Technology usually sells itself on utility.
You want to listen to music? Here's an app for that.
You want to get healthier? Here's a smartwatch and a slew of apps to assist you.
iOS 12 is the opposite.
Instead of allowing you to do more, it actually aims to help you do less.
That might sound nuts, but there's increasing concern over tech addiction and the negative impacts of being logged on at all times.
New features like Screen Time and updated classics like Do Not Disturb strive to create healthy boundaries with your iPhone.
It feels a bit Zen and is very much a reaction to our times.
You won't see a lot of visual changes in iOS 12, but between Screen Time and the quietly revolutionary Siri Shortcuts, it's the biggest change to iOS in years.
iOS 12.2 also has the foundations for Apple's forthcoming foray into providing its own original streaming shows, which is sure to play a bigger role going forward.
What Is iOS 12?
I've found it useful to think of the different versions of iOS not as a list of updates, but rather as representing new takes on larger themes.
iOS 7, for instance, revamped the visual language for the platform.
The previous release, iOS 11, focused on making the iPad Pro ( at Amazon) a real workhorse rather than merely an expensive gadget.
If iOS 12 were to have a thesis statement, it would be about control.
That said, there are many fun and frivolous inclusions in iOS 12, too.
Memoji, Animoji, and a bevy of other gimmicks cement the importance of the Messages ecosystem.
The Apple Books app has finally been refreshed, and Apple claims the new OS is so lickity-split fast that your keyboard will pop up 50 percent faster (my word!).
But that is all icing.
After making us spend a decade with candy-colored visuals and endless dopamine-squirt inducing notifications, Apple now intends to help us put down our phones.
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There is a logic to this.
The World Health Organization has recently recognized video game addiction as a distinct condition.
It is not an accident that my first time encountering a slot machine felt so familiar because it was effectively Candy Crush with money involved.
Smartphone usage has progressed from the surprising to the enjoyable to the compulsive.
App developers have figured out how to keep us staring at screens, so it's up to Apple to intervene, lest we burn out and chuck our iPhones out the window en masse.
Tech addiction isn't the only human evil Apple hopes to combat.
New security features discourage you from reusing your passwords and encourage you to use complex, unique passwords wherever possible.
To ease the friction of two-factor authentication, Apple now places the one-time-use passcodes you receive via SMS as autofill options in apps.
Siri Shortcuts let customers use their devices in ways that Apple and developers haven't thought of—an unprecedented degree of freedom from the keepers of Apple's walled garden.
The powers available in the Shortcuts app, which I discuss below, safely hand the reins to iOS users, letting them create new ways to interact with their iPhones and iPads.
All this may seem counterintuitive.
Every moment someone uses an app is an opportunity to make a buck.
But Apple and others seem to be playing the long game.
In the short term, this lets the fruit-fueled company react to an issue of the moment.
But what would happen if the anxiety of screen addiction, spurred higher by a chaotic news cycle, reached such a point that people actually rejected the idea of high-end smartphones all together? Personally, I've been unable to stop myself from seeking the dopamine squirts from my smartphone, and I can't be the only one.
At the risk of brutalizing a dead horse, I still deeply dislike the interactions introduced with iOS 11.
Swipe up to get to your task manager, swipe down from the top to reveal the Lock screen/Notification Center (which I still hate).
Swipe down slightly differently to reveal the Control Center.
It's a mess, and one that I am still tripping over.
Perhaps this has more to do with my slow, inevitable transformation into a stodgy, hate-filled technology journalist, trapped in the past and dripping with disdain for anything even slightly different than what I am used to.
But it still feels very inelegant and un-Apple, even a year after these changes were introduced.
How to Get iOS 12
By the time you read this, there's a good chance you already have the latest version of iOS 12 (12.2 as of this writing) installed on your iPhone or are currently downloading it.
iPhone and iPad users tend to update pretty quickly.
What's more, Apple has a good track record for supporting devices for several generations.
