iOS 7

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm an iOS developer so I got my hands on this yesterday, anyone else tried it yet? The best summary I can provide is that they gave iOS a face-lift without changing many of the core aspects of how you use the device, and then added in a couple of badly needed features for 'power users'.

I'm actually quite impressed, but not completely blown away, by everything so far. The look and feel is definitely better, but it's not going to change my life or anything like that. Everything works basically the same way it did before, it all just looks prettier. That's subjective though, IMO simple = clean = pretty, others may disagree. After a few minutes you get used to the new interface and really forget it's there, that is until you access something that's buried deep in the settings menu that hasn't been re-written yet with the new interface - it's then that you see the stark contrast between the old and new and realize how much better the new is.

It's still in obvious beta form as there are a few glitches here and there, but it's one of the more stable betas I've tested and for me is stable enough that I'm using it on my primary phone.

It's kinda like using an Android device Sorry, couldn't resist...

The one thing I don't like in theory is that apps automatically update in the background, though in fairness I don't know exactly how this works, if it can be disabled, and what impacts it has on battery life and data usage. I've got some testing to do here. Also, no widgets in this release.

A few things that I really like are:

- New, cleaner UI
- I always found the skeuomorphic design of iOS goofy, though it never really bothered me much, this design is way better
- Control Center, and I like how it comes up from the bottom vs in the notification tray ala Android
- Notification Center, the changes here are nice and I like the new content and look
- Safari changes, I like the new full screen look and the easier navigation thru pages, and like the new tabs interface as well
- Camera app is much better, easier to change between shooting modes
- Finally the ability to actually blocks calls
- iTunes Radio is cool, there's nothing really materially better than with Pandora but is nice to have it integrated and save the $34 a year or whatever on Pandora

One could easily make the argument that Apple is just catching up to Android with this release, and I really can't fault them for it. I think Scott Forstall really hurt iOS by sticking around so long and they did the right thing in turning him loose, they just have to hope it's not too little too late. I do like their take on things though, thinks like having the control center coming from the bottom vs a section in the notifications bar and the way navigation works in safari are to my liking...those are my personal preferences though.

Apple didn't do anything to really wow us with this release, but it's a solid product that I think almost everyone will enjoy.

BlueFox

Does it have folders where you can actually save something, for example a PDF downloaded from a site?

Strong Bad

I watched the entire presentation from yesterday and have to say I like everything I've seen.

With regards to iOS 7, I like the cleaner look. It did need a somewhat complete overhaul as it seems to have suffered as many OS's have...the more features that get added, the more bloated and processor intensive it becomes. Thats to be expected though, up to a point. I'm not really a power user though, so the current iOS on my iPhone 5 runs perfectly fine and does everything I ever needed up to this point. It's the iPhone 4 users that i'm interested to see how it'll benefit, performance wise.

OSX Mavericks looks sweet! I love the features they're adding, including the tabbed Finder browsing. Can't tell ya how times i've had to open multiple finder windows when transferring stuff from one area to the other.

The new design for the Mac Pro...I think it's a fantastic design. All that computing power in a 10" x 6" cylinder, pretty awesome! Very space friendly for the desktop as well. No longer do you have to shove it under the desk or take up alot of real estate on top. The triangular aluminum heat sink drawing heat from all sides, then being pulled up and out by one large fan is great. I bet the outside of that thing gets quite warm though when pushing it hard.

iTunes Radio is a welcome addition since I already use iTunes Match. I never used Pandora.

Lots of good stuff yesterday! Should put a dent in the wallet late this year.

AsSiMiLaTeD

There's still no direct access to the file system from the user, but they've opened up new APIs to developers and I'm still making my way through all those. For your specific example there are already apps in iOS 6 that can do this, iBooks I know for sure and I believe even the Kindle and similar apps can save and store pdf files locally, I rely on that functionality personally.

Strong Bad

John Megadeth wrote: »

I'm definitely looking forward to it (and the unfortunately named OS X Mavericks).

