Can you comment on the battery life? I have noticed a drop in battery life after I upgraded. ArsTechnica reported a drop in battery life while The Verge doesn't.
As have I (since the beta). I think initially when I updated I started playing around with it more, I had noticed a drop, but then as soon as I got back into my usual workflow, I noticed a signifant improvement in my battery life. So much so that I've had the phone last me 2 days of light to moderate usage multiple times now, something I haven't been able to do for a while.
A common one-time ailment seems to be from a process in the Music app. Double click the Home Button and swpe up to kill that app. After that the battery life seems to stop counting down by the minute and you should actually see better battery life over 6.x.
Battery life has been fine. Different betas have had different experiences. In your "General" Settings, there is something called "Background App Refresh", which will drain your battery if you have it enabled, especially depending on what apps you have it enabled for.
One beta used transparency on the app-grouping background. Instead of the pale grey, it was actually nice and transparent. They've done away with this in later betas, but it may have drained some battery; at least, I imagine that would be the case with the constant calculation of transparency, especially with the animation as you zoomed in/out.
If this happened immediately after update, it may have been due to a variety of update tasks that run after ios7 starts the 1st time. The photo library gets reindexed and updated, lots of spotlight items in the phone get regenerated, and a number of iCloud data sets get refreshed. Depending on how much data is in your phone, this could take a while and be a little CPU intense as well. Once it's all done, things get back to normal. This is something that happens in OS X as well.
My battery life if awesome, oops wait I use a Note II. It has a removable battery and an SD microSD card slot too. It's OK, your phone still looks pretty! :-)
@rrecine...glad you're digging your Note. My contract can't mature fast enough. Of all the smartphones we've purchased for development (Android, iOS and Windows)---it's hands down my least favorite. I just bought the 5s and can honestly tell you the new iPhone bests the GNote 2. The SD card. What an absolute joke. And no wonder Google is trying to get the OEMs to get rid of it. Can't put apps on it. Can't store any app info on it. Media essentially only. I bought in hook line and sinker. I'll never buy another Samsung or TouchWiz device as long as I live. Like I said though...glad you're digging yours. The iPhone 5s is definitely a big step up so don't go playing with one. You may just end up coming to the dark side. Removable battery isn't necessary on a phone capable of excellent and often all day use. That's one of the biggest downfalls of the Note 1 & bit less so on the 2. Battery life (stock) absolutely sucks!
iOS 7 needs less transparency/translucency elements, a slightly darker color or solid color palette, and less animations. Otherwise the UI changes are a step in the right direction as far as lessening skeumorphic icons and moving toward a flatter look.
The color palette was probably chosen to hide the extend to which WP7/8 was copied.
As a WP7/8 hater, I don't like this iOS 7 look. On the iPad, there's too much (literal) white space. It starts with the greeting screens, which are just big black text on white. Looks like a no-nonsense powerpoint presentation. And at times, iOS 7 appears unpolished.
I disliked some of the skeumorphism in iOS 6, but generally preferred the look-and-feel. But as Brian said, there were lots of people who called for change - for change's sake. And that's what they got.
Also, on the iPad 2, performance is borderline. Every once in a while an animation stutters. Temple Run 2 now stutters all the time. Might be an app issue, might not be. But it's 2013 people, the operating system should NOT do things that slow down the interface. Another thing I have to grudgingly give to Windows Phone.
Maybe it's just a hold over from the old days, but the first thing I do with any OS is disable every animation possible. Much like disabling startup videos on games. When I click something, I just want it to work immediately.
OTOH, aren't WP app load times still behind everyone else? I don't know that they necessarily emulated WP too much, seems like they took interesting bits from both it and stock Android (roboto font was a big deal on ICS, etc).
Yeah they are still quite long. It's especially frustrating for me, a developer for WP8 because it seems it's a deeper problem than what can be addressed with smart application design.
It's most evident when looking at the settings app, launching is effectively instant (animations withstanding) while any third party app takes noticeably longer. To Microsoft's credit, it is far better than it used to be with WP7, switching from JIT to MDIL as well as other back end changes have definitely helped.
It's interesting. Load times can be slow to the point of being seriously annoying. I'm looking at you, WhatsApp. At the same time, though, there are enough apps that launch in 0.5 seconds or so, even on my old Lumia 800 with WP7.5, which indicates to me that there is no fundamental "penalty" in the OS itself.
Maybe it has to do with the number of resources an app depends on? The apps with fast launch times include 1Password, the Blizzard and RSA authenticator apps, while stuff the needs an internet status, Twitter and TripIt for example, are slowish. Worst seem to be apps that have a lot of local data. This is all suspicion, I have not tested any of this. Maybe I should...
There is a huge correlation between loading data and launch time, especially when developers are lazy and run their routines on the UI thread. But I think the difference between first party and third party apps is most clear comparing 'music+video' or 'photos' or any other complex native panorama app to even the SDK sample, the sample drops frames on opening whilst the native ones are smooth and seamless.
Just comparing the settings apps from my Lumia 920 and Nexus 7 (2013) I swore that the phone opened quicker from general usage, but comparing side by side the nexus is noticeably quicker, the animations on the phone really did well at masking the loading while I felt that looking at the grey screen on the nexus made it feel slow. I can see how it takes an adjustment period when switching platforms.
Windows Phone feels fast to me. Both iOS and Windows Phone generally feel really fast, while Android (even on better hardware) feels sluuuuuggish (still, as of 4.3).
Really not sure where all the WP7/8 references are coming from; one Windows-affine techsite suddenly confesses liking iOS 7 because they copied so many good parts from WP and others start hating iOS 7 because they only copied the worst parts. As a WP7 and 8 user I cannot see at all where this is coming from because the few things they have in common now (like the task switcher which is still quite rudimentary in 8, to be improved in 'Blue' to an iOS 7ish level) or a sans serif font (which is still quite a different choice between the two) are not coming from WP originally at all.
I just read the Verge's review and while they don't go anywhere as in depth as Anandtech (really, who does?) it did seem more cohesive at a high level. It drew far less direct comparisons between OS yet you always knew when David seemed to think iOS was ahead or behind the competition in any aspect. I won't say it seemed more objective cause I think this kinda review is inherently subjective, but less enthusiastic about minor cosmetic changes for sure.
It's 2013 and you're running a new OS from late 2013 on a almost three year old device. It's bound to run a bit slower and show its 'age'. We've got an iPad 2 and we won't be updating from iOS 6.
How can translucency be a "step in the right direction"? I think it belongs more in the past, right there with gradients. Same for the parallax effect, which is just cheese, and has always been cheesy.
I agree. iOS 7 looks very cheesy. But pretty much everything Apple design looks cheesy as they've always had tons of gradients and tacky effects (atleast they've got rid of drop shadows now), all that stuff came from the early to mid 2000's. As a designer i used to design stuff like it myself, but this was around 7 - 12 years ago and things have moved on. Funny how Microsoft now lead in modern design, who would have thought.
”But pretty much everything Apple design looks cheesy as they've always had tons of gradients and tacky effects”
Don't agree at all. Especially in OS X I don't think there's much ”tackiness”. And the only really thing I found really tacky in iOS 6 was Game Center.
What in Microsoft's designs are better you mean? A few examples?
OSX looks pretty slick. iOS 7 still looks tacky to me. I still don't like the "every app ever barfed up on the screen so it looks like my mother-in-law's XP desktop ultra busy this-is-just-an-app-drawer" look.
That's nonsense. Those ideas were developed for a reason, not arbitrarily. Removing them is fad, fashion, and has nothing to do with functionality, which is diminished.
'Functionality....diminished?' How so? I'm incredibly blown away by the incessant negativity to iOS 7. It's unreal. It's amazing how just a month ago....thru the past three years Apple's taken constant flack on skeumorphism and 'cheese'. iOS 7, while completely different than 6 is one HELL of a makeover. Perhaps it's because we are using an iPhone 5 and 5s...iPad 4s and minis...but I've lost absolutely NO functionality. The minimalist design UI is a HUGE breath of fresh air and it's apparent to me why so many design 'experts' on this board and many others are crying foul. 'So yesterday'. 'Dated'. Blah blah blah blah blah What an absolute joke. To decry the new UI, it's incredible fluidity....even on two year old hardware, the simplicity...added functionality (control center, camera, notifications, background updates...there are literally DOZENS of examples of extended functionality....it truly makes me question and wonder who these anonymous design experts are behind the anonymity do their keyboard. Ridiculous. I guarantee Apple will win not one, two or even six awards for this UI overhaul/design. They'll win a dozen or more. A TRUE design expert would realize this. Is there areas of improvement to be made? Sure! Absolutely....but that's been the same since iOS 1.0 (was that a version? I can't remember even after owning each iPhone). The complaints of 'boring' and analog symbols and UI with the skeumorphic design through iOS 6 was tiring. And ubiquitous. And everywhere...all the time. Now, they change it and it's not what you want. Hilarious. There are plenty of choices on the market if you don't like it. android isn't android. It's TouchWiz, Sense, and dozens of other launchers to set it up the way you like it. If Windows crappy UI is so intriguing, why are you slamming iOS 7? Why aren't you buying a Lumia? It's tiring. And boring. Especially reading all the bullshit from the so called and most likely unemployed 'design experts'. I don't suppose anyone has explored so many of the other excellent updates, ala error and spelling correction, fast swipe to rid a reminder, excellent new options for sounds, font size and 'thickening' if you find it bothersome....and to call parallax effects cheesy just exemplifies the thin knowledge some posters have when it comes to UI design, simplicity and fluidity. It's easy to put out a crappy, glitchy and slow UI. Look at Samsung and the new S4 (I have one. We develop for both Android and iOS and have just started to learn the ins and outs with Windows mobile). That is a phone with some of the fastest hardware on the market and in comparison with either the '5' or the '5s' it's obliterated when it comes to speed, fluency and doing what it's designed to do...a springboard, launching platform for your apps and software. Rant over...sorry, just tired of all the bullshit. Pardon my Cantonese
I meant to also mention, Apple designing this new UI and as trouble free and fluent as it is...is almost miraculous. It's hard as HELL to create a simple user experience. One that's easy to understand and operate. As mentioned before...TouchWiz is a perfect example of how tough it is even with current hardware to achieve this level of performance.
If all you want to do is ultraslurp Apple UI and react poorly to people giving opinions contrary to yours on it, you probably shouldn't read many opinions. Why is it so hard to accept that people might love the phone but hate the UI?
I agree. I also would disagree with Brian that it's a pity that the older hardware doesn't do that cheap colored blur effect -- I think Apple should get rid of that on all devices ASAP as it worsens the readability of all text on top of it and is just a huge useless distraction. How about desaturating that one a bit? Also I really like some of the old icons much better; I think they went to far in flattening them and "thinking different".
Why no mobile data toggle apple?! iOS 7 almost made an iPhone worth considering for me, it needed control centre because I refuse to launch settings just to change my brightness, GPS etc. But I am always coming in and out of WiFi And want to maximize battery life so toggle data is a must.
I suppose its so people don't bump it and complain that siri doesn't work and so carriers can continue to charge ridiculous amounts for data, but arrrggh! So close apple, just give me a little control!
Actually pre-Siri devices understood quite some voice commands without internet connection. I actually don't like idea a single bit requiring a chunk of my data plan and sending my voice commands over to the NSA -- Siri for me is not part of the answer but part of the problem...
