Ars Technica Reviews iOS 7

Ars Technica has posted a pretty thorough review of iOS 7, which brings a few radical changes to at least the visual design of the system. From the article: "In one sense, iOS 7 changes nearly everything about iOS. 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." Breaking with the design trajectory of the last few releases of most of Apple's software, the oft maligned skeumorphism of the interface has been considerably toned down.

Comments

One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[kaka.mala.vachva]

My problem with my wife's iPhone is that everything about the app has to be on-screen - no "menu" or "back" buttons like android. Clutters up the screen needlessly in some apps - and getting to the settings for the app means leaving the app, something I really dislike. Apparently I'm not the only one who dislikes that - my wife, who should fit the ideal iPhone use profile, dislikes it too - to the extent that she prefers to use my phone and doesn't want an iPhone anymore. Has Apple added extra buttons for a menu and a back button? That would be the most useful UI design change.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Sockatume]

It's been conventional to keep all settings in the app, except for seldom-needed or particularly technical settings, for several years now. I don't know what apps you're using but I only need to drop out into Settings once every few months unless I'm modifying something system-wide.

The idea of not including physical "back" and "menu" buttons is:

1) Nobody's quite sure where "back" should go back to, and what menu "menu" should open
2) You're using up space on the device on functions that not every app needs

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[tom229]

Although I'd agree with you, it's important to note that this only applies to Samsung phones (and maybe HTC, I've never had one). Stock android (ie. google) phones have a back button, but no menu. They rely on "in-app" onscreen menus.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Has Apple added extra buttons[...]

Woah, did anyone else just hear that? It sounded like the ghost of Steve Jobs howling with incoherent, supernatural rage. Man, that's weird to hear.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[cdrudge]

The idea of not including physical "back" and "menu" buttons is:

1) Nobody's quite sure where "back" should go back to, and what menu "menu" should open

Leave that up to the app to decide maybe? I've never had a problem on my Android phones understanding what the back button did after pressing it once or twice with a new app.

With apps that have multiple screens that change, it usually takes you back a screen, such as back to the main menu. If you're at the main menu, it exits. With apps that do everything in the same screen, such as a web browser, it takes you back a page or back to your home screen. Press it again or double tap it at any point and it closes the app.

Not saying that the indeterminate nature of letting the programmer is better or worse than the IOS nature. It's just another example where Apple has chosen to rigorously enforce what they think is best, where Android has chosen to allow the app developer or the end user what is best.

2) You're using up space on the device on functions that not every app needs

You mean the empty space on the left and right of the button on all iPhones that's essentially wasted? If the entire face of the phone was the screen and the phone relied exclusively on soft buttons then you'd have a point. But as it stands now, there could be buttons on either side. Look at the S4 for an example.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. iOS 7 software update magically adds a physical button on her iPhone when she installs it. If the button is still not visible after the update, sticking a fist up her arse might also help.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[AuMatar]

This is actually fairly new. Pre-4.0, all devices has a hardware menu and back button. 4.0 introduced software back buttons and the on screen action bar with menu button in there. Its actually something that causes a fair amount of pain in app design and documentation (depending on screen size/density and model, an option may be an icon on the action bar, or in a menu behind a hardware button, or in a menu behind a software button on screen. Or both).

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[kirkc99]

Has Apple added extra buttons for a menu and a back button? That would be the most useful UI design change.

There is a new "back" gesture. In some apps (e.g., Safari, Settings, Mail, etc.) a swipe to the right from the left bezel will perform a back function.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[tlhIngan]

Although I'd agree with you, it's important to note that this only applies to Samsung phones (and maybe HTC, I've never had one). Stock android (ie. google) phones have a back button, but no menu. They rely on "in-app" onscreen menus.

That's an Android 4.0 thing, actually. The menu button is deprecated and having used both Android and iOS, I really dislike the menu button.

I tend to find it easily forgettable - and it seems a lot of devs like to hide essential functionality inside a menu leading to all sorts of "this app doesn't have X feature" type things because people forget to hit the menu bar.

Since ICS, it's a LOT better - the triple dot thing isn't intuitive, but at least it seems to imply tapping it does something when it shows up.

As for back, I do prefer the iOS way - the pentagon at the top telling you where you're going back to (especially if you're entering a screen layout from multiple paths). Of course, it's very frustrating in things that don't obey the conventions like games that put the back button on some other corner of the screen. Or on Android where the back button may or may not work in a game.

In the end, it comes down to preferences. I prefer the iOS way where an app is forced to expose all its functionality and not hide it. I think this comes from the whole "single mouse button" mentality where you're not supposed to hide any functions that are only accessible via a right-click menu. I'm sure everyone has dozens of applications on Windows and Linux where unless you right click, you won't realize there's a lot more depth to what can be done.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[gl4ss]

I'm not even an iOS developer..

but isn't one of the new guidelines that the back button goes to the upper left corner? it sucks though that most android manufacturers have gone for non physical buttons as well.

there's a VERY SIMPLE REASON for not having those as physical buttons. that simple reason is cost(in simplified manufacturing), a minor reason is reliability since apple can't seem to keep the buttons already in iphone actually working. for that same cost reason android manufacturers have gone with onscreen or capacitive buttons as well and frankly they suck ass, especially since many apps put onscreen buttons on bottom of the screen. try to then hit those onscreen buttons and not the home, back or menu buttons...

but now you're going to need to use screenspace for application settings icon you go into only twice a month, so have fun with that - that's exactly the point of having it offscreen, even if nowadays there's some onscreen menu button that hides the settings link anyways along with some features you need to use more often, point being again that you need to spend precious screen space for that. of course you can buy a huge phone so the screenspace isn't at premium but then you're stuck with a huge phone..

iphones are designed for human drone manufacturing and that has lead to several of the lacking features and how it is - not that much of the design is actually born out of what is good for the user. if they designed it the other way around it would be more complicated process to setup the assembly line(you know, if they did it german style in a fashion where they could actually produce them in the united states while churning out a profit - but they don't want the upfront cost of designing complex assembly lines so they just design the products to be simple and sell that off as elegant).

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[jareth-0205]

If you press back on the first screen of an app, it *will* close that app. If you press Home, usually that will not immediately close the app.

This certainly isn't a security hole unless your developer has done something very bizarre (which app ever logs you out on exit these days? All apps maintain permanent sessions for convenience on all platforms), and apps should save data when they are not visible.

The idea that you need to manually close apps is an archaic leftover from the Windows world. This stuff *should* be managed by the OS.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[thsths]

While I agree that a back button is useful, and the multi-tasking button, in addition to the obvious home button, I think Android has overdone it. In Android 2, they had back, home, menu and search buttons. In Android 4, the menu button has moved on screen, and instead there is a multi-tasking button. As much as I appreciate that Google likes a search button, I think it is just one too many.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Sockatume]

Hey, I'm just saying what the explainations are, I'm not saying they're necessarily ideal but they are rational.

FWIW I hold my iPhone on what you view as "wasted" space when it's in landscape, so buttons - especially capacitive - are no go.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[BasilBrush]

"If only the iPhone copied this design fuck up from Android."

Interesting that you should say this when back and menu hardware buttons have been deprecated from Android 3.0.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[mattack2]

Apps *do* have "back" buttons, when you go down into another layer. In some instances, it's closer to a submenu (arguably Settings in some ways).. Or it's just another page of the UI. This has always been true in iOS.

e.g. open Podcasts, press on a specific podcast
-> now you're in the list of podcast episodes for that specific podcast
The upper left button is 'back'...and again, this has always been true in iPhone apps.

There's no "back" button from the top level of an app, as has been mentioned, but that's leaving the app, and that would be really weird.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[BasilBrush]

Leave that up to the app to decide maybe?

So much for design consistency.

I've never had a problem on my Android phones understanding what the back button did after pressing it once or twice with a new app.

And there's the fail. You shouldn't have to memorize what a standard button happens to do in this particular app.

With apps that have multiple screens that change, it usually takes you back a screen, such as back to the main menu. If you're at the main menu, it exits. With apps that do everything in the same screen, such as a web browser, it takes you back a page or back to your home screen.

So the same single press on a button might do one of 3 different things. Oops.

Google invented the concept of an "Up" button to do the same as the back button, only to drop the "exit the app" function. Only that button isn't a hardware one. Partially fixing the problem, or just making it even more messy?

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Pieroxy]

It's just another example where Apple has chosen to rigorously enforce what they think is best, where Android has chosen to allow the app developer or the end user what is best.

It just goes both ways. I could equally claim that Android forces the app developer to handle a back and menu button - however useless in said app while Apple lets freedom to the developer to do whatever (s)he chooses. I could also claim Android enforce two buttons on users in a space that is usually used to hold a phone while Apple leaves this precious space free of any UI elements.

So you see, each OS is enforcing its own vision, but you can't claim that one is enforcing their closed view while the other is enforcing freedom. This is just trollish at best.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[AuMatar]

No it will not. It will call finish on the activity. That is NOT the same as closing the app. All static variables are kept in memory, including the Application object and globals (like login info) which are kept there.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[AuMatar]

That's their philosophy, yes. It's a horribly dumb idea though.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[jareth-0205]

Crap, that's true.

I stand by my last paragraph though...

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[JLennox]

I'm sure everyone has dozens of applications on Windows and Linux where unless you right click, you won't realize there's a lot more depth to what can be done.

Ya, right mouse button is too obvious for Apple.

