but Apple is finally allowing you to use it. This is a game-changer, people. This has made typing on the phone more enjoyable. The light feedback you get from hitting a key is incredibly satisfying, and when coupled with the “click!” sound effect of the keyboard, it’s a chef’s kiss.

I am still looking at all the things you can do with the new operating system. I have not tried the visual look up trick where you can pull a subject from its background and share it in an app without using a photo editor. I haven’t paid for things in installments with Apple Pay Later, I used any of the new navigation tools in Maps, or I ran a shortcut using Siri. With my latest thoughts, expect more updates from iOS 16.

The bugs can be harmful.

A few bugs are kind of annoying. The “Clear All Notifications” button doesn’t work all the time, there are some apps that don’t work at all, and some stock apps that crash for no reason at all. If you don’t know what you’re doing and have a secondary device, I recommend against installing it. I have installed it on my main device because I was a tech reporter. Y’know, for study.

I also installed iPadOS 16 but my experience so far has been sub-par. If I find a feature that isn’t Stage Manager or external display support that is worth discussing, I’ll update you.

Moving on.

Sorry, but the lengthy introduction is a problem. Let us hear some news.

The rest of this week’s edition of “Wiretapped” is available to subscribe.