One big improvement to the settings app that was missed in the review: per-application bandwidth summaries. Previously, this was all lumped under the "Usage" section, and all you got was a breakdown of cellular data versus tethered data. Especially painful was tracking roaming usage (with carriers often charging insane fees to roam outside the country).
This is now handled under the Cellular section. The top-level summary is one line for general data usage total, and one line for roaming data usage. Below that is a list of applications, how much bandwidth each of them has used, and a toggle to disable cellular data usage for that application. Tethered usage is now placed under a "System Services" submenu, which on the top-level screen gives you a total of all system services, but when expanded gives you a breakdown of the bandwidth usage of individual services, including one entry for "Personal Hotspot". It really is rather detailed, even telling you how much bandwidth you've consumed for DNS queries versus Siri versus software updates versus voicemail (and so on).
I'm surprised iOS didn't have that already, pretty good and useful audition. I rarely worry about data usage as my use is pretty darn consistent and I have an unlimited plan anyway... But that should be super helpful for a non-techie on a metered plan who's suddenly worried how much bandwidth he/she may have consumed after an hour of Facetime etc (one of the first things my mother fretted able after finally getting her first smartphone).
Back in ios6, when a notification slid in from the top of the screen, you could dismiss it; you would just slide your finger right to left, and then when you let go, the notification is dismissed.
Love the changes, but the lack of a hardware back button is still hurting the OS, IMO (I won't personally consider one with an LCD screen either, but that's just me). Also, several of these screenshots look ripped straight from Windows Phone (not a bad thing at all).
Still no live tiles or gadgets to feed you information.
So you still need to go into an app for everything. Photo gallery, running tasks, flashlight, weather, alarm, reminders/calendar, shortcuts like shazam, navigate home, quick dials, and so on...
And the multitasking hasn't improved at all. They could at least do what Blackberry did and copy WebOS' card-style tasks interface...
This is the same damn OS all over again with a new font. It's getting ridiculous. No wonder their stock got downgraded by four agencies. Apple makes this ridiculously awesome hardware running an OS from 2007.
Didn't they add some widgets to the notification shade or was that not expanded much? I love that high degree of customization on Android but I find that most non-techies just don't bother with it, in that sense the more seamless tile integration of WP still seems more approachable and generally useful (tho me it still looks like a lot of wasted space).
App icons flying in and out seems reminiscent of older Android launcher animations... I don't know that scrolling thru cards was the epitome of task switching paradigms either, HTC did something similar (minus the stacking) on the previous version of Sense and I found it slower than Android's stock thumbnail strip which necessitates less scrolling. Maybe I've forgotten some particularly compelling aspect of this on WebOS (RIP).
Did you actually read the review? It *does* copy WebOS's card-style task list. As a former Palm Pre owner, iOS 7's implementation feels like coming home again :)
And you don't need to go into an app for everything, that's the point of the new Control Center.
Although I see what they were trying to do, after using it for a while, I don't like the animations at all. They slow everything down. I don't care where on the OS I'm zooming into. I care how fluid my device feels.
It definitely needs refinement, but it's a very good starting point.
Agreed. Some of the animations are fine, others are way too slow. It generally needs tweaking.
You can get away with some animation, because there's a certain human reaction time involved, but you've got to fit your animations inside of that time, so that you're not delaying the human. iOS7 fails in that regard in a bunch of places, but it's not hard to fix. I bet iOS 7.1 will make a bunch of tweaks in that regard.
Still no live tiles or gadgets to feed you information.
So you still need to go into an app for everything. Photo gallery, running tasks, flashlight, weather, alarm, reminders/calendar, shortcuts like shazam, navigate home, quick dials, and so on...
And the multitasking hasn't improved at all. They could at least do what Blackberry did and copy WebOS' card-style tasks interface...
This is the same damn OS all over again with a new font. It's getting ridiculous. No wonder their stock got downgraded by four agencies. Apple makes this ridiculously awesome hardware running an OS from 2007.
Flashlight, weather, alarm, reminders/calendar and quick dials to missed notifications are available from the notification or quick settings pop up.
Navigate home? That's what the 'Home' button (One of two buttons on the phone) is for.
Running tasks? This is iOS. Needing to see a full blown task manager isn't needed. Suspended/running in the background tasks show up by double clicking the home button though.
Yes, to view photos you must go into the photo app, or access it from the Camera app. I'm not sure how an additional widget would help here. It would still be the same number of clicks/user gestures away.
A lot of your critique makes it appear as though you have limited time with iOS, if any. Most of what you want is already there or irrelevant to how workflow occurs in the GUI.
You were obviously trying to respond to Samus' post, but your response is still mostly correct. Aside from things like giving weather data via the weather icon (it is asinine that Clock is the only "live" icon), Samus' criticisms don't stand. Its a lot of nitpicking over nothing of any importance.
Regards multitasking can you play streaming audio from Safari and switch to another task without it stopping? Or play a video stream in the background now?
Android "copies" stuff from iOS, iOS "copies" stuff from Android. And windoes Phone was "flat" before iOS. And Nokia and others had "not so stupid" phones before the iPhone. Old story, noone cares.
I know, Jobs once said good artist copy, great artist steal and later wanted to start a NUCULAR war against Android. Get over it. Good troll anyway.
This is how it works and will work in the future. And the best thing is, that it is good for the consumer!
Except that Apple cares, and had the guts to sue Samsung for a "rectangular shaped phone with a big glass touch screen in most of the front part" instead of trying to regain the market share that Samsung was gaining by actually releasing better products than the competition.
Quit trolling. The screenshot you posted is a horrible comparison. It's like comparing a Volkswagen to a Porsche. They both have wheels and a motor. Oh look, they both have headlights and a windshield wiper. Design is subjective. Everything has been done before. It's whoever delivers the best user experience. The consumer wins as they get to select which platform works best for them. If you are going to critique, then don't oversimplify the issue like most so-called news sites. Talk about actual proof points and have a meaningful debate.
Except that comparing two cars and saying that they are similar cause they both have wheels is retarded, as it would be saying that two phones are similar cause they both are rectangularly shaped (something on which Apple based a lawsuit, nevertheless). This is kinda different than saying they both have windshields or a battery: http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
And Apple has been suing Android handset manufacturers on the premise of those very analogies. Now they have the audacity (well, they always have, really) to do the same thing they sued for.
Look, they're both turds so what does it matter. IOS is still a waste of good hardware and Android is still risibly unstable.
If this level of quality was served to the desktop market it would not last long. I can't remember the last time my PC crashed and I run many more "apps" on a completely custom hardware configuration for many more hours per day of active use than my smartphone (and I'm not claiming win7 as some bastion of stability).
Were it not for all the privacy issues I'd be creaming myself over the thought of proper windows8 on an x86 smartphone - it would be the first acceptable and generation appropriate mobile OS since symbian :E (ok I admit when iOS was new it was pretty good).
If current and future OS didn't crib from each other we'd be stuck in the dark ages... It's a natural evolution, all desktop OS started off stealing from each other too (or from Xerox's PARC R&D!). Hell OS X and Windows are still copying each other (full maximize took how long to get to OS X? Win 7's new taskbar was in response to what other dock? exactly).
Does OSX even have full maximize? I had to install a utility to add that to my mac. Otherwise the maximize button in OSX doesn't actually make the window take up all the available non-menu/non-dock space.
Yes, because Allah forbid anyone implement useful features from other platforms *rolls eyes*.
That picture misattributes everything anyway: the multitasking is from WebOS, notification bars have existed in Cydia since before Android shipped, and Google certainly didn't invent streaming music services (I think Pandora was the first in that form, and Winamp's ShoutCast has been around since 1998 or so and is still going).
People keep saying how iOS7 is such a dramatic departure from the previous visual style, but to me it looks like the same old grid of static icons. Granted, the icons have changed, but is that really such a big thing? Also, don't you think that it's piss-poor work from Apple that already a year after it's launch, iPad 3 is basically a huge pain to use thanks to a software update?
The new functionality is great (although you still can't change the default apps and if you open one app from within another pressing the home button still throws you back to the home screen instead of the former app), but the design is jarring and many apps are hideous.
Anyway, for me this removes one thing that made me stick with Apple. Both Android and WP8 now look like great alternatives to that. Probably a good thing, any sentimental attachment to iOS (which was back then in 2007 a true revelation for me as far as UIs on a tiny screen go) is just erased now.
And hey, in the calendar you can't tap-and-hold a day in the month view and go straight into the new event screen for that day anymore.
The Notification Center in iOS 6 was a very concise list of things with great information density and still easy to read. All of this has been fluffed up and spread over three tabs now and events and even the weather are spelled out in huge and bland paragraphs of contrived text.
I don't know the target group for that but me it isn't. I've downgraded again.
How does iOS7 fare with iPad 2 and iPad Mini? One friend told me that he was under impression that his iPad 2 is faster with iOS7 than iOS6, but then I read here that iPad 3 is having a hard time running it...
I have a Mini, same SoC as the 2. It feels slower. The UI FPS clearly drops below 30FPS very often, and there's a general feeling of it having to think a bit longer about everything.
Call me old-fashioned, but I do NOT like the "flat" look that seems to be all the rage lately, whether on Windows8 or on a smart phone.
As Brian alluded to, widgets that give a "raised" appearance actually look like something you can push or slide. In Windows, for example, I mourn the change in something as simple as the vertical scroll bar in my browser. Gone are the "grips" I used to see. Now the scrolling handle and the vertical slot it slides in are visually the same. Ugh.
With no frames or borders, you don't know if it's a decoration within a window, or if it's a separate window.
It's a regression, in my mind.
At least on a smart phone, with limited screen real estate, I can understand saving some space by not having drop shadows and stuff. But I'd be happier if things I'm supposed to push actually look like things I'm supposed to push.
I'm also not sure about the translucency. I'm looking at the picture of the keyboard in this article. This is better? Why do I want a translucent keyboard? It's probably not horrible, but I'm not sure I see that as a value-added improvement.
In the interest of full disclosure, I tend to roll my eyes at all the holographic or transparent computer displays in the movies too (like "Minority Report" or "Iron Man"). Wouldn't it be a bit distracting and confusing to have text and images floating in front of a distracting background that consists of windows (made of glass, in the wall of the building), people walking, and other people's displays? Looks cool, but try using the window in your office instead of a white board for a while, and let me know how you like it.
Lastly, I'll echo another poster's comments about animations. AGREE, I do not need icons and things to "fly in" and entertain or dazzle me. Just do what you're supposed to do, without the fanfare please. It's only cool once, and after that you're just wasting my time.
I think they typically use animations to mask load times and other waits, though many seem unnecessary on the new hardware and they're actually having the opposite effect on older hardware. Jobs definitely wouldn't be happy... :s
> Call me old-fashioned, but I do NOT like the "flat" look that seems to be all the rage lately, whether on Windows8 or on a smart phone.
Actually I really do like Metro UI but only because it is *completely* flat and has been so from the start; no crazy trying to make everything flat and then giving it back some depth by adding layers and parallax effects as Apple now does. Or said short: I think Metro is an improvement compared to class Windows and a fresh new start for WP but for iOS I totally agree that it's a step back because they already had a very good UI concept.
It seems like Apple is copying but in reality SBSettings and Cydia has been out since the first days of iOS - and these settings have been available, just not through the approved channels.