[In xcode] When the find/replace bar appears at the top of the editor, holding down the option key on the keyboard causes "Replace in Selection" to appear in lieu of "Replace All."

That's from stackoverflow.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[ultrasawblade]

> 1) Nobody's quite sure where "back" should go back to, and what menu "menu" should open
This is a good point. On my current phone, the back button exits out of some apps (those have a back button at the top), and on others, it goes to what I was doing previously.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[maccodemonkey]

Has Apple added extra buttons for a menu and a back button? That would be the most useful UI design change.

Even Android killed the menu button. It's a horrible idea. Users never notice the menu button.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[maccodemonkey]

You mean the empty space on the left and right of the button on all iPhones that's essentially wasted? If the entire face of the phone was the screen and the phone relied exclusively on soft buttons then you'd have a point. But as it stands now, there could be buttons on either side. Look at the S4 for an example.

The space that is usually used for a navigation title and a secondary button?

Yes, totally wasted. It would be like if Android put a bar at the top of every app that had a navigation title and some sort of back button, with a secondary button. Maybe they would call it something like the action bar.

Oh wait, that's exactly what they do.
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[narcc]

I couldn't agree more.

Here's hoping that this bizarre trend comes to a swift and decisive end.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[thegarbz]

And there's the fail. You shouldn't have to memorize what a standard button happens to do in this particular app.

Actually the back button does exactly what it says on the box. It goes back, back meaning what you were doing previously. If you have a menu open, back closes the menu, if you're in a new screen, back goes back to the screen one level up, if you're at the root of the program back closes the program, if you're in a web browser back goes back.

The real fail is that someone can't understand the simple concept that the back button on Android takes you back to what you were doing before. This is far more consistent than an app which may or may not provide you with a method to undo your accidental button press.

Incidentally why do we need consistency? There's nothing consistent in every other OS. A window may or may not have an X button in the top right hand corner. Yet somehow 99% of the applications out there provide a somewhat consistent and easy to use interface to the user (MS Office being the 1%). If an app is too hard to use, don't use it. The problem will solve itself with 1star ratings from users who get stuck in a menu because the App hasn't implemented a back button properly. It has happened, and it has been fixed.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[thegarbz]

It just goes both ways. I could equally claim that Android forces the app developer to handle a back and menu button - however useless in said app while Apple lets freedom to the developer to do whatever (s)he chooses.

That's not correct at all. No one is forcing users to handle the button presses. The app is free to ignore them.

I could also claim Android enforce two buttons on users in a space that is usually used to hold a phone while Apple leaves this precious space free of any UI elements.

... Who holds their phone with a pinch grip at the bottom? Is that where cracked screens come from? I don't think I've ever seen someone not hold the phone in the palm of their hand. The button space on the bottom is utterly wasted.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[AuMatar]

I'd be ok with it being managed by the OS if close is the default and you have to choose to not close. But even intelligent people and programmers don't understand this model. And I know what apps I want to keep open, the OS doesn't and can't. How would it know that my email app can safely be closed, but my word processor can't because I'm coming back to that in 2 minutes and don't want to wait for it to load?

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[jareth-0205]

Why does it matter if some code and data is memory resident or not? Closing apps manually is something that a user will get wrong often too ("oh wait what was it on that screen, I'll just check again"). A properly written app will stop any threads onPause() and will be doing pretty much nothing when switched away, and eventually will be properly cleaned up when required. Whether an app is in memory should be of no concern to you, it uses no power. If an app does, it is written wrongly, and that used to be a problem but I don't really see it any more, onPause good practice has been drummed into enough developers now. Do you fret about the 20 or so daemons in the background of a desktop OS?

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Pieroxy]

It just goes both ways. I could equally claim that Android forces the app developer to handle a back and menu button - however useless in said app while Apple lets freedom to the developer to do whatever (s)he chooses.

That's not correct at all. No one is forcing users to handle the button presses. The app is free to ignore them.

I don't agree here. If I decide to use a button at the top left of my app to go backward in the screens, people will (rightfully) bitch at me for breaking the Android user experience. Of course, no one is "forcing" me, but I feel - strongly - compelled to abide by Google's UI rules.

I could also claim Android enforce two buttons on users in a space that is usually used to hold a phone while Apple leaves this precious space free of any UI elements.

... Who holds their phone with a pinch grip at the bottom? Is that where cracked screens come from? I don't think I've ever seen someone not hold the phone in the palm of their hand. The button space on the bottom is utterly wasted.

It was just a stupid example. I feel my post just flew right over your head...

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[knarf]

Design consistency, 'memorize what a standard button happens to do in this particular app', 'the same single press on a button might do one of 3 different things'. And?

There are (at least) two ways of looking at this. Either you concentrate on 'design consistency' and all that goes with it. Given the constraints of the device you'll end up with limited functionality because there are only a few buttons to be had. Yes, you can work around this by creating 'standard' ways of achieving things - click, double-click, triple-click, click and swipe, click-swipe-hold, etc. Before you know it your 'design consistency' ends up being more complicated and convoluted than a naturally evolved - and with that somewhat inconsistent - approach.

You can also use common sense and allow the designers some leeway in the way the user interface is designed. The design will not be 'consistent' but - given sane developers - it will probably end up being more comfortable. Instead of having to use a roundabout way to achieve a given result it might just be possible to click that 'back' button to get there.

I can even give a transport metaphor, the closest I can come to a car metaphor. Some cities have public transit systems which on the first view appear to be rather haphazardly designed. To get from A to B you can sometimes take a single bus/tram/subway, other times you'll end up changing transport at some random stop. Usually the most travelled routes are served by direct connections. Other cities use the 'hub and spoke' system where just about every connection involves a trip up to a 'hub' followed by a trip down a spoke to the destination. This is a very consistent system but it usually takes more time.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[BasilBrush]

Actually the back button does exactly what it says on the box. It goes back, back meaning what you were doing previously. If you have a menu open, back closes the menu, if you're in a new screen, back goes back to the screen one level up, if you're at the root of the program back closes the program, if you're in a web browser back goes back.

If it was so logical, why did Android introduce the up "Up" button concept to do some of those functions?

Incidentally why do we need consistency?...somehow 99% of the applications out there provide a somewhat consistent and easy to use interface to the user

You answer your own question.

If an app is too hard to use, don't use it. The problem will solve itself with 1star ratings from users who get stuck in a menu because the App hasn't implemented a back button properly.

Your term "hasn't implemented a back button properly" also shows that actually you both understand and accept that consistency is valuable. There is no benefit to having inconsistent apps out there, that users may end up wasting time on.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[thegarbz]

If it was so logical, why did Android introduce the up "Up" button concept to do some of those functions?

As an Android user I've neither seen nor heard of an Up button, but thanks for throwing that non-event into the mix.

Incidentally why do we need consistency?...somehow 99% of the applications out there provide a somewhat consistent and easy to use interface to the user

You answer your own question.

Actually I didn't. My point was that a back button does not have to perform the same physical function as long as it has the same ideological end. This is exactly why windows does not enforce a certain way of doing things, yet we've ended up using that way for nearly every app. No need to have some company tell you what to do when your customers can do it for you.

If an app is too hard to use, don't use it. The problem will solve itself with 1star ratings from users who get stuck in a menu because the App hasn't implemented a back button properly.

Your term "hasn't implemented a back button properly" also shows that actually you both understand and accept that consistency is valuable. There is no benefit to having inconsistent apps out there, that users may end up wasting time on.

No I just didn't care for an app that never leaves my phone. It wasn't a public app, I was just pointing out that the use of the button is not prescribed. But what you have shown has proven my point. Users will waste time. They will get agitated because my app doesn't work the way they expect and guess what, I'm not expecting any 5star rating. Users will migrate to any one of the 10000 other apps which do the same thing and work as they expect.

And all this still magically happens without any prescription of how something should work by a 3rd party. This really is rounding out the point I'm trying to make that despite people claiming the sky is falling because the back button doesn't have a specific prescribed use it actually works very consistently across pretty much every application I have come across. The phone app ecosystem has self policed.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[AuMatar]

1)Apps are never properly written. The most quoted way for doing a splash screen, for example, is to implement it via a thread. And if you rotated the phone during it, it would spawn another. And all of these would never terminate.

2)Because relaunching the app would use these saved variables. If that's login info (which is quite common- an app will login in activity 1 and save it in a singleton or global for activities 2-N) it will use that old info. So any app that requires a login will save that info. Hand your phone to someone to watch a video and you're handing them all of your banking info.

3)I don't want the OS randomly picking what apps to close in low memory situations. I know what's important, it doesn't. The main reason it has these problems to begin with is that it isn't closing old apps by default.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[cdrudge]

I don't agree here. If I decide to use a button at the top left of my app to go backward in the screens, people will (rightfully) bitch at me for breaking the Android user experience. Of course, no one is "forcing" me, but I feel - strongly - compelled to abide by Google's UI rules.

I have numerous apps that have in-app navigation in addition to the back button at the bottom of my S4. In fact, with current versions of Android many system menus have a back arrow in the top left to take you back a menu in addition to the arrow at the bottom.

It was just a stupid example. I feel my post just flew right over your head...

Agreed it was a stupid example. It's not Android that forces the two additional buttons. Manufacturers opt to put the buttoms where they want or they can elect not to have hard buttons at all. You can barely see the buttons on Samsung's S4 so it's hardly cluttering the UI unless you have just turned the phone on or just touched the screen.

Other phones or tablets rely on soft buttons that display at the bottom of the screen.

