Apple, at their annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) last night, gave the world its first official look at iOS 7, the updated mobile operating system due to roll out later this year. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that iOS 7 is the biggest change to Apple’s mobile platform since the introduction of the iPhone, looking at what will be different this time around, it’s not hard to see why he’d claim such a thing.
The redesign is immediately obvious; everything has been tweaked and, in some cases, redone completely. Icons have changed, standard apps have gone under the knife, a new colour palette is making an appearance and Apple has also added a long-awaited new control panel that can be swiped up from the bottom of the phone.
The new control panel, called Control Center, lets users jump immediately to the most-used functions on the iPhone. Everything from setting Airplane Mode to navigating music, selecting connectivity options and adjusting common phone settings is just an upward swipe away.
All of the stock iOS apps have got new gesture-based navigation coming and folders have had their app limit lifted to support hundreds of apps. The Notification Center has been expanded as well, allowing users to set how many notifications are displayed and also permitting viewing of notifications from the lock screen. The Safari browser for iOS has been tweaked, being one of the apps that will utilise gesture-based navigation, and includes support for iCloud Keychain, a new feature that synchronises passwords and credit card information across Apple devices.
Another new feature in iOS 7 is AirDrop, which works through the Control Center and allows users to share content with other nearby iOS users. Supported on the iPhone 5, iPad mini, fourth gen iPad and fifth gen iPod, The Verge compares this feature to Samsung’s group sharing feature or NFC sharing as see on most Xperia handsets.
Other changes include: iOS cameras will be getting a new user interface, along with some new filters. The Photos app is getting a Moments feature, which adds in a new crop of organisation options for images based on the time the image was taken as well as the location. Siri is getting new voice and language options, with English, French and German being available initially, and a smoothed-over interface. Siri will also be able to control certain phone settings like Bluetooth and screen brightness. Apple’s iOS App Store will be able to recommend apps based on the user’s location and apps will also automatically update. Lastly, 2014 will see improved iOS support in some car models and iTunes is getting a new Radio feature.
Source: The Verge
