Apple released iO 7 today.
iOS 7 has hundreds of new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and introduces iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes. In addition, iOS 7 has been engineered with deep technical and design integration with both iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.
iOS 7 runs on iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation).
So, provided you successfully navigated your way through the flood of traffic that ensued with so many downloading the new operating system for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and/or iPad mini, what do you like or dislike about iOS 7?
I have owned every iPad that Apple has introduced and am a proud owner of a 64gb iPhone 5 and two Macs. With iOS 7, I am unhappy for the first time. Why?
Semi-translucent folder colors are terribly ugly!!
Colors schemes in many cases seem to come from Fisher Price. I thought I was avoiding the Windows 8 metro look by sticking with Apple. Unfortunately, I had no idea Apple was a fan of the Windows 8 Fisher Price look.
In many cases even after adjustments, iOS 7 is difficult to read. Why? Too much white, making it hard to distinguish options or to read in a sunny climate or in a bright office.
Calendar:
The borders between days and weeks and months are so subtle that they are nearly invisible. In a Calendar borders mean something.
The dialer:
Circles? The previous squares provided more space for large fingers.
My wish – Since iOS 7, I now see the need for Apple to offer more customization options in settings. I wish Apple would let me adjust the colors to suit my own needs and preferences.
I find myself agreeing with Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZD Net:
“Garish color schemes – iOS 7 seems to pick a color scheme for the operating system based on colors found in the background wallpaper, and while some of the choices are OK, some throw up a primordial soup of greens and browns that are neither aesthetic nor easy on the eye. It’s time for Apple to allow users to custom pick colors.”
http://www.zdnet.com/whats-right-and-wrong-with-ios-7_p2-7000020889/
The more I use it the more I love it…
Hey MDN. Many many moons ago you posted about a patent where Apple had a 3D imaging system that worked by the user looking at the screen from different angles. Get your iOS 7 phone set it to a complex background image. Tilt your iOS device ever so slightly left, right, up and down. You will notice the flat wallpaper image move relative to the 3D icons. If Apple keeps up this idea you might be able tilt your phone to peak behind icons to see if the app has something to tell you. Very cool Apple!
It’s a neat effect, butt the fonts and icons are thin, faint, and abstract, so complex background images make it hard to what’s on the screen. I’d love to have the effect, but I’d love to use the device even more. I used a solid color background that I had in iPhoto (a DARK color so there would be some contrast), and that makes the home screen almost usable.
iOS 7 does come with some background images that look like solid colors, but they actually have a pattern that visually interferes with the items on the home screen.
Awesome baby.
Love it, still trying to figure out all the changes and how to do everything but its like getting a new phone, definitely buying 5s next month. Only thing holding me back from buying now is too many bills this month or i’d buy it on friday.
I like everything but the calendar which is horrible. Everyone I know is now using Calendar by readdle
Overall I like the update. However the animations slow basic things down too much. I do not like the new “dock”. I do not like my battery like dropping to 75% after two hours of usage this morning on my iPhone 5.
Nobody is a bigger fan of Apple and their products than I am. I installed iOS 7 today, and I have to say, I’m not that all impressed with the new esthetic. The icons looked washed out blend into the background in such a way as to be hard to read. The light weight font they’re now using I feel is a poor choice. It’s too light and hard to read. The App Store interface is much less intuitive. As a seasoned user of Apple products, it took much more trial and error to figure out compared to previous iterations. There’s no way in hell Jobs’ would have allowed this new OS out the door in its present form. It’s really starting to become evident Jobs’ is no longer at the helm. I thought Ives’ was basicly a clone of Jobs’, but I’m beginning to have my doubts. There was only one Steve Jobs, and it’s starting to show. iOS 7 still feels like a beta.
You can send feedback to:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
t “Insert CEO last Name” at apple.com
@craigfederighi on Twitter
I could not agree more! Steve Jobs would never have signed off on many of these changes. Especially changes that reduce usability and intuitiveness. Overall I love much of iOS 7. Its these things and the little things that leave me sad and missing Jobs.
