Technologies

iPhone 15 Wish List: USB-C, Touch ID and Other Features I Want to See

Commentary: These are the biggest iPhone upgrades I hope Apple delivers in 2023.

The iPhone 14 is only a few months old, but I’m already curious to see what’s in store for the iPhone 15. Apple gave us many of the upgrades we’ve been waiting for with the iPhone 14 — especially on the Pro models. Such features include an always-on display for showing the time at a glance and better multitasking through the Dynamic Island.

Still, there are a few ways Apple could take things further with the iPhone 15. For example, the company could do a better job of bringing certain Pro-exclusive features down to its less-expensive iPhone models. Samsung frequently does this with its cheaper phones, and I’d like to see Apple embrace this approach more fully, too. The Dynamic Island also shows a lot of promise already, but Apple could make it an even more integral part of the iPhone experience.

Apple typically announces its new iPhones in September and releases them shortly thereafter. Here’s what I’m hoping to see from the iPhone 15 next year.

USB-C charging

The Lightning connector has been around for 10 years, and it’s time for a change. With so many Apple products making the switch to USB-C, there’s never been a bigger need for one charger that powers all devices. Apple currently has four different types of chargers on the market: Lightning (for iPhones, the 2021 iPad, AirPods and a few other accessories), USB-C (for most new iPads and MacBooks), MagSafe (the wireless magnetic charger for iPhones) and MagSafe 3 (the magnetic charger for the 2022 MacBook Air, 14-inch MacBook Pro and 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro).

Making new iPhones compatible with USB-C instead of Lightning means you could use the same cable to charge your new phone, the Mac and new iPads. There’s a good chance most of your other electronics use USB-C too.

The good news is that a USB-C iPhone may not be very far away. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, confirmed that the company would comply with the European Union’s mandate that all phones sold in the region would need to have a USB-C charging port. He made the comments during an interview at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference. Apple has also previously tested USB-C iPhones, according to Bloomberg.

However, Apple has not revealed any specifics about its plans. We don’t know if Apple will begin making the switch to USB-C with the iPhone 15 or if it will wait until the following year, since the new rules require USB-C by the end of 2024. Apple also has not said whether USB-C will be coming to all iPhones or just European models, although analysts expect Apple to make a complete shift to USB-C.

Higher refresh rates on the regular iPhone 15

Starting with last year’s iPhone 13 Pro, Apple added higher refresh rates to the displays on its premium smartphones. The iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have a feature Apple calls ProMotion, which can boost the screen’s refresh rate as high as 120Hz depending on what’s being shown. This results in more fluid scrolling and smoother animations.

It’s a small touch, but one that makes the experience feel more pleasant — as my colleague Patrick Holland wrote in his review of the iPhone 13 Pro. While having a high refresh rate isn’t a deal breaker, it’s become standard on most smartphones. Google’s $599 Pixel 7 has a 90Hz refresh rate and Samsung’s $800 Galaxy S22 includes a 120Hz refresh rate, for instance. Even the $450 Galaxy A53 5G has a 120Hz display, making its absence on the $799 iPhone 14 feel even more noticeable.

More features that use the Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island, which is available only on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, is essentially a second miniature screen. Instead of getting rid of the notch, Apple gave that space a new purpose by using it to display information from other apps.

For example, you can see music that’s currently playing, timers, and directions in Maps at the top of the screen — eliminating the need to switch between apps. The Dynamic Island makes it easier to multitask on the iPhone 14 Pro, an area in which Apple has traditionally lagged behind Samsung and other Android phones that support split-screen apps.

Now that the Dynamic Island has proven its value, I’d like to see Apple do even more with it next year. It would be interesting to see Apple use this space to make proactive suggestions, like apps that may be useful based on your activity, the time of day or your schedule. Part of the Dynamic Island’s usefulness also depends on what app developers decide to do with it, too. There are already a handful of apps that incorporate the Dynamic Island, such as Pixel Pals, which essentially looks like a Tamagotchi for your iPhone. But I’m hoping to see more practical use cases for the Dynamic Island that make it feel like a more critical part of your phone, similar to the iPhone’s home screen widgets.

If Apple does expand the Dynamic Island’s functionality in the future, there’s a chance you may not need the iPhone 15 to take advantage of it. Instead, Apple could build new Dynamic Island features into its next major software update, which is likely to be called iOS 17.