The new naming scheme doesn't bother me. Eventually you're gonna run out of big cat names, which they did. They could have used Cougar, which would have been the endless brunt of jokes. Best to avoid that name and move on.

I like the name and what it stands for...

http://www.businessinsider.com/mavericks-california-2013-6

I guess they could have gotten VERY creative like Windows 7...Windows 8....

AsSiMiLaTeD

With regards to iOS 7, I like the cleaner look. It did need a somewhat complete overhaul as it seems to have suffered as many OS's have...the more features that get added, the more bloated and processor intensive it becomes. Thats to be expected though, up to a point. I'm not really a power user though, so the current iOS on my iPhone 5 runs perfectly fine and does everything I ever needed up to this point. It's the iPhone 4 users that i'm interested to see how it'll benefit, performance wise.

I'm not fully versed on it yet, but will be surprised if we see much of an improvement in performance. I think alot of the underlying code is still in tact, this is really more of a face-lift. That being said, I have absolutely zero lag or slowness with iOS 6 on any of our devices so as long as iOS 7 isn't a step backwards (and so far I don't think it is) we'll be happy.

OSX Mavericks looks sweet! I love the features they're adding, including the tabbed Finder browsing. Can't tell ya how times i've had to open multiple finder windows when transferring stuff from one area to the other.

I would highly recommend a program called Total Finder, easily worth the $20 for me. It offers several other key features along with tabs in your finder window, key for me is the ability to have my folders show up first (ala Windows), regardless of my sorting option.

The new design for the Mac Pro...I think it's a fantastic design. All that computing power in a 10" x 6" cylinder, pretty awesome! Very space friendly for the desktop as well. No longer do you have to shove it under the desk or take up alot of real estate on top. The triangular aluminum heat sink drawing heat from all sides, then being pulled up and out by one large fan is great. I bet the outside of that thing gets quite warm though when pushing it hard.

That new Mac Pro looks totally awesome, but believe it or not I actually still prefer the look of the current (old) model. The iMac is still all I'll ever need unless I change professions, but it's nice to see theme take a chance on something new.

Strong Bad

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

That new Mac Pro looks totally awesome, but believe it or not I actually still prefer the look of the current (old) model. The iMac is still all I'll ever need unless I change professions, but it's nice to see theme take a chance on something new.

Yeah, my late 2009 iMac still crushes everything I can throw at it. I doubt i'll ever need to go Mac Pro, but they are nice though.

I'm wondering how far along in development and testing they are with larger Retina displays. Just thinking about a 27" Retina display gives me wood! They did mention support for 4K displays, so that could be a hint of things to come.

cstmar01

I love it. Want it now.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Also the multi-tasking system is now much improved over the previous version. You still can't dismiss all apps at once, but the whole system with the full page previews looks and works much better than before.

Fireman32

I like the changes that they made but I am still not sold on the new icon design. I do like the flatter look but the icons could have been better IMHO. Other then that I am looking forward to getting it.

I am very happy with the new version of OSX and the new Mac Pro looks fantastic.

mantis

No talk about a new phone or wrist watch?

AsSiMiLaTeD

No, I think they're done with iPhone announcements at WWDC, too much other stuff going to and the phone really merits it's own deal.

AsSiMiLaTeD

So I'm a couple days in with iOS 7 and just have a couple random general thoughts.

First, functionally this is an improvement over iOS 6 is basically every way. The core functions and the way you access them all seem to work better, and the new features like control center really are great. So it WORKS better than any previous version of iOS, and by a good margin.

Oddly enough though, I'm not 100% sold on the new design, with the home screen being my primary area of concern. I don't like the new dock, don't like the new color palette, and I think some of the new icons are ugly. I really like the design everywhere else though including the lock screen, menus, buttons, keyboard, typography etc. The home screen may eventually grow on me, but right now my perfect iOS would be the home screen of iOS6 and everything else from iOS 7.

