Author: Emily Dolloff

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on and receive the new iPhone 7 Plus on release day. I skipped the iPhone 6s when it came around so when the 7 was announced I jumped at the chance to upgrade and I haven’t regretted it once. Despite the suggestions from my co-workers I’ve yet to drop my phone into a glass of water…perhaps that review will come in a future issue. For now, I’ll still be playing it a bit safe!

Like many of you, I’ve read some of the reviews out there and some reviewers are less than impressed with the camera. Coming from an iPhone 6, and after a few blunders with my first few photos, I can say it’s clear that there are significant improvements in the quality of the photos. I am not a professional photographer by any means but I enjoy taking photos and take a lot of them. For the first few photos that I took with the phone it appeared that the phone was struggling to focus on the object I was trying to take a photo of. For about a minute the camera was blurring and coming into focus, then blurring again. Once the camera focused, there hasn’t been a single hiccup with my photos but briefly I did wondered if I’d gotten a defective phone.

My first round of photos were taken around dusk so the lighting was low and flat. The pictures came out much better than I expected, and the optical zoom worked much better than I would have thought. I was taking pictures of my campfire and was pleasantly surprised with the details the camera picked up from the fire. Later on that night I took pictures well after dark and quickly learned the flash was not the best option to use even though it was completely dark. The photos all came out very washed and the colors were completely off; turning off the flash dramatically changed the quality of the photos. My iPhone 6 never took a good picture at night but the iPhone 7 plus in comparison takes amazing photos! I took a picture of my dog Piper and the only light was from the campfire and a small outdoor light. I was very impressed!

Night time photos are always something that I’ve struggled with, so I also made sure to take my phone along with me on our trip to the local fair and there I was frankly blown away at the quality of the photos. I took photos all day long, in dimly lit buildings, outside in the bright sun and in cattle barns. Each photo taken that day came out amazing and the details that the camera picked up were way better than I ever expected.

Lastly I finally tried out live photos, which I’ll be honest I never really understood the value of that when the 6s came out. Frankly I still don’t, but it sure is cool! I’m thinking that live photos could be a great opportunity for some very creative memes and some good laughs for my kids. Ultimately, despite what some reviews are reporting, my testing and responses from co-workers on the photos I took over the weekend, the camera in the iPhone 7 plus stands up to the expectations.

Earlier this week at WWDC Apple announced the latest edition of iOS for iPhone and iPad. As is typical with these announcements, the changes to iOS are one of the more exciting software announcements to many users. iPads and iPhones are often the sole device for many users. Some improvements to iOS 10 greatly improve productivity and others give us another excuse to do less. There is a huge list of improvements to iOS 10 and here are some highlights of what’s to come.

Messages got more expressive and makes it even easier to use less words in your text messages. When sending a text in iOS 10 you will now find suggestions for autofilling emojis rather than words. That’s right, autofill for emojis! If you’re never exactly sure what that emoji is, don’t fret, emojis can be sent bigger as well as your text messages with bubbles. Do you feel that emojis just aren’t your thing and prefer a more personal approach to messages? The ability to handwrite a message has now been added to iOS 10, and offers a really cool way to add a personal touch to any message! I guess I’ll forgive Apple for making it easier to send messages without words with the added handwriting feature and lastly celebrations. Celebrations? That’s right, you’ll be able to celebrate a special moment even from afar by sending a full screen affect like balloons or fireworks, pretty cool!

Maps received some pretty cool upgrades this time around. Now when you’re traveling around and utilizing maps you can quickly find and book a cab or even a reservation at a nearby restaurant all without leaving the Maps app. One other slightly hidden feature is the ability to instantly mark where you parked your car. Maps can automatically recognize that you have gotten off the highway and parked your car. It will automatically drop a pin for you in Maps ensuring you will never again forget where you parked your car!

QuickType is getting some pretty incredible upgrades in iOS 10. Using Siri intelligence, your phone or iPad can predict what you might want to say to someone, suggest adding an event to your calendar or change the language with which you respond. Now if you’re having a conversation with someone about dinner reservations, QuickType will pick up on patterns found in your conversation. Easily add a dinner reservation or location right from your conversation.

The Phone feature of your iPhone also is getting some pretty significant improvements which even include the ability to recognize a potential spam call. No longer will you have to be interrupted by a call from a number you don’t recognize only to find out it was a spam call. Your phone will now tell you if it thinks an incoming call is spam. Your phone will now also be able to better work with third-party VoIP calls such as Skype reducing the number of missed calls through apps on your phone.

At WWDC only a small portion of the total improvements to iOS 10 can be talked about, and even this article is missing some, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the improvements they didn’t highlight. In iOS 10 you will now be able to remove stock apps, yes it finally happened! Tired of seeing the Apple Watch app because you still don’t have the watch, just delete it and any other apps that come standard on the phone that have been in your way all this time. If you’re someone who says you wish and need to get on a better sleeping pattern but find each night you once again sat up too late? A bedtime tab can now be found in the alarm App, it can help you to get on a regular sleeping schedule by alerting you it’s time to go to sleep. For those who find that space is an issue on their phone with large music libraries you can now optimize your storage. Your phone can be set to hold an ideal amount of songs and will help you keep your storage in check by automatically removing songs you listen to least often. Lastly one of my favorite finds is that there is now a magnifier built into the accessibility features. It sounds silly, but it’s just made finding that tiny screw or lost pin on the floor easier!

iOS 10 is set to be released sometime in the fall. Unfortunately this means most users still have several months until they can try it out. However, thanks to beta testers already using iOS 10 and the public beta testers in July, you should feel confident that when iOS 10 comes out for public download in the fall it should have only minimal, if any, problems.

iPhones and other electronic devices are not meant to be kept in extreme temperatures. As the summer temperatures rise it’s important to remember that our iPhones can’t perform well in extreme temperatures. iPhones have ideal operating temperatures and work best between 32 and 95 degree Fahrenheit. Leaving your iPhone in your car on a hot day or in direct sunlight can cause your phone to overheat. In addition to being in direct sunlight or in a car on a hot day, your phone can also overheat on warm days if it’s running something graphically intense or using GPS.

If your phone is overheating you will likely notice anomalies in its performance or even an alert on the phone itself. In extreme heat your phone may stop charging, it could have a very dim display or any number of other performance issues. When you’re using an app such as navigation you might even experience that the phone goes to a black screen and seems unresponsive yet the directions are still audible as you drive along.

Should your phone stop working because it’s overheating, it’s also likely to be very warm to the touch as well. What your phone needs it to simply cool down. I have overheated my phones in warm weather a few times, and just like in extreme cold, when your phone shuts down due to extreme operating temperatures it’s simply a matter of time before it comes back to life. This process could be just a few minutes or it might take an hour, but your phone should come back to life. If your phone does not come back on after some period of time a hard reset of your phone might be necessary to help jumpstart your phone back to its previous performance level.