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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- iOS 26.1 helps you to management the Liquid Glass design.
- iOS 26.2 presents higher safety for AirDrop.
- Most of all, iOS 26 patches a number of nasty safety bugs.
My spouse and I each personal iPhones. However variations exist between our respective ownerships. I shortly set up every new OS replace, each for private {and professional} causes. My spouse, nonetheless, balks at this onerous job, complaining that the replace will mess up her cellphone, change acquainted issues, and drive her to study new stuff.
Different iPhone customers appear to really feel the identical manner as my spouse, although experiences differ over how many individuals have jumped to the brand new model since its debut final October. Analytics service StatCounter says that iOS 26 has solely a 16% adoption price, whereas TelemetryDeck pegs the speed at round 60%. Even when we take the upper quantity as extra correct, the uptake of iOS 26 is slower than most prior iOS variations at this level.
Additionally: Liquid Glass too clear for you? iOS 26.1 has a brand new change that fixes it – here is how
Why? Most likely for a similar causes that my spouse asserts. Updating generally is a trouble. Snafus can happen. Acquainted options change. And it’s worthwhile to study new stuff. With iOS 26 particularly, although, individuals have been complaining about different hiccups.
As with every new replace, battery life feels worse. The brand new Liquid Glass aesthetic has been a turnoff for a lot of. Plus, there aren’t any must-have new options within the newest OS. For these causes and extra, various iPhone house owners have been content material to stay with iOS 18.
However I believe that is a mistake. And listed below are my explanation why.
1. Battery life and efficiency will enhance
After you put in any main new OS replace, your cellphone has to carry out numerous housekeeping chores. Which means it should re-index all of your recordsdata, replace your apps, and tweak sure settings. All of that may put a pressure on the battery and total efficiency. However as soon as all of the housekeeping is finished, you normally discover that the battery cost goes again to regular.
2. Management the Liquid Glass aesthetic
The brand new Liquid Glass design has been divisive, with some loving it and others hating it. In case you do not prefer it, you may scale back its impact in your gadget or give it a extra tinted look courtesy of a setting in iOS 26.1. I utilized the tinted look, and I have been proud of the design since then.
Additionally: Apple’s iOS 26.0.1 fixes a bevy of glitches – replace your iPhone now
3. Higher AirDrop safety
With AirDrop, you are capable of share recordsdata and different gadgets with close by Apple customers. Previously, you may share content material solely along with your contacts or with everybody for as much as 10 minutes. Due to iOS 26.2, now you can use a one-time code to permit transfers with individuals not in your Contacts record and for extra than simply 10 minutes. Which means you may extra conveniently use AirDrop and nonetheless preserve your safety tight.
4. Safety patches
Talking of safety, here is the ultimate and prime purpose I like to recommend transferring to iOS 26.2, the most recent model at this level. Because the launch of the brand new OS, Apple has pushed out various patches to resolve identified and critical safety vulnerabilities.
iOS 26.0.1 mounted a flaw in Apple’s FontParser framework via which an attacker may have created a malicious font to deprave reminiscence or crash an software. iOS 26.1 resolved greater than 51 safety flaws, any of which may have been exploited by hackers.
With iOS 26.2, Apple clobbered 25 completely different bugs that affected the App Retailer, FaceTime, Messages, Pictures, and different apps. However a very powerful have been two zero-day vulnerabilities. Reported as exploited within the wild, each zero days might have been utilized in extraordinarily refined assaults in opposition to focused people nonetheless working variations of iOS earlier than iOS 26.
That final line ought to offer you pause, as variations of iOS previous to iOS 26 can nonetheless be susceptible to sure safety flaws. So it’s possible you’ll gripe about Liquid Glass. You possibly can complain in regards to the lack of thrilling new options. You won’t like change typically. However in case you worth your safety, you will wish to set up this newest model.
