Friday, Sept. 25, 2015 brought the release of the next generation of iPhone. Pre-orders were shipped out, and people all over world stood in queue lines to get their hands on the newest in the iPhone lineup.
Besides the new rose gold color, the outer appearance of the phones hasn’t changed from last year’s iteration. In fact, the rose gold iPhones were actually the first ones to sell out during preorder. What matters most, though, is not the new color, but what's inside with these new phones.
The iPhone 6s and 6s+ bring 3D touch to the table. The phone will sense how much pressure the user is applying to the screen. When the first iPhones came out, everyone was amazed with how multi-touch changed the game for touch screen phones. Now, we have the next advancement. In addition to the multi-touch gestures everyone already knows, 3D touch will allow users to preview new emails, text messages, etc., and choose whether to reply or delete the message without having to open it. If you decide you do want to open the message, press down a little bit harder on the screen and the email will open up for you. Similarly, you can take the same action to preview links to websites. Quick actions will allow you to bring up the things you do most on your iPhone in fewer steps.
Of course, as always, the new iPhones are faster and better at what they do. New cameras allow for 4K video and 12MP photos. The front-facing camera, which includes a flash feature, will step up your selfie game. This feature turns the screen into the flash itself, matching the color to your surroundings. Live photos is another new camera feature. This allows you to take a stunning picture, while also capturing the moments directly before and after the photo. When you press anywhere on the photo, it will begin to move. You can even make that beautiful photo your lock screen, so you can always relive the memory when you take out your phone. All of the new phones you will be enable you to choose the quality of the videos you record. You can choose 720p and the frame rate of your recordings.
Unfortunately, someone has already found a security flaw in iOS 9. I won’t explain the exact details, but it involves exploiting the ability to use Siri when the phone is locked. If the user has a simple four or six-digit numeric passcode, it can be done. Longer, alphanumeric passcodes are safe. To fix this problem before Apple does, go into your settings and disable the usage of Siri when the phone is locked. One security improvement with the new model is a more sensitive, faster, and accurate Touch ID.
All in all, the new iPhone seems to have some cool new features. Most of them involve the camera and 3D touch. If you’re a big photo and video buff, upgrading your phone might be worth it. Otherwise, wait until your contract is up, and surely there will be another generation out already.