AsSiMiLaTeD

One cool thing I forgot to mention, even in the beta version once you get iOS 7 installed you can still do an iCloud restore and it works just like a restore in the same version of iOS would - you get all your apps and data back, and everything is even back in the same place on your home screens...totally awesome! I cannot stress enough how much I love iCloud backup and restore, my HTC and the Samsung phones have something similar but it's nowhere near as good.

nspindel

Is there a way to kill all notifications with one switch, rather than having to go into each app's notification settings. Killing notifications is a great way to conserve power, but they should have one on/off toggle.

Drenis

In a couple months Apple will claim BlackBerry stole there idea of swiping gestures, unlock screens and ideas that have made their way into iOS 7... How original.

Sure miss you Steve!

AsSiMiLaTeD

Drenis wrote: »

In a couple months Apple will claim BlackBerry stole there idea of swiping gestures, unlock screens and ideas that have made their way into iOS 7... How original.

I actually have a very strong opinion on all the patent lawsuits and the whole circus surrounding that. I don't feel like going all in at the moment, but my opinion boils down to this: If I come up with an original idea or a radical change to an existing category of product I should be able to patent that CONCEPT for x amount of time. I had the idea or at least the talent to bring it all together, I put all the money into R&D, I took the big gamble on bringing the product to market...I should be rewarded for that. Unfortunately the real world doesn't work like that, and since you can't do that you end up having to sue for stupid crap like the slide to unlock feature.

That's EXACTLY what happened with the iPhone. I've yet to meet a reasonable person who wouldn't agree that the iPhone was an original, the first of it's kind, and a revolutionary product. And you've got Google involved in the development of the original product, in the form of Schmidt sitting on the board while all this was happening and in the form of some Google apps like Maps being developed. Then, a year it's out you have Google coming forward with Android. It took Apple several years to build the iPhone, Google had Android devices in a year, which means either that the people at Google are ridiculously more intelligent or that they stood on the shoulders of the Apple R&D and made changes to create their own product.

That doesn't seen fair to me. I don't understand all the legal stuff involved, but it just doesn't seem right. It's a helluva lot easier to take something that someone else has already created and change or improve it, it's much more difficult to come up with the idea in the first place.

But again, Apple can't sue on the grounds of "hey that's not fair!". So they end up having to sue on stupid technicalities like how a phone is unlocked and the fact that the corners of icons are rounded. Are those absurdly stupid things to sue for? Absolutely, and I'm sure they know it, but hey what else are you gonna do?

I'm not saying that nobody else can ever make a product like theirs. That's absurd and if we thought that way then everyone would be driving the same car. But if I come up with an idea or product I should at least get a year or two out of it. Clearly I'm in the minority since that's NOT the way things work, but that's my $.02

nspindel

And what you're saying about google applies just as much to Samsung. Samsung is a company that manufactures and supplies several hardware components to Apple for the phone, which means they had access to all sorts of technical details, plans, etc. and then voila, they have a phone of their own!

AsSiMiLaTeD

nspindel wrote: »

And what you're saying about google applies just as much to Samsung. Samsung is a company that manufactures and supplies several hardware components to Apple for the phone, which means they had access to all sorts of technical details, plans, etc. and then voila, they have a phone of their own!

Agreed, and if anything Samsung had MORE info since they were the ones building alot of the parts for the iPhone. I think that's why Apple has gone after Samsung so hard, because they, more than anybody else, had access to Apple intel and R&D and IMO and obviously in the opinion of Apple took unfair advantage of it.

nspindel

And yet they must continue to deal with them and use them for parts for new products. Who makes the SSD's for the new MacBook Air? Samsung..... I won't buy a single Samsung product, that company is the devil.

AsSiMiLaTeD

nspindel wrote: »

And yet they must continue to deal with them and use them for parts for new products. Who makes the SSD's for the new MacBook Air? Samsung..... I won't buy a single Samsung product, that company is the devil.

LOL, it's like we're sharing the same brain, my thoughts exactly and I ridded myself of my last Samsung product about a year ago.

bigaudiofanatic

Considering apple just stole the swipe to unlock from android along with the Control panel for turning BT and WIFI on and off just like on a android, I am yet again amused how apple users are in love with the new features when android (yet again) has had them on their phones for years. Call me anything you want but I shake my head in amusement now a days. iphone use to drive the market now the market is driving apple. With the release of this new OS as well as a ipad mini to compete with the smaller android tablets they are no longer ahead of the times.