There's definitely some Kool-aid drinking going on here. You mention:
"The core of the interface hadn’t really changed in either visual appearance or function. With iOS 7, those pundits get their wishes granted, as almost every part of the OS gets some kind of change."
However, if you had not told me which screenshot was iOS 7 and which was 5 in the second picture on the first page I would not have known.
How does your inability to tell two things apart mean that 1) nothing has changed, and 2) Brian and & Saumitra are "drinking Kool-aid"? As noted in the very sentence you quote the /core/ of the OS design hasn't changed but almost every aspect of it does get updated.
Was Apple suppose to no longer have icons that open up apps? Was Apple suppose to not allow personal background images or let 3rd-party developers choose their own icon images so you would be able to tell the new and old OSes apart more easily?
You're misreading Brian's statement. "The core of the interface hadn’t really changed in either visual appearance or function." refers to iPhone OS 1.0 through iOS 6, the statement isn't referring to iOS 7.
I got that part. What I was referring to was how he mentioned that there had previously been a lack of change between OS versions. With iOS 7 though, Brian asserts, there are radical changes. Immediately following his claim is a picture of two identical screens. One screen iOS 7 and one screen iOS 6. This undermines his claim that "almost every part of the OS gets some kind of change."
My biggest complain with the new UI is that with Maps giving you directions the "slide to unlock" button is so faint that I too often can't figure out why the Maps app isn't responding as I think it should. (See last image on first page of review)
2) I might be in the minority here but I'm not a fan of the way Safari shows multiple pages. it's *neat* looking but like Windows Vista's Aero Flip 3D effect it's not very useful if you need to quickly distinguish between multiple similar pages at once. I'd much rather it be like the new Fast App Switcher in iOS 7.
3) It's great that iOS finally has a Control Center and it's great that it's accessible from the Lock Screen, but it should not allow one to enable Airplane Mode (or disable any wireless communication) without having to use a PIN/Touch ID for verification. Sure, you can turn off Control Center from being accessible from the Lock Screen but that's all or nothing.
4) Very, very minor but I am not a fan of most of the new icons. That said, I ultimately don't care about how a fraking icon looks so all things considered the pros far outweigh the cons.
Wait what? You can pick up a locked iPhone and switch it into airplane mode without ever needing the PIN? How would they miss that?? Seems like such an obvioususability/security flaw... Wouldn't that make it ridiculously easy to steal phones and not worry about tracking/find phone features?
It's not really a problem, because the device is still locked. Find My Phone wouldn't work either on a phone if the thief simply turned off the device or (in the case of some Android phones) pulled out the battery; airplane mode on the lock screen has a similar effect. The device is still locked, and even if they manage to wipe the thing it'll still need the PIN to unlock on setup the next go around.
I mean, yes, it hurts security, but no more than turning off the phone, which you can't really prevent anyhow.
Now it's just easier for thieves. Before they could turn it off — which I think really should require security to do otherwise it should just reboot — but now they can disable all wireless connections whilst still being able to keep it on and find a way to break in without using a Faraday cage to prevent it from giving the owner a chance to locate it.
Been a while since I picked up my iPod touch, you can turn off an iOS device from a locked status by holding power without unlocking? Can't seem to on my Android, where the notification shade also doesn't slide down if it's locked (that's what the lock grace period is for after all, seems like a better comprise).
I mean, at the end of the day you're right, it's not the end of the world... Even if you can't easily turn off a locked device you can still just yank the SIM out... Tho that would take a thief a little more time than tapping airplane mode (specially if you're paranoid and just glue the SIM lid).
Makes not difference as long as you can shut the thing down by just long-pressing the power button. I think iOS should require the PIN for that, this would make just shutting it down by a thief much harder.
there is, in fact, a Cydia tweak that accomplishes just that. A couple of them. One that reboots instead of powering off, and one that fakes powering off animations but stays on underneath, without the proper user actions.
Decent added security from more normal thieves. Experienced iOSers would know a properly-timed holding of the home and power buttons results in the phone staying off. That's a hard wired function.
But yeah, a bit insecure, defaulting to such an obvious flawed idea. Jobs indeed would be pissed, at that, the animations for animation's sake (vice hiding loading times), and the killing of the skeumorphism. The latter I'm good with, though I'll be waiting for a JB to polish up a few areas and retain the functionality I'm used to. BTW, I prefer the look of the non-blurred transparency (ala the ipad3 and 4S method). Too much color on the full thing... And way too saturated. Looks like spilt watercolors.
Regarding battery life, I'd say I've noticed a slight drop, but it's hard to tell from one day. I recall that happened last year, too, but was fixed in one of the first bug fixes. I expect it will be the same this year.
"Swipe to delete has also been reversed in iOS 7. Rather than a left to right swipe to bring up a delete button, it’s now a right to left swipe."
Actually swiping both ways worked pre-iOS 7, swipe left to right or right to left, would present you with the delete button. The delete button would animate in from right to left anyways, so I don't know why they even let you swipe left to right to delete.
"The other reality is that smartphone users no longer need a UI that emulates real-world analogues to real objects for them to be able to discover and learn the interface. Things like controls (switches, sliders, and buttons) that emulated actual buttons no longer have to appear that way to be immediately obvious. Textures and other surfaces no longer need to mimic the real world either. Instead these can now give way to something that’s minimalist and new."
Welcome to 2005. But as always, nothing is cool until Apple does it.
What changed in 2005? Where did these sweeping changes take place that somehow left Apple out in the cold despite being 2 years before the original iPhone launched?
I think this is totally wrong. Emulating real-world analogues (including things like inertia and friction) leverages things you not only have learned by dealing with the world but even things that are hard-wired in every animal. Even cats have an easier time to tap on things that appear like things and not an abstract symbol.
Doing away with that is just another fad, that's all. Things like clear borders, shadows and raised buttons are not only a fad, they carry a meaning that goes much deeper than things you learn by using an interface.
Skeuomorphism got a bad reputation for all the wrong reasons. UNNECESSARY decoration is bad (maybe, it may still look nice) but not everything from the real world is skeuomorphism. You just need to look at the physics model of inertia and friction when scrolling that is still pretty much nailed down in iOS and a bad emulation in Android (and this is not meant as a jab, you'll find no combination of mass and friction that will work like the model in Android tries to do, it's just wrong from a physics POV). These are things that are rooted in physics. It's not only a good idea, it's the law...
Because of that I still like things I can press to look as if they're standing out. There's something in my animal layers that understands these hints even before I do. Apple throwing this away for no good reason is a sign of them being helpless and without a real clue. They're just fumbling around.
By the way, using large areas in clear colors for that may be fine too, and this is what MS is doing. Apple just using strings of colored text is by far a third-rate choice, but it was the only choice left for them. This is important to understand: iOS 7 is all about what was left and nobody did before for very good reasons. Apple was complacent for far too long, they did nothing for 6 years and thus they gave up the freedom of leading.
One day all of this will be written down in IT history books and it will be clear as day.
I still don't see a way to trigger the passcode lock, am I missing some special key combination?
Let's say I have a (secure) passcode set, but leave the timeout window at one or two hours. Once I'm unlocked but I know I am going to put it down / leave it in a locker / leave it on my charger at home where my kids will try to swipe it - how do I trigger the passcode lock without going through a power down cycle?
I guess it would be nice to set it immediately without having to drill into Settings to do it but in lieu of that you should set the Passcode lock to something less than the 1 or 4 hours options.
They should implement other conditions than a simple timer... i.e. Disable the security lock or set it on a longer timer when connected to home Wifi or car Bluetooth (or any BT really since it means it's near other devices you own and are presently using) etc.; user configurable of course. Been doing that on Android thru third party apps, which they had it natively too.
I'd like to see that but I wonder if Touch ID will negate most of that sense you will be able to blindly handle the device to unlock it almost instantly.
You can set the auto-lock and passcode lock delays separately. If you set the passcode lock to immediately you can just push the physical lock/power button and the passcode will need to be entered to access the phone again. You could still leave the auto-lock delay long to keep the phone from locking itself too soon. Does this help or have I missed you point?
Well that is a different way of approaching it, but I'm not sure it makes it better. I tap the power button a lot to immediately turn the screen off and now I would have to rely on auto-lock for that which is 1-5 minutes.
For a while I had auto-lock off and passcode at 4 hours. I want it to stay on unless I trigger it to turn off - am I a micro-managing control freak? (maybe, I enjoy Diablo and SC2 so that may explain something. btw how great would a Diablo port be to iOS!!!)
I'm just bummed that with all this new power in the control center that there isn't a "lock now" button.
Actually, there are a few changes to the weather app - you can scroll left/right on the hourly forecast (and it adds things like the sunset time), and if you tap the large temperature on the top, it switches to show you Humidity, Wind, Chance o precipitation, and "feels like temperature" (for windchill/humidex).
" I feel like the old Apple would've waited until the design was perfect before letting it out, while the new Apple is acutely aware of the competition that exists and is fine shipping and updating along the way. "
The old Apple also shipped a smartphone that while revolutionary it also lacked a lot of basic things that even dumb phones had at the time (copy/paste, MMS...), so let's not romanticize it. Jobs was always an advocate of doing things in a way he considered correct or not at all tho... If anything I think the unnecessarily long animations are closer to being something the old Apple might've gotten right. This thing screams performance, why bother with all that jazz...
One point Steve Jobs argued about with the old Apple and that lead to him being fired was that he didn't want the Mac to have more RAM. His way of thinking was that programmers should look for ways to make their apps solve problems by thinking through the problem deep enough to come up with simple solutions that didn't need lots of code or memory. All this "we have actually no idea what the people want to do, so just let's throw raw hardware power at it and give them everything" never was his vision.
And everybody who ever designed an app or any software solution to something knows that really diving to the bottom what you want to solve is the crucial part. If you do this right you may end up with incredibly simple solutions that go a very long way. The Wiki idea is a good example here.
Personally, I think the iOS 7 aesthetic is pretty ugly. I like Metro, but you can't simply Metro-ize the old grid-of-chiclets and expect it to look good. The propensity for bright, pastel colors doesn't help either.
And then that translucency effect is downright bad, especially if you have a dark background. The simple transparency you get with the iPhone 4 is much, much better and should be the default. There is a (rather obfuscated) setting to turn the translucency off labeled "Increase Contrast".
Also, the contrived text in the notifications pane (it says "It is now X degress. The high today was Y degrees" or some such instead of just showing the current temperature and today's high/low) is a huge space waster and offers nothing over simply showing the numbers.
While the move away from skeumorphism to more modern design was necessary, Apple did it in a pretty poor way, IMO. If I had any inkling to move back to iOS before, Apple pretty much killed it with iOS 7.
I'm surprised by the use of bright pastel like colors. I don't like it. I can't stand Kelly Green, Magenta, Cyan and Baby Blue used so extensively. It's like the pulled a 'ME TOO' and adopted Windows8 Crayola color palette.
That said, I use Phone8 and I can only stand 2 of the color scheme's available. So perhaps I am well in the minority.
After reading through the article, I'm surprised that the new operating system brings no new software features that make me think "wow, I wish my Android phone did that." From an overall view it seems that more than ever that the only real difference between IOS 7 and Android is their colors, font, and icon graphics. It seems that smartphone operating systems are converging on one UI design, just like desktop operating systems have done in the past few years.