I just got my first call on my iPhone 5 with iOS7. Big *green* bar with the thinnest *green* letters in it apparently tells me to slide to take the call. Duh!
I’m thrilled…love it!
Agree with many others: some great new features in ios 7, but the UI is really hard on the eyes. Too little contrast on many screens between the type and background. Really difficult to read, at least for my older eyes. The bolding helps, but readability of a small screen should be the highest priority. I can get used to the cartoonish icons, just make things more crisp and readable.
You can send feedback to:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
t “Insert CEO last Name” at apple.com
@craigfederighi on Twitter
Overall, I love it. But, I find that Calendar, Stopwatch, Calculator, Timer, Alarm seem “washed out” with too much white, and more difficult to read than they were in iOS 6. Hope they offer font settings to fix this. Jony Ive has gone to far IMO.
Cool…
At first the cool looking letters in transparency were harder to see, but then turning up contrast and size solved that issue…
Everything is awesome except the Calendar. Man, that blows. I use calendar all the time, so let’s hope I magically start liking it soon…
I Love it ….very fluid and easier to read and navigate
I am sure to take some crap for this I am a shareholder and 100% apple business user. So Go Apple. But I find many screens on os 7 harder to read and the floating in of icons makes the iphone 5 seem slow and it causes my eyes so trouble with that float in and out with these colors. My eyesight is fine an no prescription. can i change that?
First impressions on iPad. Everything does ping out of bg.
Still not sure about the luminous flat icons, some are better than others. Like the functionality changes. Finding thin text a bit harsh on eyes at the moment and some of the grey on greys a bit like I am not focusing but maybe need to adjust. Like the secondary outline icons. Above all love the speed, like a new device without the stuttering scrolling after first update last year so this is magic and unexpected. Also as a side effect means a massive improvement to the typing I find which had become frustratingly bad. So impressed with most but still in to minds about some of the graphic elements.
Haven’t spent much time with it, but I really don’t like the new look for the reasons so many have already explained. I hope it grows on me, but right now I think all of the white and super-thin lines are ugly.
It’s interesting how some people don’t realize that the folder backgrounds are translucent and the color will change based on the color of your wallpaper.
Nice but stupid error in places.
Wallpaper is a mess. Resizing does not work right and lags badly when it semi works.
Icon bar at bottom way to big for what is needed. The old platform worked very well.
Concept of contrast went out the window. Calender, Note pad etc. In a dark room or if you don’t have perfect sight looks washed out. And the Invert Color, Bold Text, Reduce Motion switch is not an answer to this. If it had a Inverse Color set not flip everything would be pretty cool.
If they will tone down the white on white in some way and fix the wallpaper they broke that’s work from six on back and tone down the icon bar at the bottom of the screen. Looks to be a good upgrade.
PS: You can move the stupid newsstand! Yea! Even into a folder!
You can send feedback to:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
t “Insert CEO last Name” at apple.com
@craigfederighi on Twitter
my eyes hurt from some of the color choices, e.g. the stock app green.
On my iPhone 4, when using the countdown timer in the clock app. if my phone goes to sleep while the countdown time goes off I get the alert tone but dismissing it does nothing. The only way I could silence the alarm was pressing the power button. Other than that I guess it’s okay, although I rather don’t care for the flat look of the interface. Not my taste.
I like the new features, but the interface is butt ugly.
I have enjoyed iOS 7 more than I thought I would. I love using it, I like the bottom swipe tab for wifi, brightness and the other things you use very frequently.
I think people are not used to seeing or understanding the flat icons reasoning. Because the background is dynamic and moving, as if its from a distance…it doesn’t make sense to have icons on top with a shadow to simulate 3D look to it. If it did and the background is moving around as if your viewing it from a distance and your icons are floating in front of you, it would be a weird visual simulation.
Don’t care one way or the other about flat icons, it’s the garish and conflicting colors that are assaulting my eyes.
You can alway downgrade back to iOS 6, and then wait and see if Apple will add more customization to the UI in the future.