(Dynamic) Island life is good
Thoughts on the 14 Pro, jumping into a new (to me) form of meditation, and more!
Hey! Welcome to Notebox. Gary here. I’ve been wanting to start sending emails out to you guys again and figured a new name would be a great way to freshen things up around here. Previously, this publication was just called like “Gary Colwell’s Newsletter” or something which was just too boring and didn’t convey the feeling that I wanted this newsletter to have.
I’ve been thinking a lot about real life lately. How can I be happier, how can I live a virtuous, high quality life, live day to day, and how technology, media, culture, and communities interacts with these ideas. I want to get more personal and write about these sorts of topics that I care so much about, and I think the name Notebox does a good job of conveying the casual, personal vibe that I want this newsletter to have.
Dynamic iSland
In 2016 Apple released iPhone X.
iPhone X was the first Apple product with what everyone called “the notch”.
The notch didn’t do anything. It was simply there because it had to be. It was there because they wanted to give the iPhone an edge-to-edge screen, but they still had to make room for the camera and face scanning sensors. Thus, the notch was born.
It was a little ugly, a little awkward looking, but after a few minutes of using the device, you just kind of forgot it was there.
2022 has entered the chat
Four years passed since then, and in that time, four new generations of iPhone have been released, all with the same basic notch design as the original iPhone X:
iPhone XS
iPhone 11
iPhone 12/iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 13/iPhone 13 Pro
Enter iPhone 14 Pro.
On this new phone, the notch has been replaced with a new lozenge-shaped cutout which Apple dubs, to everyone’s amusement: Dynamic Island1.
The notch is no longer static. It morphs, expands, moves, and changes shape as you do different stuff on your phone.
For example, say you put on some music, then you swipe up to go back to your Home Screen. The Dynamic Island expands to show a tiny thumbnail of the album artwork. You can then long press on it to open up playback controls.
I’ve been using it for about a week now and essentially what they’ve done is added a simple multitasking feature to iOS.
So if there’s something active happening on your phone like Maps directions, a timer, a phone call, etc. the Dynamic Island gives you quick access to that stuff at all times, no matter what other app you have open.
I love the brilliance2 of what Apple’s team has done here:
They’ve taken the iPhone’s most hated physical limitation and turned it into a literal selling feature
They gave it personality. Its animations and way of moving makes it feel like its made of pitch black liquid
It’s the best example I’ve ever seen of how to design around physical constraints
They turned something that just took up space into something useful3
There’s also the argument that Dynamic Island hints at Apple’s plans for the upcoming and long rumoured AR headset. Check out this piece on David Hoang’s newsletter Proof of Concept if you’re interested in reading more on that topic
Let’s wrap this up
At the end of the day, there’s a lot to like about this phone over my old phone4:
The camera, especially the video, is much better. I’m very glad to have the zoom lens
Always-on screen is interesting. I have friends who have turned it off, but so far I’m a fan
Screen is way brighter in sunlight, so you can actually see it outdoors VERY easily now
Deep Purple colour is nice. Quite dark but when the sunlight hits it at the right angle… 👌
When looking back at previous years iPhones, certain phones stick out in our memory because of features they introduced: like the iPhone 4 with FaceTime, iPhone 4S with Siri, iPhone 5S with TouchID, and iPhone X with the edge-to-edge screen.
I think in the future, we will look back at the 14 Pro as the one that introduced Dynamic Island.
Transcendental Meditation
Have you ever heard of transcendental meditation? I didn’t until a couple weeks ago when I picked up a book from the library titled Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation by Bob Roth:
Medical experts agree that the epidemic of stress is damaging our physical and emotional health at younger and younger ages. While there is no one single cure, the Transcendental Meditation technique is a simple practice that dramatically changes how we respond to stress and life’s challenges.
I was curious. What is this technique and how does it differ from the guided meditation apps I’ve been trying on and off for the last few years?
I got a little bit into the book and then realized that the only way to learn the elusive Transcendental Meditation is by taking a $1,400 program?
I was like nah. So I turned to YouTube because if this technique is so simple and transformative, I feel like I can probably learn how to do it on my own…
So it turns out that all it is is basically meditating while chanting a mantra to yourself in your mind. You can pretty much pick anything you want to be your mantra, so long as it’s just a sound, not real words with meaning5.
The purpose of the mantra is that it’s a vehicle that you can use to quiet your mind, so you can then transcend to deeper feelings of calm.
Oh, here’s a link to the video I watched, by the way. It’s pretty good.
I’ve been practicing this for 20 minutes in the morning (before breakfast) and in the late afternoon for a few days now, and though I’m far from transcending like some people can, I do find that I have been able to meditate longer and more peacefully than I have when doing guided meditations in Headspace or Fitness+.
I’m excited to keep with it!
Links
I recently came up with an idea to make a page where I can share funny and/or interesting videos from Apple’s history along with my own commentary. It’s also a way for me to begin learning a new creative skill which is making short videos for social media. Follow Apple Bangers on Instagram or TikTok. (Even if you’re not an Apple geek, you might like it.)
One of my close friends Payten Jackson started up a newsletter just last week called PJDAY which I highly recommend subscribing to. We’re working on an article together about web design for startups, which I’ll link to in the future as well once its published. But if you’re interested in checking her writing out, you can subscribe using this box right here 👇!
I personally like the name because the playfulness of it matches the whimsical nature of the Dynamic Island’s liquid-inspired animations. I’m also used to it and it doesn’t make me cringe anymore either.
And slight cheekiness.
To prevent myself losing track of time when browsing Twitter, I like to set a timer for five or ten minutes. Now, the timer is just right there at the top of the screen in the dynamic island. Very useful.
Which was an iPhone 12 by the way. I don’t upgrade every year.
You don’t want the mantra to use real words, because you don’t want it to conjure any specific thoughts or ideas.