“In one sense, iOS 7 changes nearly everything about iOS,” Andrew Cunningham reports for Ars Technica. “A couple of wallpapers have made the jump, but otherwise you’d be hard-pressed to find anything in iOS 7 that looks quite like it did in iOS 6. In another sense, iOS 7 is the latest in a string of incremental updates. It adds a few new features and changes some existing ones, but this doesn’t radically alter the way that you use the OS from day to day”
“Apple’s redesign of iOS is all-encompassing. In very large part, the new design is iOS 7. Even the Apple logo you see at boot, and the screen you see when your device goes into Recovery Mode have discarded texture in favor of flatness. The changes are large, and a lot of people are going to have a lot of things to say about them.,” Cunningham reports. “If you’ve ever participated in a design overhaul of basically anything—a logo, an operating system, a website—you already know how complaints about iOS 7’s design will go. First, the gripes that stem from unfamiliarity (or a knee-jerk, negative reaction to change) will fade with time as people become used to the new look and feel. After that dies down, there will be a settling-in period where Apple looks at the most frequent complaints and actual usage data and makes further tweaks based on that feedback. I’ll be surprised if a hypothetical iOS 7.1 doesn’t bring a few small but noticeable UI changes with it — this has already happened over the course of the iOS 7 developer betas, but with a wider user base comes the opportunity to respond to a wider (and more nuanced) range of feedback.”
Cunningham reports, “That said, I wouldn’t expect backtracking on any of the major new design elements introduced here. No matter what you think of the design, if you’re an iOS user and you want to keep up with the newest features, you’ll have to come to terms with it. And even things that still bother me (the animations, first and foremost) can be tolerated because of the genuinely useful new features and additions that arrive with the update.”
Much more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: One of the side effects of us having used iOS 7 since beta 1 is that we’ve forgotten somewhat what we felt/experienced the first time we ran it. Plus, of course, it was beta 1, with thinner fonts and frequent crashes. Now, it’s definitely ready for prime time (some tweaks will be required, as with any new OS). If you’re running it for the first time today, let us know what you think below.
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I personally love the animation. It makes the phone come to life. Every time you tap on an app it’s a journey. Love it!
a journey? ..come on now.
At first I had trouble reading the thin fonts and the low contrast in some text. Then someone pointed out a couple of things in Settings:General:Accessability, bold font and increase contrast. All is well now.
Thanks looks better!
I spent a good chunk of my day today talking to my students about iOS 7–how to update, whether they should update, what I think of it. I gotta say, there is a lot more excitement than I thought there was going to be. I jumped in around Beta 4, and I could never go back to the way iOS was before. There is so much about iOS 7 that makes my iPhone not only feel like a new phone, but feel like a genuine joy to use. Something that, even with just a year and a half of owning an iPhone, I had been starting to lose.
I can’t believe the amount of non-tech savvy friends have been posting how happy they are with it. I felt silly when I sent a reminder to a few of my friends who were more informed than I anticipated.
I absolutely LOVE it.
Thanks Jony, thanks Tim, thanks Phil, thanks Craig, Thanks Eddy, thanks Dan, thank you Apple.
Still getting used to it. It looks good. Mail keeps saying I have 6 unread emails, but I can’t see them in the All Inboxes or even by adding Unread. I’ll have to just play with it this weekend while on our cruise and see how it all works.
I installed iOS 7 today (had not used any beta previously) on my iPhone 4S. It definitely is different, but as I explore iOS 7 I find it easier to use. Not just from some features/options/gestures being more logical, but it is easier to read. The letters and numbers are larger and easier to read. I’m sure Dynamic Type has a lot to do with this, but it is very welcome to a 44 year old’s eyes.
What I find interesting is that, after using iOS 7 and Apple’s apps built for iOS 7, many of my regular third party apps look very dated, even ones which were just updated over the past couple of days (they didn’t redesign for iOS 7, but updated for compatibility). I never thought they looked old before.
The other factor is the depth of the interface. While individual icons have a “flat” look, the overall UI is very 3D. Look at the home screen and tilt your phone in different ways, watching the movement of the wallpaper to the icons/folders.
Overall, very cool and a great update to my 2 year old iPhone.
Siri seems to be much quicker and knowledgeable now. At least here in Finland.
I wrote this on another thread as soon as I got done playing with iOS7:
OK. So my iPhone 4s and iPad Mini now have iOS 7 and I’ve been playing with them for about two hours.
I.AM.SERIOUSLY.IMPRESSED!!!
I watched the blogs and kept up with the design and features of iOS7 as developers told us stuff but there is nothing like having it installed. I scoffed when I first read people saying it felt like they had a new phone. I feel like I have a new phone.