I have always considered myself part of that Loyal Apple fan base. I have owned Apple computers, iPods, iPads, iPhones...I have given them as gifts, etc. I have raved about my phone so much, many of my friends have gotten the iPhone. Yes, I am that middle aged woman, not terribly tech savvy & enjoyed the immediate tech support of Apple & ease of use. Since upgrading to the iPhone 5 in June 2013, I have experienced nothing but frustration! This iPhone 5 is basically a very UNSMART, expensive piece of junk! I tried going to the Apple store for tech support, but they won't talk to me for 4 days! Guess that fast tech support service is a relic of the past. Went to AT&T, but they say it's a hardware problem so I'm at the mercy of a slow to respond Apple service system. Since upgrading to the 5 (had the 4s), some contacts get no texts from me, others it may be delayed by hours or days & vice versa; it frequently won't pick up the wi-fi & won't switch to my data plan so I just can't access the internet at all; it drops calls; Find My iPhone app will not work on this; touch screen & scrolling are frequently unresponsive; other things I can't remember now. A couple family members just got the android Galaxy 4S. I am seriously thinking of dropping all Apple products. Told my friends. They're interested in hearing my thoughts on the 4s if I switch. Apple store didn't seem concerned about losing a longtime, dedicated customer, which makes me think it's time to go.
You got a lemon, get Apple to swap it out. Don't restore your 4S profile to it, start from scratch, re-download the apps you still need/want from the App Store, let the contacts sync with iCloud and/or Gmail and/or Facebook, etc. Every few weeks kill all the running apps from the task manager (double-click the home button, hold an app until the "x's" appear) and then reboot. The friends that aren't getting your texts probably have iPhones on Verizon, switch to sending to them as SMS - there is much more delay between AT&T and Verizon then there is internally, I think Apple has different server clusters for each and the interconnect can either get bogged down or jammed. I think the iMessage servers for Verizon in general seem to be slow.
The iPhone 5 hardware is very good, but the key is that you did an UPGRADE. I think the software just gets screwy with this and I recommend doing a fresh install. If that doesn't fix your issues then get it replaced.
The apps move when you tilt your device on the ipad, has anyone else noticed this? its like they are on a layer above the wallpaper and as you move the device you see more or less of the wall paper. It doesn't seem to work on my iphone 4
1) Apple fans complain so much about the occasional lag on Android devices, well now they can have some of it too. But of course, Apple lag is in fact a built-in value-added feature. I'm just using the iPad wrong.
2) I think I can hire a chimpanzee to design and draw better icons than most of the ones that have been updated. I mean, sure, the iOS 6 sunflower icon for photos has been around for roughly a million years or more and was due for replacement, but they couldn't draw up one or two abstract representations of photos and instead gave us this Wheel-O-Colors that makes no sense whatsoever? Some of the other icons are so hilariously minimalistic and juvenile in execution that it cheapens the entire experience of using the iPad.
3) No calculator for the iPad? Really? Seriously? Most of the free ones out there are full of ads.
4) Movies on my iPad no longer have titles, I'm supposed to know which movie it is by looking at the thumbnail. Let's see... I have... "A Movie shot in Black", "The Terrifying Darkness", "Noire", "Black Screen of Death II", "Random Face Caught in Motion" and "Unidentified Body Part". Another value added feature from Apple, thanks!
It looks like the 'Field Test force quit' no longer works. I just tried it, and after holding down the home button, the Field Test app just reloads itself.
As a parent of a young teen I just discovered one of my favorite new features of iOS 7 - improved parental controls for Safari. I don't place a lot of faith in it's ability to block "adult content" but I do like that it also prevents clearing the browser history or browsing in "private" mode.
My apps don't fly and I do not have the translucent control center...I do however have the i4s. Your article pics represent differently. Please explain.
There is some complaining, as always. For myself, the overall adjustments are a nice change, especially on a newer iOS device that's able to properly take advantage of what's offered :). For the claim of copying, I'm sure it's true. If it's working well for others, jumping on a bandwagon of sorts isn't always a bad thing.
I am still adjusting to my decision to upgrade to iOS 7 early on.
The control center is great, it has meant I can de-clutter my home page from now unnecessary icons like a flashlight and camera, and it does have all the controls I use on a daily basis, easily accessible in one place. The notification center is also laid out more logically so as to be of real use, I hadn't really ever thought there was much point to it before.
So in terms of substance, I'm quite impressed.
Unfortunately when it comes to style, which lets face it is half the reason we all choose apple products I feel like I am stuck in hotmail circa 1999. It is common knowledge hotmail is no longer cool, and a screen full of primary colours and pointless animation when you unlock does not do it for me.
The loss of texture and shadow particularly from the icons makes everything feels a bit cheaper, and more windows - if I had wanted a windows phone that is what I would have bought.
Hotmail i.e. Windows Live Mail i.e. Outlook.com (MS really needs to stop renaming their webmail...) is actually kind of cool again. The latest redesign is pretty quick and fresh looking. I only know this out of necessity, I use Gmail for personal use, an old Yahoo address for bills and subscriptions (old habit and an eggs not on same basket kind of thing), and then Outlook.com because I have two old college addresses that are run thru there.
is there is any battery fully charged indication in ios7? i never can be sure when i have to unplug my iphone because ios7 don't have the battery full indicator like previous ios..
One of my biggest pet peeves with Contacts is that you can't sort by date of entry (recent first). Like most people, I end up adding a lot of casual acquaintances into Contacts and sometimes want to try to find someone just by searching through recent contacts. This to me is an example where Apple has dumbed it down too much.
It seems early to say how good is the new OS apart from design and a few features. Battery is an issue once more. Using some apps such as whatsapp, one sees the battery dropping at very high pace. Another issue: does anyone tried to delete one song on iPhone? I'm not able to discover how ..
Just another that occurred me now: we can't minimise the number os apps open. Why? Is this the reason why the phone now needs to be charged 2 or 3 times a day?
Wow, seeing them side by side, iOS 7 is amaaaazingly ugly and difficult to read compared with 6. I'm getting used to it, but it's just not as good visually (though does have some useful tweaks of course).
Worst issue I've hit is iTunes 11.1 and iOS7 both butcher podcasts in different ways. You're forced to use the horrible podcasts program under iOS 7 now, though it's not as horrible as it was-actually seems to sync now. Worse, iTunes 11.1 massively breaks podcast functionality. Threads on it on various sites. It's like whoever did it has no idea what a podcast is...it's pre 2005 Apple level, which is to say, almost as bad as everyone else is at it now.
I miss the numbers on the tumbler for the timer and alarm. And the yellow legal notes with lines. All there is now is a white page for all of these. It was so clever before. Boring.
I did notice a big improvement in battery life on my 4S. Battery life is king and all the android geeks can take the back seat with their plastic "phablet" phones. It works and it was much need Os upgrade.
E5-2697v2 vs E5-2690 +30% performance @+50% amount of cores. Disappointed...
Don't get me wrong, I am aware that it's 200 Mhz in difference and the performance per watt ratio is great, but still... I have the impression that single threaded performance has been decreased slightly or stands still with each generation, I had the same impression with the release of the last E5 generation compared to the X5690. I am well aware that there is a turbo available but it won't be so aggressive in an ESXi host and still, these days some VMs need single threaded performance.
I've stopped updating all my apps now. I will not update to IOS 7. Too ugly for me. There is also a performance hit for those like me who have over a hundred apps installed on my iPhone 5. I am curious to know how much RAM the OS takes up over 6.1.4. If it is actually less (not likely) I might consider it, but given that battery life issues are becoming more apparent, the only time I will see a new iOS will be with my iPhone 6S and it will be iOS 9!
Music controls must stay in Control Centre as there's no more double-homebutton-click to access it anymore.
Can anyone tell me if they've noticed the delete button function on the keyboard? It seems to jump across a space rather than just to the first letter of the word to be changed. It's not happening here, but it does on email.
I'm sorry for all the ppl who get motion sickness with iOS7, but for the most part, I love it!
I got the idea from the text resize slider function: how difficult would it be to implement a slider for movement, colour hue, and transparency?
I had ios 7 beta on my iphone 5 until yesterday. Then I succesfully updated to 7.0.2 but the problem is I dont see any transparency or blurring. Everything is grey like it supposed to appear on iphone 4. Is there anywhere an option to enable this cool effect? On the beta version I had the same problem, but I thought it's supposed to appear like this because its beta
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loneroad - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Can you comment on the battery life? I have noticed a drop in battery life after I upgraded. ArsTechnica reported a drop in battery life while The Verge doesn't.twochoicestom - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Oddly, I've actually seen an improvement in my battery life!blacks329 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
As have I (since the beta). I think initially when I updated I started playing around with it more, I had noticed a drop, but then as soon as I got back into my usual workflow, I noticed a signifant improvement in my battery life. So much so that I've had the phone last me 2 days of light to moderate usage multiple times now, something I haven't been able to do for a while.(I'm on an iPhone 5)
tech6 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I have seen n o significant changes in battery use on my iPhone5 in the last 24 hours of using iOS7solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
A common one-time ailment seems to be from a process in the Music app. Double click the Home Button and swpe up to kill that app. After that the battery life seems to stop counting down by the minute and you should actually see better battery life over 6.x.vol7ron - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Battery life has been fine. Different betas have had different experiences. In your "General" Settings, there is something called "Background App Refresh", which will drain your battery if you have it enabled, especially depending on what apps you have it enabled for.One beta used transparency on the app-grouping background. Instead of the pale grey, it was actually nice and transparent. They've done away with this in later betas, but it may have drained some battery; at least, I imagine that would be the case with the constant calculation of transparency, especially with the animation as you zoomed in/out.
HisokaKoga - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Ha! Ha! Gotcha! Apple Hater! I update my iPhone 5, 4S and iPad 2. I don't see any problem with battery life after use the whole day after updated.loneroad - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
@HisokaKoga, the fanboy exit door is that away. I was asking for a serious and objective comment because my battery went from 90% to 60% in an hour.@vol7ron, thanks for the advice. After disabling "Background App Refresh" battery life has been better.
shuntsu - Monday, September 23, 2013 - link
If this happened immediately after update, it may have been due to a variety of update tasks that run after ios7 starts the 1st time. The photo library gets reindexed and updated, lots of spotlight items in the phone get regenerated, and a number of iCloud data sets get refreshed. Depending on how much data is in your phone, this could take a while and be a little CPU intense as well. Once it's all done, things get back to normal. This is something that happens in OS X as well.rrecine - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
My battery life if awesome, oops wait I use a Note II. It has a removable battery and an SD microSD card slot too. It's OK, your phone still looks pretty! :-)akdj - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
@rrecine...glad you're digging your Note. My contract can't mature fast enough. Of all the smartphones we've purchased for development (Android, iOS and Windows)---it's hands down my least favorite. I just bought the 5s and can honestly tell you the new iPhone bests the GNote 2. The SD card. What an absolute joke. And no wonder Google is trying to get the OEMs to get rid of it. Can't put apps on it. Can't store any app info on it. Media essentially only. I bought in hook line and sinker. I'll never buy another Samsung or TouchWiz device as long as I live. Like I said though...glad you're digging yours. The iPhone 5s is definitely a big step up so don't go playing with one. You may just end up coming to the dark side. Removable battery isn't necessary on a phone capable of excellent and often all day use. That's one of the biggest downfalls of the Note 1 & bit less so on the 2. Battery life (stock) absolutely sucks!Crono - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
iOS 7 needs less transparency/translucency elements, a slightly darker color or solid color palette, and less animations. Otherwise the UI changes are a step in the right direction as far as lessening skeumorphic icons and moving toward a flatter look.tim851 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
The color palette was probably chosen to hide the extend to which WP7/8 was copied.As a WP7/8 hater, I don't like this iOS 7 look. On the iPad, there's too much (literal) white space. It starts with the greeting screens, which are just big black text on white. Looks like a no-nonsense powerpoint presentation. And at times, iOS 7 appears unpolished.