According to Apple, iOS 12 will run on everything from the iPhone XS Max down to the iPhone 5s, from the iPad mini 2 to the 12.9 inch iPad Pro.
iPod touch users, however, have just one option, the sixth-generation device.
If you're a fan of updating manually, you start the process by opening the Settings app, tapping General, and then tapping Software Update.
Speaking purely anecdotally, my installation of iOS 12 downloaded and installed remarkably quickly compared to past major updates.
Read our story for details how to get iOS 12.
If you're not a fan of manually updating iOS, you're in luck.
A new feature in iOS 12 is the option to automatically download and install iOS updates.
You can enable this feature from the iOS 12 onboarding screen, or later if you like.
Apple assures its customers that they will receive a notification before updates are installed.
How Does iOS 12 Compare With Android?
First of all, there's a strong argument to be made for not comparing Android and iOS.
You can't, after all, decide to give Android a spin on your iPhone.
You can, however, decide to buy a completely different phone, perhaps based on your opinion of the operating system.
With that in mind, I do make comparisons between the two, but only to illustrate different approaches to the task of making a modern smartphone work.
iOS has a very rigid and regular design, with all your apps appearing in a grid.
You can move apps around, but not off the grid.
All the app icons are the same size and shape.
In Android, there's a wide variety of sizes and shapes for app icons and you control what apps appear on the Home screen(s), while a full list of installed apps is a swipe away.
One caveat is that not all Android app icons look the same, and they may vary depending on the version of the OS.
Both iOS and Android feature notifications at the top of the screen, but Apple has gone all-out with different panels that appear by swiping to the right, up, and down.
Recently, Google has revamped its material design to include bolder, rounded text and large white cards with rounded edges.
If you've used Google Maps recently, that's the look that's taking over Android.
Of course, if you don't like the look of Android, you can install a new Home App and change the look and feel of your phone entirely.
Apple, for its part, has stuck with the design language that has served it well for the past few years, using its trademark font over blurred, transparent panels.
The Apple App Store had a major visual refresh last year, and that white-space-heavy design is now appearing in the Books app, as well as Apple News and Stocks.
Some things just aren't comparable, however.
The iOS App Store continues to be a monumental force, but Google has nearly closed the gap.
As a media retailer, iTunes still appears to be the top dog compared with Google Play Movies and the recently rebranded YouTube Music.
But streaming video options like Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, and, yes, YouTube have taken the spotlight from traditional media purchasing models.
In the realm of security, Apple has always quietly portrayed itself as untouchable and unbreakable, ahead of the competition, but that's changing.
Google, has made impressive strides not just in policing its own app store, but in extending malware protection to people installing apps from third-party marketplaces.
Google's security team is no longer talking about what they are doing to hold the line or improve.
Instead, they are looking ahead to new smartphone use cases that require an ultrasecure foundation, such as controlling medical devices.
Call it hubris, or call it a sea change.
But it's worth remembering that Apple's so-called walled-garden approach has worked to bring not just security, but also the impression of security, for over a decade.
And then there's fragmentation.
Because Apple controls both the hardware and the software, it can tailor the experience to best effect.
Even that feels like it's changing, however.
Instead of just one device, Apple now supports five different sizes and specs of iPhones, three different iPads, and one iPod.
Google, on the other hand, has tried to position the sheer bulk of devices running Android as a feature, not a bug.
It's about individuality and choice, you see.
Sometimes that simply means you won't receive the latest version of the OS, however.
According to Google's own stats for October 2018, the Android 8.0-8.1 is only running on 21.5 percent of devices.
Android 6.0—nearly three years old—still commands 21.3 percent of users, and Android 7.0-7.1 covers 28.2 percent.
iOS 12 adoption rates, by contrast, hit 10 percent in 48 hours, and some pundits were saying that represented a worrying low rate for Apple's OS.
To my mind, the choice between Apple and Android long ago exited the realm of the objective and is now an entirely subjective choice.
Which device you buy will depend as much on what you bought before as it will on what you want to buy in the future, either because of cost, prestige, friends and family, or ethics.
