iOS 11 is True Level

 

“Wow, it’s so…oh my God!”
“Yeah, True Level, bitch.”
“Everything’s crooked! Reality is poison! I wanna go back!”

–Morty and Rick, Rick and Morty

While it’s not the Mid-Autumn Festival, iOS 11 released earlier today, bringing with it a host of powerful new features to Apple’s mobile operating system platform. This year, I’ve been running with iOS 11 on my iPhone since late August as a result of requiring the operating system for compatibility testing at work, and back in June, I tested iOS 11 with my iPad. While an impressive operating system, iOS 11 also rendered my iPad incapable of publishing WordPress posts, so I reverted to iOS 10 to ensure that I could quickly publish my Kimi no na wa talk on short order if needed. However, in the time that’s passed, Apple has refined and polished iOS 11 significantly – it’s as responsive as iOS 10, and all of my apps are operational this time around. The differences between iOS 10 and iOS 11 on an iPhone are largely under-the-hood: there’s a new Control Centre that offers customisation, and a new file system app, but beyond this, iOS 11 remains quite similar to iOS 10. Having spent a half-hour exploring iOS 11 on an iPad, the differences become much more pronounced. Multi-tasking is much more powerful, and after mastering the new gestures to being up the Control Centre, I am given an immediate overview of all open apps. The beta did not allow apps to be closed with a swipe, but the release version returns this feature. It’s easier to place apps side-by-side, and there’s a powerful new drag-and-drop feature that allows me to pull image and text from one app and place them into another. The new dock makes the iPad feel more like Mac OS X than ever before, giving my iPad Air 2 a rejuvenated feel to it.

• The most noticeable change on the iPad’s home screen between iOS 10 and iOS 11 is the presence of a Mac OS X-like dock. Fresh after installation, I have no previously used apps here, and while simple, the inclusion of an option to immediately return to my three most recent apps was one of my favourite features of iOS 11 when I tested it in the beta, allowing me to access very quickly recent apps without needing to open a folder.

• I admit that opening Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will take some getting used to now that it’s been moved to the right from the bottom, but the new Control Centre has a distinctly iOS feel to it now, compared to the more Android-like multi-tasking interface seen in earlier incarnations of iOS. One feature noticeably absent from iOS 11 is the fact that I cannot hold down on the Wi-Fi icon and select a network to connect to (or do the same for BlueTooth).

• The dock can be accessed from any app, making it possible to now jump to one’s favourite apps or more recently used app much more quickly than previously possible. The changes to Safari, the default browser in iOS, are subtle: corners of the URL bar are now rounded, in keeping with Apple’s latest themes, which are inspired by magazines. I’ve never been too big of a fan of this format, but the theme feel a lot more unified now in iOS 11, since the App Store also makes use of the layout, and the larger text size does make things pop a little more.

• Once I mastered the gestures for multi-tasking, I was able to read about and watch GochiUsa simultaneously without any difficulties. Familiar and novel at the same time, iOS 11’s improvements are most noticeable on an iPad: only the iPad Air and later will be able to upgrade to iOS 11. With iOS 11, however, Apple drops support for 32-bit apps. While they’ve been phasing this out and have encouraged developers to submit 64-bit builds since iOS 9, iOS 11 marks a point where there’s a hard cutoff. Users with 32-bit apps will find that they no longer open.

• This is Apple’s file system on iOS 11: it’s modelled after Mac OS X’s Finder, and while it does not provide access to an iOS device’s local file system, it is quite functional, working with iCloud. I foresee storing some of my documents here in the future to make use of the system, even if I’ve previously been not so big with iCloud. It typifies Apple’s tendency to only provide features once they’re fully fledged, and once added, iOS users find the features immensely useful. This prompts the choice of the page quote, which comes from Rick and Morty‘s third season: once one experiences something of a high standard, it’s hard to go back.

