From the Editor's Desk: The calm before the storm

Welcome back to another Editor's Desk, with yours truly. Congratulations all, we made it to October, somehow...but it's time to get spooky! And to continue with the theme of all things weird this year, Apple is holding an iPhone 12 event sometime this month, so let's enjoy this calm before the storm while it lasts.

We don't have the exact date yet, but we do know that the iPhone 12 event is for sure happening this month. And boy, the rumors continue to be in full swing. Contrary to previous reports, it appears that the iPhone 12 may come in a 64GB capacity after all, which I honestly think is a shame, but then again, I'm not the average user.

I have hundreds of apps on my iPhone 11 Pro, thousands of photos and videos (over 20K at this point), and I have some local music stored on my device as well. I have 256GB right now with my iPhone, and I'm creeping up on that capacity limit. I suppose I could delete things, but what if I really need those apps at some point? Of course, some of my colleagues disagree and think that 64GB is enough, so it's all about different strokes for different folks. I just think with improvements being made to the camera every year (4K videos do take up a nice chunk of space), a little bump in storage space is not a lot to ask for, is it? Though the 64GB size may just be for the non Pro-models, which makes more sense.

I'm really excited for the iPhone 12, no doubt. And while I'm a big Apple fan, this little bit about pre-ordering a commemorative "Apple 1" version of an iPhone 12 is just...bizarre. First off, it's $10,000 — that's like 10x the amount of buying a regular one Pro iPhone at retail, and second, that design is...not good. Third, you're going to pay all that money, and it's may not even come with EarPods! I don't understand why anyone would want to spend that kind of money for something that just doesn't look good, but hey, I suppose that's what you do when you have too much money, right? I wouldn't know.

While we're still on the topic of iPhones, Apple seems to have filed a new patent for a "self-healing" material, bringing us one step closer to a foldable iPhone...someday. Honestly though, I don't really care for having a foldable iPhone — what's the point? Just because there are some foldable phones out there on the market now? I just see it as a solution to a nonexistent problem, and it just means one more step before you get to actually using your phone as it was meant to be used. Just because Apple can doesn't mean that they should. But I guess whatever floats your boat.

Now that we've had iOS 14 for a few weeks, I'm still sour that iPadOS 14 doesn't have the same Home screen widget capabilities. While my iPhone 11 Pro Home screen may not be "aesthetic AF" with custom icons, I have really come to enjoy those informative widgets on my Home screen, rather than the Today view. But a new concept video by A Better Computer shows off what iPad Home screen widgets could look like in a future version of iPadOS. It's slick, and I hope that Apple is paying attention — with all the screen estate that the iPad has, it's a shame that we can't put widgets anywhere except for the side menu in landscape orientation. Hopefully this is remedied in iPadOS 15.

If you are looking for some distractions, there's been a few new releases that are worth checking out. First, Slash Quest from Noodlecake Games is out on Apple Arcade, and this looks like a winner. It's a cute adventure game where you swing a giant sword to defeat enemies as you go from island to island to save the Queen and find collectibles. We could all use some stress relief right now, and what better way to go about it than just swinging a grossly oversized sword around? And if you want something more unique and interesting, then check out HoloVista. It's a surreal VR-like game that revolves around our relationship with technology, explores our feelings and emotions with social media, and is packed with secrets to discover.

I'm also quite excited for Monster Hunter Rise next year on the Nintendo Switch. In the meantime, I've started playing Monster Hunter World: Iceborne again on my PlayStation 4 — it'll have to do for the next few months.

That's it for this week, folks. Until next week!

-Christine Romero-Chan