iOS 7

Critique
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Yes, it's that time of the year again...

Now, this completely passed me by until a few minutes ago, but it looks like Apple are doing their main keynote at WWDC 2013, and have announced new Macs and a new Mac OSX - and a real big update to iOS.

They've redone the UI, so there are still indicators that it's iOS, but gone are the days of green felt, pinstripes and bevels, and now we have something that looks a lot more modern and very nice. They 're *finally* introducing a quick settings thing so you can toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and whatnot without delving into the settings, and it genuinely looks like a major improvement. And it updates apps automatically, thank god.

It's not over yet, and it seems there are quite a few things to still be announced, but this looks like Apple finally 'getting with it' and kicking it up a gear to compete with the ever growing Android market.
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Sput
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Looks lovely, except the icons.

Starting to regret the HTC One now!
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woah
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It looks better, that's for sure - the previous UI was looking very dated - but is it just me that thinks much of it (mostly the icon screen) looks very much the same thing but a bit more gaudy and bright?

I like it overall, but I still much prefer the vanilla Android/Windows Phone 8 UIs which look a lot sharper and modern. I was hoping for something a bit more revolutionary with iOS 7 but it's better than nothing at all.
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Sput
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woah wrote:It looks better, that's for sure - the previous UI was looking very dated - but is it just me that the new look thinks it all much the same thing but a bit more gaudy and bright?
Pretty sure it's just you. Aside from the icons it's pretty dramatically different.
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woah
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Sput wrote:
woah wrote:It looks better, that's for sure - the previous UI was looking very dated - but is it just me that the new look thinks it all much the same thing but a bit more gaudy and bright?
Pretty sure it's just you. Aside from the icons it's pretty dramatically different.
I've just updated my post as I hadn't explained myself very well the first time round. It's certainly different but it's nothing too exciting or revolutionary as I'd hoped - then again, perhaps I was hoping for a bit too much!
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lukey
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I'm on board with most of the aesthetics, even though all the wank about 'hierarchical layers to establish context' == TRANSLUCENT KEYBOARD!!1! is a bit tiresome. I did squee a bit at the parallax effect, which I first assumed to be a purely superficial bit of gloss, but might actually offset some of the readability issues with having lots of very thin type over complex backgrounds.

But good god those icons. I have to hope they're placeholders, but it's a little odd to have Jony Ive prattling on about how amazingly thought out the geometry of these icons are for the result to be so garish and inconsistent.The build-up to WWDC came with a lot of leaks about how rushed iOS 7 has been, so it's understandable if that's all they are.
rts
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Yesterday I was uncomfortable with it. The Safari icon and gradient for example. Now I can't stop staring at it. A grower not a shower.

Great to finally see some features previously on available via third party app become part of the platform. Flashlight etc.

And quicker access to toggle WiFi etc.

Very tempted to get the beta but not sure it's worth a buggy phone.
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Dr Lobster*
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fundamentally, it's a pretty weak upgrade - done just to keep up with the newer, shiny UI of Windows Phone and Android where quite a bit of inspiration seems to be borrowed from, that saying, it certainly looks a lot better.

but, aside from the transparency it's still the same tired paradigm of row upon row of icons - no widgets or other customisability.

And as well as widgets, nothing was mentioned about the notification centre which is simply horrible.

The pull up area for toggling wifi and other settings is long overdue.
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martindtanderson
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Critique
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The shots on the right are Windows Phone. I'm guessing you don't like the look of iOS 7, Martin?
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lukey
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I've always been a fan of the WP look. I distance it from the Win8 incarnation of Metro only because that stretched credibility as an interface whereas WP has a certain fit and finish to it. I say this only because I'm still not sure whether I'd consider the changes in iOS 7 to really be stolen from it. I get the sense that had Ive been responsible for UX six years ago, and this skeuomorphic design language never adopted, we'd be looking at something remarkably similar from the start. The focus on crisp typography and bold colour is not an invention of Microsoft's skunkworks designers, but rather part of the graphic design legacy that both Apple and MS have drawn on over the years.

The more I see of this, the less convinced I am by the suggestion that iOS 7 represents any real leap in cohesiveness. I don't expect every UI to be uniform (if anything, the dependence on a few standard UI constructs hampered WP in the early days), but I feel like these apps belong with each other less than ever. I don't want to blame it all on those icons and 9/11, but it certainly didn't help.
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