I caved to the peer pressure and installed the iOS 7 Beta not only on my iPhone 5, but my 3rd-Gen iPad as well. I decided to shoot a quick video of the before and after just to give you an idea of the difference between OS 6 and 7.
First, let me say that this is not an in-depth video walk-through. This is an early beta version of the upcoming OS for Apple mobile devices and things could change, so I didn’t want to show you features that may not be there come this fall when the production version is released.
Additionally, the beta version has its quirks. Scratch that, the iPad version is pretty buggy. The iPhone version more stable, but even it has some weird stuff going on. Since this is a beta release and buggy betas come with the territory, there is no need for me to trash something that will never come to market.
Design
Having said that, I will briefly focus on some things that will not change when iOS 7 is official. Based on using it for iPhone and iPad for the past couple of days, I will say that it is attractive – Like a Sistah walking down the street with a mean strut kind of attractive. You quickly glance, thinking that’s all the visual stimulation you will need. Shortly after, you catch yourself looking again, but longer this time. Before you know it, you’re breaking your neck to examine every detail.
iOS definitely needed some visual appeal to get out of that “natural textures” funk it was in for the past couple of years. Apple definitely delivered with iOS 7. It is colorful and definitely draws your eye in. You can tell that Apple redesigned nearly every inch of the platform: From the settings to the notifications, to the app icons, to the homescreen and background; Apple made sure it was all refreshed.
Functionality
I will admit that I was expecting more from iOS 7 in the functionality department. Outside of a control panel screen that gives you quick access to frequently used settings, WebOS-like multitasking control, and some extra gestures throughout the platform, nothing really jumps out at you that makes the OS more physically usable over its predecessor.
Additionally, I would have liked to see more personalization options. I kinda dig all the “widgets” capabilities found on Android. Apple had no problem “borrowing” other aspects from other platforms…which is cool, I think all platforms could learn a thing or two from each other. I would have loved it if Apple came up with its own screen personalization feature similar to widgets, that gives the user the ability to add their own aspects to the home screen versus just a bunch of pretty app icons.
That is my uber-early impression of iOS 7. We will just have to see what elements Apple adds, enhances, or nixes, when it’s released in the fall.
What do you think of iOS 7 – Will a radical design improvement be enough to keep fans happy and fend off other mobile platforms Android?