“Apple has finally updated one of the last of its apps holding out for iOS 7: Find My Friends,” Zac Hall reports for 9to5Mac.
“The social app stood out the most on iOS 7 with its leather stitching and real life paper map theme, but rest assured Apple has redesigned it with iOS 7 in mind,” Hall reports. “The new update features transparency, lots of white space, and feels much lighter (which is refreshing if that’s your style). It also abandons the tab bar UI for a single view with sub menus.”
Hall reports, “Find My Friends 3 is available for free on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I foresee Ive’s next minimalism brainwave for iOS innovation will be a 5 phosphor dots set against a completely blank screen. The only thing you will be able to choose is the color of the phone which will be accompanied by a default wallpaper that matches the color of the phone.
As a user, all you’ll get to do with the iPhone is play with the 5 onscreen phosphor dots.
I must say… I liked some of the iconic design from the old iOS. Buttons with a flipped-up corner or simply a [+] button instead of the word “Add” being used. In the pursuit of visual simplification, they actually added complexity with the new design. Now you have to read instead of just “see”.
Exactly.
They can redesign as much as they want, but keep the “proven” buttons and interface and make it work.
I have many users buying Fantastical to replace Apple’s Calendar because Apple removed views and made it much more difficult to read if you have older eyes. Yes you 20 somethings have no issues with this…Yet. Just wait till you hit 40 and can’t read the fine print anymore.
Well said.
Apple has abandoned everyone not under 20 by launching an anorexic visual mess.
Speak for yourself. I’m 46, and I prefer the iOS 7 appearance by a mile. I don’t need to be handheld through new technology by making it look old.
——RM
My bad. Certainly not my intent to speak for everyone over 20.
Much nicer interface and layout. It’s easier to see pictures of your friends and where they are rather than blue or purple dots. I don’t miss the “leather” nor the stitching.
I would rather have an app that finds your friends.
My friends just tell me where they’re going to be
There are a few more comparison images here:
http://iosguides.net/find-friends-app-updated-interface-ios-7/
Needless to say this is a much welcome improvement!
Agreed. When I look at iOS6 now, almost all of the skeuomorphic elements just look really hokey to me.
While I hated the over the top stitching, I also don’t line the HTML 1 looking, blinding white background of the new IOS. It’s sometimes like looking straight into a flashlight.
When Scott Forstall was kicked out, the pendulum needed to swing, but it swung too far to the other side. I hope it eventually rest somewhere in the middle.
That said, the look is only skin deep. I love the new features and have no intention of ever going back.
What new features?
Yea, I should have clarified. New features of IOS 7,
which is what the new look of Find My Friends is patterned after.
Oh Look, another app which Apple updates and leaves previous generation iOS’s behind… Don’t get me wrong I’m all for the new interface, however I feel that Apple must have the most laziest of all programmers… It’s pretty much the only company that doesn’t support backwards support in their apps. They wont even let you download a previous version of the app either.
Actually, you can now download the “last compatible version” of apps from the app store. So if you attempt to download an iOS7 app while running an older version of iOS, it will now ask if you want to download the older version (if one exists, of course).
True, I am aware of that and think that great.
However, according to the fine print there exists a line which states that if a publisher of an app doesn’t want this they can turn it off. Which is what apple is doing in this case with their apps. (Now I could understand, if the previous version of an app was free meanwhile the newer version costs money.) With Apple’s apps, they were always free though (at least the non-iWork/iLife ones) so I fail to see the reason why Apple has turned this option off for their own apps.
*and think that is great
Even on screenshots, you want to touch the interface of iOS6! I am happy for the new features of iOS7 but they are sad looking compared to iOS6.
iOS7 looks lifeless.
Could not agree more…
Lifeless is a good description next to hideous, clueless and flat as a highway frog.
Eh. I see iOS 7 as bright and popping, iOS 6 as old and crusty. To each his own, I guess.
——RM
Apple’s obsession with borderless windows is lame. Once upon a time, controls and indicators could be placed on the borders. Grabbing and dragging windows around was easy and seamless. Windows had clear definition.
Now Macs and iOS gadgets look like gray dead unintuitive MS-like “tiles”. The new Apple aesthetic is HORRIBLE.
Swell… another app in iOS 7 that will be more difficult to read thanks to the news thin-font style and washed-out white look.
Good God, what a bunch of whiny ass luddites.
If it makes it more difficult to read, then it is a fail.
I find it a bit disconcerting when the other 40 plus years Apple did everything they could to make computers and software intuitive.
Not sure about change for change sake.
Apple rips out illustrated stitching and replaces it with blank paper!
Wow! I’m forever overwhelmed with the new design. How much thought, forward thinking and talent went into the decision to replace a beautiful leather design with white nothingness.
Way to go Apple, I’m simply in awe of iOS LESS 7. Not!
Yep, another Apple app that looks like I’m staring into a flashlight.