Hear me out: the new iOS 16 lock screens rule

There is a tendency among highly tech-literate people to approach new features with a negative attitude. It is especially true when Apple announces new features for the phone. The first three versions of this achievement were not very good, but seven years later, it is still great.

That attitude could be applied to the new lock screens in Apple's mobile operating system. More customizability to the lock screen is added with this update, as well as more wallpaper options and the ability to addwidgets. It's not a big deal since you can easily modify your entireUI to match your wallpaper, right down to the app icons colors. The lock screen has impressed me more than I thought it would. It is a simple update that will most likely be adopted by nerds.

There are many things you can do with your lock screen. You used to be able to change your wallpaper. You could not do anything else. There are more wallpaper types, such as grids of emoji and real-time weather animations, in the new version of the operating system. When your next meeting starts or the chance of rain, you can add awidget to get more information at a glance.

Changes have been made to the lock screen to make it easier to see your wallpaper. The clock can be seen in some pictures behind a human or animal. A cute kid photo lock screen is meaningless without having the time stamped in the middle of their forehead. The notifications have moved to give the photos more space. They now appear at the bottom of the screen instead of in the middle of the screen.

There is no need to change the lock screens if you have more than one. It seems like a simple thing, but it really changes how you view your lock screen. Being able to have more than one means that you don't have to worry about picking out a single wallpaper or photo that you'll see all the time. It's possible to have a lock screen for the weekend or a holiday. Lock screens that are linked to focus modes will switch automatically when focus mode starts.

Sometimes a pink wallpaper with a grid of barfing emojis is the best way to self-soothe when the Supreme Court takes away your bodily autonomy. I felt better for a half-second every time I looked at it. When I got all the mileage I could out of that lock screen, it was easy to go back to one of my usual photos of Mount Rainier framed by trees.

There is a very un-Apple-ness to the new lock screens. Apple is the homeowner of its products, and it runs a very tight ship, because it likes to maintain rigid control over the appearance of its products, even if you are the homeowner of an Apple product. The best way to make your place feel like home was to place a wreath on the door. It is open season on Christmas decorations.

There will be no pink Flamingo lawn ornaments in this neighborhood. You can only use eight of them, and they all have a different look about them. The most you can fit into the shelf below the clock is four. It keeps things simple for the person using the phone, but also gives them some control over how cluttered the lock screen can be.

I have found a lot of material to play with. The auto-generated photo suggestions seem to prefer landscapes and pictures of people or pets, but it underestimates how much I want to look at my cat. They are not all winners, but a few hiking photos make for good wallpaper. I have spent more time trying to find the right accent color for a photo of a cat glaring from the top of the couch than I have trying to make a wallpaper.

The lock screen is important because of its visibility. Someone else is likely to see it when I look at the time or use Face ID. Setting a new, self-styled wallpaper is kind of like putting on a fancy new pair of socks: it's partly for my own amusement, but there's also a chance someone else will see it and be impressed. Function, fashion, and fun are what it is. A combination like that can be appreciated by even the most cynical of us.