A smaller notch on the regular iPhone 15

If Apple isn’t going to bring the Dynamic Island to the base iPhone 15, I hope it at least makes the notch less intrusive. The notch hasn’t changed all that much since its debut on the iPhone X in 2017, aside from the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. Meanwhile, other smartphone makers like Samsung, Google and OnePlus have found ways to provide edge-to-edge screens on their devices without carving out a large notch for the front-facing camera. Reducing the notch’s size would likely result in more screen space and a more modern look for the iPhone 15.

If Apple does move in this direction, we might have to wait until the iPhone 16 to see it. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities known for his Apple predictions, estimates under-display Face ID and front-facing camera sensors will be coming in 2024.

That said, there are good reasons why the iPhone still has a larger notch than many of its competitors. It mostly comes down to Face ID, which is more sophisticated than the facial recognition systems found on other phones like the Pixel 7, which Google cautions shouldn’t be used for authenticating sensitive data like payment information.

Reverse wireless charging

Many Android phones have reverse wireless charging, which is exactly what it sounds like. You can use the back of phones like the Galaxy S22 and Pixel 7 to charge other devices, like a smartwatch or earbuds. While it’s likely not a must-have for most people, I can imagine it being very useful for avid AirPods users.

No one likes being stuck on their morning commute with a dead pair of AirPods. Having the option to get just enough juice to make it through my 30-minute train ride by placing my AirPods on the back of my phone for a few minutes could be a game changer. Yes, you’ll have to sacrifice some of your phone’s battery. But if you’re traveling to a destination where you’ll easily be able to charge your phone once you arrive — like the office — it might be worth that tradeoff.

The return of Touch ID

While Face ID is convenient in many situations, there are instances in which using your finger to unlock your phone is just more practical. That’s why I’m hoping Touch ID makes a comeback on the iPhone. Maybe you haven’t had time to set up Face ID so that it works with a mask yet, or perhaps you’re just not holding your iPhone at the right angle for Face ID.

Apple clearly sees the value in fingerprint recognition, considering the top button on the latest standard iPad and iPad Air have Touch ID. Doing the same for the iPhone 15 would add more convenience, giving users the choice to use Face ID or Touch ID depending on the situation. Most Android phones have both a fingerprint reader and some form of facial recognition, so it would be great to see iPhone users get the same options.

It’s unclear whether Apple will ever bring Touch ID back to the iPhone. While the analyst Kuo previously predicted that future iPhones would get an under-display fingerprint sensor, he changed his outlook in March 2022.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max already address many of the previous shortcomings of Apple’s smartphones. The updates I’m hoping to see in the iPhone 15 may not seem revolutionary, but they’re bound to make everyday tasks like charging and unlocking your phone a bit easier.

Technologies

I Used to Tell People Wi-Fi 7 Routers Were a Waste of Money. CNET’s Lab Data Just Proved Me Wrong

Technologies

My Camera Test: Comparing the $499 Pixel 10A With the Galaxy S25 FE, Motorola Edge

The Pixel 10A’s cameras are similar to those on the 9A, but it still performs quite well compared to other phones in its price range.

Google’s $499 Pixel 10A uses nearly the same cameras as last year’s Pixel 9A, but I wanted to see how its photos directly match up to its midrange Android rivals: the $650 Samsung Galaxy S25 FE and the $550 Motorola Edge.

I traveled with all three phones around St. Petersburg, Florida, checking how flexible each was in different environments, from bright outdoor settings to an indoor coffee shop and an evening brewery. All three environments can be challenging for the small image sensors on each phone.

While I find the cameras on all three phones to have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the setting, I’m quite impressed with how the Pixel 10A keeps up. In my tests, the photos include lots of detail, even though certain settings appear to involve a lot of processing to improve them.

Wide and telephoto cameras

Starting with photos taken on the sidewalk in downtown St. Petersburg, I notice that all three phones handle bright sunlight slightly differently, especially how it’s depicted on the street.

For the Pixel 10A, the sun provides a slight exposure mark over the Bay First sign at the top of the frame, but it remains fairly cordoned off to focus on the rest of the streetscape. Zooming in, you can see the Century 21 location, but the street is captured in the most detail, with the phone’s camera maintaining its natural gray color.

For both the Galaxy S25 FE and the Motorola Edge, the sun has a more pronounced effect on the rest of the image. The pavement’s color is notably brighter. I also find both the S25 FE and the Edge have slightly more clarity on the business signs on the Bay First building, including the aforementioned Century 21 logo.

Since the S25 FE and the Edge each include a telephoto camera that supports 3x optical zoom, I took a photo at that zoom with each phone. The Pixel 10A uses digital zoom on the phone’s 48-megapixel wide camera, but a lot of the scene’s detail remains preserved.

