New apple software released: IOS 7

After countless months of waiting, Apples newest software, IOS 7, finally came out yesterday (September 18^th, 2013) at 12:00 PM.  IOS 7 has been completely redesigned to look similar to the android device and makes most applications have a white colored background.  This new software also includes many new features that were not previously available on the IPhone.

One completely new feature is the control center, which makes it much easier to access certain controls now such as airplane mode, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.  Another feature the control center gives you is the ability to toggle your brightness without unlocking your phone.  Also, music is shown here and it allows you to skip forward or backward a song and control your volume.  Lastly, there are icons that allow fast access to the flashlight, compass, calculator, and camera.  Although this new feature may come in handy for most, I have found that it is difficult to pull up from the home screen, along with other screens, and it takes several attempts to pull up.

 

Another feature that has been added is the ‘3D’, or three dimensional, effect to the home screen.  This new feature allows you to tilt your phone in any direction and the background will move along with it to make the applications have a 3D effect.  Doing this just makes your phone look futuristic and gives it a completely new style.  Another feature that has been added with the new software is the zooming in and out affect when opening applications. Before IOS 7, applications would just appear open, but this software gives it a completely new look.  The affect makes it look like you zooming in and actually going into the application while it’s being opened.  Also, while exiting an application, the device does the same thing but zooms out of the application back to the home screen. Again, these new features really do nothing to the phone but give it a new look.

One other change that had been made in the new IOS 7 update is the newly designed weather application.  This newly designed application allows you to do several things and looks less complicated than the previous weather application did.  The application allows you to scroll through the hourly weather. Also, the daily weather for the whole next week is shown, giving us the daily highs and lows.  On the top of the screen it displays the city that you are currently in, the percent of humidity, and two completely new add-ons which shows the wind speed and what it feels like outside currently.  Lastly, the background of the weather application shows what it looks like outside whether if it is raining, snowing, or sunny outside. I personally really like this new feature because you can on up the app and look at the background and it will look almost exactly like how it does outside which can come in really handy when you’re in a hurry.

The new internet application is almost completely different with several new features and looks.  First, the way you scroll through web pages you have open is now vertical, instead of horizontally like before.  Also, there is a tab that you can press and it will show you all the other web pages all of your other devices have opened.  I believe this feature will come in helpful for several other people along with myself.  If I have a page that I am looking at on my mom’s Ipad for something like a project and want on my phone, I can easily access it without having to copy the link which is really neat in my opinion and saves a lot of time.  Additionally, there is a new button which you can press and it allows you to send the page you are currently on to other people through text, email, twitter, and Facebook.  Also, you can bookmark the page, add to a reading list, add as an application in the home screen for easy access, copy, and a new feature which allows you to print to a selected printer.  In my opinion, the ability to print out the page that you are on is satisfying because you can get a hard copy on paper so you can highlight key parts if needed.

Another feature that is also completely new is the Itunes radio in the music application.  The Itunes radio is just like Pandora built into the music application.  This new feature allows you to add stations for the different types of music genres and artists, then it will play random songs that fall into those categories.  Like Pandora, Itunes radio gives you commercials and a limited amount of song skips.  However, you can purchase Itunes match for $25 a year, which will give you unlimited song skips and no commercials.  I think this new feature won’t be as popular as it probably was expected to be because it just like Pandora which is already a really popular application for all apple devices.

The Facetime application has been redone with a few new features.  First, Facetime uses your front camera the whole time you have Facetime open, faintly shows the image in the background while you are not Facetiming with someone which is completely new.  Another feature Facetime has is the new audio call.  This feature is just like calling someone but it uses your internet connection instead of your calling minutes, or is just like facetiming but without the video.  I don’t think this will be that popular because if you needed to talk to someone you could just call them instead.  Also facetime usually has connection issues depending where you are, which also is another reason why people would want to call instead.

Another application that has been completely redone is reminders.  This has a tab for scheduled events, groceries, things to do, and things to buy.  When you get into each tab it allows you to edit items on your lists to delete them once you have gotten or done them and also add items to your lists.  Also, it allows you to add when, where, and a more button for each item which you can also edit.  This application wasn’t used much by most people I have talked to, including myself, because it was kind of confusing, but now I believe this will be used much more often and is a lot more convenient for people.

Lastly, the photo application has a complete new look to it.  Now, your photos are organized by location and time automatically.  Also, your photos can be organized by collections and moments, which is also done automatically.  Additionally, photos can be organized by the year they were taken.  These new features allow you to organize your photos more specifically, which can be helpful if you are on a vacation and want to look at all of your photos from that vacation or something like that.  I personally think this new feature is confusing because the photos under “moments” aren’t necessarily all in the same moments and can be from different events or places.  Also, the photos application allows you to access all photos on your other devices through Icloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuWOXLncQdA

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ios-review-apples-big-change-means-worthwhile-upgrade/story?id=20290551

(d, JOANNA STERN) Joanna Stern More from Joanna : Apple's Big Change Means A Worthwhile Upgrade For You." ABC News. ABC News Network, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.