Other features added with iOS 11 include an improved file system, which has allowed me to free up upwards of 4 GB of space on my 16 GB iPhone 6 (this is something I was most pleased with), a new image compression format that allows images taken from the camera to take up a little less space, and upgraded Siri, which feels more powerful than it has previously. The keybaord on the iPad has been improved so one no longer has to hit another button to access some numbers and symbols, which could be useful for conversations and writing passages that are rich with symbols and numbers. On the developer side, I’ve also got access to Xcode 9, which adds the long awaited Swift refactoring capability and an upgraded error system that makes it easier to find and correct errors in code. AR Kit and Core ML are exciting new additions, as well, and while I don’t foresee a use for these APIs in the near future, there is no doubt that these powerful new libraries could allow developers to make apps of a much greater utility and immersion than before. This year, the upgrade paths for both Xcode 9 and iOS 11 proved remarkably smooth: I still vividly recall the year where a botched update forced me to restore my iPad. On the other hand, things this time around were as simple as hitting the “Update” button and entering a password. I’m curious to see how I’ll make use of the new features in iOS 11, especially for the iPad, in the days upcoming. One thing is certain, though: iOS 11 is a very welcome update, and explaining the title of this post, “True Level” is sourced from the latest episode of Rick and Morty. In this context, something that is “True Level” is sublime, and of an incredible quality, rather than referring to a hypothetical surface where every possible point is perpendicular to the plumb line.

iOS 10- Initial Impressions on a Mid-Autumn Festival

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” —Che Guevara

Released just two days ago, on September 13, iOS 10 is the latest iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system. With my years of experience in updating to the newest versions of iOS, I can easily say that this year’s update was by far the smoothest: I plugged in my devices, ran the installers and followed the on-screen prompts to load iOS 10. When completed, I was immediately welcomed with iOS 10’s latest feature: a redesigned lock screen that allows access to a plethora of widgets and the camera. The notifications system has also been given updates, making it easier than ever to respond to new events as they occur. Similarly, the control center has been given an overhaul, giving users separate panes to control their devices. Together with the new widgets menu, iOS 10 makes it easier than ever to quickly glance at one’s email inbox or the weather. The music app has also been given some updates and changes in organisation. I was rather fond of the system implemented in iOS 9, and the new music app feels a little unintuitive by comparison, although I imagine that with time, I’ll get used to things. I’ve only been playing around with iOS 10 for half an hour, so there are plenty of new features, including an improved iMessage client, multi-lingual keyboard and changes to the built-in email client, but so far, the experience has been relatively smooth.

• My home screen hasn’t actually changed all that much since iOS 9 (or iOS 8, for that matter). I still organise my apps the same way I did back in 2013, although my collection of games and utilities have grown since then. One of my favourite apps is PDF Expert, an incredibly powerful and useful apps that allows for PDF organisation and annotation. I’ve utilised it to keep track of schedules during conferences and revisions to my thesis, although now that I’m done my graduate program, I’m not too certain as to whether or not I’ll use PDF expert frequently.

• Instead of zooming in fully to a folder, the new visualisation system in iOS 10 expands a folder over the home screen as an overlay. It’s a very subtle change from iOS 9, although I’ve grown rather fond of this functionality. Pages and Keynote for iOS are visible here, now with powerful new features. I made extensive use of both apps during my thesis: I had backed up my defense presentation to iCloud as a countermeasure for if my MacBook Pro should fail, and also was quite prepared to defend using my iPhone, but fortunately, the defense proceeded without a hitch. I later would bring my iPad to Cancún for the ALIFE XV Conference and gave a pair of presentations there.

• The new control center is much more expansive and spacious compared to previous incarnations, and I’ve immediately taken a liking to it: all of the features are out in the open now, making it very easy to make small adjustments to the iPad or iPhone even on the fly. The usefulness of the control center is such that I now can’t imagine operating an iOS device without it: it makes turning on the WiFi or Bluetooth significantly easier. The new widgets center is also a pleasant improvement, as is the new notifications center, but because tonight’s been a quiet evening, I haven’t seen it in operation yet.

• The new music app feels a lot more rudimentary than its iOS 9 counterpart, with its increased use of white space and larger font sizes. I can still find and play songs with ease as I did with the previous music app, and while I’m not too fond of the new, larger UI elements, I can adapt. However, iOS 10’s music app has one critical omission: lyrics are gone now for all songs loaded onto the device. It’s a move reminiscent of what happened in iOS 5, and while I’ve not used the lyrics mechanism in iOS for quite some time, its absence is rather noticeable.

• The iPad Air 2 can still handle multi-tasking flawlessly with iOS 10: I’m browsing through a webpage, reading a Wikipedia article and watching the first episode of Sora no Woto here at the same time, and each app handles smoothly. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting an anime-related post in quite some time (the past four posts have dealt with games to some capacity, and the Planetarian review was written nearly a month ago). With that being said, New Game! is reaching its conclusion, and surprisingly, I’m reasonably caught up, so a post will be coming out within a week of the finale’s release near the month’s end.

