Paste issue fixed & battery indicator refined in new iOS 16.1 beta

AppleInsider

Apple's iOS 16.1 developer beta released on Tuesday fixes a bug relating to pasting permissions, as well as makes revisions to how the battery indicator works.

Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 16.1 on Tuesday, and early exploration of the release reveals a few interesting additions to the iPhone operating system.

The first is a bug that has plagued iOS 16 users with prompts whenever they go to copy and paste data from one app into another. The repeated prompts have annoyed users, and Apple did confirm on Monday that it would be looking into the matter.

In the iOS 16.1 beta, it seems that Apple has fixed the bug that has caused the problem.

Another is a change to the battery indicator. In iOS 16, Apple added an option that allowed a percentage to be shown in the battery indicator instead of a visually depleting battery icon, on most currently-used iPhones. The new beta appears to combine the two concepts together.

The old filled battery icon (left), the new beta indicator (right)

Seen in the beta, the indicator now takes the form of the battery percentage, complete with the battery in the background. However, the battery now depletes its white color to give a visual representation of battery level, with the rest of the indicator turning grey.

More details of changes Apple has made to the beta are still being searched for, and will most likely surface over the coming days.

Read on AppleInsider

ladunn454

Bug fixed that had disabled swiping through Home Screen multi page folders. 

Ladunn454

jintech

ladunn454 said:

Bug fixed that had disabled swiping through Home Screen multi page folders. 

Ladunn454

I noticed in Control Center, that there is no "control" for my HomeKit enabled light unless I click on Home first. If I go into Settings, toggle "Show Home Control" then open Control Center with the Settings open it will show up, but as soon as I close Settings, it disappears again. This is surely a big bug! It operated like normal in the last version of iOS 15 and it's pretty irritating that I have to go through three screens just to turn on or off my light.

edited September 2022

mike1

Glad to see the updated the battery indicator. I actually went back to the old style. At a quick glance, it always looked fully charged.

jfc_pa

the battery indicator change is a good one: sometimes I just want to glance at it and not focus enough attention to read the small numbers. 

So this is less distracting. 

edited September 2022

dewme

Yeah, it's kind of nice to have the tiny number back on the home screen, but a more readable numerical value has always been just a swipe away.

What would be truly interesting for me would be if Apple used its machine learning and predictive logic prowess from its neural processing engine to give iPhone, iPad, and MacBook users the option of displaying an "estimated battery life remaining" in hours and minutes instead of displaying the battery percentage.

This estimate would be based not only on the remaining battery charge, the battery load imposed by currently running apps, OS services, active hardware components (radios, cameras, haptics, image stabilizers, etc.) but also your historical use of the device for a given combination of day-of-week, time-of-day, focus mode, charging patterns, use of power saving mode, scheduled events, etc.

Again, this would still be an estimate and an optional feature, but a smart estimate that is weighted by your historical battery usage and battery charging patterns over time, location, and other significant contextual qualifiers - all those variables seeding the machine learning algorithms. It would of course dynamically adapt to real time and in situ conditions, like poor cellular signals that cause the radios to crank-up their power, or you suddenly engaging in a lengthy video recording session. The real value here is that the phone could provide better insight and advice into when you should consider looking for a charging opportunity or engaging low power mode.

With the current state of the iPhone and its battery percentage indicator you are implicitly doing these sort of estimations in your brain to a large extent. You basically have to monitor that tiny little indicator (or swipe to the alternate view) to provide input into your neural processing so you can take action as needed. Having the phone do some of this processing proactively on your behalf, so you don't have to stare down that tiny battery percentage indicator would be helpful. The phone could remind you to bring your charger when you leave your home or make sure your phone is charged to at least a certain level before you start your weekly virtual meeting with your team over Zoom or FaceTime if you are not plugged into a power source.

edited September 2022

strangedays

dewme said:

Yeah, it's kind of nice to have the tiny number back on the home screen, but a more readable numerical value has always been just a swipe away.

What would be truly interesting for me would be if Apple used its machine learning and predictive logic prowess from its neural processing engine to give iPhone, iPad, and MacBook users the option of displaying an "estimated battery life remaining" in hours and minutes instead of displaying the battery percentage.

This estimate would be based not only on the remaining battery charge, the battery load imposed by currently running apps, OS services, active hardware components (radios, cameras, haptics, image stabilizers, etc.) but also your historical use of the device for a given combination of day-of-week, time-of-day, focus mode, charging patterns, use of power saving mode, scheduled events, etc.

Again, this would still be an estimate and an optional feature, but a smart estimate that is weighted by your historical battery usage and battery charging patterns over time, location, and other significant contextual qualifiers - all those variables seeding the machine learning algorithms. It would of course dynamically adapt to real time and in situ conditions, like poor cellular signals that cause the radios to crank-up their power, or you suddenly engaging in a lengthy video recording session. The real value here is that the phone could provide better insight and advice into when you should consider looking for a charging opportunity or engaging low power mode.

With the current state of the iPhone and its battery percentage indicator you are implicitly doing these sort of estimations in your brain to a large extent. You basically have to monitor that tiny little indicator (or swipe to the alternate view) to provide input into your neural processing so you can take action as needed. Having the phone do some of this processing proactively on your behalf, so you don't have to stare down that tiny battery percentage indicator would be helpful. The phone could remind you to bring your charger when you leave your home or make sure your phone is charged to at least a certain level before you start your weekly virtual meeting with your team over Zoom or FaceTime if you are not plugged into a power source.

While that would be interesting, it also introduces new issues. Dynamic battery time remaining via current process monitoring and historic use would of course use more power than not doing that. And then you need a way to present that information — instead of a 2-digit number it becomes multiple words, taking up more space. 

Me, I’m fine doing the minimal cognitive processing — when it’s red I know it’s time to charge soon. When it’s a low single digit I know I have very little time left, just minutes. Doesn’t really seem like a problem that needs solving.

602warren

Personally I prefer the way the battery indicator displays now - with simple digits on top of a solid battery icon, regardless of charge level.

dewme

Apple needs to rethink all of the indicators it throws in the user’s face. The battery percentage indicator, whether graphical or numerical, has room for improvement but it’s actually more relatable than its two siblings; the cellular strength and WiFi strength indicators.

The battery indicator gives the user something that they can actually act on. If the battery level is low they can plug their device into a charger, put it in low power mode, quit playing the game they’re playing, quit their endless social media scrolling, or quit using the device entirely until it’s absolutely needed.

The two signal strength indicators are much less actionable, and especially so with less technically savvy users, which is probably the greater majority of users. Sure, these indicators can inform users who understand what the indicators mean about why their device may be having a hard time communicating, or communicating slowly, but what users can actually do about it is not obvious. If you’re cellular signal is low when you’re in your home, like mine always is, what are you expected to do? Pack up and move? I suppose if you’re driving around in your car you can scan the horizon for a cell tower and drive closer to it.

I won’t go on about this any more than to say that it’s one thing to inform users that there is a problem, but it’s far more useful if you can tell users what to to about it, i.e., how to fix the problem. The remedy based approach is not always possible, but consideration for pursuing a remedy based approach should be a priority. In other words, the screen space currently devoted to the signal strength indicators could be reduced (perhaps to red-yellow-green dots), not to mention the totality useless carrier name, to give more space for indicators that provide more actionable information, like remaining battery runtime.

edited September 2022