This is the time of year when we very often will see Apple commentators posting their “Wishlists” for WWDC. These are enjoyable and helpful to frame our perspectives going into next week. I don’t have one of those but I do have a handful of wishes for tiny details I’d love to see fixed/changed in the OS releases we have next week. These are minor annoyances or little things which have bugged me in the last year.
iOS: Scroll to app in Cellular Data list
When you are trying to do networking in an app for which Cellular Data has been turned off you will receive this helpful dialog saying data is unavailable.
Tapping on “Settings” will open the Settings app to the correct section, but it doesn’t scroll this list to expose the app which initiated the request. So I’m instead endlessly scrolling around trying to find it.
Bonus points if an option to “Enable Cellular” was added to the initial dialog in the first place, though I could understand the intention behind making this a two step confirmation.
watchOS: Fast Charging Indication
The Apple Watch Ultra’s battery life is fantastic. It has transformed the way I use my Apple Watch while out on long wilderness hikes. The small downside to this amazing capacity is that charging the battery up can take a very long time, especially if you aren’t doing a ‘fast charge’.
When fast charging an Ultra it takes on the order of 1.5 hours for a full charge. Fast charging requires the special USB-C Fast Charging cable which comes with the Ultra and a specific power supply. If you don’t have the right power supply then it will fall back to the older slow charge system, which on the Ultra takes forever.
I wish this battery status screen would show the text “Fast Charging to Full.” whenever you are fast charging. This would give me confidence that my power supply was up to the job. At home this is less of an issue, but when traveling or adventuring this gets complicated. I think I have found a portable battery which can fast charge the Ultra, but I have no way to confirm this is actually happening outside of running a stopwatch and waiting. Which can lead to some frustrating moments if I’m topping up my watch during a lunch break on a long day out and have confidence I’m getting as much charge as possible.
visionOS: Less squelchy Optic ID unlock sound
This one may be very specific to me but I find the Optic ID unlock sound on the Vision Pro very unsettling. It sounds like someone stepping on a bunch of grapes, a most unpleasant squelching sound. Really anything here would be better, there are countless other great unlock sounds on iOS/watchOS/macOS. Please use one of those.