The Pixel’s zoom photo provides a clear view of the 7th St N sign, the trees and the plants. However, if you look further back at the next intersection, you’ll notice that the 7th St S sign and the Colony Grill are much harder to see. It’s those smaller details that are captured by the S25 FE and the Edge, both aided by telephoto cameras, making them more visible.

Of the three zoom photo examples, I feel like the S25 FE has the best color reproduction while also retaining details like the signs further back. Even though the photo was taken with the S25 FE’s 8-megapixel telephoto camera rather than its 50-megapixel wide camera, the colors remain complementary when comparing the 1x to the 3x. Meanwhile, the Edge’s 10-megapixel telephoto camera looks quite a bit different from the 50-megapixel wide camera — the whole image has a more yellowish hue.

Ultrawide cameras

Moving inside the Southern Grounds coffee shop, I decided to use the ultrawide cameras to capture my sausage, egg and cheese on toast. The three photos came out wildly different.

The Pixel 10A’s 13-megapixel ultrawide and S25 FE’s 12-megapixel ultrawide have a more balanced set of colors and details, in my opinion. The wheat toast appears lighter in the Pixel’s photo than in the darker hues captured by both the S25 FE and the Edge.

When zooming into my notebook, however, the Pixel and S25 FE captured more of the page markings, details that blur together more in the photo taken by the Edge. While the Edge’s 50-megapixel ultrawide camera is a higher-spec number, I noticed it had a harder time distinguishing toast levels, giving more of it a darker look. If I hadn’t eaten it myself, I’d have thought it was burned based on the Edge’s photo.

Night photography

Moving over to a nighttime setting, I used the three phones to take photos outside of 3 Daughters Brewing. I felt like all three did a decent job at producing the colors of the building, but they differ in how they handle light sources.

Both the Pixel and the S25 FE tone back the glare produced by the various lighting fixtures. Meanwhile, the Edge’s photos show noticeable streaks that dominate the sky. When inspecting the photos more closely, I find that the Galaxy captured a sharper view of the furniture, like in the Connect 4 set next to the blue chairs in the center of the frame. The same details are visible in the Pixel’s and the Edge’s depictions of the scene, but they appear smudgy by comparison.

This type of scene needs to take advantage of a phone’s processing power in order to iron out visibility issues, and I do find that the Edge appears to come up short here in this regard, with a lot of noticeable image noise.

Selfies

Each phone takes selfies with noticeable differences in style and color choices. For this test example, I’m in a well-lit daytime room with natural light from a window. The 12-megapixel front-facing camera on Google’s Pixel 10A brightened up my face as if there was a light in front of me, and captured a decent amount of the details of my hair and face.

The front-facing camera on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 FE shows a noticeably darker color tone, but it still captures a similar shade of orange on the wall behind me. Of the three photos, I felt like the S25 captures the most details, including strands of hair, and defaulted to a closer crop than the other two.

The photos taken by the 50-megapixel selfie camera on the Motorola Edge feel a bit smoothed out. The orange color on the wall is noticeably different from the Pixel and the S25 FE, though it does capture a lot of my face details, from hair strands to the fabric textures on my shirt.

The $499 Pixel 10A camera keeps up and, in some cases, exceeds the detail captured by the slightly more expensive $550 Motorola Edge and $650 Galaxy S25 FE. I’m quite impressed by how the Pixel camera handles colors and low-light environments, but the phone’s processing work sometimes makes scenes appear brighter than they are in real life.

The Galaxy S25 FE is no slouch either, with a third telephoto lens for capturing more detail farther away. While I did find the Motorola Edge to struggle in low light, it is one of the lowest-cost phone options currently available for someone who must have a 3x optical telephoto camera.

But if you can live without the telephoto lens, the Pixel 10A’s low cost and photography abilities will likely be a good fit for most people.

Google’s Pixel 10A Looks Stylish for a Low-Cost Flagship Phone

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 14 #741

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 14, No. 741.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Does today’s date seem memorable to you? If so, today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: A math teacher’s favorite dessert.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: 3.14

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

RITE, SPIT, TIPS, STAT, STATE, GIVE, RUST, FINE, LAZE, SURE, PEAL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

VENT, CRUST, FRUIT, EDGES, GLAZE, FILLING, LATTICE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is HAPPYPIDAY. To find it, start with the H that’s six rows down and three to the right from the upper-left corner, and make — well, a pie shape.