iOS 7
The entire look and feel has seen an overhaul, with flatter icons, less skeuomorphism and thinner typefaces. That said, anybody who has used iOS will probably feel at home: Apple hasn't changed the home screen much, and the basic gestures and interactions are mostly the same.
How did you feel about green felt, wooden bookshelves and stitched leather? They're all gone in iOS 7. In their place is a cleaner design that's largely about simple lines and icons. While iOS 7 has some elements that are reminiscent of Microsoft's Windows Phone design, it has its own distinct style. These aren't just subtle enhancements, either - they permeate every bit of the interface.
iOS 7 also takes design cues from your content, tinting the controls and panels with colours from the photos behind them. Apple's Jony Ive spoke at WWDC about layering the interface, with panels such as Notification Center and Control Center visually residing on top of apps and the home screen.
Launching and using apps is more or less the same, but you have a few new things to learn. For instance, you'll be able to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to summon Control Center (a panel for commonly used system features). A new swipe-from-the-left-edge gesture sends you to the previous screen.
However, as Apple's Craig Federighi described it at the unveiling, the feeling is a bit like getting a new phone that you already know how to use.
iOS Support
You'll need an iPhone 4 or later, an iPad 2 or later, an iPad mini or a fifth-generation iPod touch. (Or, of course, whatever new mobile hardware Apple may release between now and iOS 7's official launch.)
Specific features have more stringent device requirements:
- Panoramic photos are available only on the iPhone 4S or later and the fifth-gen iPod touch.
- You can't shoot square stills or video on the iPad 2.
- For the new live camera filters, you'll need an iPhone 5 or a fifth-gen iPod touch.
Adding filters in the Photos app is an option for the iPhone 4 or later, the third-generation iPad or later, the iPad mini and the fifth-gen iPod touch. - To AirDrop a file to friends, you need an iPhone 5 or later, a fourth-generation iPad or later, an iPad mini or a fifth-gen iPod touch. You also need an iCloud account.
- Siri remains limited to the iPhone 4S or later, the third-gen iPad or later, the iPad mini and the fifth-gen iPod touch. It also may not be available for your country. And if you desire a new Siri voice, keep in mind that initially it will be available only in English, French and German.
The System
Although you still summon Notification Center by swiping down from the top of the screen, it has a new translucent appearance and it offers different information. In addition to storing your notifications it has a tab on which you can view only your missed notifications, as well as a new Today view.
The latter feature acts much like Google Now, giving you a daily overview that includes the weather, calendar appointments, stock quotes and a paragraph about what's in store tomorrow.
Multitasking in iOS 7
You can still switch apps by double-pressing the Home button, but the switching interface has changed: it now resembles the old interface for switching pages in Safari on iOS 6 and earlier, in which you see a thumbnail of the page. A row of app icons appears below, and you can swipe back and forth to find the app you need.
Force-quitting apps is a bit different - rather than tapping and holding the icon, you flick up a thumbnail to dismiss it.
More significant differences are found behind the scenes. Starting in iOS 4, only certain tasks could run in the background. iOS 7 finally brings full multitasking, so any app can run in the background and provide you with up-tothe-minute information.
Battery Life
Apple has spent a lot of time making sure battery life won't suffer from the new multitasking. The feature tries to collect updates from different apps and run them all at the same time, and keeps an eye on both power efficiency and the current network situation to ensure that the activity doesn't run down your battery.
Others
If you've ever grumbled while navigating three levels deep into Settings to turn off Bluetooth, you'll love Control Center. This new panel, which you can summon anywhere in iOS by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, gives you easy access to common settings, including Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Orientation Lock, Brightness, AirDrop and AirPlay.
You'll also find mediaplayback controls, and icons for frequently used apps and utilities: you can turn on the camera flash to use it as a torch, or open the Clock, Calculator or Camera apps.
Photo fun iOS 7's Camera app comes with a set of filters
The Apps
The significantly overhauled Camera app offers four modes: standard, square, panorama, and video camera. You can swipe back and forth between them. If you think the square camera might be Apple's way of taking a shot at Instagram, you're spot-on.
The app also now includes live photo filters that you can apply to your still or square shots. These filters are non-destructive, in case you want to remove them later.
Made for those people who end up with thousands of pictures in their Camera Rolls, Moments and Collections offer a better way to organise photos. Just as iPhoto on the Mac can sort pictures into events, Photos on iOS can use metadata such as time and location to create different Moments - all the pictures you took on a weekend trip to the country, for example.
Collections are larger groupings of Moments, often all the photos you took in a general area (say, around your house) over several months. You can zoom out further to a Years view.
AirDrop
AirDrop in iOS 7 lets you exchange files such as photos, Passbook passes and contacts between two iOS devices over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This requires no configuration and, as Federighi pointed out, no "bumping" phones.
AirDrop appears in the Share sheet, along with conventional items such as Mail and Messages; you can even use it to simultaneously share multiple items with multiple people.
Files end up in the appropriate app, and are encrypted in transit. You can change the permissions to determine whether everybody can share with you, or only certain people nearby (or people in your contacts).
What we don't know is whether iDevices will be able to AirDrop files with Macs.
Safari
Apple's web browser has some new tricks up its sleeve. The search and URL fields have merged into one that now suggests URLs, bookmarks and search results as you type. In addition, your favourites are readily available from that screen, giving you one-touch access to bookmarked sites. Plus Safari's minimalist interface vanishes into the background as you scroll down the page, giving you even more space in which to view content.