iOS 7

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I updated my iPad to iOS 7 last night and it works fine. Took a few hours, probably because Apple's servers are backed up with all the people upgrading. While iOS 7 works well even on my iPad 2 (the earliest generation that will
work with iOS 7), I'm not impressed. Frankly, it's kind of boring. The app icons are kind of plain, there's too much white on every browser page and the font and control icons are not nearly as bold and easily viewable as before. What's more, some functions have been moved around to no apparent advantage. I don't mind change but not for its own sake. This has the look of a product that was brought out just for the sake of change because most of the youngsters in the target market were getting bored. I haven't updated my iPhone 4s yet. I probably will since I now have it on the iPad and there are a few functional advantages (which no doubt could have been rolled out without a new OS). But that's just me. Anyone else have some thoughts to offer?
 
This morning my iPhone 4S notified me that an update is available, but I think I'll let a few eager beavers uncover all the bugs before I do anything hasty. One guy this morning mentioned that his 4S was running really hot after the update - that's exactly the sort of problem I want to avoid.

My phone is working quite nicely and I can manage without a spirit level and a torch for now, so this time I think I'll be the second mouse that gets the cheese ...

-R
 
I like it a lot. Running on an iPad 3 and an iPhone 4, though I just bought a 5S. I don't know if it was change for chage's sake, but I do like something new, so I'm OK with that. I do like the cleaner design, and they really had to get away from their skumorphic approach (making everything have paper and leather textures to simulate old-timey things), because there is NO where to go with that. Once your note pad looks like yellow legal paper, what's next? College ruled white? They were boxed into a corner with their last look and feel.

I was looking at an Android phone, though, and they looked pretty sweet, too, but I'm not ready to leave the apple universe just yet, as I have some content that's locked into Apple, and it all just works (no need to configure stuff). Plus, I hate Google, lol.

Still, I'm pretty pleased.

In terms of performance, the machine screams. And the finger print unlock is pretty nice.

edit: one trick, especially on older devices. Go to settings>general>accessibility and turn "increase contrast" and "reduce motion." The former gets rid of the translucency, which I've never liked. If I'm looking at something, I don't want translucent backgrounds. It also gets rid of the parallax/3D effect on the icons on the homescreen, which is a fun parlor trick, but demands CPU cycles and battery power for no good reason.

another edit: spotlight moved. It's no longer to the left of your homescreen. Instead, swipe down from the middle of the homescreen. That's not intuitive, but it's no big deal to learn.
 
Yeah it's a bit bright ! Also not liking the skinny font. I'll get used to it though.
You think the ipad is a bit white ! wait till you see it on your phone . Best get your shades on
 
Yeah it's a bit bright ! Also not liking the skinny font. I'll get used to it though.
You think the ipad is a bit white ! wait till you see it on your phone . Best get your shades on

I've seen this comment in many places, but I'm not having this experience. What about turning down your brightness??
 
I've seen this comment in many places, but I'm not having this experience. What about turning down your brightness??

No, that's not it. It's just too much white space on the page - at least for me - not the brightness level. BTW, if you're thinking about another type of phone, check out something like the Nokia (soon to be Windows) Lumia 1020. Not only does it have a great camera on board, but the Windows mobile OS is really quite nice. It think it's a lot nicer than Android. My wife has it on her phone and if I didn't already have an iPhone, it probably would have been my choice.

My final thoughts on iOS7 will be a quote from user mcdj on the Mac Rumors forum:

"iOS before 7 was the epitome of great design. Great design is design you barely notice. It stays out of your way. iOS7 requires considerable thought in many places. It requires squinting. It requires forgetting old habits from prior versions and relearning. iOS7 feels completely off message. Some love the new message, some hate it, but it's an undeniably new animal, and as with anything radically new, there will be haters. Some haters will get used to the new beast, but some may very well may drop iOS and Apple altogether, since many people's entire relationship with Apple is based solely on iOS devices... Where iOS inspired near universal love before 7, iOS7 elicits `cool'. It is cool in many ways. But it's a detached cool, bordering on cold and lifeless. For some, this is a minty fresh breath of air. For others, it's alienating and will mean a migration away from iOS."
 
People forget that this is the way Apple has operated since Jobs was in charge. Ports change. OSes change. Features drop and get picked up. Whole product lines disappear. Remember them never pickin up Blu-Ray because they said video would go on line? Remember FireWire when the whole world was USB? Remember Balmer laughing at the iPhone -- no keyboard!

Apple has been pretty stable the last few years since Job's died, but people forget that Apple has always been an R&D house that happens to sell things. It's EXACTLY why it's been dangerous to run a business using Apple products. To me, this is par for the course, and one reason I preferred Apple over Windows. I like to see if they can push the envelope. It's also why I love Windows 8, btw, when many others hate it. Pushing the enveloped. I think it's a great design, and would absolutely consider a Win 8 machine if: 1) Windows signaled some kind of commitment to moving forward (they are already backpedaling) and 2) the app universe on Win 8 is limited.

I'm excited to see Apple returning to form.
 
I do not like it on my iPads. Its a UI thats way too sparse for a large screen, so I've downgraded again. On the phone though, here's some tips.

Fonts: Way too thin. Go into Accessibility in Settings, and choose to use bold fonts. You can also increase contrast which helps in some ways, I switched that off again.

Parallax: eats battery. Go into Accessibility again, and choose reduce motion. You still get that stupid flopsy thing that iMessage does, but at least parallax is gone.

Battery issues: Choose to terminate all applications after use, unless you really need something in the background.

I'm using it on a 4S but am considering a downgrade this morning as there are a couple of apps which are crashing or have slowed down to something unusable (in my case, reading apps) and I just dont like it.

