Gadgets

iPhone 14: 3 Insanely Cool Features That Will Blow You Away

Apple has always been touted as a company that leads the way in terms of design. The choices that they make often set the trend, even if they’re criticized in the beginning. (Case in point, no charger with a new phone.) 

The iPhone 14 was released in September of 2022 and brought with it a lot of cool new features that had fans excited. 

Apple iPhones can be a significant investment. The cheapest model you can find, which is the basic iPhone 14 with 128 GB of storage, will set you back by $800. That is not an insignificant amount of money. Choosing more storage or higher-end models can push the price to way over $1000. 

Thankfully, it is possible to rent iPhones, and this has a number of benefits. For one, renting is significantly cheaper than purchasing even the top-end models.

Also, renting an iPhone doesn’t psychologically lock you into using the same phone for several years because of the high cost. That means you can switch to the latest model guilt-free. Many platforms also let you buy the device after renting it for a fixed period. If this sounds like something you are interested in, you can find a lot of rent-to-own options on this site.

In this article, we will look at three of its features you absolutely need to try out if you own an iPhone 14 or if you are planning to get one soon.

Dynamic Island

You probably knew this one was going to be mentioned. The Dynamic island is a new feature on only the Pro and Pro Max versions of the phone. That’s right. The regular iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus don’t support it.

The Dynamic Island is supposed to act as a versatile notification delivery system with the ability to display background tasks like apple maps, music playback, and more in an intuitive manner. The UI experience of the Dynamic Island does feel very futuristic but whether it counts as an “Innovative feature,” as the company implies, is debatable.

However, it does bring a lot of useful quality-of-life improvements. For instance, charging your phone now shows you a nice indicator on the Dynamic Island that you can see instantly. 

You also have attractive animations that show up when you pair your AirPods. It’s a small change, but it looks pretty good. The timers you now set will show you the countdown on the dynamic island, which is super helpful. A number of other apps also work on the dynamic island, like Maps and Spotify. 

One cool fact is that if you use two apps at the same time, the Dynamic Island will split into two separate islands. For example, using maps and a timer at the same time will cause it to show up as two small islands. You got to admit, that’s pretty dynamic. AirDropping a file now includes a progress indicator which is one of the biggest requests Apple users have had for a while. 

You can also see live sports scores on the dynamic island (through the apple TV app), which stops you from needing to open up specific apps. You also get highlight comments of key moments as the game progresses, which is great.

Action Mode

Apple has made a name for its stellar cameras for a while now, with only the Google Pixel and the flagship models of Samsung being able to match or come close to it. A big reason for this is that the quality doesn’t come from good hardware alone. 

The image processing software plays a huge role which is why photos from the Pixel 4a match the best phones today despite using a sensor that was first launched in 2018. The iPhone 14 is no slouch either and, in addition to great image quality, also brings us a feature called “Action Mode.”

This feature provides users with a high level of video stabilization even without the use of a tripod. This feature makes it perfect for capturing exciting moments in everyday life. The action mode can record stable videos while running, playing a fast game of chase with your dog, or filming dramatic shots for your Youtube or Instagram channel. 

Action Mode can be enabled by switching to the video section in your camera app and tapping the “running man” icon that should be on the top left of your screen. The mode works best with outdoor daytime shots since it requires a good amount of light to work well. 

It can work in low-light conditions, but you’d need to go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and then, at the very bottom, enable the option called “Action Mode Lower Light.” While this helps a lot, the results aren’t as good as outdoor shots.

Crash Detection

One of the most talked about features in the new iPhones (and with the apple watches) is crash detection, which has already started to save people’s lives.

This feature uses several sensors present on the device that detect changes to G-Force and pressure (with the barometer sensor), an Accelerometer, and GPS data to track if the vehicle is at high speed and even the device’s microphone to check for the sounds of a crash. 

Once it detects a crash has occurred, it will bring up a popup on your screen telling you that it thinks a crash has occurred. It will provide you with a countdown of 10 seconds that you can stop if you are alright. If the timer is not stopped, it will automatically reach out to emergency services and send them your location data.

This is arguably one of the best features we have seen and brings a little more peace of mind, especially to parents of teenagers. 

Conclusion

The iPhone continues to be a cutting-edge piece of technology that has satisfied its fan base once again. Some have questioned the lack of innovativeness of the company in recent years, and this can be noted with things like the Dynamic Island. Like, yes, it’s a cool addition but is it really “innovative,” or is it a glorified notifications bar?

The phones do have a lot of interesting features. But in light of falling sales, Apple needs to evaluate its strategy and turn things around.

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