Besides seeing my upgrading to iOS 10, today also happens to be the Mid-Autumn festival, celebrating the autumn full moon on the lunar calendar and the associated harvest celebrations. While this year’s schedule precluded a full banquet, there’s always time for Moon Cake. Further to this, the weather this year has been remarkably pleasant (after nearly a full month of rain in August), and the harvest moon looks marvelous, with its golden hue. It’s far cry from the events of two years ago, where a massive snowstorm rolled into my AO hours after sunset on the evening of the Mid-Autumn festival. Returning back to iOS 10, as with my assessment of iOS 9 from last year, the latest iOS turns out to be a pleasant upgrade from its predecessor; both my iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 handle the new system with ease. My devices lack a 3D-touch sensor and the M9 processor, so I won’t be able to capitalise on some of the more novel features that come with iOS 10 (speaking to the pace at which these incremental changes are made), but all of the minor updates, coupled with the fact that they don’t seem to detrimentally impact the performance or battery life of my older devices, means that iOS 10 will be a fine update for frequent use in the upcoming year.

iOS 9- Initial Impressions

Apple’s iOS 9 released back on September 16; since it was announced back at WWDC 2015 back during June, iOS 9 has been one of the more anticipated of Apple’s mobile operating systems. Numerous new features, including split-screen multi-tasking for iPad Air 2 (and other useful multitasking operations that allow me to watch my anime and chat with friends in Facebook chat or Skype simultaneously, or go back to the last opened application), an improved keyboard that makes it easier to type and under-the-hood optimisations that boost battery life by an additional hour and a powerful new Notes app that allows for rich-text notes, check-lists and even drawings. There’s also a content-blocker program in place now, making it possible to download apps that block apps, streamlining the web-browsing experience. Siri is also more powerful, and the notifications centre has been updated so all of the information is more visible. All of these new features come just in time as the iOS programming course I’m TA’ing is kicking into high gear: we’re just moving past the basics of programming in Swift 2.0 (which is quite differnt than Swift 1.2 and admittedly, any other language I’ve worked with so far) and I’m just about done grading the first batch of assignments, which deals with Playgrounds in Xcode. Xcode 7’s also out now, so the students will be able to develop in Swift 2.0 for iOS 9 (their first iOS app will be due this Wednesday). I’m quite happy that the updates came when they did: I still recall that they released iOS 5 in October 2011, which would’ve been a ways into term. Had this been the case, it would’ve been more difficult for the students, who would need to upgrade midway into term.

• Outwardly, iOS 9 doesn’t look too different than iOS 8. However, there are subtle hints that this is an iPad rocking iOS 9: the spotlight icon makes a return from iOS 6, and on the iPad, folders now store apps in four by four, rather than three by three, increasing the capacity of each folder. Since my last talk in iOS 8 and the iPad Air 2, I’ve picked up several new games that merit their own discussions at some point in the near future.

• The new notifications centre properly capitalises on the iPad’s space to display information in a more compact manner. I prefer it over the notification centre of iOS 8, and yesterday evening, it promptly notified me of Beakerhead’s Beakernight event yesterday evening. I met up with a friend and we partook in the signature “flaming skee-ball“, watched a band perform with novel instruments, and viewed some E. coli artwork being exhibited. I ran into several friends and colleagues later in the evening and picked up a hot cocoa as the air began to cool.

• The new iOS keyboard changes to indicate whether or not a user will be typing in lower or upper case. Though a long-present feature on Windows Phone 8 and Android, it was absent from iOS for the longest time and made it difficult to tell whether one had the shift key engaged. Though a small change, this is much appreciated, especially since the keyboard is oft-used. Siri and Spotlight are much more powerful now, and there’s even a search option in the Settings, making it easier to find certain settings to configure. With a hardware keyboard plugged in, Apple-Tab actually allows for apps to be switched between like on a desktop, and Apple-Shift-H returns users to the home screen.

• Only available to the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3 and upcoming iPad Pro, split-screen is a powerful addition that allows the iPad to do two things at once. Though it’s limited to a handful of apps at present, such a feature will be immensely useful for productivity (such as reading a PDF and writing a paper in Pages simultaneously, or running a Skype conversation while browsing the internet). Once developers capitalise on this feature, split-screen multi-tasking will become an indispensable feature on an iPad. Whilst we’re speaking of fish and chips, I returned to Billingsgate Seafood Market on Thursday for a fish-and-chips dinner prior to this season’s first Nerd Night: the light, crisp batter and tender, flakey fish was tasty, as were the freshly-cut fries, and the Nerd Night talks were as engaging as dinner was delicious.