I disliked some of the skeumorphism in iOS 6, but generally preferred the look-and-feel. But as Brian said, there were lots of people who called for change - for change's sake. And that's what they got.
Also, on the iPad 2, performance is borderline. Every once in a while an animation stutters. Temple Run 2 now stutters all the time. Might be an app issue, might not be. But it's 2013 people, the operating system should NOT do things that slow down the interface. Another thing I have to grudgingly give to Windows Phone.
nathanddrews - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Maybe it's just a hold over from the old days, but the first thing I do with any OS is disable every animation possible. Much like disabling startup videos on games. When I click something, I just want it to work immediately.Ain't nobody got time fo dat. /mandatory
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
OTOH, aren't WP app load times still behind everyone else? I don't know that they necessarily emulated WP too much, seems like they took interesting bits from both it and stock Android (roboto font was a big deal on ICS, etc).OzedStarfish - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Yeah they are still quite long. It's especially frustrating for me, a developer for WP8 because it seems it's a deeper problem than what can be addressed with smart application design.It's most evident when looking at the settings app, launching is effectively instant (animations withstanding) while any third party app takes noticeably longer. To Microsoft's credit, it is far better than it used to be with WP7, switching from JIT to MDIL as well as other back end changes have definitely helped.
NeXTguy2 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
It's interesting. Load times can be slow to the point of being seriously annoying. I'm looking at you, WhatsApp. At the same time, though, there are enough apps that launch in 0.5 seconds or so, even on my old Lumia 800 with WP7.5, which indicates to me that there is no fundamental "penalty" in the OS itself.Maybe it has to do with the number of resources an app depends on? The apps with fast launch times include 1Password, the Blizzard and RSA authenticator apps, while stuff the needs an internet status, Twitter and TripIt for example, are slowish. Worst seem to be apps that have a lot of local data. This is all suspicion, I have not tested any of this. Maybe I should...
OzedStarfish - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
There is a huge correlation between loading data and launch time, especially when developers are lazy and run their routines on the UI thread. But I think the difference between first party and third party apps is most clear comparing 'music+video' or 'photos' or any other complex native panorama app to even the SDK sample, the sample drops frames on opening whilst the native ones are smooth and seamless.Just comparing the settings apps from my Lumia 920 and Nexus 7 (2013) I swore that the phone opened quicker from general usage, but comparing side by side the nexus is noticeably quicker, the animations on the phone really did well at masking the loading while I felt that looking at the grey screen on the nexus made it feel slow. I can see how it takes an adjustment period when switching platforms.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Windows Phone feels fast to me. Both iOS and Windows Phone generally feel really fast, while Android (even on better hardware) feels sluuuuuggish (still, as of 4.3).Daniel Egger - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Really not sure where all the WP7/8 references are coming from; one Windows-affine techsite suddenly confesses liking iOS 7 because they copied so many good parts from WP and others start hating iOS 7 because they only copied the worst parts. As a WP7 and 8 user I cannot see at all where this is coming from because the few things they have in common now (like the task switcher which is still quite rudimentary in 8, to be improved in 'Blue' to an iOS 7ish level) or a sans serif font (which is still quite a different choice between the two) are not coming from WP originally at all.Impulses - Sunday, September 22, 2013 - link
I just read the Verge's review and while they don't go anywhere as in depth as Anandtech (really, who does?) it did seem more cohesive at a high level. It drew far less direct comparisons between OS yet you always knew when David seemed to think iOS was ahead or behind the competition in any aspect. I won't say it seemed more objective cause I think this kinda review is inherently subjective, but less enthusiastic about minor cosmetic changes for sure.akdj - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
It's 2013 and you're running a new OS from late 2013 on a almost three year old device. It's bound to run a bit slower and show its 'age'. We've got an iPad 2 and we won't be updating from iOS 6.Krysto - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
How can translucency be a "step in the right direction"? I think it belongs more in the past, right there with gradients. Same for the parallax effect, which is just cheese, and has always been cheesy.B3an - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I agree. iOS 7 looks very cheesy. But pretty much everything Apple design looks cheesy as they've always had tons of gradients and tacky effects (atleast they've got rid of drop shadows now), all that stuff came from the early to mid 2000's. As a designer i used to design stuff like it myself, but this was around 7 - 12 years ago and things have moved on. Funny how Microsoft now lead in modern design, who would have thought.star-affinity - Tuesday, September 24, 2013 - link
”But pretty much everything Apple design looks cheesy as they've always had tons of gradients and tacky effects”Don't agree at all. Especially in OS X I don't think there's much ”tackiness”. And the only really thing I found really tacky in iOS 6 was Game Center.
What in Microsoft's designs are better you mean? A few examples?
CBone - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
OSX looks pretty slick. iOS 7 still looks tacky to me. I still don't like the "every app ever barfed up on the screen so it looks like my mother-in-law's XP desktop ultra busy this-is-just-an-app-drawer" look.Wolfpup - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
That's nonsense. Those ideas were developed for a reason, not arbitrarily. Removing them is fad, fashion, and has nothing to do with functionality, which is diminished.akdj - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
'Functionality....diminished?' How so?I'm incredibly blown away by the incessant negativity to iOS 7. It's unreal. It's amazing how just a month ago....thru the past three years Apple's taken constant flack on skeumorphism and 'cheese'. iOS 7, while completely different than 6 is one HELL of a makeover. Perhaps it's because we are using an iPhone 5 and 5s...iPad 4s and minis...but I've lost absolutely NO functionality. The minimalist design UI is a HUGE breath of fresh air and it's apparent to me why so many design 'experts' on this board and many others are crying foul. 'So yesterday'. 'Dated'. Blah blah blah blah blah
What an absolute joke. To decry the new UI, it's incredible fluidity....even on two year old hardware, the simplicity...added functionality (control center, camera, notifications, background updates...there are literally DOZENS of examples of extended functionality....it truly makes me question and wonder who these anonymous design experts are behind the anonymity do their keyboard. Ridiculous.
I guarantee Apple will win not one, two or even six awards for this UI overhaul/design. They'll win a dozen or more. A TRUE design expert would realize this. Is there areas of improvement to be made? Sure! Absolutely....but that's been the same since iOS 1.0 (was that a version? I can't remember even after owning each iPhone). The complaints of 'boring' and analog symbols and UI with the skeumorphic design through iOS 6 was tiring. And ubiquitous. And everywhere...all the time. Now, they change it and it's not what you want. Hilarious. There are plenty of choices on the market if you don't like it. android isn't android. It's TouchWiz, Sense, and dozens of other launchers to set it up the way you like it. If Windows crappy UI is so intriguing, why are you slamming iOS 7? Why aren't you buying a Lumia?
It's tiring. And boring. Especially reading all the bullshit from the so called and most likely unemployed 'design experts'. I don't suppose anyone has explored so many of the other excellent updates, ala error and spelling correction, fast swipe to rid a reminder, excellent new options for sounds, font size and 'thickening' if you find it bothersome....and to call parallax effects cheesy just exemplifies the thin knowledge some posters have when it comes to UI design, simplicity and fluidity. It's easy to put out a crappy, glitchy and slow UI. Look at Samsung and the new S4 (I have one. We develop for both Android and iOS and have just started to learn the ins and outs with Windows mobile). That is a phone with some of the fastest hardware on the market and in comparison with either the '5' or the '5s' it's obliterated when it comes to speed, fluency and doing what it's designed to do...a springboard, launching platform for your apps and software.
Rant over...sorry, just tired of all the bullshit. Pardon my Cantonese
akdj - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
I meant to also mention, Apple designing this new UI and as trouble free and fluent as it is...is almost miraculous. It's hard as HELL to create a simple user experience. One that's easy to understand and operate. As mentioned before...TouchWiz is a perfect example of how tough it is even with current hardware to achieve this level of performance.CBone - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
If all you want to do is ultraslurp Apple UI and react poorly to people giving opinions contrary to yours on it, you probably shouldn't read many opinions. Why is it so hard to accept that people might love the phone but hate the UI?Daniel Egger - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
I agree. I also would disagree with Brian that it's a pity that the older hardware doesn't do that cheap colored blur effect -- I think Apple should get rid of that on all devices ASAP as it worsens the readability of all text on top of it and is just a huge useless distraction. How about desaturating that one a bit? Also I really like some of the old icons much better; I think they went to far in flattening them and "thinking different".Wade_Jensen - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Why no mobile data toggle apple?! iOS 7 almost made an iPhone worth considering for me, it needed control centre because I refuse to launch settings just to change my brightness, GPS etc. But I am always coming in and out of WiFi And want to maximize battery life so toggle data is a must.I suppose its so people don't bump it and complain that siri doesn't work and so carriers can continue to charge ridiculous amounts for data, but arrrggh! So close apple, just give me a little control!
teryan2006 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Siri can now turn off cell data. Either "turn off cell data" or "disable cell data" seems to work.Wade_Jensen - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Thanks thats good to know. But then... how do I turn data on with siri when I leave WiFi range if I have no internet?Can Siri do some offline voice control??
Daniel Egger - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Actually pre-Siri devices understood quite some voice commands without internet connection. I actually don't like idea a single bit requiring a chunk of my data plan and sending my voice commands over to the NSA -- Siri for me is not part of the answer but part of the problem...Wade_Jensen - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Plus there's always the problem of being in a noisy are an throwing off voice recog :(Sufo - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Or you know, being obliged to talk to your phone :/Razorbak86 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Siri doesn't seem to recognize "cell data", but "enable cellular data" and "disable cellular data" both work.teflon6678 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Not as convenient as having it in control centre, but it's under Settings>Mobile for me.mhandley - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Siri on iOS 7 now appears to be using Multipath TCP, which should make moving between WiFi and 3G much more seamless.Guspaz - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
One big improvement to the settings app that was missed in the review: per-application bandwidth summaries. Previously, this was all lumped under the "Usage" section, and all you got was a breakdown of cellular data versus tethered data. Especially painful was tracking roaming usage (with carriers often charging insane fees to roam outside the country).This is now handled under the Cellular section. The top-level summary is one line for general data usage total, and one line for roaming data usage. Below that is a list of applications, how much bandwidth each of them has used, and a toggle to disable cellular data usage for that application. Tethered usage is now placed under a "System Services" submenu, which on the top-level screen gives you a total of all system services, but when expanded gives you a breakdown of the bandwidth usage of individual services, including one entry for "Personal Hotspot". It really is rather detailed, even telling you how much bandwidth you've consumed for DNS queries versus Siri versus software updates versus voicemail (and so on).
