Has Apple finally given iOS the
makeover it needs? I M. who is a professional IT analyst checks it out.
At the end of June, operating system,
Apple’s iOS mobile responsible for powering the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and iPod
Touch, will turn seven years old. In that seven years the devices it runs on
have changed, evolved and broke new ground. However, the iOS user interface
itself has looked and operated in much the same way as when it was first
released on 29th June 2007. Take a look to compare: most icons look much the
same, save some shine added, the unlocking, the task switching, the layout, all
the same as day one. In the same time period we have seen iOS's chief rival
Android go from ugly Fisher-Price like duckling to svelte, minimal swan and
Windows Phone usher in an ultramodern smart phone experience. By comparison,
iOS is looking in need of a refresh.
iPhone
6 Features
Two important factors have now made this a
reality the death of Steve Jobs and the taking over of the UI design from Scott
for stall by Apple industrial design guru Sir Jonathan Ive. With the champions
of skeuomorphism (apps that resemble their real-life counterparts, such as
Notes resembling a lined notepad) no longer present and minimalist Dieter Rams
admirer Ive in the driving seat, it seemed that iOS could finally step into the
2010s.
And so it was, around its seventh birthday,
iOS 7 was finally revealed at Apple’s early Worldwide Developers Conference.
Gone are shiny app icons, gone are skeuomorphic buttons and items, gone is the
regular Helvetica font. gone even is the iconic ‘slide to unlock’ tab. Make no
mistake, iOS 7 isn’t just the new iOS, it is the new iOS, with the UI
undergoing its biggest ever overhaul.
iOS
7 isn’t just the new iOS, it is the new iOS, with the UI undergoing its biggest
ever overhaul.
The new iOS is a much flatter, slimmer,
minimalist affair with an emphasis on layering the different elements of the UI
to create a sense of working together. The basic iOS layout of 4 x 5/6 icons
remains, but these icons are much more flat and simple without losing their
style. This way the fundamental operation of iOS remains the same. However,
other fundamentals have changed, such as multitasking becoming both real-time and
looking much the same as Windows Phone, with snapshots of the apps instead of
just the icons. Getting at the settings also becomes a great deal easier, with
a slide-up control panel taking care of switching things off and on as well as
audio control and airdrop sharing.
The notifications center has become more
intuitive, with a greater integration of other apps such as the calendar
actually showing up in the center itself when pertinent to your day’s
forthcoming events. The famous iOS keyboard has also changed a little, with the
background now a frosted transparency that Apple states is to keep you in touch
with the application you're using at the time. There are also upgrades to the
core apps like Camera, Mail, Videos, Weather and Music. In fact, Music gains
iTunes Radio, a Pandora-style tailored streaming radio. Siri also gains the
ability to execute commands, an invaluable step in making Siri the one-stop app
for hands-free operating.
iTunes
Radio
The biggest change though is the one that
may not be noticed at first: uniformity. Since the eschewing of the
skeuomorphic designs, Apple can finally make iOS have a ‘look’ that permeates
throughout the operating system, much like Google has done in Android since Ice
Cream Sandwich. Here it makes all the difference, as a new skinnier Helvetica
and a lighter, bolder color scheme finally, like The Dude's rug, ties the whole
OS together. It’ll still have its detractors and plenty of its ‘new’ design is
borrowed from other mobile operating systems, but finally iOS 7 has started to
change something that can only lead to it improving for the better.
Apple is saying iOS7 will launch in the
autumn, and common sense says it'll launch with the next iPhone around October.
In the meantime, check out the Yahoo Weather app for a sneak preview.