Regardless of where the buttons are located or if they are hard or soft, it's hardly cluttering up the UI. It's two different approaches to do the same task. Neither is better or worse than the other for their basic functionality. One however gives you more options if you so desire to use them.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[BasilBrush]

As an Android user I've neither seen nor heard of an Up button, but thanks for throwing that non-event into the mix.

Your missing knowledge of the OS on your phone doesn't help your argument.
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html

And all this still magically happens without any prescription of how something should work by a 3rd party.

And yet that same link IS a prescription of how something should work. Official from Android. AND it makes my point about consistency too.

Killing three birds with one link. Nice!

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[Jeremy Erwin]

the new gestures do not work if the tablet/phone is sheathed in a case such as the griffin survivor. These cases make it difficult or impossible to actually touch the pixels immediately adjacent to the bezel, and thus initiate the swipe.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[thegarbz]

So the back button gets us to the same place as another button many users don't know exists and isn't actually implemented outside of 4 or so Google Apps. Again I have some 250 apps and I didn't even know this button existed. What an AMAZING design feature.

And no it's not a prescription. It's a guideline. Guidelines can be ignored, and often are ignored, and are frequently ignored by the very companies which write them.
Not giving a device a back button is a prescription, this is not something that can be ignored. Incidentally as I mentioned earlier every app I've used implements the back button the same way and it does so consistently with this guideline.

Interesting that you call it a prescription since earlier you mentioned that the back button didn't have a consistent function yet it seems to be quite consistently applied across all apps I've used in accordance with this persc... er... guideline. But again you've kind of proved my point. There's a way back button works and it's consistent, so the hysteria about having such a button being somehow a disaster for iOS usability is entirely unwarranted.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[BasilBrush]

What you say is entirely in conflict with the Google developer document I linked to. I don't expect you to change you mind. People on discussion forums seldom do. But I've proved my point.

Re:One button to the main screen! Is that changed?

[thegarbz]

What part? Certainly not the function of the back button. That's exactly the way I've been saying it works for the last few days. It goes back to the screen you were at before you did the last action. You don't even need to read to see that, just look at the screenshots.

Wait, what?

[Anonymous Coward]

"iOS 7 changes nearly everything about iOS..." "...but this doesn't radically alter the way that you use the OS from day to day."

mind blown

Re:Wait, what?

[amanaplanacanalpanam]

I guess one is not allowed to call something a "change" unless it is a radical alteration then?

The short version...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I RTFA'ed. The short version seems to be:
1) Icons and dialogs are "flat" (similar to Windows 7, etc.)
2) "iOS 7’s animations are the kind that will prompt an 'ooh, neat' upon first use and then a slowly increasing sense of frustration as you begin noticing that trivial tasks take just a bit longer than they used to."
3) There's more content on the screen when browsing because common toolbars are shorter or disappear when not in use
4) Safari's new tabs view is cool because it displays content on multiple tabs at once (think looking down from a 3d perspective on the old tab views)

Re:The short version...

[noh8rz10]

I RTFA'ed. The short version seems to be:
1) Icons and dialogs are "flat" (similar to Windows 7, etc.)
2) "iOS 7’s animations are the kind that will prompt an 'ooh, neat' upon first use and then a slowly increasing sense of frustration as you begin noticing that trivial tasks take just a bit longer than they used to."
3) There's more content on the screen when browsing because common toolbars are shorter or disappear when not in use
4) Safari's new tabs view is cool because it displays content on multiple tabs at once (think looking down from a 3d perspective on the old tab views)

5) settings page accessible from home screen
6) full multitasking and better app switcher.
7) User can turn multitasking off on an app-by-app basis and track cellular usage on an app-by-app basis
8) revamped camera and photos app
9) revamped calendar app)
10) revamped notifications and alerts
11) all sorts of API improvements, the benefits of which will only become apparent when apps start to implement them right
12) revamped app updates

That's all I can think of. Don't listen to the haters who say this is about pretty icons.

Re:The short version...

[StripedCow]

Come on, if you have a patent on rounded corners, you ought to use it!

Re:The short version...

[StoneyMahoney]

You missed:

5) Safari performance is up
6) Battery life is down
7) Non-Retina displays have legibility issues

Re:The short version...

[mlts]

For #12, I'm curious about the app updates, especially the fingerprint scanner. I wonder how authentication info is passed to the app, be it a salted value, or an "ACK/NAK" return.

If I were writing an app that used custom user private/public keys, a salted value would be useful because that could be made as part of the encryption key that is used to protected the stored private keys. With that in place, even if an attacker gets the user's screen unlock PIN and the key passphrase, the encryption keys are pretty much still tightly locked up.

A simple "ack/nak" would mean a lot less security, but would help with making sure that each decrypt/sign is acknowledged by the user by a fingerprint swipe.

Re:The short version...

[noh8rz10]

I don't think individual apps get any access to the fingerprint thing. I think it will only be used for phone unlock, app store, and itunes store.

The touchID will be cool, but iOS 7 is going out to many phone and ipad models that are older, so most people won't get that functionality. I have a 5 so I'm on an upgrade cycle that will make me eligible next year.

Re:The short version...

[larry bagina]

Call me a hater (I like iOS 6)... but I never said the icons were pretty. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Re:The short version...

[noh8rz10]

Regardless of your opinions of the icons, there's a lot more going on.

Re:The short version...

[kirkc99]

I RTFA'ed. The short version seems to be:
1) Icons and dialogs are "flat" (similar to Windows 7, etc.)
2) "iOS 7’s animations are the kind that will prompt an 'ooh, neat' upon first use and then a slowly increasing sense of frustration as you begin noticing that trivial tasks take just a bit longer than they used to."
3) There's more content on the screen when browsing because common toolbars are shorter or disappear when not in use
4) Safari's new tabs view is cool because it displays content on multiple tabs at once (think looking down from a 3d perspective on the old tab views)

5) settings page accessible from home screen
6) full multitasking and better app switcher.
7) User can turn multitasking off on an app-by-app basis and track cellular usage on an app-by-app basis
8) revamped camera and photos app
9) revamped calendar app)
10) revamped notifications and alerts
11) all sorts of API improvements, the benefits of which will only become apparent when apps start to implement them right
12) revamped app updates

A few more off the top of my head...

13) Massively improved Siri (in a week's use, she's only misunderstood me a couple of times, she responds almost instantaneously, her results are much better, and her voice is much improved--and she's out of Beta on Apple's website)
14) App auto-updating (yes, realize this is an Android catch-up, and is somewhat a dupe of (12)...)
15) Handy new back gesture
16) Built-in itunes radio--handy for starting radio stations over Siri, such as while i'm on my motorcycle
17) Multi-page folders
18) Flickr and Vimeo deep integration
19) The ability to block numbers for calls, SMS, MMS, iMessages, FaceTime, etc.
20) Activation Lock
21) Apps popular near current location
22) Dynamic and Parallax wallpapers

Re:The short version...

[DdJ]

FYI: "full multitasking" is false.

There are some slight improvements to the multitasking (eg. if it notices you run an app at the same time every day, it'll give it a background slice just before then so the data is fresh when you look). But it remains far from "full multitasking".

They're trying to get to the point where most users won't notice the difference. They're not likely to ever get to the point where developers won't notice the difference.

Re:The short version...

[FellowConspirator]

This is a semantic argument. The OS has always supported full multitasking. At first, only system services ran all the time and applications paused when they weren't in the foreground. Since iOS 4, APIs were added that allowed various registration of background activities, one of which being the Task, Task Completion, and Local Notification APIs which can be trivially used to establish a thread that would keep an application doing whatever it chose to do for as long as it wanted. The thing is that the background APIs in iOS require explicitly setting up background activity, otherwise an app sleeps when not in the foreground. I don't really see a problem with this as it effectively manages CPU and battery resources in a sensible way, yet it still lets the developer work around them, if necessary, provided that he's willing to go to the effort.

Re:The short version...

[AmiMoJo]

Here goes my karma, but it has to be pointed out:

1) Icons and dialogs are "flat" (similar to Windows 7, etc.)

Like Android.

3) There's more content on the screen when browsing because common toolbars are shorter or disappear when not in use

Like Chrome for Android and the stock Android browser.

5) settings page accessible from home screen

Like Android.

6) full multitasking and better app switcher.

Kinda, most apps still can't really process in the background the way they do on a true multitasking OS. For example I run a speed camera warning app in the background with voice alerts, with GMaps/navigation on top, and another podcast app in the background but able to respond to play/pause /skip buttons.

10) revamped notifications and alerts

Like Android. Really, the cheek of ripping off the notification shade and still complaining about other companies copying them is beyond a joke.

11) all sorts of API improvements, the benefits of which will only become apparent when apps start to implement them right

Nice try.

12) revamped app updates

Like Android. For example the availability of old versions of apps for older version of iOS (I thought there was no fragmentation?!?) is something Android users have enjoyed for quite some time now.

Bye bye karma, it was nice knowin' ya.

Re:The short version...

[DdJ]

I'll agree with you that I don't see a problem with the way it happens, but it's not just a semantic argument.

There are an awful lot of people here on slashdot who would assert that "full multitasking" means that every app has full access to its entire code path all the time, and can do anything in the background that it could do in the foreground, like desktop apps on a Linux system. That switching between foreground execution and background execution isn't even something an app has to notice.

The reality is basically that the app can only fully run in the foreground. In other situations it, in practice, can set up little scripts or daemons to handle specific enumerated things on its behalf when it's not in the foreground.

