X

Apple iPhone's 'Dynamic Island' Feature Has Internet Drowning in Jokes

Jokes about the name of the new feature abound. "You can use satellite SOS to get rescued from the Dynamic Island."

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
See full bio
Gael Cooper
2 min read
screen-shot-2022-09-07-at-2-13-46-pm-2.png
Apple screenshot by Sarah Lord/CNET

Want to travel to the Dynamic Island? Apple's hoping you do. During the company's live event on Wednesday, customers were met the Dynamic Island, which replaces the iPhone's usual notch and expands and contracts into different shapes to share alerts and other activity. "Each alert has its own personality, and has been designed with its own unique character," Apple says. The Dynamic Island also displays background activity or a phone call. 

This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2023, CNET's collection of news, tips and advice around Apple's most popular product.

The Dynamic Island will be available on the upcoming new iPhone 14 Pro, which can be preordered Sept. 9 and will be available Sept. 16. CNET's Ian Sherr calls it "still a notch, but one that's actually useful."

Watch this: Apple's iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max Dynamic Island Explained

It also kind of sounds like an odd tourist destination, or maybe a horror movie location, and social media was quick to jump on the name, which one tweeter called "the most Apple thing they've ever Appled."

"You can use satellite SOS to get rescued from the dynamic island," declared one tweet. Joked Wall Street Journal technology columnist Joanna Stern, "You're stranded on a dynamic island and can only bring one person with you..."

Joking aside, lots of people watching Wednesday's Apple event liked the design of the island, pill cutout, smart notch, or whatever you want to call it. 

"OK, this dynamic island looks so smooth!!! That alone might be a good reason to get an iPhone 14," one Twitter user wrote. 

Not sure too many people will spend $1,000+ just for a vacation to the Dynamic Island, but to each their own.