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I'm surprised iOS didn't have that already, pretty good and useful audition. I rarely worry about data usage as my use is pretty darn consistent and I have an unlimited plan anyway... But that should be super helpful for a non-techie on a metered plan who's suddenly worried how much bandwidth he/she may have consumed after an hour of Facetime etc (one of the first things my mother fretted able after finally getting her first smartphone).Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
*useful additionrchan016 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Back in ios6, when a notification slid in from the top of the screen, you could dismiss it; you would just slide your finger right to left, and then when you let go, the notification is dismissed.althaz - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Love the changes, but the lack of a hardware back button is still hurting the OS, IMO (I won't personally consider one with an LCD screen either, but that's just me). Also, several of these screenshots look ripped straight from Windows Phone (not a bad thing at all).Samus - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Still no live tiles or gadgets to feed you information.So you still need to go into an app for everything. Photo gallery, running tasks, flashlight, weather, alarm, reminders/calendar, shortcuts like shazam, navigate home, quick dials, and so on...
And the multitasking hasn't improved at all. They could at least do what Blackberry did and copy WebOS' card-style tasks interface...
This is the same damn OS all over again with a new font. It's getting ridiculous. No wonder their stock got downgraded by four agencies. Apple makes this ridiculously awesome hardware running an OS from 2007.
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Didn't they add some widgets to the notification shade or was that not expanded much? I love that high degree of customization on Android but I find that most non-techies just don't bother with it, in that sense the more seamless tile integration of WP still seems more approachable and generally useful (tho me it still looks like a lot of wasted space).App icons flying in and out seems reminiscent of older Android launcher animations... I don't know that scrolling thru cards was the epitome of task switching paradigms either, HTC did something similar (minus the stacking) on the previous version of Sense and I found it slower than Android's stock thumbnail strip which necessitates less scrolling. Maybe I've forgotten some particularly compelling aspect of this on WebOS (RIP).
Arbee - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Did you actually read the review? It *does* copy WebOS's card-style task list. As a former Palm Pre owner, iOS 7's implementation feels like coming home again :)And you don't need to go into an app for everything, that's the point of the new Control Center.
Daniel Egger - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Hopefully without the lag. I don't miss that at all from my 2 Pres...twochoicestom - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Although I see what they were trying to do, after using it for a while, I don't like the animations at all. They slow everything down. I don't care where on the OS I'm zooming into. I care how fluid my device feels.It definitely needs refinement, but it's a very good starting point.
Guspaz - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Agreed. Some of the animations are fine, others are way too slow. It generally needs tweaking.You can get away with some animation, because there's a certain human reaction time involved, but you've got to fit your animations inside of that time, so that you're not delaying the human. iOS7 fails in that regard in a bunch of places, but it's not hard to fix. I bet iOS 7.1 will make a bunch of tweaks in that regard.
mchart - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Still no live tiles or gadgets to feed you information.So you still need to go into an app for everything. Photo gallery, running tasks, flashlight, weather, alarm, reminders/calendar, shortcuts like shazam, navigate home, quick dials, and so on...
And the multitasking hasn't improved at all. They could at least do what Blackberry did and copy WebOS' card-style tasks interface...
This is the same damn OS all over again with a new font. It's getting ridiculous. No wonder their stock got downgraded by four agencies. Apple makes this ridiculously awesome hardware running an OS from 2007.
Flashlight, weather, alarm, reminders/calendar and quick dials to missed notifications are available from the notification or quick settings pop up.
Navigate home? That's what the 'Home' button (One of two buttons on the phone) is for.
Running tasks? This is iOS. Needing to see a full blown task manager isn't needed. Suspended/running in the background tasks show up by double clicking the home button though.
Yes, to view photos you must go into the photo app, or access it from the Camera app. I'm not sure how an additional widget would help here. It would still be the same number of clicks/user gestures away.
A lot of your critique makes it appear as though you have limited time with iOS, if any. Most of what you want is already there or irrelevant to how workflow occurs in the GUI.
KoolAidMan1 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
You were obviously trying to respond to Samus' post, but your response is still mostly correct. Aside from things like giving weather data via the weather icon (it is asinine that Clock is the only "live" icon), Samus' criticisms don't stand. Its a lot of nitpicking over nothing of any importance.jamawass - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Regards multitasking can you play streaming audio from Safari and switch to another task without it stopping? Or play a video stream in the background now?Tyler_Durden_83 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Not a single mention of this kills your credibility: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66751019/12355...beysl - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Yawn, boring!Android "copies" stuff from iOS, iOS "copies" stuff from Android. And windoes Phone was "flat" before iOS. And Nokia and others had "not so stupid" phones before the iPhone. Old story, noone cares.
I know, Jobs once said good artist copy, great artist steal and later wanted to start a NUCULAR war against Android. Get over it. Good troll anyway.
This is how it works and will work in the future. And the best thing is, that it is good for the consumer!
Tyler_Durden_83 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Except that Apple cares, and had the guts to sue Samsung for a "rectangular shaped phone with a big glass touch screen in most of the front part" instead of trying to regain the market share that Samsung was gaining by actually releasing better products than the competition.rgmonkey - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Quit trolling. The screenshot you posted is a horrible comparison. It's like comparing a Volkswagen to a Porsche. They both have wheels and a motor. Oh look, they both have headlights and a windshield wiper. Design is subjective. Everything has been done before. It's whoever delivers the best user experience. The consumer wins as they get to select which platform works best for them. If you are going to critique, then don't oversimplify the issue like most so-called news sites. Talk about actual proof points and have a meaningful debate.Tyler_Durden_83 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Except that comparing two cars and saying that they are similar cause they both have wheels is retarded, as it would be saying that two phones are similar cause they both are rectangularly shaped (something on which Apple based a lawsuit, nevertheless).This is kinda different than saying they both have windshields or a battery: http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
rgmonkey - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Wow. That is your response? So what specifically about this article that bothers you so much?bplewis24 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
And Apple has been suing Android handset manufacturers on the premise of those very analogies. Now they have the audacity (well, they always have, really) to do the same thing they sued for.KoolAidMan1 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
And Android was nothing but a Blackberry clone until iOS came along.The circle of life, yada yada...
Sufo - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Look, they're both turds so what does it matter. IOS is still a waste of good hardware and Android is still risibly unstable.If this level of quality was served to the desktop market it would not last long. I can't remember the last time my PC crashed and I run many more "apps" on a completely custom hardware configuration for many more hours per day of active use than my smartphone (and I'm not claiming win7 as some bastion of stability).
Were it not for all the privacy issues I'd be creaming myself over the thought of proper windows8 on an x86 smartphone - it would be the first acceptable and generation appropriate mobile OS since symbian :E (ok I admit when iOS was new it was pretty good).
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
If current and future OS didn't crib from each other we'd be stuck in the dark ages... It's a natural evolution, all desktop OS started off stealing from each other too (or from Xerox's PARC R&D!). Hell OS X and Windows are still copying each other (full maximize took how long to get to OS X? Win 7's new taskbar was in response to what other dock? exactly).Guspaz - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Does OSX even have full maximize? I had to install a utility to add that to my mac. Otherwise the maximize button in OSX doesn't actually make the window take up all the available non-menu/non-dock space.Glindon - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Windows maximize to the size of the content instead of wasting space. If you want full screen, there's a separate button for that.Arbee - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Yes, because Allah forbid anyone implement useful features from other platforms *rolls eyes*.That picture misattributes everything anyway: the multitasking is from WebOS, notification bars have existed in Cydia since before Android shipped, and Google certainly didn't invent streaming music services (I think Pandora was the first in that form, and Winamp's ShoutCast has been around since 1998 or so and is still going).
helloworldv2 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
People keep saying how iOS7 is such a dramatic departure from the previous visual style, but to me it looks like the same old grid of static icons. Granted, the icons have changed, but is that really such a big thing? Also, don't you think that it's piss-poor work from Apple that already a year after it's launch, iPad 3 is basically a huge pain to use thanks to a software update?CBone - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
If the same old grid of static icons is what you have, even a minor change seems huge. "Aww, snap! The background moves!"uhuznaa - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
The new functionality is great (although you still can't change the default apps and if you open one app from within another pressing the home button still throws you back to the home screen instead of the former app), but the design is jarring and many apps are hideous.Anyway, for me this removes one thing that made me stick with Apple. Both Android and WP8 now look like great alternatives to that. Probably a good thing, any sentimental attachment to iOS (which was back then in 2007 a true revelation for me as far as UIs on a tiny screen go) is just erased now.
And hey, in the calendar you can't tap-and-hold a day in the month view and go straight into the new event screen for that day anymore.
The Notification Center in iOS 6 was a very concise list of things with great information density and still easy to read. All of this has been fluffed up and spread over three tabs now and events and even the weather are spelled out in huge and bland paragraphs of contrived text.
I don't know the target group for that but me it isn't. I've downgraded again.
Hinotori - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
How does iOS7 fare with iPad 2 and iPad Mini? One friend told me that he was under impression that his iPad 2 is faster with iOS7 than iOS6, but then I read here that iPad 3 is having a hard time running it...tipoo - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I have a Mini, same SoC as the 2. It feels slower. The UI FPS clearly drops below 30FPS very often, and there's a general feeling of it having to think a bit longer about everything.tipoo - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
It seems a bit pudgy on my nearly new Mini, and presumably anything else with A5. UI clearly drops below 30FPS with the default paralex on.justaviking - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Not a fan of "FLAT" UI themes.Call me old-fashioned, but I do NOT like the "flat" look that seems to be all the rage lately, whether on Windows8 or on a smart phone.
As Brian alluded to, widgets that give a "raised" appearance actually look like something you can push or slide. In Windows, for example, I mourn the change in something as simple as the vertical scroll bar in my browser. Gone are the "grips" I used to see. Now the scrolling handle and the vertical slot it slides in are visually the same. Ugh.
With no frames or borders, you don't know if it's a decoration within a window, or if it's a separate window.
It's a regression, in my mind.
At least on a smart phone, with limited screen real estate, I can understand saving some space by not having drop shadows and stuff. But I'd be happier if things I'm supposed to push actually look like things I'm supposed to push.
I'm also not sure about the translucency. I'm looking at the picture of the keyboard in this article. This is better? Why do I want a translucent keyboard? It's probably not horrible, but I'm not sure I see that as a value-added improvement.
In the interest of full disclosure, I tend to roll my eyes at all the holographic or transparent computer displays in the movies too (like "Minority Report" or "Iron Man"). Wouldn't it be a bit distracting and confusing to have text and images floating in front of a distracting background that consists of windows (made of glass, in the wall of the building), people walking, and other people's displays? Looks cool, but try using the window in your office instead of a white board for a while, and let me know how you like it.
Lastly, I'll echo another poster's comments about animations. AGREE, I do not need icons and things to "fly in" and entertain or dazzle me. Just do what you're supposed to do, without the fanfare please. It's only cool once, and after that you're just wasting my time.
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I think they typically use animations to mask load times and other waits, though many seem unnecessary on the new hardware and they're actually having the opposite effect on older hardware. Jobs definitely wouldn't be happy... :sDaniel Egger - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
> Not a fan of "FLAT" UI themes.> Call me old-fashioned, but I do NOT like the "flat" look that seems to be all the rage lately, whether on Windows8 or on a smart phone.
