[General Topics] nomancoolboy:
We heard it would be flat. We heard it would be

black and white. We heard that it would be a

totally different experience.

It is. iOS 7, the latest version of Apple’s

flagship mobile operating system, is here, and

it’s almost entirely different from the versions

that came before. Gone are the skeuomorphic

designs and 3D effects, replaced by Sir Jony

Ive’s “flat design.” Rumors had been flying for

weeks about the new OS and now it’s here and

it is, at least at this early reckoning, a massive

change for the six year old operating system.

First, we must remember that Ive, Apple’s

industrial designer now in control of software

following the departure of Scott Forstall, isn’t a

believer in interfaces that copy real-world

objects. In the past, making the Notes app look

like a legal pad or the calendar app look like a

Moleskine calendar notebook were part of the

iOS design philosophy, as ingrained in the OS

as “Slide To Unlock.” All that is gone now.

Are you ready for a whole new world?

New Look:

iOS 7 has a new font leading the way, which

seems to be a sort of Helvetica Neue Ultra. It’s

very skinny, clean, and it was hinted at in the

iOS 7 banners that went up for WWDC

yesterday.

Instead of white bars on a black background,

Apple will now tell you what kind of service

coverage you have with five little dots, which

are white and grey depending on how strong

the signal is across a translucent background.

The lock screen is changed for the first time in

iOS’s history, with no more shine top or bottom

bars for slide to unlock or the clock. Instead,

Slide to unlock is translucent above the

background image.

Default app icons are now flatter, but not quite

flat, just as predicted.

Jony Ive’s hand has had its way with iOS

notifications. The notifications panel isn’t laced

with dark grey linen anymore, but actually has

a very flat look to it. There is a today view, that

lets you see friends birthdays, upcoming

invitations, calendar, stocks, and a quick look

at tomorrow.

The apps all seem to have a white base, except

for the stocks app which has a black

background and the weather app, which shows

motion in the background to convey the current

weather.

The keyboard is more white, than grey, with a

translucency that lets you see what’s

underneath the keyboard.

New Features

Control Center

Control Center is a pull-up tray that is available

in your lock screen.

You can adjust brightness, volume, and other

settings including Wifi, Airplane mode, rotation

lock, or Bluetooth.

The Control Center even offers a flashlight,

along with tabs for music, camera, and other

quick-access apps.

The Control Center takes on the environment

it’s in, so if you swipe up while you’re in mail, it

will have the same blue and white coloring

under that translucent panel.

Multitasking

iOS 7 lets you multitask between all third-party

apps with much better battery consumption.

You can double-tap the home button to enter

into multi-tasking mode, just like always, but

the interface for multitasking has been

revamped. It appears to offer live previews, but

Apple wasn’t clear about that.

Safari

Safari opens straight into full screen mode now,

with the option to pull down to bring up the

search bar at the top.

The search field has been improved to be a

unified smart search field, which lets you have

access to all your favorite websites with a

single tap.

Tabs come with a totally new interface,

scrolling in a vertical carousel, and there are no

longer any limits. In other words, you can have

as many tabs as you want, as opposed to just

8 like before. Swipe a tab off to the side to

throw it away.

The new Safari is integrated with iCloud

keychain from OS X Mavericks, and also comes

with parental controls.

AirDrop

You can share sharesheets with other people by

simply tapping their name. No NFC required.

Airdrop supports iPhone 5, iPad 4th gen, iPad

Mini

Camera And Photos

The Camera app lets you swipe between your

various camera types, such as panorama or

HDR so you can quickly take a pic instead of

fumbling around with settings.

Photos marks the first update to the photo

gallery on iOS since it was introduced.

You can search based on date, and location,

within the photos app.

Instagram must be flattered — Apple has

introduced photo filters so you can add a little

professionalism to the picture.

Users can share via AirDrop, iCloud photo-

sharing, as well as shared Photo Streams.

You can even share video with iCloud photo-

sharing.

Siri:

Siri has a new voice! It sounds similar, but also

weird. You can choose a male or female voice,

if you like. Voices include languages like

French, German, and other languages “over

time.”

The visual UI has also been upgraded, with a

sound wave going along the bottom.

Siri has also been integrated with settings,

letting you tell her to turn on bluetooth, or

lower the screen brightness.

The company has also added support for

Twitter, Wikipedia, and shows web search

results direct from Bing.

iOS in the Car

iOS in the Car depends a lot on Siri.

It puts the iOS homescreen on the screen of

your car, and lets you search for directions,

listen to music, etc.

App Store

You can now search for apps based on

location. In other words, search for apps by the

Louvre and see a lot of French museum apps.

The App Store also automatically updates apps

for you in the background now. Hallelujah

again!

iTunes Radio:

Apple has finally introduced the much-

anticipated iTunes Radio, which gives a Genius-

like experience to the entire 26-million title

iTunes catalog.

You can see the full list of songs on each

station by clicking history, with purchase and

preview buttons built right in to send you to the

iTunes store.

iTunes Radio also lets you customize each

station by clicking a star to show that you want

more of this type of music.

iTunes Match users will get an ad-free

experience, but others will be able to use the

app for free with a few audio and text ads.

Activation Lock:

This is for those of us who have had an iPhone

stolen.

If a thief steals your phone and tries to turn off

Find My iPhone, they can no longer turn the

device back on without your iCloud password.

Users can also block messages and calls from

other users.