Apple recently released iOS 7, which is compatible with iPhone 4, 4s and 5, iPod 4th generation and above, iPad 2 and later, including iPad mini. A considerable number of iOS users updated to iOS 7 according to a report issued by Chikita and published by Techcrunch.
Look and Feel. It has been a while since iOS users have been complaining of the stale look of their iOS devices. The UI—User Interface—was over due for a face-lift. Apple finally granted the desire of its users. The new design makes use of flat design. This is a departure from the textures, shadows and gradients that Apple has had since inception in 2007. The new look is certainly going to be a shocker to iOS 6 users. While some already love it, some are jarred by it.
Gestures. Many Apple apps are being updated. The apps now respond to different gestures and functionalities present in iOS 7. Apps like Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Instagram and even OLX have already been updated to make use of the new gestures. A few apps like Tweetbot and WhatsApp are yet to be updated to make use of the full gestures and functionality of iOS 7.
Notification center. Notification center has been changed. It now has three different sections: Today, All and Missed. But one feature I have grown fond of in IOS 6—drop down notification to tweet—has been yanked off in iOS 7. In its place there’s now the Today, All and Missed options.
Today. Tells the date, give a snapshot of the weather, and shows you if you have any event registered to your calendar. If you scroll down, you can have a snapshot of stocks, which has been powered by Yahoo Stocks for a while now.
All. Displays all the notifications that you have. You can close the notifications in groups by hitting the “X” mark and then hit the clear option. There’s still no option to swipe the notifications to clear then one after the other or to clear all of them at once.
Missed. Displays notifications that you have missed.
Dialer. The dialer looks different too. All the functions and features are still the same.
Safari. Safari has been redesigned completely on iOS 7. You can open several pages now. There was limit to the number of pages you could open on Safari. With the new Safari, the browser disappears from your view and allows you to communicate wit the content you are viewing. The clean view while reading is still present but even more beautifully implemented. This is the feature that clears ads and give you a clutter free reading experience. It is now new as it is available on iOS 6 too.
Multitasking. App Switching and Killing of Apps. Double clicking on the home button shows apps that’s currently running with iOS 5 and iOS 6. The tradition is continued on iOS 7. Apple took it a step further by allowing you to see a fuller view of the app and not just the icons. Unlike previously, where you kill the apps by taping on them twice, you can kill the apps now by swiping them up. This reminds me of how it is done in Palms WebOS that was bought by HP. Apple stole this feature, aha!
The Music app. It has been redesigned and it also has iTunes Radio that ships with it. iTunes Radio is available on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with iOS 7 only. You can only access iTunes Radio if you live in one of the US, the only place where iTunes Radio is available for now. When I use my Nigerian iTunes Store account, I was not given the ITunes Radio option. But immediately I switched to my US, iTunes Account, I was able to use iTunes Radio. If you have a US iTunes account, you can enjoy iTunes radio, provided you updated your OS to iOS 7.
Spotlight Search. The Spotlight Search function allows you to search every part of your iOS device by simply sliding down from the center of your device when you are in the home screen. You can search Applications, Contacts, Music, Podcasts, Videos, Audiobooks, Notes, Events, Events, Mail, Voice Memos, Reminders, and Messages. You could decide to limit what is searched by going to General > Spotlight Searchand uncheck the one you want to remove from the list.
It is a nifty feature. On iOS 6 and previous version of iOS, you will have to get to the home screen, get to the first page of your apps and then take a step back by sliding the screen to the right. Spotlight Search feature can be turned on or turned off at will.
Control Centre. Before iOS 7, some core settings in iOS were buried deep within Settings in the phone. That has changed now. A swipe from the bottom of the phone reveals some quick settings like Airplane Mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, Lock Orientation, Do Not Disturb, Display Brightness, Play/pause, forward/back option of the player, AirDrop, Torch, Timer and Calculator and Camera.
One interesting this is you can access Control Centre from Home Screen, within apps and from locks screen. You could however choose to adjust this in settings. I have found that I use the Torch and Calculator feature a lot since iOS 7. Before now, I had to go deep into an app folder were I lumped the calculator. Also, I never knew there was a torch attached to my iPhone and I never used an app to enable it. With ease I can access and enable it now through the quick settings option.
Photo app and Camera. The photos app now allows you to view pictures in different ways. The options for viewing photos were initially limited on iOS 6. Now you can view in terms of Years, Collections and Moments. I enjoy saving some special pictures to Flickr and sharing them with some selected social services. To get the Flickr app for my iPhone, I had to go hunt for Flickr for iPhone from the US iTunes Store as it is not available in the Nigerian Store. Well, good news is, Sharing photos shot on iOS 7 to Flickr is available by default now. You can also share to Messages, mail, iCloud, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Formerly, iCloud and Flickr was missing.
With the Camera app, you can use picture filters even before you shoot with a simple swipe. This is also new.
Should You Update to iOS 7?
One thing is sure, if you update to iOS 7, you are going to experience a depletion of your battery faster. There are some new features that have been added to iOS 7 that are not resource efficient. Also, some of these features are activated by default so that you can see and experience them fully out of the box on iOS 7. These features includes, background app refresh, Notification by each apps, Brightness, Location Services and Spotlight Search. The good news is you can toggle these features on/off in Settings. This should not stop you from updating to iOS 7. Your iOS device battery will be supper efficient if you can turn some of these features off.
The new look if iOS 7 requires that developers update their apps so that they can make proper use of the new flat design and gestures and enable you enjoy how eye candy iOS 7 is. As I have stated above, some developers have updated their apps, while some have are not quick to do that.
It is also possible that some of your financial service apps may not yet be made compatible with iOS 7. You’ll do well to check with your financial service provider before you update so that you do not break the apps.
You may be thinking that the iPhone 5s and 5c have made your iPhone 5 old. Well, once you update to iOS 7, your iPhone 5 and even iPhone 4 and 4s will get a refresh and a new look UI-wise. It feels as if you are having a new phone. This may be a good enough reason for you to want to Update.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it is up to you to update or not. The number of uptake of iOS 7 is faster and much more than the number of people that updated to iOS 6 from iOS 5. If you have switched, which of the features are you enjoying the most? I’ll like to hear from you. Are you having any difficulty with it? Let me know in the comments.
