Apple announced iOS 7 earlier this year, June to be exact, and revealed everything that they are planning on providing their fans. Many people called it a step to make it look closer to Android and undoubtedly the new features that Apple has introduced in iOS 7 has probably proved all those claims to some extent. Apple CEO Tim Cook even described it as “the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of iPhone” and rightly so. The new features will provide a whole new experience and much needed freedom to its users and I am sure they will welcome it openheartedly since all new features are user friendly. Though, you will observe as I will go down to describe the features of the new mobile platform from Apple is that the new mobile operating system lacks innovation as most of the features are already present in Google’s Android OS. But that also goes on to show that Apple have finally put an ear to all those complains and requests that iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users used to make. I personally believe that this was an idea back from the mind of Tim Cook since he is a marketer and not an innovator like the veteran Steve Jobs, no disrespect to Tim, and will always think from a business perspective and rightly so because that’s what he is good at. Anyway, without any more discussions, lets move on to the features that Apple has added in its new iOS 7:
Features:
Expanded App folders: Well with this expanded folder, users will now have a freedom to add hundreds of apps in any folder you wish to add unlike iOS 6 where there were only a limited number of apps that can be moved in the folder.
Notification Center: This is perhaps the most missing feature in a mobile operating system that has finally been filled by Apple as they go on introduce a notification center in their new mobile operating system. Whenever we will talk about the significant features ofiOS 7, I will always rate Notification Center as one of the most sought features because now you can access almost everything without even needing to unlock your phone. Cool, isn’t it?
Control Center: Now this is one feature that I won’t call completely a new one as all the jailbreak iPhone have this feature that allows the users to actually toggle on or off the basic utilities like WI-Fi, Bluetooth, Air Plane mode without opening the settings. However, now these features are made official by Apple and named as Control Center from where you can toggle on or off the utilities on your iOS 7 powered Apple devices. Though the feel of the notification center is somewhat similar to Android, the only difference is that on Android you toggle the notification bar from upside down while in iOS 7 you will be pulling the control center from down the screen.
Multitasking: Well iOS have never been known for its multi tasking features as seems like the developers at Apple never considered it a need. And I simply can’t understand what’s the point of having a smartphone when you simply can’t do two or more things at once. Well, seems as if somebody have talked sense into them this time and Apple finally have decided to add multi-tasking for almost every app. Above all, the best thing about is its operational quality as it won’t drain much of the battery life as people were expecting. So, in theory this app will get full marks from my side but it’s really hard to believe that it won’t consume much power when apps will be running in the background especially when the iPhone is not very famous for its battery life and mind you, they don’t have this multi-tasking feature now. Well only time will tell if it is really good as it was described in theory.
Another new feature of multi-tasking, I would call that a sub feature of multitasking, is that will read out your patterns for updating the apps and it will automatically update the apps as soon as it gets a powerful Wi-Fi connection.
Siri: Siri is also refreshed and might come as a surprise to all of you as the default search engine for Siri is now changed. Yes, that’s right Google will no longer be helping Siri. Apple has surprisingly opted for Bing in iOS 7 to help Siri making searches on the web. But that’s not it; Siri now also features a new UI, voice, faster search results, Twitter integration and Wikipedia.
Automobile Friendly: Well we have previously seen what Eyes Free can do that is already being installed in a large number of automobiles. Well Apple is expanding it in iOS7 with Siri doing the rest. As users will now be able reply to the read aloud text messages via Eyes Free and not just that, they will also be able to choose between different menus without even needing to take their eyes off the road for even a single second.
Camera App & Gallery: The camera app has relatively improved making the whole experience a lot better even the navigation through photos has also been improved in iOS7. Users who love editing their photos will no longer need a third party app to do so as the default app has the ability to do that as well.
AirDrop: AirDrop was previously available to Mac users only and has been quite a success and is now going to feature in iOS 7 too. AirDrop is an Apple’s own way of sharing files between the Apple devices.
iMessage & FaceTime Blocking: Well now spasm can be blocked instead of avoiding them as Apple has introduced iMessage and FaceTime blocking feature through which users can block unwanted FaceTime calls and Messages.
Safari Browser: Safari also gets a much needed makeover with a new UI, much faster browsing experience and 3D flip style tabs making it easier to switch tabs.
Wi-Fi Calling: To complete the set of new features, FaceTime calling over Wi-Fi has also been added. Though you will have other third party apps like Skype and Viber to do so but the need of a default FaceTime over Wi-Fi was a much needed improvement that Apple users were expecting.
Weather App: The Weather App also got tweaked and looks more seriously like the newly updated Yahoo weather app.
Mail: The mail app has also been improved, thanks to Apple for considering the need of some tweaks in this part of the OS as well.
Anti-Theft Features: Well especially in a city like Karachi, this new feature will definitely come in handy where snatching rate is pretty high and feels as if this was added specially for the users of our city. However, even making the most of it will require some help and assistance from security agencies to locate your phone but it’s still better than nothing, isn’t it? The new feature is named as Activation Lock as I accidentally took that name about a minute ago. Though it’s nothing like Find my phone. Find my phone is good too but what if the one who has stolen your phone chooses to turn it off? Well ‘Find my Phone’ will be of no use then, will it? However when it comes to Activation Lock, it won’t allow the snatcher to turn it off and will ask for Apple id and upon not getting the right information the phone will be permanently locked.
I am sure after reading the new features you will be as excited as I am to experience the new iOS from Apple. Though the new mobile operating system doesn’t support all the Apple devices so in order to enjoy the new flavor of iOS you might have to look at its compatibility as well.
Compatibility: Apple iOS 7 will be compatible with iPhone 4, 4S and 5, iPad 2, 3, 4: iPad mini and iPod Touch fifth-Gen. So if you can’t find your device in that list then you better start thinking about upgrading your hardware before actually being able to enjoy the newest mobile operating system from Apple.
Release Date: Now it’s a matter of days, as the iOS 7 will start rolling out to the above mentioned list of devices from September 18th. So obviously it’s not so long when you will be able to experience all the features of the new and exciting iOS 7 that we have discussed.
Hope this exclusive review helped you get to know better what is coming your way. If you find it worth reading, don’t forget to share and like it. Keep reading folks, there’s more coming from my fellow bloggers!
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