I typically upgrade iPhones every year. It happens to be a less expensive option than holding on to a phone for two years and trading it in. The phone loses too much value in two years. And since you are going to sell it or trade it anyway, you just as well do it every year and get a new one. My wife held onto her iPhone 12 for two years. Now, I’m paying through the orifice to upgrade her this year. Never again!

I am coming from a 13 Pro Max. I love everything about it except the physical size of the phone. So this time around, I’m shrinking down to the 14 Pro. I hope I don’t end up in a situation where I love the size of the phone but hate everything else. We’ll see.

One thing I know I’m going to love is the Dynamic Island. It is like a new kind of alert system that uses the camera cutout as an active widget area. The types of alerts Apple is showing off are map directions, music controls, phone calls, and voice memos. They even show a third-party alert for Lyft rides.

I am using the “alert” instead of “notification” terminology to distinguish two different kinds of messages as I see it. I don’t know that the Dynamic Island (as Apple calls it) will ever be a notification window for things such as email messages and garbage messages from apps. If Apple was going to use the area for general notifications, I believe they would have announced it. This is going to make for some interesting developer issues as many developers will complain that Apple wouldn’t allow their messages to populate the Dynamic Island while allowing their own and others into that coveted space. Apple is going to have to carefully define the types of messages they will allow in that space. Expect this to end up in court. Because of course it will.

For me, that little Island has become more like a fantasy island where I imagine the potential functionality it holds for me. It is a little like that orange button on the Apple Watch Ultra. The lack of clarity on its limits opens a world of possibilities until Apple collapses the probability wave. I will definitely use it to control podcast playback at times when I am interacting with the phone. But what else will I do?

My thinking is that in the beginning, it will be a place for contextual, system-level actions. Third-party developers will have strict guidelines on what they will be able to do in that space. They will immediately want to use it as an advertising space which I suspect Apple will quickly shut down. It might become a place where non-Apple wallets can work. Doubtful, but possible. Naturally, Spotify, Overcast, and other media apps will want equal access to the space. Those likely will be allowed. Google Maps is another sure thing.

What apps do you use that run in the background with functionality you want surfaced while doing other things? There are some games that could benefit from those types of alerts such as chess. It can take a while between moves. So you could move and do something else while you wait for your opponent to make their move. When they do, an alert could pop up. Your move clock wouldn’t start until you were back in the app.

As I said, there seem to be endless possibilities for the Dynamic Island. What’s your fantasy use case?

David Johnson