Widgets? Live tiles? Or both? Either way, iOS 14 has them!

Published by at

Apple's online WWDC kicked off yesterday and you may have seen their iOS 14 platform, for the iPhone, gain widget support on its homescreens. This is best shown in video form below. I have to say that, as a current iPhone 11 Pro user (for its camera and battery life, mainly!), I'm really looking forward to this arriving as an update in the Autumn. In theory, I'll have most of my old Windows Phone live tile set-up (including Weather, Calendar, News) back, all cutely rounded and with up to date applications. Bring it on!

As usual, click through to YouTube if you need higher quality or resolution:

The 'Smart Stack' widget also looks interesting, with a similar philosophy to Google's 'At a glance' widget, in that its content changes based on what time it is, what you're up to, and what's coming up. So it surfaces what you need to see. Kind of how Windows Phone's live tiles were originally envisioned.

There's also now an 'app library', for which read 'app drawer' or, in Windows phone terms, an 'All Apps' list, though Apple's implementation does seem very organised and should help normobs create order out of their current chaos!

The jury's still out on 'the best way for a Windows phone user to go' after Lumias. You'll have your own ideas, of course, but at this point I'd either say an iPhone 11 Pro (or Pro Max) or perhaps a Huawei P40 Pro (which comes with Bing and most of the MS apps and services pre-loaded), both of which have stonking cameras and battery life.