I also dont like the borderless design of the icons and sliders. Call me oldfashioned, I think the UI sucks. I've not liked it from the first beta, though there have been some minor improvements since then. If you think these fonts are thin, you didnt see the earlier versions. EWWWW.

(FWIW wt21, I also hated Windows8. Its like the ME and Vista of the Windows range. The next version will be an improvement. My virtual machine will continue running Windows 7 for the forseeable future)
 
I do not like it on my iPads. Its a UI thats way too sparse for a large screen, so I've downgraded again. On the phone though, here's some tips.

Fonts: Way too thin. Go into Accessibility in Settings, and choose to use bold fonts. You can also increase contrast which helps in some ways, I switched that off again.

Parallax: eats battery. Go into Accessibility again, and choose reduce motion. You still get that stupid flopsy thing that iMessage does, but at least parallax is gone.

Battery issues: Choose to terminate all applications after use, unless you really need something in the background.

I'm using it on a 4S but am considering a downgrade this morning as there are a couple of apps which are crashing or have slowed down to something unusable (in my case, reading apps) and I just dont like it.

I also dont like the borderless design of the icons and sliders. Call me oldfashioned, I think the UI sucks. I've not liked it from the first beta, though there have been some minor improvements since then. If you think these fonts are thin, you didnt see the earlier versions. EWWWW.

(FWIW wt21, I also hated Windows8. Its like the ME and Vista of the Windows range. The next version will be an improvement. My virtual machine will continue running Windows 7 for the forseeable future)

Sue, are you using the official public release or a test version? I didn't know you could downgrade after upgrading with the consumer verison.
 
Remember them never pickin up Blu-Ray because they said video would go on line?

Actually, in 2008 Jobs himself said that the issue was licensing, and they were waiting for Blu-ray to become everyday convenience technology. Blu-ray drives in computers were fraught with disc compatibility issues, and also Blu-ray=HDMI at a time when Apple was pushing Display Port. It was less about Apple being visionary and more about them simply not wanting to do it. Similar with Windows, actually.
 
But everyone screamed and kicked, and it turned out Apple was right anyway. If there was no alternative, they would have worked it out. But there was.
 
Actually, in 2008 Jobs himself said that the issue was licensing, and they were waiting for Blu-ray to become everyday convenience technology. Blu-ray drives in computers were fraught with disc compatibility issues, and also Blu-ray=HDMI at a time when Apple was pushing Display Port. It was less about Apple being visionary and more about them simply not wanting to do it. Similar with Windows, actually.

He didn't say that — he said that Blu-ray's DRM was "a bag of hurt" (which is true) and that they didn't want to contaminate their operating system with it. I think it was a wise move anyway because Blu-ray still isn't a widespread standard.
 
I actually remember Apple saying a number of different things bout Blu-Ray. Bag of Hurt is the most famous, but he talked about licensing, etc. At the end of the day, external media was a threat to Apple's developing ecosystem of purchased, on-line content. I'm sure it all played a part, but Blu-Ray was a Sony initiative designed to lock you into Sony products (or Sony licensed products). Apple wanted an on-line Ecosystem that locks you into their hardware. It's just that bandwidth was not wide enough yet at that time, so people complained. Very few complaints anymore about lacking BluRay.

Edit: here's a link with bag of hurt and licensing issues comments Apple's Steve Jobs calls Blu-ray "a bag of hurt" | Engadget
 
But everyone screamed and kicked, and it turned out Apple was right anyway. If there was no alternative, they would have worked it out. But there was.

Well, I wouldn't say Apple was right. Their "solution" was to simply ignore the users and dictate to the Apple ecosystem. Streaming movies still do not match the quality of BR. And certainly the Mac demographic is one that would be more likely to have early-adopted BR technology, compared with the $399 PC from Walmart crowd. But the last couple of years most midrange PC's offered decent BR playback, so Apple took a back seat there. Funnily enough, though, BR playback has become less of an issue because of low-quality streaming to smartphones and tablets, which seems to satisfy most people.

Of course there was much kicking and screaming simply on principle, and (as always) that subsided except for the folks who really wanted BR capability on the Mac. And, again of course, they somewhat tech-savvy users were able to do so via 3rd party solutions.

With 4k video around the corner, online delivery will really be an issue in the USA, which has worse average Internet service than many other countries.

Anyway, sorry this is :eek:fftopic:, I just wanted to set the record straight. (y)
 
Maybe I'll hold off on upgrading my iPhone 5 to the new iOS.

I'd do it if it improved connectivity and actually started showing the REAL connection status. My iPhone 5 often shows me full or near full strength connection. Then I can't get on a site. After I refresh the phone by placing it in and out of airplane mode, it finally shows me that I have a bad connection. Boohoo.
 
The original Mac 512e was my first apple way back in college. I have been in the apple camp every since. So naturally I updated Ipad3 and Iphone5 to iOS7 friday. So far I couldn't be happier. I like the the cleaner look and the new UI. Really like the way you flick apps up to close them down now. IMHO the photo app is much improved too.
 
I guess I'm in the minority, but I like everything about this OS. I'm not a fanboy for Apple either. I totally love the graphical treatment and UI. Some of the little things I love are swiping up to get to basic settings, swiping left on an email to delete it without fully opening it, multitasking and application switching, quick access to spotlight by swiping down, new notification system, and on and on. For me the flat simple graphics are completely refreshing and less busy. There are other things, but I just wanted to chime in with a different viewpoint from most of the posters in this thread.
 
When I first tried iOS 7 I thought it looked garish... However, after going back to iOS 6 I realized it felt ancient. Moving from iOS 6 to iOS 7 feels like moving from an old tiny apartment full of dark wood and heavy curtains to a vast, clean, modern space with huge windows and white walls.
 
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