Some of that code fires off when a trigger condition comes up, and then have a limited time to do their business (eg. geofencing). Some keeps running in the background as long as its fulfilling a specific purpose (eg. background audio).

Has iOS got multitasking? Yes. Has it got multitasking that's more than enough for most normal users who aren't doing exotic things? Yes.

Has it got full multitasking? No, it really really doesn't. Just try running a Jabber client that lets you stay logged in all day long, or a mail client that downloads your mail before you open it without push notifications.

(Of course this isn't a bad thing, as long as the multitasking it's got is sufficient. True full multitasking would actually be a bad thing.)

Re: The short version...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well you certainly deserve to be slammed for such hollow karma whoring.

Re:The short version...

[noh8rz10]

Sep 17: Apple suxors! the iphone lacks features found on Android!
Sep 18: Apple suxors! they added features found on Android!

Re:The short version...

[noh8rz10]

Here's apple's list

This update features a beautiful new design and also contains hundreds of new features, including the following:
New design
Redesigned interface updates the entire system and every built-in app
Subtle motion and animation; layers and translucency provide depth
Elegant new color palette and refined typography
Updated system sounds and ringtones
Control Center
Quick access to commonly used controls and apps with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen
Turn on & off Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb; adjust screen brightness; access media controls; turn on AirPlay and AirDrop
Quickly access flashlight, timer, calculator, camera and music controls
Notification Center improvements
New Today view gives you an overview of your day, including weather, calendar, and stocks
Notifications dismissed on one device dismisses across all your devices
Multitasking improvements
Preview screens of open apps when you switch between them
Permits any app to keep content up to date in the background
Camera improvements
Swipe through different camera modes – video, still photo, square aspect, and panorama
Real-time photo filters with iPhone 4S or later, and iPod touch (5th generation)
Photos improvements
Automatically organizes your photos and videos based on time and location into Moments
iCloud Photo Sharing supports multiple contributors and videos, plus a new Activity view
Add photo filter effects
Flickr and Vimeo support
AirDrop
Quickly and easily share content with people nearby
Securely encrypted transfers with no network or setup required
Supported on iPhone 5, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account
Safari improvements
New iPhone tab view that lets you easily switch between open web pages
Unified smart search field for both search terms and web addresses
Shared Links shows web pages shared by people you follow on Twitter
iTunes Radio
Streaming radio service
Pick from over 250 featured and genre-focused stations
Start your own station from your favorite artist or song
Siri improvements
New, more natural sounding male and female voices for US English, French and German
Integrated Wikipedia, Twitter search, and Bing web search results
Change settings including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and brightness
Supported on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation)
App Store improvements
See apps relevant to your current location with Popular Near Me
Discover age-appropriate apps in the Kids category
Keep your apps up to date automatically
Find My iPhone Activation Lock
Turning off Find My iPhone, erasing your device, reactivation, and signing out of iCloud requires your Apple ID password
A custom message can be displayed on your device even after a remote erase
iTunes Store improvements
Preview and buy songs you've heard on iTunes Radio while inside the iTunes Store
Add to, and shop from, your iTunes Wish List
Scan code with camera to redeem iTunes Gift Cards
Music improvements
Play music purchases from iCloud
Rotate your iPhone or iPod touch to browse your music with the Album Wall
Videos improvements
Play movie and TV show purchases from iCloud
View similar movies and TV shows from Related
Maps improvements
Turn-by-turn walking directions
Automatic night mode
Bookmarks shared across devices via iCloud
Mail improvements
New Smart Mailboxes, including Unread, Attachments, All Drafts and To or CC
Improved search
View PDF annotations
FaceTime audio calling
Block unwanted Phone, Messages and FaceTime callers
Support for sending long MMS messages
Pull down on any Home Screen to reveal Spotlight search
Scan to acquire Passbook passes
New ringtones, alarms, alerts and system sounds
Definitions of a selected word for additional languages: Italian, Korean, and Dutch
Inclinometer in the Compass

Re:The short version...

[phantomfive]

Icons and dialogs are "flat" (similar to Windows 7, etc.)

If you look at the font, you'll see it's similar to Windows 8 system font, too. It's actually surprising how much they've copied from the Windows ecosystem here. The shoe is on the other foot.

Re:The short version...

[orgelspieler]

If a ship can be called "she," so can a software emulation of a female voice. I can just picture it now.

She cannae take much more of it, Captain.

I think you mean "it," Mr. Scott.

Re:The short version...

[Wraithlyn]

Oh yes. Your poor, poor karma. Because Slashdot adores Apple and hates Android. What a brave, bold stance you have taken.

Are you fucking high? Or just playing the old cliched "I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but..." karma whoring trick?

Re:The short version...

[BasilBrush]

Has as it got full multitasking? No, it really really doesn't. Just try running a Jabber client that lets you stay logged in all day long, or a mail client that downloads your mail before you open it without push notifications.

Whilst your post is generally right in the approach, and spot on for iOS6, both your examples are perfectly feasible in iOS7.

Re:The short version...

[tlhIngan]

For #12, I'm curious about the app updates, especially the fingerprint scanner. I wonder how authentication info is passed to the app, be it a salted value, or an "ACK/NAK" return.

App updates are handled by Apple completely - you post an app on iTunes connect and whenever your phone notices, it'll update it automatically.

Developers currently do not have access to the fingerprint reader (because there are plenty of questions on how it should work and when it should work and perhaps even stuff like can you authorize it for a time period). The only things the fingerprint reader is good for is to unlock your phone and (optionally) used to store your iTunes password for authorization purposes.

I'm guessing it's to see if it's going to just be a wank feature or genuinely useful, and to see if people use it for iTunes or not. And possibly to solicit information from developers on how they would like it used - remember the secure area is limited in size so how are developers going to store access tokens and such, etc. etc. etc.

Re:The short version...

[BasilBrush]

Fallen at the first.

"Icons and dialogs are "flat" (similar to Windows 7, etc.)"
Like Android.

You clearly don't know what flat icons are. Here's the latest android.
http://www.android.com/images/restricted-profiles.png
These are NOT flat icons. Take a loo at the camera icon for the most obvious example. Simulated highlight and shadow is used to make the icon look 3D. Same goes for all the other icons.

Re:The short version...

[dan325]

"full multitasking" is also not desirable. It may make developing an app more difficult, but the user experience is greatly enhanced. I couldn't begin to imagine how annoying it would be for some errant app to start using resources in the background and killing the responsiveness of the foreground app.

There is a good reason they implemented multitasking in the way that they did.

Re:The short version...

[AmiMoJo]

Currently at +4 Interesting, based on:

30% Interesting
20% Flamebait
10% Troll

You have to get lucky and attract enough good moderators who will mark it as "interesting" to balance out the fanbois who mod you troll/flamebait because they disagree. This time I got lucky.

Re:The short version...

[AmiMoJo]

I don't see how those two positions are incompatible.

Re:The short version...

[mattack2]

Simpsons did it first.

Re:The short version...

[mbadolato]

5) Safari performance is up
6) Battery life is down

7) And we have more excellent waterslides than any other planet we communicate with.

Sorry, had to go for a Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure tie-in. Long live Rufus!

Re:The short version...

[mlts]

That is disappointing. It would be nice to at the minimum be able to get an "ACK/NAK" value which would confirm usage of a security sensitive function.

Even though it has its downsides, it is nice to have additional security, not to mention protection from people shoulder-surfing your screen unlock password.

Re:The short version...

[AmiMoJo]

Have a look inside Google's apps, e.g. Play Store, G+, YouTube or Now. It's all flat "cards", the same as their web versions. The OS is similar, especially the icons in system apps like the dialer and calculator, or in the notification shade.

Re:The short version...

[BasilBrush]

Have a look inside Google's apps, e.g. Play Store, G+, YouTube or Now. It's all flat "cards", the same as their web versions. The OS is similar, especially the icons in system apps like the dialer and calculator, or in the notification shade.

On other words there's a mish-mash of pseudo 3d and flat icons. iOS 7 on the other hand has a new design entirely without pseudo 3d highlights and shadows. That's why it was compared to Windows Phone, not Android. Because Android does not have a consistently flat UI.

Re:The short version...

[BasilBrush]

Yeah right. Helvetica Neue was copied from Microsoft. (via a time machine.)

Re:The short version...

[maccodemonkey]

You missed:

5) Safari performance is up
6) Battery life is down
7) Non-Retina displays have legibility issues

Battery life is actually pretty much the same in my usage (I'm a developer with pre-release access) and in reviews.

But yeah, non-retina is on the way out. Fortunately the only non-retina devices supported are iPad 2 and iPad Mini. No no-retina phone makes the requirement cut.

Re:The short version...

[YoshiDan]

iPad mini, iPad 2.

Re:The short version...

[cbope]

I would replace "Android" with "WP8" for almost all of those (all, once Amber drops on my device), because I've got karma to burn at the moment and it's true. There's a shit-ton of copying going on in iOS 7 from WP8, WebOS... and Android.

Re:The short version...

[DdJ]

The Jabber one doesn't work under iOS 7. (Or: show me the API that lets it, in the developer docs. I can't spot it.)

The mail one... for a third party mail app, if you check your mail at 8am every day, it can download at 7:50 for you. But if you *receive* mail at an unusual time, and it doesn't match a time when the system has "learned" that you're likely to open it, then it's not going to be able to pre-fetch it for you -- you can't know you got the mail until you open the app.

