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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.
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.
"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
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)
Ars is not a technical website. They are a tech news site.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
The interface looks more or less the same as I remember on my wife's iphone 3G years ago.
If you're jailbroken, iBlacklist is an excellent option.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20007195-263.html
I wish that option was available on other browsers.
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.