Apple might have been innovative in the past and brought the smartphone to the masses, but this latest version of iOS looks to be playing catch-up with Android and even Windows Phone.
So lets see what's new for Apple and what's actually new:
The overall interface has been flattened, like on Android and Windows Phone 8
Lockscreen can now be unlocked by swiping up, like on Windows Phone and many Android phones
Multitasking UI shows app previews and lets you close apps by swiping them, like on Android and Windows Phone (though ripped off from WebOS)
Control Center is a fancy name for a quick toggles menu which lets you toggle things like WiFi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, etc, like on Android
Safari now features full screen browsing, unified address and search bar, and gesture control, like Google Chrome
Dialer has big round numbers, like on Android 1.5 Cupcake
Siri now has both male and female voices, can also search Twitter, Wikipedia, and Bing (who the fuck uses Bing?!)
Camera interface has been simplified and redesigned, can now swipe to change camera modes, like on...ok this might be new
Many UI elements now feature a slight transparency effect, which makes the UI look worse
AirDrop lets you share your crap with other iOS 7 users close by, similar to that gimmicky feature on Samsung's Galaxy S4
iTunes Radio (really?! not iRadio?) lets you stream music, like Spotify, Rdio, and create random playlists on the fly based on the similar artists, genres, and albums, like Pandora.
There are more features that I'm too lazy to cover. Primarily because I have very little interest in iOS. But so far from what I've read and seen from Apple's WWDC, iOS 7 is (still) lagging behind Android in terms of UI innovation. Not to mention the new features and apps Apple unveiled, are not actually new, and not that exciting to begin with. The only thing that does excite me about iOS 7 is the fact that it is a major update for iOS. Meaning there will be millions of faithful grey masses who will unquestionably buy the iPhone because it's an iPhone because it's made by Apple. And Apple is perfect. Flawless. This will drive Google, Microsoft and that exhumed corpse of Blackberry to further innovate to attract more people towards their own platforms. Remember, competition drives innovation. Though in Apple's case it's mostly "competition drives litigation."
It's so easy to spot the difference between a fanboy and someone generally interested in all tech. Disregarding everything because a company you don't like did it. I currently don't have an Android phone, but when Google introduces a new version of Android with new features I think "Wow, that's great."
People who constantly rant about Apple are as stubborn, close-minded, and jaded as the Apple fanboys they mock.
I'm not going to defend Apple and say they did it first, because many of the features they've announced are long overdue. Also, I've had a lot of these features on my jailbroken iPhone for ages. However, Apple are very good implementing features very well and in a way that's intuitive to the user. I'll be keen to get these changes with iOS 7, and I think Apple have done a good job catching up to the competition.
I actually think the Activation Lock is a really useful feature, and I haven't seen it before anywhere else. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong though.
Remember the time Samsung copied off the iPhone 3GS for their Touch-Wiz and got into a whole lot of dilemma? All of this copying will never stop. I know iOS 7 now falls into the same design as Android but we, as consumers, haven't tried it yet. Let someone try it out first and see if Apple had really stepped over the line.
*yawn* Just got a Nokia N96 yesterday. GUI was not much of a nonsense legally.
I don't see the smartphone marketplace bringing much more to the table than they already have in the form of "innovation." This is more of a time for Apple to solidify their feature set before adding more shit that nobody will really care about in a couple of years. By then the candybar style phone and tablets will be sitting in peoples storage or dumpster. What will replace them? Bow down to your new overlords in the form of google glass and its competitors.
I wouldn't say I was "disregarding" what Apple did with iOS 7, more like making fun of them because Apple is a major patent troll who likes to sue people and companies for "copying" their products and/or their UI. It's funny how Apple now took ideas from their competitors. I'll give credit where credit's due. iOS has always been much more polished than any Android version Google put out or any skin the manufacturers slapped on top of Android. Even with the latest version of Android, there's still plenty to hate.
Bow down to your new overlords in the form of google glass and its competitors.
I already wear glasses so I'll take that, provided those fancy glasses don't cost $1200!
A bit inaccurate. The new multitasking is stolen from WebOS, and that's where Android got the idea as well. Apple stole a lot of ideas from Android, Windows Phone, WebOS, and the iOS jailbreak community.
I like it. Well... I can live with it. I didn't exactly buy an iPhone for the best of the best features. No big complaints, no huge praises either though.