It's better for users than it's ever been. The changes are good.

Re:The short version...

[BasilBrush]

The Jabber one doesn't work under iOS 7. (Or: show me the API that lets it, in the developer docs. I can't spot it.)

The mail one... for a third party mail app, if you check your mail at 8am every day, it can download at 7:50 for you. But if you *receive* mail at an unusual time, and it doesn't match a time when the system has "learned" that you're likely to open it, then it's not going to be able to pre-fetch it for you -- you can't know you got the mail until you open the app.

So you are saying you WANT push but your previous message for some reason excluded them. But iOS7 allows apps to respond to push notifications without the user being alerted, so there's no reason not to implement it that way.

Maybe you were just going a round about way to saying there is no way of making sure that a background is serviced every X seconds. And for sure that is right. By design. Polling is not a good way to design network apps for battery powered devices.

Re:The short version...

[DdJ]

So you are saying you WANT push but your previous message for some reason excluded them. But iOS7 allows apps to respond to push notifications without the user being alerted, so there's no reason not to implement it that way.

A reason not to implement it that way is, then the software isn't all running on the device. You need additional infrastructure to support sending the push notifications.

If you had "full multitasking", you wouldn't need that. Jabber and IMAP do not (usually) come with those "built in". So I can't get a generic Jabber client and have it talk to my employer's Jabber server and have it work in the background without giving any credentials to a third party or running other off-device software.

Maybe you were just going a round about way to saying there is no way of making sure that a background is serviced every X seconds. And for sure that is right. By design. Polling is not a good way to design network apps for battery powered devices.

I am in full agreement. That's why it's a bad idea to put "full multitasking" on a battery powered handheld device.

I'm not saying "what Apple is doing here is substandard or bad". I'm saying "what Apple is doing here still remains pretty far from 'full multitasking'". (Some people seem to have a hard time taking that as something other than a value judgment, but it's not one.)

They're actually being pretty darned clever. There's a few more things they need to do, and I suspect they'll eventually do them.

(The biggie that I still see missing: on-device triggers. A third party app that interacts with contact information ought to be able to execute code upon the addition of a new contact, whether it's entered into the "Contacts" app, or picked up by background sync from iCloud or Exchange or something. For example. For another example, "OmniFocus" ought to be able to get a timeslice when a "Reminder" is created or modified.)

Skip to page 6

[EMG at MU]

1) Multi page stories are really annoying.
2) I guess I never read Ars a lot before but there is so little technical detail in the article I don't really understand how Ars can consider itself a technical oriented website. Seems more like a huff post story.
3) Skip to page 6 if you want to see anything about performance/benchmarks. Most of the other 5 pages are thoughts on UI changes.

Re:Skip to page 6

[h4rr4r]

Ars is not a technical website. They are a tech news site.

Re:Skip to page 6

[Anonymous Coward]

Ars used to be a tech site. Now they're a news site, with a slight tech leaning. Oh, and anything you post there, they'll turn into a news story if it will get them ad clicks. They'll out your girlfriend/boyfriend as well.

They've said they want to join the ranks of journalists and not just be a tech board. Unfortunately, the journalists they've joined are the National Enquirer and Daily Mail.

Re:Skip to page 6

[Quila]

We've had such a backlash against the current habit of putting one paragraph per page in order to increase hits that we've forgotten pagination does have it's place, such as when the pages are very long as in this case.

Re:Skip to page 6

[DarkOx]

No that is what anchors are for...Unless your text is so long it would make the page load time unacceptable put some links at the top to anchors so people can navigate the document and put in all on one page please.

Re:Skip to page 6

[dhaen]

I take it you don't use Safari. It has a Reader button which cuts out the chaff. I'll link to an equally annoying Cnet page that explains it ;-)

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20007195-263.html

I wish that option was available on other browsers.

Re:Skip to page 6

[EMG at MU]

Wow thats a cool feature. Props to the Safari devs at Apple.

Re:Skip to page 6

[mattack2]

1) Multi page stories are really annoying.

1) cmd-click to open it in a new tab
2) switch to that tab
3) cmd-shift-R to view it in Reader mode
-> voila, single 'page' article.

Re:Skip to page 6

[Quila]

On a screen 1050px high, browser maximized, you're talking about 76 vertical pages of image-heavy article. Very bad idea to put it all on one page.

Re:Skip to page 6

[EMG at MU]

Try that on linux

Re:Skip to page 6

[EMG at MU]

Ars is not a technical website. They are a tech news site.

I said I thought they were a "technical oriented website", contrasted to HuffPost which is a generalist news site (any political bias aside).

Ars seems to consider themselves to be technically oriented: Serving the Technologist for more than a decade. IT new, reviews, and analysis.

Look, I obviously pissed off some people who hold Ars in high esteem. All I was getting at is I felt the piece was a little fluffy, light on technical details, and oriented at laymen. Not the website for me, although it probably brings value and enjoyment to millions of people who are not me. Live and let live.

Re:Skip to page 6

[T-Bone-T]

The author did mention that this was a consumer-oriented review and a review that focused more on the new APIs is in the works.

Re:Released?

[Sockatume]

It'll be on general availability today, in about two hours if previous releases are any indication. IIRC it'll show up in this order:

1) Manual update in iTunes
2) Manual update in iOS settings
3) Prompted update in iOS settings
4) Prompted updated in iTunes

Re:Released?

[dugancent]

It's being released 1pm eastern, today.

Contact blocking

[Rik Sweeney]

Blocking on a number is pretty pointless, unless you actually want to block a specific person. If you're wanting to block a spam SMS message, then you'll be out of luck since they're sent from throw away numbers (well, at least in the UK they are).

Re:Contact blocking

[mlts]

The block combined with YouMail (you forward your voice mails to their service, and they give specific messages for callers, or just ditch them with "number not in service" messages.) is better than nothing.

Of course, the ideal is the app Mr. Number in Android, which does a search to see if the number is flagged as a robodialer or spam, then drops the call if that is the case. No having to block tons of numbers.

Sort of sad that iOS took this long to get this functionality. With robodialers a big money source and the FCC a laughingstock (good luck catching a VoIP spammer offshore), number blacklists are the main line of defense these days.

Re:Contact blocking

[noh8rz10]

I just about smashed my phone this week when I received over 200 worthless text messages, each from a unique number, in the space of a few minutes.

amber alerts?

Re:Contact blocking

[dugancent]

If you're jailbroken, iBlacklist is an excellent option.

Re:Contact blocking

[mattack2]

In iOS 7, you can turn off AMBER Alerts. Settings -> Notification Center -> scroll to bottom.. Toggles for AMBER Alerts and Emergency Alerts.

Re:New look, not sure I like.

[mlts]

IMHO, all operating systems follow design trends. First it was just plain buttons. Then 3D buttons in the early 1990s. Then color and graphics.

Now, the cycle has begun anew and we are back to flat buttons. Next thing we will see will be NeXTStep style black/white icons with a philosophy of "the content in the app is the stuff with colors, everything else is black/white/grey to support it."

Good Long Review

[BoRegardless]

Did not see iBeacon noted in the excellent review & the implications for new apps and hardware accessories. I'll ave to read it several times.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[techprophet]

That is a recent change. Most android devices (except maybe the very new) have menu keys. My old Motorola did, as did the HTC and the Samsung I currently own.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Bull. Home puts the app into the background. Back goes back to previous screen of the app, unless there isn't one - in which case it exits the app.

My review after a couple months

[mrjatsun]

Most of the reviews I've read just parrot what Apple said which is sad.

Been using it for a couple months. The control panel is great. They killed the calendar, much less usable. I don't use siri so I can't comment there. Being able to have more than 9 icons in a folder is nice.

The rest is fluff. They exchanged textures for a bunch of superfluous animation and transparency. It looks a lot different obviously. No easier or harder to use though. I'm not a big fan of the new look but was tired of the old look. Other than getting used to a different look, I didn't notice a big improvement or drop off in the other apps.

In the end, if you already have an iphone, I would recommend it for the control panel.

Re:My review after a couple months

[mrjatsun]

Oh, not a big fan of the safari changes switching between multiple pages either. gratuitous 3d with less performance for no benefit.

Re:My review after a couple months

[DdJ]

They killed the calendar, much less usable.

It's non-intuitive, but try tapping the little magnifying glass, even when you're not interested in doing a search.

Go ahead, try it! I'll wait.

Re:My review after a couple months

[mrjatsun]

> It's non-intuitive, but try tapping the little magnifying glass

Yep, already knew that. :-) Now exit the app and start it up again, not in list
mode anymore. I want it in list mode by default, occasionally dropping out to
month or yearly view. The day overview is useless to me on the phone (I'm sure it
would be fine on a tablet or computer).

Plus, the done button sitting there waiting for me to hit it makes my eye twitch.

After two months, I still hate the calendar app... Your mileage may vary.

Not much of an improvement.

[MaWeiTao]

The only reason skeumorphism is maligned is because it's become unfashionable, not because of any inherent flaw in the aesthetic. Mind you, I've a big fan of Microsoft's flat look, but I also think Apple's former approach was distinctive and quite good. All it needed was a refresh, akin to what Google has done with their aesthetic. Instead, Apple goes and dumps the design resulting in a design that looks like Android with a bit of Windows Phone mixed in. Fortunately for Apple, unlike any other company on Earth, they're being lavished with praise instead of maligned for coming up with such a derivative design.