The Story So Far
Since the release of iOS 12, Apple has continued to push bug fixes, security updates, and new features to devices.
In fact, the wide adoption and frequency of updates are among the best qualities of iOS.
Some notable improvements include the successful rollout of Group FaceTime.
FaceTime video chats can now support up to 32 simultaneous participants, and feature end-to-end encryption.
Apple explained that all participants in a Group Facetime call must be using at least an iPhone 6s, an iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, or iPad Mini 4 running iOS 12.1 or later.
If your devices are older or running an earlier version of the OS, you can join as an audio-only participant.
iOS 12 also boasts support for eSim.
eSim allows a single iPhone to support two different phone numbers simultaneously.
It is limited to newer iOS devices, including iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.
Daxdi analyst Sascha Segan explains:
With a built-in eSIM, you'll be able to pick from a menu of carriers, switch at will, and add a second physical SIM if you feel like it or if your carrier doesn't support eSIM.
In preparation for its new streaming initiatives, iOS 12.2 includes new voice and screen controls for media.
Most importantly, the latest versions of iOS 12 have introduced still more emoji.
These cover a range of subjects, from hair type (or lack of hair), to food, to animals (at last, the warthog) and to, as Apple puts it, "more emotive smiley faces." As of iOS 12.2, over 70 new emoji have been added.
Services With a Smile
When iOS 12 launched in September of 2018 Apple was clearly putting its chips down on screen addiction.
And the features discussed below are still the biggest change in iOS 12 from iOS 11.
As of iOS 12.2, Apple has started laying the foundation for its slew of premium services.
These extend from a literal actual credit card backed by Apple (backed by Goldman Sachs and provided by MasterCard), to the Apple Arcade subscription service that aims to promote high-quality iOS games, to another stab at digital magazine subscriptions with Apple News+, to forth-coming big-name TV projects from the likes of Spielberg and Oprah with Apple TV+.
(Photo by Michael Short/Getty Images)
I can only guess as to how these as-yet unlaunched services will be received, but I do see these "Plus" subscriptions as a radical new direction for Apple.
iTunes and iPods and iPhones have changed the entertainment industry in fundamental ways, but especially Apple TV+ puts Apple in a whole new ballgame.
Apple is now effectively offering you a fully vertically integrated media experience: Apple content, on Apple devices, presented with Apple software.
Much of this is likely done in the service of the famous Apple lock-in.
Apple customers keep coming back, again and again, in part because Apple is where all their stuff lives.
Their movies, their music, even their text messages.
My colleague Sascha Segan believes, and I agree, that services like the Apple Card and Apple TV+ are in the same vein, and perhaps portend a future where we buy devices as much on their specs and appearance as the fringe-benefit services they supply.
Segan also describes Apple's TV production aspirations as "quixotic," which is a better and more succinct statement about all that than I could make.
What I can talk about is Apple News+, the only premium subscription service available as of iOS 12.2.
Like the Apple Music streaming service, iOS users get a month for free and then have to pony up $9.99 per month.
What you get is access to hundreds of magazines and periodicals, presented sumptuously on those lovely iDevice screens.
All of this lives inside an updated iOS Apple News app, although it will be available on macOS as well.
The News app has a few tweaks around the edges, but the News+ magazines are the stars.
Once subscribed you can browse a respectably enormous selection of colorful magazines, from the New Yorker to National Geographic.
It's an impressive array of options, and the notion that all of them are available for reading is a bit staggering.
You can favorite a title to ensure you see all the latest editions, and download individual issues for offline reading.
That's especially important, since only your downloaded issues appear when your device is Airplane Mode.
Many magazine issues include dynamic multimedia elements, like animated covers, embedded videos, and photo galleries.
Most articles are arranged vertically, so you scroll down as you read.
Swipe left or right to move forward or back between articles.
The days of skeumorphic page turns are long gone, and I much prefer this mobile-centric approach.
It just seems classier.
In general, the content of News+ looks amazing....