• Though I’m unlikely to actually watch Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka? and read Tom Clancy’s Theat Vector at the same time, I am thoroughly enjoying the picture-in-picture feature, which is quite useful for when I’m watching a video and chatting with friends in Facebook chat or Skype. Coming up next will be a talk on the final episodes to Non Non Biyori, followed by a review of Metro: 2033 Redux, which I beat yesterday.

iOS 9 is an incremental update to iOS 8; despite offering no major overhauls, the subtle changes made to the operating system here and there confer major benefits to the users that far exceed the differences between iOS 6 and iOS 7. All of these subtle changes make the iPad much easier to use for both productivity and recreation. There are a few bugs here and there (such as bookmarks disappearing from the favourites bar in Safari, or the wallpaper turning black for a half-second when exiting a folder), as well. On the whole, though, iOS 9 is quite stable while providing new features that make it easier than ever to get something done. All of these features are available for the iPad Air 2 and latest iPad Mini, as well as the upcoming iPad Pro, but surprisingly enough, the iPad 2 is capable of running iOS 9, albeit with limited features and probably with a much lower performance. I predicted that the iOS 8 would be the latest operating system the iPad 2 could run, but it is somewhat impressive that Apple is continuing to support updates for the iPad 2. For the present, though, the iPad Air 2 has replaced the iPad 2 as my workhorse tablet, and rocking iOS 9 means getting more done, more efficiently.

Deer Hunter 2014- The Lost Temple and Glacial Bay

“You know, if you need 100 rounds to kill a deer, maybe hunting isn’t your sport.” —Elayne Boosler

A few weeks ago, Glu Games released the latest update to Deer Hunter 2014, adding to the game a host of new features, including bows and crossbows and special stealth hunt challenges. Moreover, bounties were added, encouraging players to play through older regions again to complete specific tasks (e.g. take down so many animals with lung shots, etc). Successfully completing a bounty yields gold and consumables. While the bounties and new weapons are exciting on its own, things get even more interesting with the addition of a new hidden region called the Lost Temple, which is unlocked by completing rare hunts and bow missions in regions four and five. As well, region ten, Glacial Bay, was released, as well, adding new weapons and hunts to the game.

• Here, I am equipped with the crossbow, which deals more damage than the compound bow but also has a reduced firing rate and suppression effect. The projectiles from the bow and crossbow behave like bullets, so there’s no need to compensate for bullet drop. When I first began using the bows, I thought that gravity would need to be factored for and missed many of my shots, although having worked with physics engines for my research projects before, I cannot hold it against Glu Games for not implementing a physics engine in Deer Hunter 2014.

• Old temple ruins overgrown with vibrant vegetation and tropical forests define the Lost Temple region. I’m inclined to say that this region is either set in Myanmar or Thailand because of its architecture: Aztec and Mayan temples have a different style.

• Players will need to invest Platinum Eagles into both their crossbow and compound bow to complete the eighty missions and five trophy hunts. The only way to earn them is via rare hunts and other special event hunts, making it a slower process. Gold can be used instead, although even with new new bounty missions, gold is still slow to come by, making progression through the lost temple much slower than through the conventional regions.

• I’ve been hearing about how some individuals were disappointed about how the Spring Break challenges and updates made the game lean increasingly in a pay-to-win manner, although I counter that I’ve gotten quite a bit of enjoyment from Deer Hunter 2014 without spending a single penny: of note was the particularly lucky discount I got on a special assault rifle that let me unlock a region 10 break-action shotgun, and because I had a Halloween event pistol leftover from way back, I’ve now unlocked the region 10 pistol, as well.

• That just looks beautiful: take a moment to gaze at the night sky and marvel at the shooting stars that occasionally streak by.

• The trophy hunts in the Lost Temple are very demanding in that a large number of platinum eagles are required to upgrade the crossbow and compound bow to the specifications. The best trick is to play as many of the regular missions as possible and do rare hunts as they appear to continue acquiring platinum eagles for upgrades.

• While Deer Hunter 2014 might call them customisations, the upgrades are mandatory. By the time one is finished the hidden region, they will have a maxed out compound bow (minus the infrared) and a maxed out crossbow.  With fully upgraded weapons, the trophy hunts aren’t anywhere near a challenge, and in fact, the biggest challenge is finding the target.