Actually I really do like Metro UI but only because it is *completely* flat and has been so from the start; no crazy trying to make everything flat and then giving it back some depth by adding layers and parallax effects as Apple now does. Or said short: I think Metro is an improvement compared to class Windows and a fresh new start for WP but for iOS I totally agree that it's a step back because they already had a very good UI concept.
beepboy - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
It seems like Apple is copying but in reality SBSettings and Cydia has been out since the first days of iOS - and these settings have been available, just not through the approved channels.prophet001 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
There's definitely some Kool-aid drinking going on here. You mention:"The core of the interface hadn’t really changed in either visual appearance or function. With iOS 7, those pundits get their wishes granted, as almost every part of the OS gets some kind of change."
However, if you had not told me which screenshot was iOS 7 and which was 5 in the second picture on the first page I would not have known.
solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
How does your inability to tell two things apart mean that 1) nothing has changed, and 2) Brian and & Saumitra are "drinking Kool-aid"? As noted in the very sentence you quote the /core/ of the OS design hasn't changed but almost every aspect of it does get updated.Was Apple suppose to no longer have icons that open up apps? Was Apple suppose to not allow personal background images or let 3rd-party developers choose their own icon images so you would be able to tell the new and old OSes apart more easily?
Guspaz - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
You're misreading Brian's statement. "The core of the interface hadn’t really changed in either visual appearance or function." refers to iPhone OS 1.0 through iOS 6, the statement isn't referring to iOS 7.prophet001 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
I got that part. What I was referring to was how he mentioned that there had previously been a lack of change between OS versions. With iOS 7 though, Brian asserts, there are radical changes. Immediately following his claim is a picture of two identical screens. One screen iOS 7 and one screen iOS 6. This undermines his claim that "almost every part of the OS gets some kind of change."solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
My biggest complain with the new UI is that with Maps giving you directions the "slide to unlock" button is so faint that I too often can't figure out why the Maps app isn't responding as I think it should. (See last image on first page of review)solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Additionally…2) I might be in the minority here but I'm not a fan of the way Safari shows multiple pages. it's *neat* looking but like Windows Vista's Aero Flip 3D effect it's not very useful if you need to quickly distinguish between multiple similar pages at once. I'd much rather it be like the new Fast App Switcher in iOS 7.
3) It's great that iOS finally has a Control Center and it's great that it's accessible from the Lock Screen, but it should not allow one to enable Airplane Mode (or disable any wireless communication) without having to use a PIN/Touch ID for verification. Sure, you can turn off Control Center from being accessible from the Lock Screen but that's all or nothing.
4) Very, very minor but I am not a fan of most of the new icons. That said, I ultimately don't care about how a fraking icon looks so all things considered the pros far outweigh the cons.
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Wait what? You can pick up a locked iPhone and switch it into airplane mode without ever needing the PIN? How would they miss that?? Seems like such an obvioususability/security flaw... Wouldn't that make it ridiculously easy to steal phones and not worry about tracking/find phone features?Guspaz - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
It's not really a problem, because the device is still locked. Find My Phone wouldn't work either on a phone if the thief simply turned off the device or (in the case of some Android phones) pulled out the battery; airplane mode on the lock screen has a similar effect. The device is still locked, and even if they manage to wipe the thing it'll still need the PIN to unlock on setup the next go around.I mean, yes, it hurts security, but no more than turning off the phone, which you can't really prevent anyhow.
solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Now it's just easier for thieves. Before they could turn it off — which I think really should require security to do otherwise it should just reboot — but now they can disable all wireless connections whilst still being able to keep it on and find a way to break in without using a Faraday cage to prevent it from giving the owner a chance to locate it.Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Been a while since I picked up my iPod touch, you can turn off an iOS device from a locked status by holding power without unlocking? Can't seem to on my Android, where the notification shade also doesn't slide down if it's locked (that's what the lock grace period is for after all, seems like a better comprise).I mean, at the end of the day you're right, it's not the end of the world... Even if you can't easily turn off a locked device you can still just yank the SIM out... Tho that would take a thief a little more time than tapping airplane mode (specially if you're paranoid and just glue the SIM lid).
Arbee - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
You can disable Control Center from appearing on the lock screen. Which isn't as handy as having it there, but it's certainly more secure.uhuznaa - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Makes not difference as long as you can shut the thing down by just long-pressing the power button. I think iOS should require the PIN for that, this would make just shutting it down by a thief much harder.Txmtx - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
there is, in fact, a Cydia tweak that accomplishes just that. A couple of them. One that reboots instead of powering off, and one that fakes powering off animations but stays on underneath, without the proper user actions.Decent added security from more normal thieves. Experienced iOSers would know a properly-timed holding of the home and power buttons results in the phone staying off. That's a hard wired function.
But yeah, a bit insecure, defaulting to such an obvious flawed idea. Jobs indeed would be pissed, at that, the animations for animation's sake (vice hiding loading times), and the killing of the skeumorphism. The latter I'm good with, though I'll be waiting for a JB to polish up a few areas and retain the functionality I'm used to. BTW, I prefer the look of the non-blurred transparency (ala the ipad3 and 4S method). Too much color on the full thing... And way too saturated. Looks like spilt watercolors.
KPOM - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Regarding battery life, I'd say I've noticed a slight drop, but it's hard to tell from one day. I recall that happened last year, too, but was fixed in one of the first bug fixes. I expect it will be the same this year.ltcommanderdata - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
What about graphics benchmarks? Are the newer GPU drivers faster?blacks329 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
"Swipe to delete has also been reversed in iOS 7. Rather than a left to right swipe to bring up a delete button, it’s now a right to left swipe."Actually swiping both ways worked pre-iOS 7, swipe left to right or right to left, would present you with the delete button. The delete button would animate in from right to left anyways, so I don't know why they even let you swipe left to right to delete.
Surrept - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Good review Brian. Been beta testing for awhile now and I really do like the changes.Icehawk - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Did I miss it - where was AirDrop discussed?apertotes - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
"The other reality is that smartphone users no longer need a UI that emulates real-world analogues to real objects for them to be able to discover and learn the interface. Things like controls (switches, sliders, and buttons) that emulated actual buttons no longer have to appear that way to be immediately obvious. Textures and other surfaces no longer need to mimic the real world either. Instead these can now give way to something that’s minimalist and new."Welcome to 2005. But as always, nothing is cool until Apple does it.
solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
What changed in 2005? Where did these sweeping changes take place that somehow left Apple out in the cold despite being 2 years before the original iPhone launched?Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Revisionism 101uhuznaa - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I think this is totally wrong. Emulating real-world analogues (including things like inertia and friction) leverages things you not only have learned by dealing with the world but even things that are hard-wired in every animal. Even cats have an easier time to tap on things that appear like things and not an abstract symbol.Doing away with that is just another fad, that's all. Things like clear borders, shadows and raised buttons are not only a fad, they carry a meaning that goes much deeper than things you learn by using an interface.
Skeuomorphism got a bad reputation for all the wrong reasons. UNNECESSARY decoration is bad (maybe, it may still look nice) but not everything from the real world is skeuomorphism. You just need to look at the physics model of inertia and friction when scrolling that is still pretty much nailed down in iOS and a bad emulation in Android (and this is not meant as a jab, you'll find no combination of mass and friction that will work like the model in Android tries to do, it's just wrong from a physics POV). These are things that are rooted in physics. It's not only a good idea, it's the law...
Because of that I still like things I can press to look as if they're standing out. There's something in my animal layers that understands these hints even before I do. Apple throwing this away for no good reason is a sign of them being helpless and without a real clue. They're just fumbling around.
By the way, using large areas in clear colors for that may be fine too, and this is what MS is doing. Apple just using strings of colored text is by far a third-rate choice, but it was the only choice left for them. This is important to understand: iOS 7 is all about what was left and nobody did before for very good reasons. Apple was complacent for far too long, they did nothing for 6 years and thus they gave up the freedom of leading.
One day all of this will be written down in IT history books and it will be clear as day.
LordConrad - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I don't like the new look, seems like it was designed for teenage girls. I will not be upgrading my iPad 4.kwrzesien - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I still don't see a way to trigger the passcode lock, am I missing some special key combination?Let's say I have a (secure) passcode set, but leave the timeout window at one or two hours. Once I'm unlocked but I know I am going to put it down / leave it in a locker / leave it on my charger at home where my kids will try to swipe it - how do I trigger the passcode lock without going through a power down cycle?
solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I guess it would be nice to set it immediately without having to drill into Settings to do it but in lieu of that you should set the Passcode lock to something less than the 1 or 4 hours options.Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
They should implement other conditions than a simple timer... i.e. Disable the security lock or set it on a longer timer when connected to home Wifi or car Bluetooth (or any BT really since it means it's near other devices you own and are presently using) etc.; user configurable of course. Been doing that on Android thru third party apps, which they had it natively too.solipsism - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I'd like to see that but I wonder if Touch ID will negate most of that sense you will be able to blindly handle the device to unlock it almost instantly.Bakes - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
You can set the auto-lock and passcode lock delays separately. If you set the passcode lock to immediately you can just push the physical lock/power button and the passcode will need to be entered to access the phone again. You could still leave the auto-lock delay long to keep the phone from locking itself too soon. Does this help or have I missed you point?kwrzesien - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Well that is a different way of approaching it, but I'm not sure it makes it better. I tap the power button a lot to immediately turn the screen off and now I would have to rely on auto-lock for that which is 1-5 minutes.For a while I had auto-lock off and passcode at 4 hours. I want it to stay on unless I trigger it to turn off - am I a micro-managing control freak? (maybe, I enjoy Diablo and SC2 so that may explain something. btw how great would a Diablo port be to iOS!!!)
I'm just bummed that with all this new power in the control center that there isn't a "lock now" button.
uhuznaa - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
The longest timeout you can set for the passcode becoming active after pressing the sleep button is five minutes.LCurtisB - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Actually, there are a few changes to the weather app - you can scroll left/right on the hourly forecast (and it adds things like the sunset time), and if you tap the large temperature on the top, it switches to show you Humidity, Wind, Chance o precipitation, and "feels like temperature" (for windchill/humidex).Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
" I feel like the old Apple would've waited until the design was perfect before letting it out, while the new Apple is acutely aware of the competition that exists and is fine shipping and updating along the way. "The old Apple also shipped a smartphone that while revolutionary it also lacked a lot of basic things that even dumb phones had at the time (copy/paste, MMS...), so let's not romanticize it. Jobs was always an advocate of doing things in a way he considered correct or not at all tho... If anything I think the unnecessarily long animations are closer to being something the old Apple might've gotten right. This thing screams performance, why bother with all that jazz...
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
And by this thing I meant the 5s obviously, but it's not like the animations are helping mask anything on older devices... Just seems ill conceived.uhuznaa - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
One point Steve Jobs argued about with the old Apple and that lead to him being fired was that he didn't want the Mac to have more RAM. His way of thinking was that programmers should look for ways to make their apps solve problems by thinking through the problem deep enough to come up with simple solutions that didn't need lots of code or memory. All this "we have actually no idea what the people want to do, so just let's throw raw hardware power at it and give them everything" never was his vision.And everybody who ever designed an app or any software solution to something knows that really diving to the bottom what you want to solve is the crucial part. If you do this right you may end up with incredibly simple solutions that go a very long way. The Wiki idea is a good example here.