I get the impression that Apple well aware of how derivative the OS feels, hence the low contrast aesthetic and heavy use of blur filters. The problem is that there isn't enough contrast throughout; at times it feels like trying to use the phone through a frosted screen protector. This isn't helped by the fact that Apple's designers generally seem a too impressed with themselves. So they approached the design with the mindset that too much of a good thing is a great thing. And they're so intent on your savoring their design that they actually hinder usability, as evidenced by the slower animations.

There are plenty of things that iOS has never done right. The argument Apple fans inevitably use to defend iOS is that it "just works". But all that means is that they're used to Apple's particular set of quirks and are unwilling to learning anything new. With Windows Phone, personal preferences aside, at least it's evident that Microsoft placed clarity of the UI and user experience as high priorities. They dropped the ball in a few aspects, the lack of a traditional notifications list and quick-access control center being two examples. But otherwise the experience is excellent. It seems Apple's only goal was to make iOS 7 look relevant by following prevailing design trends which, ironically, Microsoft helped establish.

If the future of smartphones is at the software level, then Apple is screwed because that's where they're furthest behind. The only thing they've still got going for them is the App Store and even there their days are numbered.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[DdJ]

The only reason skeumorphism is maligned is because it's become unfashionable, not because of any inherent flaw in the aesthetic.

I do not agree with you that it's just a matter of fashion.

So, anyone who uses enough cross-platform software on an OS that has UI guidelines should be familiar with a basic dichotomy: should various apps on a single system be "like" each other, or should a single app always be the "same" regardless of what system it's on.

(For example: should Firefox on MacOS look like a MacOS app, or look like Firefox for Windows or Linux?)

If you're in the "apps should always comply with the 'local' UI guidelines, even if that makes the same app look and behave dramatically different than it does in other environments" camp -- and there are non-fashion reasons to have that point of view -- then that's an argument against skeumorphism with an actual legitimate basis.

Now, not everyone is in that camp, sure. If that point of view makes no sense to you, then you may not understand this argument against skeumorphism. But that's because you're missing something, not because the argument isn't there (or because you disagree, not because the argument is fundamentally invalid).

I will observe that this argument is going to be a little alien to folks who normally use Linux, because in general there are no enforced UI guidelines and no consistency of user interface experience. Unless you deliberately engineer your setup otherwise and refuse to install any "outside" software, that is. I mean to the point of a GNOME user refusing to run any browser other than Epiphany, for example.

But, such UI consistency is somewhat better on Windows (before 8, anyhow), and is something a lot of MacOS users took for granted for years. That's part of where the somewhat widespread visceral negative reaction to Apple's embracing of skeumorphism came from, even if many of the ranting users couldn't articulate that.

(Myself: I got addicted to UI consistency back when I ran NeXTstep, and it's the primary reason I try not to run Firefox or Chrome on a daily basis. While I won't say I hated skeumorphism, it never sat quite right with me in most cases.)

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[AmiMoJo]

The only reason skeumorphism is maligned is because it's become unfashionable, not because of any inherent flaw in the aesthetic

It's flawed, and we have known that for a long time. It's what I call "maybe the cheese plant syndrome". Old management games from the 80s/early 90s often had an office as their main screen, where you could click on various objects to access all the different functions. The problem is that you ended up hunting for things to click on, eventually trying the cheese plant in the corner out of frustration. The same thing happens when your calendar apps looks like a book and it isn't immediately obvious how to get beyond the basic functions.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[MaWeiTao]

I agree with you in principle, but what you're describing applies mostly to desktop OSs. Visual consistency is expected when you're dealing with a windowed environment. While it's ideal, however, that all apps follow operating system conventions I don't think it's critical, by any stretch of the imagination. I'd rather see an app optimized for it's particular function than a slave to OS aesthetic requirements. That said, core system functions should remain consistent across the board.

I do find it a bit amusing that you mention visual visual consistency in MacOS being taken for granted considering that they're one of the worst offenders of pointlessly inconsistent interfaces. Look at iCal and the whole iLife suite. But I never considered it to be a problem; I liked the whimsy.

A mobile OS, however, follows a different set of rules. All apps run full screen so there's less dependency on any single template. And the fact is that the range of functionality is so vast that there's no realistic hope of imposing a single experience beyond certain core functions. I do think Android handles it reasonably well with a tool bar. However, persistence is valuable and that's why I prefer Android's old approach where, like Windows Phone, you have ever present capacitive buttons. Sure, there's the annoyance of accidental presses, but at least I can quickly access home or other functions without that functionality consuming screen real estate.

Currently, however, no one offers a consistent experience like Windows Phone does. It's on a level even Apple can't match, and from which they've strayed with iOS 7. Although, given Microsoft's track record they'll probably screw it up at some point.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[phantomfive]

The only reason skeumorphism is maligned is because it's become unfashionable,

Arguably it's maligned mainly by Android/MS fanboys (and designers). It's definitely a useful way to communicate information in a lot of situations.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[phantomfive]

But, such UI consistency is somewhat better on Windows (before 8, anyhow), and is something a lot of MacOS users took for granted for years.

That's a joke. Looking at my current desktop, I have Firefox which throws everything into a single menu, Eclipse which has a purple menu bar (with icons below, in the Word97 style), and Outlook which has a ribbon thing.

Apple has failed to follow their own UI guidelines for years, with things like iTunes, garage band.......

UI consistency is overrated. What matters is if you can figure out how to use the application. In cases where consistency helps you do this, then it is good. When it doesn't help you do this, it is superfluous.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[Solandri]

The only reason skeumorphism is maligned is because it's become unfashionable, not because of any inherent flaw in the aesthetic. Mind you, I've a big fan of Microsoft's flat look, but I also think Apple's former approach was distinctive and quite good.

I was a big critic of the bubbly look that was introduced with Windows XP. The new flat look in Office 2013 has finally made me understand one of the advantages of that bubbly look.

Office 2013 (on Win 7, dunno about Win 8) has the flat look but only puts a drop shadow on the foreground window. If I have multiple Excel spreadsheets open in the background, the lack of a drop shadow on background windows makes it very difficult to tell where one ends and another begins. They're all flat and blend together. The bubbly look that Windows XP introduced with its pronounced window borders solves that problem - it makes it (painfully) obvious where the window borders are. XP went overboard with it and Win 7 toned it down. But the way Microsoft has completely abandoned it for the flat look hinders usability in this case.

Back in the 1980s, Apple, IBM, and Microsoft did these huge graphical user interface studies where they tested how people used and reacted to different elements of the interface. They did this to scientifically narrow down what ideas worked and what didn't. With the newer OSes, I get the feeling this methodological approach to user interface design has been abandoned in favor of graphics artists making up whatever they think looks cool.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[Jackmon]

I agree with a whole lot of what you are saying, but I do think there is one non-fashion-trend reason to at least tone down skeumorphism, and that is pixel real estate. Drawing icons so that they look like realistic 3D objects requires more pixels. When you're on a phone with limited screen space, that's not the best idea. However, I'm not an absolutist here. Skeumorphism does help to clarify the meaning of things sometimes. If all you see is a colored rectangle, there's less that intuitively conveys interactivity suggestions such as 'you should push this'.

Hopefully things will tend to converge around a balanced approach.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[TangoMargarine]

(Myself: I got addicted to UI consistency back when I ran NeXTstep, and it's the primary reason I try not to run Firefox or Chrome on a daily basis.

Thank *God* Firefox still allows you to disable Tabs On Top and Horrible Uni-Menu. That's also the prime reason I refuse to regularly use Chrome: They don't let you change their interface, and I hate their interface. Give me the good ol' multi-top-level, expanding menu interface I've used all my life (well, up to 2007, I suppose, but I use Open/LibreOffice to get away from that monstrosity as well).

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[mattack2]

(For example: should Firefox on MacOS look like a MacOS app, or look like Firefox for Windows or Linux?)

That's part of why I can't like/get used to ANY of the third party browsers enough to use them, even if I like their feature set. Even when they ape the "'local' UI guidelines", they're still using their own code, instead of the built in UI from the OS. So even when it looks VERY similar, it doesn't look exactly right, and even worse, usually behaves far different (e.g. things like control tracking don't work the way you expect).

I did use iCab a long long time ago, mostly because it was far faster at the time and I used the various per-page filtering a lot more (e.g. only load images for some pages). Then Safari caught up with it in terms of general speed/the network got fast enough that I didn't care to turn off images, and nowadays, Safari plugins provide a lot of the configurability that's not built in to Safari.

Don't get me wrong, over the years, Safari has committed some of the same "against the rest of the OS' UI" inconsistency crimes, but many have since _become_ part of the regular UI.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[DdJ]

Currently, however, no one offers a consistent experience like Windows Phone does. It's on a level even Apple can't match, and from which they've strayed with iOS 7. Although, given Microsoft's track record they'll probably screw it up at some point.

Strangely, I'm in full agreement with you here.

On Windows Phone, Microsoft actually went and innovated in the UI space, and came up with something usable and consistent and novel.

It's really different from both iOS and Android. Now, I can't stand it, mind you. I cannot really make use of a Windows Phone myself. But, I can absolutely recognize that they did good work and that it's genuinely better for some people than either iOS or Android.

(Right now, both iOS and Android are better for me than Windows Phone... but Apple and Google are working on changing that!)

And... Microsoft has already screwed it up. They attempted to extend it to both the desktop (Windows 8) and the set-top (Xbox), but they did not do so consistently. Both of those UIs are now a mess as far as I can tell.