Jony Ive is a genius. This is a totally new iOS. I want Mavericks to look and work like this. My only complaint is that iWork for iOS still has the crappy old design. It really feels out of place, but I am sure it will soon get the Ive treatment.
This is a serious advance and shows Apple can still innovate better than anyone.
The new Icons are a nightmare. First time I want a hack for iOS. The photos are now shown on white background, absolutely nonsense. It’s not finished in my opion. Lots of polishing work.
Amazing… Love it…. Wow!
Got it this AM. It is fantastic. Love the new design and features. It is really an advance. Makes an already great experience even better. An amazing update.
A masterful step forward.
Why did this get down voted?
I love the new iOS. My only disappointments so far:
– the Parallax is so weak, even with Apple’s dynamic and static range of images, that it really is a negligible feature. If it consumes any significant amount of energy I’d sooner turn it off.
– iTunes Radio is playing mostly my own music or music by the artists I’ve indicated I like, even when the Tuner is set all the way on discovery… I was hoping they would at least avoid playing anything I’ve already purchased. Otherwise I love it and I know it’ll be the most used feature for me.
– Wish I had the ability to invite contacts thought the Calander using iMessageand to strictly email. Anyone know if you can airdrop invitations to Calander events? Is Facebook the only alternative to email?
I loaded iOS 7 on my iPhone 5 before boxing it up to Gazelle ($325 for 16GB Black AT&T) and it is a hideous as every picture I had seen, and the sneak peek of the developer versions I have seen. By New Year’s Day it will look as dated as a mullet.
Love the new iOS! I favor the new colors and the new icons. Runs much faster and has better response. Apple knocked it out of the park!
At least one full page of the multi-page interview read like an apology.
In short: While many things are improved, mostly this is a graphical interface change. People who like iOS6 shouldn’t feel like they are living in the dark ages at all. The list of “new features” with iOS7 isn’t that overwhelming.
In my neighborhood, Maps is still useless at providing navigation. It has never been able to give a driver adequate time to get in the proper lane to make a turn, and its rerouting skills when one inevitably misses the turn are nonexistent!
As ARS exposes, iOS7 is less energy-efficient and includes some oddly useless design decisions like time-wasting animations. I hoped Apple would have fixed this by now.
Users might not like the new look, the less-intuitive flat interface, and the atrocious icons, but they will just have to learn to like it.
Sure, we’ll get 5S phones and will have to follow Apple’s evolution, but playing with the official release of iOS7 hasn’t changed my initial impression at all: the GUI is UGLY.
Silverhawk, do me the favor of allowing myself to express an opinion without responding with a nasty personal attack. My opinion is certainly not alone, as Apple will soon discover.
So far, Mike, you appear to be part of the small minority with a fairly substantial list of complaints. Most people appear quite happy with the iOS 7 update, some have one or two minor issues with it.
I am backing up my iPad 3 as I type this response. I’ll let you know what I think about iOS 7 after I have a chance to work with it and settle in. Apple spent a lot of time and effort to develop iOS 7, so it deserves a fair shot from the consumer IMO.
100% Agreed, Mike! GUI is ugly and dare I say, feminine? Keep expressing your opinions! Subjective criticism is refreshing!
I like iOS 7 a lot, but I find Craig Federighi’s silhouette on the Contacts app icon a bit distracting.
Follow thru could be better. Newsstand looks to be part of the iOS overhaul but iBooks? Compass is great and the black background makes sense but white in photos? What about making this a complete well thought out rollout? To me mr shaved head, big head accent at apple could have better earned his money.
Had it since 12 noon central time today – loving it!
Refreshing! Bold font, zoom, bigger fonts, are three things I like. Its more customisable and looks very cool.
Excellent! Well done Apple.
I don’t like it aesthetically! Flat, no contrast, feminine, and a step backward in beauty! If this is the trade-off to increase battery life or increase speed, it’s an unfortunate compromise! Notice how no one says it looks gorgeous? To me, it looks like Windows Vista on a tiny screen! Bring back bold, elegant graphics and make the screen bigger!
Love it already!
Mixed feelings about interface I tend to like the darker interfaces and dislike the white ones. Just don’t understand what people find so attractive about it. I have a 3GS that can’t be updated so I’m constantly going back and forth between 6&7. Will be interesting to see how I feel in a month.
The choice of gold text for auto formatting in the notes app leave numbers almost unreadable.
Rating songs is even more of a pain than before. Definite downgrade, too many steps.
Have bug in syncing playlists. Songs xfer, but playlist either isn’t visible or empty. Resetting iPhone and restoring from backup fixed some but not all of the playlists and adding a new playlist to sync creates same problem.