I agree with apple crying over losing customers to android so what do they do? Sue samsung for stupid copyright infringement.

AsSiMiLaTeD

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Considering apple just stole the swipe to unlock from android along with the Control panel for turning BT and WIFI on and off just like on a android, I am yet again amused how apple users are in love with the new features when android (yet again) has had them on their phones for years. Call me anything you want but I shake my head in amusement now a days. iphone use to drive the market now the market is driving apple. With the release of this new OS as well as a ipad mini to compete with the smaller android tablets they are no longer ahead of the times.

I agree with apple crying over losing customers to android so what do they do? Sue samsung for stupid copyright infringement.

Isn't it funny how we can NEVER have an Apple thread without people crapping all over it?

Why would you find it amusing that people like new features on their phones? Who cares what's on other platforms? If I'm on an iPhone I don't care what Android phones have, I want the best features on my phone, why do you find me wanting more features amusing? Do you realize how stupid that sounds? It's not like I created this thread and said "Oh look, iPhone has new features, neener neener neener to Android". Read it, that's not the case. Nobody yet in this thread has stated that.

By your logic I should be saying "Oh I'm so amused at everyone else who has a non-Apple smartphone, because basically all those phones copied their entire concept from Apple". See how stupid that sounds? Everyone else copied the whole frikkin' concept from Apple, why shouldn't Apple be able to take a few cues from other platforms and feedback from users to improve their product?

Your last sentence indicates that you didn't even read the posts above regarding the lawsuits, nice job reading through everything before responding.

Oh, and by the way, I'm aggressive with you because you have a history of posts like this and creating threads like your 'smell of burning zune' thread.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Back on topic here, at least temporarily...

The folders are also much better in iOS7, you can add as many apps as you want and I just prefer the way they open now. I never used folders before because I never like the way Apple implemented them, much better now

nspindel

nspindel wrote: »

Is there a way to kill all notifications with one switch, rather than having to go into each app's notification settings. Killing notifications is a great way to conserve power, but they should have one on/off toggle.

Any chance that this is in there?

AsSiMiLaTeD

Nope, it's too fully integrated into the OS to turn off completely. With my HTC One at least, it's the same story on Android, on a per app basis. The One doesn't run stock Android though, so can't speak for the stock ROM.

nspindel

That's a shame. As I recall, in earlier iOS versions that feature was there. The painful part about disabling the notifications app by app is that you have no way of restoring it to how it was before without writing down all of your settings.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Well the earlier versions of iOS didn't have a true notification bar. They had those stupid alerts that popped up. We've never been able to disable the notifications bar entirely, not without a jailbreak anyway. You should see if the Do Not Disturb feature will work for what you want to do.

nspindel

Do Not Disturb will stop the phone from ringing though, right? If I'm out and about for a long day and I know I'll be pushing battery life, it's nice to disable as much as possible to preserve power. I generally like to turn off wifi, bluetooth, location services, and notifications in such a case. However, I still want the phone to ring if someone is calling me. I guess I could just turn off cellular data and accomplish the same thing, but then I have to turn it on and off again any time I want to use data.

nspindel

Ah, but if I turn off cellular data I don't receive iMessages, so that doesn't work. Not even sure if I receive SMS if I turn data off.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I highly doubt that turning off notifications will have any real impact on battery life. Even if you turn off notifications, those individual apps are still going to refresh data in the background (so you're still going to receive mail it's just not going to show up in notification center). it's generally the data fetching that uses the most battery. I'm not discounting it entirely as I really haven't had the need to try it, but I'd be surprised if it had much impact.

I'd also think twice about turning off wifi if you're typically in an area that always has wifi, as I believe wifi is more energy efficient at retrieving data than cellular.

It's not my intention to second guess your usage, just throwing out some thoughts. Like I said, I've really not had any battery issues to speak of and haven't played with all that much.