(I do not use Windows much, but because of that, I'm a console gamer, and IMHO the Xbox UI has definitely been ruined. The NXE was the beginning of the end, and the current "metro" version is even worse. Bring back the blades!)

The phone UI design itself isn't messed up yet (or, wasn't the last time I checked), but messing it up clearly seems to be the way they're headed.

Re:Not much of an improvement.

[Dixie_Flatline]

There was an inherent flaw in Apple's version of skeumorphism, which is that it took up a lot of space on screens that were already cramped for space. It's one thing to have leather stitching all over in OS X where you've got screen space to burn, but even on an iPad, it feels like those extra pixels could be used better.

Skeumorphism itself is not fundamentally evil; arguably, you can't get away from it at all, since it's really just another way of describing a way to use metaphor to indicate how something works. The calendar app still represents a calendar--it doesn't try to do away with the convention by throwing away our concept of months or something.

I'm actually a big fan of the zoom animations, but I'm not sure if that animation is covering load time that we'd be subject to anyway or not--I'd like to know if control passes to the application as soon as the icon has been pressed or if the animation is blocking.

I don't entirely agree with your comments on the functionality of the system, particularly as someone that uses it (happily) every day. I think we're rapidly getting to an era of religious debate a la emacs vs. vi, though. We've got two systems that have different philosophies and both have camps of happy users. We may be at a point where we should just leave well enough alone and just use what we want without spending too much time preaching.

Too retro for my taste

[Powercntrl]

The actual usability improvements in iOS 7 are mostly good. The task switcher copied from Palm is nice and the quick settings copied from Android is also a welcome change. But man, I just can't get past the way the whole thing looks. It looks like someone took iOS, Windows Phone 8 and Tandy's Deskmate (an old DOS GUI RadioShack's brand of PCs shipped with) and threw them into a blender.

3g

[beefoot]

The interface looks more or less the same as I remember on my wife's iphone 3G years ago.

Re:3g

[noh8rz10]

The interface looks more or less the same as I remember on my wife's iphone 3G years ago.

you sir have a very poor memory. you should have that checked.

Re:3g

[Stele]

Well, yeah, since iOS7 isn't available for the iPhone 3G.

Welcome to the Brutalist era of UI design

[JDG1980]

In the post-WWII era, there was an architectural trend called Brutalism. This school of thought held that ornamentation was unnecessary and that buildings were "machines for living in". They should therefore be made out of raw, unadorned concrete. These buildings are still around, especially in large cities, and most people hate them. Turns out that functionality isn't enough; people actually want things to look nice.

It appears that UI designers are in the process of making the same mistakes that architects did decades ago. The new crusade against "skeuomorphism" is, in practice, a campaign for ugly square boxes with low-color icons. It's basically a return to the graphics of the early 1990s, except this time there isn't the excuse of technical limitations to justify it. I had hoped that this trend would stop with Windows 8, but for some inexplicable reason, Apple seems to have decided to degrade their far superior touch OS to a similar degree. The sublime beauty of Aero and iOS 6 gives way to the stark ugliness of Metro and iOS 7. For God's sake, why?

Re:Welcome to the Brutalist era of UI design

[rodrigoandrade]

To each their own, dude!! I still use the Win95 Classic look on all my Windows PCs (Win7 and Win8). I disable all animations on my Android devices.

I hate anything that slows me down.

Re:Welcome to the Brutalist era of UI design

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree completely. I finally went with an iPhone 5, in large part because I liked the way iOS6 looked. Now apparently each iPhone is dipped in a cotton candy rotator before being shipped out, which is great for circus clowns and children, I suppose, but not for me. I'll stick with iOS6, and I guess when my iPhone 5 finally kicks the bucket, I'll have to move back to Android, whether I like it or not.

Re:Welcome to the Brutalist era of UI design

[AmiMoJo]

Flat UIs are not brutalist, they are minimalist. People like minimalism, and it works well in a UI because it simplifies and unclutters. Of course not everyone does it well, but in principal it is a good way to design an interface.

In any case, brutalism isn't what you seem to think it is. The idea behind brutalism was not that ornamentation was unnecessary, and in fact most brutalist buildings feature adornments like jutting out sections or spiral ramps into car parks. Brutalism tries to expose the way the building works and the way human beings use it, rather than hiding it behind walls or drawing the eye away with features and exterior windows. Few people like it but not because it is unadorned, because it is adorned with angular concrete features that are rarely maintained or cleaned properly.

Re:Welcome to the Brutalist era of UI design

[mikael_j]

I'd say the flat UI trend is more about minimalism and a better comparison would be the interior design minimalism trend (which is still going strong) contrasted with past trends such as the 1970's "shag carpets, saturated non-matching colors and wood paneling" trend. So, by this standard we're still in the infancy of minimalist UIs but it's still better than what we had before and it will hopefully get even better with time as we further refine things.

Re:Welcome to the Brutalist era of UI design

[maccodemonkey]

Stripping out skeuomorphism and intentionally not trying to make applications look nice are two different things. The flaw with your line of reasoning is the idea that skeuomorphism is the only way to make an app look attractive. Decades of user interface work would disagree with that.

It's perfectly possible to create a sensible, usable, and attractive flat UI.

Try a Windows phone, that's an experience

[Ravaldy]

From a interface stand point I find the Windows Phone to provide the best experience. The new iOS does nothing but pretty up and old way of using a mobile device. I know I'm going to get the boot for mentioning an MS product on /. but if you try one you will agree with me that it is a very good experience. Like the Android phone it has a back button.

FYI, I have owned all 3 phones. More recently I have purchased an S3 but use a Ativ day to day. Best phone I owned.

Re:Try a Windows phone, that's an experience

[SenseiLeNoir]

You are not going to get hammered. I agree, the Windows Phone interface is actually very good from what I felt when I played around with a Lumia. Its other things about the OS that makes me stick with Android.

To be honest, although I myself would NOT be interested in a Windows OS phone, I can see my parents being quite comfortable with one.

Now coming to windows 8.... thats a different kettle of fish! They should have kept a limited aero for desktop use. I completely hate the lack of contrast on the new desktop (I do not mind the metro interface in "metro" world, I just HATE the desktop interface)

Re:Try a Windows phone, that's an experience

[Anonymous Coward]

I know--man, I wonder what a home button does. I mean, I guess it might take you HOME. Like the home button on every other friggin' device that has a home button does. Now about that "BACK" button. does it take you...BACK?!?

Re:Try a Windows phone, that's an experience

[Ravaldy]

Yes, I agree with your comment of Windows 8. More and more I find Windows 8 to be appropriate for tablets and touch hardware but for engineers and software devs, it can be annoying.

Its lipstick on a pig

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

Apple just put lipstick on the pig and expect everyone to embrace iOS 7 as some significant leap forward.

While I am sure there are some efficiency improvements in iOS 7 UI and features, overall people should be keenly aware that not much has really changed under the hood. I mean turning on 64bit when compiling iOS 7 is not innovative, neither is a 64bit CPU. Apple is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and making it seem like iOS 7 and iPhone 5s are significant upgrades, when in reality they are barely incremental updates. Apple needs this deception if they want to improve their stock performance.

Basically iOS 7 represents the first divergence of the legacy left by Steve Jobs. Once he left the planet, the internal rifts between skeuomorphism vs UI simplicity shifted weight over to Jony Ives, who simply ripped all the leather, glass, metal and felt out of iOS free from any repercussions because Tim Cook is a spineless half-wit who is barely aware of anything Apple does these days except what he is told to regurgitate in a keynote.

Look, Apple is even aware of all this. They spent exactly 5 minutes talking about iOS 7 at the iPhone release. No real weight to its release. They spent the next 20 minutes talking about the beautiful colors if plastic (again, the ONLY thing new about iPhone 5c), and then raved about how fast and 64 bitty their new CPU is and how they brought their camera into the 21st century by focusing on quality rather than simply "having a camera" on a phone like their competition has already realized. Finally while the iTouch is cool, without support for User Profiles iTouch is just a useless contrivance for people too-stupid to remember a 4 digit passcode. There is no point "knowing" who is using the iDevice when there is no simply no iOS feature that is aware of who is using the device.

So, while everyone is tripping over to glow about all the "new" things Apple released last week, investors are pulling out of Apple because they can see past the lipstick and realize Apple hasn't innovated since Jobs passed away.

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[dugancent]

The talked about iOS 7 for 5 minutes because they devoted an entire talk about it at WWDC, no need to re-hash.

There is a lot more to the update than 64bit and aesthetic changes, but feel free to ignore all of it. You will anyway.

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[Quila]

While I am sure there are some efficiency improvements in iOS 7 UI and features, overall people should be keenly aware that not much has really changed under the hood.

OpenGL ES 3, Core Motion (goes with the M7 chip), new multitasking API, SpriteKit API, game controller API, many additions to camera API, new mapping APIs, inter-app audio, AirDrop API, many additions to Core Location. And more.

Not to say this is revolutionary. Apple spent most of the effort in the makeover. But there are definitely many improvements under the hood.

to Jony Ives, who simply ripped all the leather, glass, metal and felt out of iOS free from any repercussions because Tim Cook is a spineless half-wit

More like Cook realized that Ive was right, skeumorphism is getting old. It was cute in the beginning, but by now everyone knows what a notepad app is, they don't need skeumorphism to be comfortable. Jobs listened to Forstall too much, and had a strange affinity for this cutesiness. His pet peeves have been damaging before, such as his hatred for fans.

