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Apple's delightful iOS 7 operating system will finally arrive
at consumers in the fall. Apple requirements you to think that once you get iOS
7, you'll have a brand new iPhone that you already know how to use — even if
it's basically a pick-and-choose mash up of many great features that Apple's
competitors have offered up over the past six years.
Design
overhaul
If there has been one dependable criticism of iOS in current
years, it was the outdated nature of the UI. The new version of the software
seems to take care of that with a wide-ranging update of the old, largely
skeuomorphic design. The stitching and green felt are gone for good. In their
place are frosted glass effects, flatter icons, and more white-space in the UI.
It is still recognizable as iOS, though the interface uses the frosted glass
look in a variety of apps to give a feeling of context and depth — Apple even
used it in the background of the keyboard. Siri also gets a cleaner look with a
semi-transparent UI.
Control
Center
Alongside the brand new user interface is some new
specifications. Initially, control center. This swipe upwards feature allows
you to access your most used settings, brightness, airplane mode, and a brand
new stock flashlight, all in one place. Incredible.
Photos
& iCloud Photo Sharing
Though technically another default app update, the
revamped Photos app deserves a deeper look because photo-taking is one of the
iPhone’s (and all smart phones, really) most-used specifications. The Camera
Roll itself has now been superior; organizing photos into “Moments” based on
location and time – again, a feature motivated by the work of a number of
third-party apps including Cluster, Moment. me, Flock, Tracks, flayvr, and
others.
Most
Commanding Safari
Safari in iOS 7 has a brand new full screen interface,
with one tap way in to favorite website, and a brilliant new tab interface. It
also has updated parental controls, and iCloud keychain, already provided in
our Mac update! There are also updates to Safari’s bookmarking system, and incessant
scrolling between articles. Tabs are no longer limited to 8, and you can even
see tabs you had open on a different iCloud device!
Smarter
& faster Downloading
While neither of these features have tangible
descriptions attached to them, Apple’s iOS 7 additional specifications slide
boasts both “smart download of TV episodes” and “scan to acquire Passbook
passes” as upcoming perks for the operating system.
If I had to undertaking a guess, I'd suspect that
“smart downloads” will involve the iTunes app automatically downloading TV
shows you have a season pass for as soon as they’re posted to the store. Scan
to acquire, meanwhile, sounds like Passbook might be getting a built-in QR code
scanner for acquiring passes; the “barcode scanning” developer API listed
during Monday’s keynote would seem to verify this.
Real
multitasking
Only some years ago, Apple enabled limited multitasking
in iOS, but now it’s enchanting a more Android-style approach by allowing all
apps to run in the background. The system will actually try to determine which
apps you need in the background all the time, and which can be closed. This is
an attempt to save battery life, but to be truly useful it will have to be very
good at figuring out usage patterns. Multitasking in iOS 7 also equipment a
card-style screen for app switching.
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