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Apple announces iOS 7

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The more I look at some of the screen caps and think about the video, the more I hate the new look. The icons are still butt-ugly. But it's not just that. I got to thinking about why I disliked Windows 7. I thought the UI was gorgeous, but ultimately I realized that it just got in the way. I was more like "ooohh... pretty!" and paying less attention to doing anything. Eye candy for the sake of eye candy is counter-productive. In that same way, the way the wallpaper has "depth" and you can see under the icons as you tilt/rotate the phone.... whoopdie doo. There's no practical purpose for it. Eye candy for the sake of eye candy. Same thing for effects like the frosted glass where you see what's underneath the Control Center, for example. If you can't use it, why give hints that it's there? It's just distracting.

I read an article yesterday that Jony Ives brought in the marketing team to come up with a plan for the UI changes, then the design team had to work based off their decisions. That suddenly makes sense. Eye candy for the sake of eye candy. That just reeks of a marketing decision.
 

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I will happily admit that I emphatically argued that iOS needed a new facelift and, to Apple's credit, they took a cleaver to iOS and redesigned just about every facet of iOS from an aesthetic point of view. How well this translates into added functionality is a different question. I know that people such as Mark Shuttleworth have argued that "pretty" is a feature (source) but that connection isn't always present. Making iOS look good is one thing (I admit that I like the simplicity of it despite some extraneous eye-candy) but, as many have noted, this hasn't translated into much new functionality that truly innovates.

  • Control centre? Welcome to Android of a few years back.
  • New Notification Center? Still catching up to Android (seriously, how hard is it to let me remove notifications on a per notification basis?).
  • Multitasking? webOS had that very same design (almost completely so) back in 2009.
  • Filters on a camera? Great, my Nexus has had that functionality for ages now.
  • The new photos app? It's certainly new but that additions don't seem all that useful (zooming out to see microscopic versions of all pictures taken in a year is more of a bug than a feature).
  • AirDrop is genuinely useful and much more elegant that Android Beam assuming you have a WiFi connection.
  • Safari got nothing but a facelift.
  • iCloud Keychain however is awesome but that's not iOS specific.
  • iTunes Radio? Not an American nor do I stream music on the go so I'll reserve judgment (it does look elegantly designed though).
  • Siri no longer has a robotic voice? Neither does Google Now. That said, it looks like Siri in iOS 7 is going to jump ahead of Google Now in terms of it's personal assistance. But, as someone who refuses to speak to his phone, I don't really care (which is why I prefer Google Now's contextual card interface).
  • The Activation requirement built into Find my iPhone is genuinely awesome though. That really needs to be built into Android (come on Google, the only phone finding feature you have is for Google Apps users).
  • iOS in the car looks interesting but as someone who doesn't own a car, I'm indifferent about this one.
I know that I'm always critical of iOS and I'm well aware of the fact that I much prefer Android over iOS. That said, I'm willing to give iOS credit where credit is due. At this point though, all I see is a cosmetic makeover with few genuinely useful features that actually push iOS ahead (AirDrop) instead of simply pushing them in the same league (Control Centre).
 

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I will happily admit that I emphatically argued that iOS needed a new facelift and, to Apple's credit, they took a cleaver to iOS and redesigned just about every facet of iOS from an aesthetic point of view. How well this translates into added functionality is a different question. I know that people such as Mark Shuttleworth have argued that "pretty" is a feature (source) but that connection isn't always present. Making iOS look good is one thing (I admit that I like the simplicity of it despite some extraneous eye-candy) but, as many have noted, this hasn't translated into much new functionality that truly innovates.

  • Control centre? Welcome to Android of a few years back.
  • New Notification Center? Still catching up to Android (seriously, how hard is it to let me remove notifications on a per notification basis?).
  • Multitasking? webOS had that very same design (almost completely so) back in 2009.
  • Filters on a camera? Great, my Nexus has had that functionality for ages now.
  • The new photos app? It's certainly new but that additions don't seem all that useful (zooming out to see microscopic versions of all pictures taken in a year is more of a bug than a feature).
  • AirDrop is genuinely useful and much more elegant that Android Beam assuming you have a WiFi connection.
  • Safari got nothing but a facelift.
  • iCloud Keychain however is awesome but that's not iOS specific.
  • iTunes Radio? Not an American nor do I stream music on the go so I'll reserve judgment (it does look elegantly designed though).
  • Siri no longer has a robotic voice? Neither does Google Now. That said, it looks like Siri in iOS 7 is going to jump ahead of Google Now in terms of it's personal assistance. But, as someone who refuses to speak to his phone, I don't really care (which is why I prefer Google Now's contextual card interface).
  • The Activation requirement built into Find my iPhone is genuinely awesome though. That really needs to be built into Android (come on Google, the only phone finding feature you have is for Google Apps users).
  • iOS in the car looks interesting but as someone who doesn't own a car, I'm indifferent about this one.
I know that I'm always critical of iOS and I'm well aware of the fact that I much prefer Android over iOS. That said, I'm willing to give iOS credit where credit is due. At this point though, all I see is a cosmetic makeover with few genuinely useful features that actually push iOS ahead (AirDrop) instead of simply pushing them in the same league (Control Centre).

Was this the article you were referring to by chance?
 

vansmith

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No but I share some of the sentiments. Although I vehemently argued for a redesign, I've always felt that it needed to be accompanied by genuine additions to functionality. It would seem though that Apple overemphasized the iOS design over functionality.
 
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I kinda share some of those disappointments in iOS7, though I like the platform (and recently updated our phones to the 5) it really does seem like this update is more about redesign than real functional enhancements.

I really, really want what android has, the customizable screens that are apps not these **** grids of icons. I know very little about android and don't know what it's called, but a few times I've seen the S4 in action and wonder, what the heck is apple doing?

I know apple is king, has the great app thing, etc etc, but it just seems to me, like this really great thing, is beginning to run out of steam a little.

Perhaps I'll be shown wrong once iOS7 is released. I have a dev acct., so I could install the beta, but a few friends have and said it's a little unstable yet. I use my phone too much to risk that, so maybe the second beta.
 

vansmith

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I really, really want what android has, the customizable screens that are apps not these **** grids of icons. I know very little about android and don't know what it's called, but a few times I've seen the S4 in action and wonder, what the heck is apple doing?.
Gooood, goooood, come to the dark side...
 
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Yep, but cheaper and faster to market wins. Innovation, not so much.

hmm. I'm not sure I fully agree with this. It was Apple's innovation that got them their winning products in the first place. You could argue, it was a first, but smartphones were already long on the market before apple's iPhone. So it wasn't the speed to the market that won there.

From what I see of iOS7, I don't see a whole lot of 'fast to the market' really here. I think APple's command of the market allows them to set the pace for innovation, why concern themselves with the others? Perhaps that's lapsed a little too long now.

To me, Apple has in general been about redefining computing and gadgets, iOS7 so far, kinda falls short there for me. They've had plenty of time to rethink a lot, perhaps we'll see more in iOS8. If not, I just may head to the dark side. For all the hue and cry over copyright infringements, I have to say I like what I see in Android. I'm not ready to jump ship yet, but I'm hoping to see a lot more from iOS.
 

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