(again, the ONLY thing new about iPhone 5c),

The color is the only new thing, and it's more than we'd normally get. Normally, the 5 would be the cheap phone while the 5S remained the top of the line. Still I hear it manages to retain a solid feel while being plastic, unlike most other phones.

how they brought their camera into the 21st century by focusing on quality rather than simply "having a camera" on a phone like their competition has already realized

The cameras on the iPhones have generally been among the best quality in phones, if not the best. Right now only Nokia is better with that badass camera in the Lumia.

So, while everyone is tripping over to glow about all the "new" things Apple released last week, investors are pulling out of Apple because they can see past the lipstick and realize Apple hasn't innovated since Jobs passed away.

The A7 appears to be quite innovative. The new Mac Pro, like it or hate it, is definitely innovative. The fingerprint reader is quite innovative (and expect its use to expand in the future).

As far as phones go, remember Apple operates like Intel's tick-tock (innovative new phone, speed bump, repeat), and this is only the speed bump year. Their wearable and the iPhone 6 will be real tests of whether Apple has lost innovation.

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[BasilBrush]

While I am sure there are some efficiency improvements in iOS 7 UI and features, overall people should be keenly aware that not much has really changed under the hood. I mean turning on 64bit when compiling iOS 7 is not innovative, neither is a 64bit CPU. Apple is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and making it seem like iOS 7 and iPhone 5s are significant upgrades, when in reality they are barely incremental updates. Apple needs this deception if they want to improve their stock performance.

And yet despite your talk of efficiency and performance, the fact is that the iPhone 5s is approximately twice as fast as the fastest Android phone.

They spent exactly 5 minutes talking about iOS 7 at the iPhone release.

They talked explicitly about iOS7 from 7:10 to 16:35 = 9 minutes. Which seems quite enough for an event which was about launching 2 new phones. That was the new news. iOS7 had already been presented in much more detail at the WWDC keynote.

Finally while the iTouch is cool, without support for User Profiles iTouch is just a useless contrivance for people too-stupid to remember a 4 digit passcode. There is no point "knowing" who is using the iDevice when there is no simply no iOS feature that is aware of who is using the device.

There's no such thing as "iTouch". Touch ID is not simply for those who can't remember a PIN. It's significantly faster and more secure than a PIN.

There is no point "knowing" who is using the iDevice when there is no simply no iOS feature that is aware of who is using the device.

Any phone OS that has a concept of multiple users is designed by a moron. Phones are personal devices, they are not multi-user systems.

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[jrumney]

Any phone OS that has a concept of multiple users is designed by a moron. Phones are personal devices, they are not multi-user systems.

Ask any parent whether their phone is a personal device, and whether they would benefit from a multi-user device that could prevent their kids from messing up their private data or posting accidentally to Facebook by hitting the wrong icon in a game etc.

And remember that Apple still makes tablets too, which are much more likely to be shared devices

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[BasilBrush]

Ask any parent

Smart parents know the difference between their valuable communications tool, and a kids toy. They might give their last phone to their kids to play with, but they are fools if they give them their current one.

They get a phone call, a text or an email, and they have to wrench the phone from the kid playing a game on it? Ridiculous.

For sure there is a place for parental controls, to stop kids spending money or undesirable things ON THEIR OWN PHONES, where costs have to be paid for by a parent.

But what if there was a multi-user phone, logged in as someone else, and a message comes in for you. Should it show the message (and breach your privacy) or not (and make you miss the message that arrived on your phone. It just isn't sensible.

Note Android doesn't do multiple users either.

Windows Phone does have the concept of a sort of guest account for kids, which could make sense for some. And Apple has a patent for a way of having multiple privilege levels, which could be used for temporary loans without the complication of logging out/in.

But full on multiple user IDs - they are seldom enough used on consumer PCs, let alone needed for post-PC communications devices.

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[jrumney]

Note Android doesn't do multiple users either.

Android does do multiple users. Finding devices that make use of it may be another matter (perhaps the Nexus 10 and/or Nexus 7?).

Re:Its lipstick on a pig

[BasilBrush]

Thanks for that. I'd missed the introduction of those.

I can see that some people might want this for tablets. They are more likely to be shared in a family than a phone. I know you mentioned tablets earlier, but I've just been talking about phones.

Skeuomorphism? Still?

[mothlos]

The small minority of designers with an axe to grind about skeuomorphic interfaces does not deserve a shout-out. Interface design is just generally bad on consumer products, trading long-term productivity for short-term accessability. These designers who eschew skeuomorphic design rarely are proposing anything of real value aside from asthetic alterations; they don't like putting spiral binder holes on the interface, waah. If they were proposing real long-term productivity improvements and had decent arguments about how skeuomorphic details are impeding this, then I would be happy to listen, but comparing these designs vs. the sorts of designs I see the anti-skeumorphic community proposing and it just seems like they don't enjoy the asthetic.

'pretty thorough review' quite a understatement

[JoeyRox]

That was one hell of an exhaustive review of the new UI. Kudos to Ars Technica. And thanks to the /. article submitter.

Too much of a change

[sl4shd0rk]

I find the new interface enough of a change that it will alienate a lot of people used to the "old way". People don't like change and there's enough different in ios 7 that I can see people leaving in droves. It will be interesting to see what happens. Eye candy has always ruled userspace and Apple has effectively killed off most of it's candy in lieu of something resembling a monochromatic cousin of Metro.

Re:Released?

[DesertJazz]

Fixing Mod

iOS 7 release

[noh8rz10]

And... it's in the wild! hit software update under general settings to grab it. Mine was a 750MB download.

My one question: readability?

[sootman]

For those with bad eyes, is the new OS easier to read, harder, or about the same? Several people in my family are now at the "hold phone at arm's length to read it" age, and initial screenshots of thin grey text on white have me worried.

Bumping up the font size only helps some, and it reduces how much text you can see on a screen at once. Also, it's not a system-wide setting -- you can make notes and texts bigger but not the names of icons on the home screens or the words in alerts.

Re:My one question: readability?

[Yaztromo]

For those with bad eyes, is the new OS easier to read, harder, or about the same?

The place where I've seen MAJOR improvement in this area with iOS7 has been when running iPhone apps on an iPad (in my case, an iPad 2 -- the oldest iPad supported by iOS7).

In iOS6 and prior, when running an iPhone app you had a choice between running it at its native resolution (and it would always choose the older 480x320 used by all iPhones up to (but not including) the iPhone 4) as a tiny window in the centre of the screen, or running it at "2x", doing a straight pixel doubling of everything. Fonts in particular became pretty ugly scaled this way -- they became obviously pixellated.

In iOS7 however, all iPhone apps are auto-scaled. It appears it now prefers graphics for the iPhone 4/4s screen resolution (940x640). Most importantly, the fonts are simply sized to the correct 2x size without pixel doubling -- so the render to the correct size at native resolution. This makes iPhone apps on the iPad vastly easier to read.

I can be a bit jarring mind you when you couple the new, crisp text with a graphic containing text designed for the pre- iPhone 4 screen resolution. The graphic gets scaled, so any graphical text looks pixellated still, however UI fonts in the same display will be crisp and clean.

I don't run a lot of iPhone apps on my iPad -- most are either dual iPhone/iPad apps in the first place, or have iPad equivalents available in the app store. There are a few that I need to run however (my banking and insurance apps don't have iPad equivalents, for example), and the text quality improvement in them is tremendous. It was pretty much worth the iOS7 upgrade alone for those apps.

None of which is helpful on an iPhone of course, and not having an iPhone (or bad eyes for that matter) I can't comment on how easy to read the text is on those devices. They certain do appear to have taken some time to improve things on the iPad however, and there I've ben really happy with the new and improved font rendering support.

Yaz

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[AuMatar]

No it doesn't. It by default calls Activity.finish(). This does NOT close the app, does not clear it from memory, and saved variables and state still persist.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[AuMatar]

And it wasn't commonly sold until 6 months to a year after that. Nor did most phone manufacturers change to the new style immediately with 4.0. Samsung still hasn't done so (hey and I don't totally blame them, I like the menu button). Plus 2.3 is still 30%+ of all phones. So yeah, 4.0 is still pretty new to most people.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[BasilBrush]

So it's even worse than pressing back at the first screen of an app exits the app. It's that is sometimes exits the app, and sometimes not. Depending on the app, and if the app has some other activities.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[gl4ss]

My Nexus (the only Andriod phone worth owning, imo) has no menu keys.

capacitive and onscreen(for saving money while building the device) buttons are still buttons functionally.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[BasilBrush]

And yet we still have Fandroids complaining that iOS doesn't have the buttons that were on old Androids and have been deprecated in new Androids.

It shows the mindlessness of those complaining about everything that is dissimilar with iOS.

Re: One button to the main screen! Is that changed

[noh8rz10]

The superintendent of schools who testified in the Scopes Monkey Trial?

I don't remember anything about him having or needing two phones.

Walter white is Heisenberg!

Will iOS 7 Crash Exchange?

[acoustix]

Will it crash Exchange servers like 6.1 did?

I know a lot of companies are telling employees to *not* upgrade to 7 until testing has been done. Of course, since security is so lax with iOS there's nothing that companies can do to actually enforce that policy. Unlike other real mobile OS's out there.

Re:New look, not sure I like.

[McKing]

I looked at my wife's iPhone 4 after she upgraded to iOS7 and I was actually shocked at how bright and saturated all of the colors were on the home screen. It was actually kind of painful to look at.