• Upon completing all of the trophy hunts, the Barton Hawk is unlocked. At this point in time, I see no reason in upgrading it, but one way or another, I do have all of the bows and crossbows now. I realise that players are dropping off comments asking me how to unlock certain things in the game, and to that, I can only say that 1) if you’re not playing on iOS, these regions don’t exist, and 2) if you’re having trouble unlocking things, patience is your friend, since there are no shortcuts in Deer Hunter 2014 besides paying coin for gold.

• Just for completeness’ sake, here’s a picture of me armed with the region ten shotgun in region ten. Glacial Bay is set in the far north, and like the Klondike region, only has one unique area. Of course, the moody and cold hills are quite nice, reminding me of some of the moments in Survivorman.

• The G&H Seeker assault rifle I have from the event is powerful enough to be useful even in Region 10: carefully placed shots allow me to down opponents that supposedly need a more powerful rifle. As it stands now, I cannot say I’m particularly inclined to continue writing about Deer Hunter 2014 when I have a vast collection of other games (for both iOS and PC) that I would eventually like to get around doing.

Set in the lush Southeast Asian jungles, the Lost Temple looks absolutely beautiful and is well worth the effort taken to unlock it. The region requires both the standard bow and crossbow to complete, and these are upgraded with a new earnable currency known as the Platinum Eagle, which is rewarded for successfully completing bow hunts and rare missions. These new additions to the game are refreshing and offer the incentive to continue playing, breathing new life into a game that quickly can become repetitive; at present, the lack of a cloud save feature is still the game’s biggest detractor, given that any error could undo months of progress in-game. Nonetheless, Deer Hunter 2014 remains a solid game, and I’m enjoying the inclusion of these new gameplay mechanics, although I think my time would be better spent blogging about other things.

How to earn the Steam Hardware Candidate Badge

I’ve actually been out of the loop for quite a long time with Steam-related stuff, but today, I was looking through my profile when I realised that there was a badge that looked like I could quickly attain without much effort on my part. I am referring to the Hardware Candidate Badge, which is given out for completing four actions. The fifth action awards the Enthusiast badge, although since that expired on Friday, I won’t go into much details about it. However, attaining the first badge itself is very straightforward. There are four requirements and four correspondingly easy actions: some of these requirements may already be satisfied and won’t require further action on the reader’s part, while others will require at most five minutes to complete.

1. Join the Steam Universe group- This is easy; at the URL, there’s a button to join the group. Just click that to complete this requirement. Those wishing to opt out later can find a “Leave group” button on the side of the page.
2. Make 10 friends- Ask around and see if anyone wants to be friends. Most people should already have this one unlocked.
3. Create a public Steam Community profile- Most players should already have a profile; players with a public profile will already have this one unlocked, but people like me, who have other privacy settings, will need to go into their profile privacy settings and set their profile to “public”. This will unlock, and then one may switch back to their previous settings.
4. Launch and play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode- This is the toughest one to unlock, but even then, it’s quite easy. Download VJoy, a virtual controller, and install it. Readers will need the one with the key to the joy application. Once it installs, open the program’s settings and map “Button 2” to any key, preferably “A”. The next step is to open Steam’s Big Picture mode, choose a game, and hit “A” to run it. The achievement should unlock, and those wishing not to keep VJoy can uninstall it.

• That red ring around my level number is pretty dapper. What’s my favourite badge, one asks? That would have to be the Steam Sightseer one, because it is a cool (virtual) keepsake reminding me of how pro the Steam 2013 Summer Sale was.

• Thanks to that showcase window, my profile looks awesome. A year ago, I was sitting at level five and was rocking a 19 inch 1280 by 1024 display, and for one reason or another, Steam’s Big Picture mode wouldn’t work on it. I’m guessing that either my screen was too small, or my resolution was too low.

After acquiring this badge, I have finally reached level ten and have a cool red ring surrounding my level number. Being level ten isn’t any different than being level nine, but I do get a showcase window that offers a bit of customisation option. Right now, I’m using it to exhibit some of my favourite screenshots, although the showcase window can also exhibit one’s favourite games, rare achievements, recommendations or even a personal message to the community. Additional levels unlock more showcase windows (level 20-29 players get two, level 30-39 players get three, etc.), increased chance of dropping card packs and allow more friends, but for the time being, I’m quite pleased to have reached level ten. Of course, leveling up from here on out now requires 200 XP points, but I’m going to take things one step at a time.