This past week, Apple rolled out new versions of iOS and iPad OS for phones and iPads, respectively; and they also rolled out Mac OS 15 “Sequoia.” As usual, there’s a lot of hype and media attention around these developments, and the upcoming Apple AI release as well.
At Creative Goose, we always greet new system versions — and we’re talking major releases here, not minor point updates — with a healthy dose of patience and skepticism. Every time one of these new systems ships, there is an adjustment period while A), the new features are polished and de-bugged, and B), while all the other software and hardware people come to grips with the new system, and release updates of their own to assure full compatibility.
For most of us, there’s little to be gained by being first on the block to try the new system. Whereas, there’s plenty of opportunity to screw something up: bugs in the code, features that don’t work the way they used to, things that have to be adjusted. We say, let the “early adopters” forge the path; for Mac OS, we usually wait until the .1 release before we adopt any new system, with rare exception.
For phones and pads, we also like to see users wait a while — and as proprietor and chief tech at Creative Goose, I usually wait a few weeks myself. Corollaries to this rule of thumb exist when A), a new release has potential to address a ‘crying need’, and therefore rises to the fore, and B), when a new function or software title or some such requires the new update. Note that this is different than point patches and security updates, which should be installed quickly; those are bug fixes and security adjustments, not new features.
We usually roll out iPhone and iPad updates more quickly than Mac OS, but generally there is no hurry: You and your business will generally be better served by using known, solid, proven tech; the new features and bells & whistles of Cupertino’s latest can and will wait until the leading edge has blown over.
The new iPhones that ship this week are very promising, and of course will ship with the latest iOS pre-installed as required. iPhone 16 is a very capable and high performance model, and the iPhone 16 Pro adds only a few features that will be mostly of interest to people who work in some sort of media; pictures, sound or movies. We’ll talk more about those new toys when we get our hands on ’em!