“iOS 7.1’s version number implies a much smaller update, but it has spent a considerable amount of time in development. Apple has issued five betas to developers since November of 2013, and almost every one of them has tweaked the user interface in small but significant ways,” Andrew Cunningham writes for Ars Technica. “It feels like Apple has been taking its time with this one, weighing different options and attempting to address the harshest criticism of the new design without the deadline pressure that comes with a major release.”
“iOS 7.1 isn’t a drastic change, but it brings enough new design elements, performance improvements, and additional stability to the platform that it might just win over the remaining iOS 6 holdouts,” Cunningham writes. “Four months separated the release of iOS 6.0 and iOS 6.1. Apple took almost twice as long to give iOS 7.0 its first major update, but the OS has clearly benefitted from the extra development time. Whether you have a phone or tablet, and whether that tablet is brand new or three years old, iOS 7.1 is going to fix something important for you. Its performance and general stability are where iOS 7.0 should have been in the first place.”
“The thicker fonts, higher contrast, and UI-options-disguised-as-accessibility-settings strike a better compromise between the new design and the old. iOS 7.0 was conceived, coded, and pushed out the door in a short amount of time, and iOS 7.1 looks and feels like a more consistent and coherent version of what we got in September,” Cunningham writes. “iOS 7.1 will probably be iOS 7’s last big update before iOS 8 comes out, assuming Apple sticks to its usual fall release schedule. Whatever new features and design tweaks we see when that happens, iOS 7.1 gives the company an excellent foundation to build on.”
Tons more in the extensive full article – recommended – here.
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