Showing what music or podcast I’m playing is the most frequent (and useful) version of this for me. I keep all my music apps and podcasts in a folder on my home screen, which means if I want to pause or change the track while I’m looking at another app, I used to have to go to my home screen, tap my Music folder, open the Spotify app and then press pause or skip, or swipe up and find the app in the background. The new way is faster, more convenient, and feels completely intuitive, like a feature that’s always been around.
Audio aside, though, the Dynamic Island feature wasn’t quite the game-changer I thought it might be. It didn’t totally revolutionize the way I use my phone, but it was just…nice. Better.
screen always on
In comparison, I made find the always-on display extremely useful. This is a feature that has been around on some Android phones for a while now, and for now, it’s an exclusive feature of the iPhone Pro 14. When you put the phone down, the clock still shows up, which is extremely useful if you use the phone as your main clock. However, it also showed me some notifications. For example, I received a ping from Twitter, which of course made me want to open the app right away (oh no).
This was a nasty side effect. We all struggle with our basic urges to constantly check our phones – we’re always trying to find the right balance between staying connected in the way we need to and wasting time mindlessly scrolling for dopamine hits. I had come to a good place in my screen time journey, but always on ruined everything.
Emergency calls
Here’s the big caveat about whether you should buy this phone: If you’re camping, hiking, or spending time in places without cell service, you should definitely get the new iPhone 14 (Pro or not), if you can afford it, even if you have a very expensive phone model. recent. The satellite emergency call is an absolutely amazing feature if you are the type of person who gets caught up in the murderous nature.
Being able to make an emergency call if you get lost or injured while hiking, camping, skiing, boating, mushrooming with your friends you met in the Phish parking lot, or getting stuck in a 127 hours–Situation type is literally the difference between life and death. Please don’t die, we need all the readers we can get. If this seems like something you need, get it.
