Apple has finally has put an end to all the rumors and unveiled iOS 7, “the biggest change since the introduction of the iPhone”.
The first thing that you’ll notice is the new design. There’s no doubt about it, and all the rumors were true. Right away, you will notice a new lockscreen, flatter icons and slimmer fonts. Also, iOS 7 brings Control Center, a new control panel that slides fromt he bottom of the screen and gives us access to the most frequently accessed settings – similar to SBSettings ( Cydia ).
iOS 7 also brings a new look to the Phone app, Calendar, Messages app and Game Center. Pretty much, the skeuomorphic design was replaced with a clean, flat layout.
The new iOS also brings a new card-based multitasking feature and now, all stock apps feature a gesture-based navigation. Folders now can support as many apps as you want to place into them ( 16 apps limit was removed ) and Notification Center gives us greater control over the notifications. NC is also available from the lockscreen now.
Control Center: lets you toggle airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, flashlight, brightness
Multitasking: iOS 7 brings multitasking support for all apps, not just for the stock apps and a few limited services. The new system allows apps to be updated in the background with close to no battery drain, and it is smart enough to updated apps during the day when you have strong wireless coverage.
Push Notifications: in iOS 7, push notifications will triggers apps to update int he background so that they will always be updated with new content, hence no more waiting on apps to refresh when you open them.
Safari: Apple’s web browser was updated with improved full screen browsing, gesture-based navigation and a new flipping card tab overview. The search bar in iOS 7 was removed, and now you can perform searches right from the address bar.
AirDrop: as rumored, iOS 7 brings AirDrop a feature that will allow you to share content between devices without having ‘to walk around the room and bump phones’. AirDrop will work on iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5th gen, 4th gen iPad and iPad Mini.
Camera: gets new UI and filters.
Photos.app: photos can now be viewed by date and give us an overview of all the pics we’ve shot in a particular year. The app is also gesture-based and it gets support for sharing videos through iCloud.
Siri: has been updated with new voices and now we can choose between a male or female voice in English, French and German with more languages to come. With Siri on iOS 7 we can now toggle bluetooth and brightness and it can also search Bing, Wikipedia and Twitter.
iOS in car: now it’s possible to place calls, play music, look up directions, hear new messages, and reply via text-to-speech.
App Store: no more notifications! Apps are being updated automatically in the background. It will also show the most popular apps around us, and parents can browse apps by age category.
Music: iOS 7 brings a brand-new UI and Apple’s new iTunes Radio service to the Music.app.
iTunes Radio: Apple’s answer to services such as Spotify and Google Music All Access, iTunes Radio let’s you listen to songs on-demand and it can also curate radio stations based on a particular song/artist/album/genre ( similar to Pandora ). It works on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iTunes on Mac and PC and it’s completely free ( supported by ads ). iTunes Match subscribers will be able to use the service ad-free. iTunes Radio will be available just in the US at launch.
Activation Lock: if you device gets stollen and gets turned off or even wiped clean, it can’t be activated anymore without your credentials.
Misc Features:
- FaceTime audio – Facetime audio calls ( no video )
- Block phone calls, FaceTime calls and messages
Compatibility:
- iPhone 4 and later
- iPad 2 and later
- iPod Touch 5th gen
Availability:
Devs can download a first beta today. Everybody else will have to wait for an official release this fall. NOTE: if you’re a jailbreaker and you want to keep your jailbreak, STAY AWAY from ANY betas.