Jumangi - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
2013 and its still just screens of static icons...boring Apple.kyuu - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Personally, I think the iOS 7 aesthetic is pretty ugly. I like Metro, but you can't simply Metro-ize the old grid-of-chiclets and expect it to look good. The propensity for bright, pastel colors doesn't help either.And then that translucency effect is downright bad, especially if you have a dark background. The simple transparency you get with the iPhone 4 is much, much better and should be the default. There is a (rather obfuscated) setting to turn the translucency off labeled "Increase Contrast".
Also, the contrived text in the notifications pane (it says "It is now X degress. The high today was Y degrees" or some such instead of just showing the current temperature and today's high/low) is a huge space waster and offers nothing over simply showing the numbers.
While the move away from skeumorphism to more modern design was necessary, Apple did it in a pretty poor way, IMO. If I had any inkling to move back to iOS before, Apple pretty much killed it with iOS 7.
mfenn - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Capital letters. Use them please.HardwareDufus - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I'm surprised by the use of bright pastel like colors. I don't like it. I can't stand Kelly Green, Magenta, Cyan and Baby Blue used so extensively. It's like the pulled a 'ME TOO' and adopted Windows8 Crayola color palette.That said, I use Phone8 and I can only stand 2 of the color scheme's available. So perhaps I am well in the minority.
The Von Matrices - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
After reading through the article, I'm surprised that the new operating system brings no new software features that make me think "wow, I wish my Android phone did that." From an overall view it seems that more than ever that the only real difference between IOS 7 and Android is their colors, font, and icon graphics. It seems that smartphone operating systems are converging on one UI design, just like desktop operating systems have done in the past few years.Sandiamom1 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I have always considered myself part of that Loyal Apple fan base. I have owned Apple computers, iPods, iPads, iPhones...I have given them as gifts, etc. I have raved about my phone so much, many of my friends have gotten the iPhone. Yes, I am that middle aged woman, not terribly tech savvy & enjoyed the immediate tech support of Apple & ease of use. Since upgrading to the iPhone 5 in June 2013, I have experienced nothing but frustration! This iPhone 5 is basically a very UNSMART, expensive piece of junk! I tried going to the Apple store for tech support, but they won't talk to me for 4 days! Guess that fast tech support service is a relic of the past. Went to AT&T, but they say it's a hardware problem so I'm at the mercy of a slow to respond Apple service system. Since upgrading to the 5 (had the 4s), some contacts get no texts from me, others it may be delayed by hours or days & vice versa; it frequently won't pick up the wi-fi & won't switch to my data plan so I just can't access the internet at all; it drops calls; Find My iPhone app will not work on this; touch screen & scrolling are frequently unresponsive; other things I can't remember now. A couple family members just got the android Galaxy 4S. I am seriously thinking of dropping all Apple products. Told my friends. They're interested in hearing my thoughts on the 4s if I switch. Apple store didn't seem concerned about losing a longtime, dedicated customer, which makes me think it's time to go.kwrzesien - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
You got a lemon, get Apple to swap it out. Don't restore your 4S profile to it, start from scratch, re-download the apps you still need/want from the App Store, let the contacts sync with iCloud and/or Gmail and/or Facebook, etc. Every few weeks kill all the running apps from the task manager (double-click the home button, hold an app until the "x's" appear) and then reboot. The friends that aren't getting your texts probably have iPhones on Verizon, switch to sending to them as SMS - there is much more delay between AT&T and Verizon then there is internally, I think Apple has different server clusters for each and the interconnect can either get bogged down or jammed. I think the iMessage servers for Verizon in general seem to be slow.The iPhone 5 hardware is very good, but the key is that you did an UPGRADE. I think the software just gets screwy with this and I recommend doing a fresh install. If that doesn't fix your issues then get it replaced.
dcost11 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
The apps move when you tilt your device on the ipad, has anyone else noticed this? its like they are on a layer above the wallpaper and as you move the device you see more or less of the wall paper. It doesn't seem to work on my iphone 4Gorgenapper - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Updated my iPad 3 to iOS 7 last night.1) Apple fans complain so much about the occasional lag on Android devices, well now they can have some of it too. But of course, Apple lag is in fact a built-in value-added feature. I'm just using the iPad wrong.
2) I think I can hire a chimpanzee to design and draw better icons than most of the ones that have been updated. I mean, sure, the iOS 6 sunflower icon for photos has been around for roughly a million years or more and was due for replacement, but they couldn't draw up one or two abstract representations of photos and instead gave us this Wheel-O-Colors that makes no sense whatsoever? Some of the other icons are so hilariously minimalistic and juvenile in execution that it cheapens the entire experience of using the iPad.
3) No calculator for the iPad? Really? Seriously? Most of the free ones out there are full of ads.
4) Movies on my iPad no longer have titles, I'm supposed to know which movie it is by looking at the thumbnail. Let's see... I have... "A Movie shot in Black", "The Terrifying Darkness", "Noire", "Black Screen of Death II", "Random Face Caught in Motion" and "Unidentified Body Part". Another value added feature from Apple, thanks!
Cyrax89721 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
It looks like the 'Field Test force quit' no longer works. I just tried it, and after holding down the home button, the Field Test app just reloads itself.cbrownx88 - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
I struggled to get past that too - once you forcequit fieldtest, basically time a home button click with when the app is about to relaunch itself.Took me 2-3 tries, but got it to stick.
cwolf - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
As a parent of a young teen I just discovered one of my favorite new features of iOS 7 - improved parental controls for Safari. I don't place a lot of faith in it's ability to block "adult content" but I do like that it also prevents clearing the browser history or browsing in "private" mode.Ofmyi - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
My apps don't fly and I do not have the translucent control center...I do however have the i4s. Your article pics represent differently. Please explain.choirbass - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
There is some complaining, as always. For myself, the overall adjustments are a nice change, especially on a newer iOS device that's able to properly take advantage of what's offered :). For the claim of copying, I'm sure it's true. If it's working well for others, jumping on a bandwagon of sorts isn't always a bad thing.batongxue - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
My poor iPad 3= =
They said it was a powerhouse when they first launch the iPad 3.
dreamofsunnydays - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
I am still adjusting to my decision to upgrade to iOS 7 early on.The control center is great, it has meant I can de-clutter my home page from now unnecessary icons like a flashlight and camera, and it does have all the controls I use on a daily basis, easily accessible in one place. The notification center is also laid out more logically so as to be of real use, I hadn't really ever thought there was much point to it before.
So in terms of substance, I'm quite impressed.
Unfortunately when it comes to style, which lets face it is half the reason we all choose apple products I feel like I am stuck in hotmail circa 1999. It is common knowledge hotmail is no longer cool, and a screen full of primary colours and pointless animation when you unlock does not do it for me.
The loss of texture and shadow particularly from the icons makes everything feels a bit cheaper, and more windows - if I had wanted a windows phone that is what I would have bought.
Impulses - Sunday, September 22, 2013 - link
Hotmail i.e. Windows Live Mail i.e. Outlook.com (MS really needs to stop renaming their webmail...) is actually kind of cool again. The latest redesign is pretty quick and fresh looking. I only know this out of necessity, I use Gmail for personal use, an old Yahoo address for bills and subscriptions (old habit and an eggs not on same basket kind of thing), and then Outlook.com because I have two old college addresses that are run thru there.shank123k - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
is there is any battery fully charged indication in ios7?i never can be sure when i have to unplug my iphone because ios7 don't have the battery full indicator like previous ios..
androticus - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
One of my biggest pet peeves with Contacts is that you can't sort by date of entry (recent first). Like most people, I end up adding a lot of casual acquaintances into Contacts and sometimes want to try to find someone just by searching through recent contacts. This to me is an example where Apple has dumbed it down too much.LuisPeres - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
It seems early to say how good is the new OS apart from design and a few features.Battery is an issue once more. Using some apps such as whatsapp, one sees the battery dropping at very high pace.
Another issue: does anyone tried to delete one song on iPhone? I'm not able to discover how ..
LuisPeres - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
Just another that occurred me now: we can't minimise the number os apps open. Why? Is this the reason why the phone now needs to be charged 2 or 3 times a day?NerdMan - Monday, September 23, 2013 - link
So, when Android releases a new major OS, it gets compared to iOS at every turn?http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-...
And when iOS releases their major overhaul, Android gets nary a mention? WTF?
Origin64 - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
MIUI for Android had these colors, the transparancy, the buttons, the font, the entire look and feel of it, 2-3 years ago. I cant believe my eyes.Also, the iPhone 5S is still sub-HD, and scaling makes everything look horrible on LCD. Good luck watching video on that.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Wow, seeing them side by side, iOS 7 is amaaaazingly ugly and difficult to read compared with 6. I'm getting used to it, but it's just not as good visually (though does have some useful tweaks of course).Worst issue I've hit is iTunes 11.1 and iOS7 both butcher podcasts in different ways. You're forced to use the horrible podcasts program under iOS 7 now, though it's not as horrible as it was-actually seems to sync now. Worse, iTunes 11.1 massively breaks podcast functionality. Threads on it on various sites. It's like whoever did it has no idea what a podcast is...it's pre 2005 Apple level, which is to say, almost as bad as everyone else is at it now.
benrk - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Wow what a great review. Good OS, but I simply dismiss it because I cannot stand iOS.Oxford Guy - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
iOS7, a poem:Change for change's sake.
Devolution.
If it ain't broke don't "fix" it.
Didn't you learn anything from Windows 8?
Bobohula - Saturday, September 28, 2013 - link
I miss the numbers on the tumbler for the timer and alarm. And the yellow legal notes with lines. All there is now is a white page for all of these. It was so clever before. Boring.Vespussi - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
I did notice a big improvement in battery life on my 4S. Battery life is king and all the android geeks can take the back seat with their plastic "phablet" phones. It works and it was much need Os upgrade.Jajo - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
E5-2697v2 vs E5-2690 +30% performance @+50% amount of cores. Disappointed...Don't get me wrong, I am aware that it's 200 Mhz in difference and the performance per watt ratio is great, but still...
I have the impression that single threaded performance has been decreased slightly or stands still with each generation, I had the same impression with the release of the last E5 generation compared to the X5690. I am well aware that there is a turbo available but it won't be so aggressive in an ESXi host and still, these days some VMs need single threaded performance.
Just my 2 cents
Spaz888 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
I've stopped updating all my apps now. I will not update to IOS 7. Too ugly for me. There is also a performance hit for those like me who have over a hundred apps installed on my iPhone 5. I am curious to know how much RAM the OS takes up over 6.1.4. If it is actually less (not likely) I might consider it, but given that battery life issues are becoming more apparent, the only time I will see a new iOS will be with my iPhone 6S and it will be iOS 9!Brakken - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Music controls must stay in Control Centre as there's no more double-homebutton-click to access it anymore.Can anyone tell me if they've noticed the delete button function on the keyboard? It seems to jump across a space rather than just to the first letter of the word to be changed. It's not happening here, but it does on email.
I'm sorry for all the ppl who get motion sickness with iOS7, but for the most part, I love it!
I got the idea from the text resize slider function: how difficult would it be to implement a slider for movement, colour hue, and transparency?
maddalin - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link
I had ios 7 beta on my iphone 5 until yesterday. Then I succesfully updated to 7.0.2 but the problem is I dont see any transparency or blurring. Everything is grey like it supposed to appear on iphone 4. Is there anywhere an option to enable this cool effect? On the beta version I had the same problem, but I thought it's supposed to appear like this because its betafareed0694 - Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - link
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