iOS 7 design and features

iOS 7 design

A greater synergy between hardware and software design is something Apple is looking to achieve as it moves towards iOS 7.

We saw the most overt 'leak' of iOS 7 from Apple-loving site 9to5 Mac, before the launch, and it looks like it was bang on the money with the render it created from the preview it was shown.

In reality, we saw a heavily-overhauled new operating system, one that bore more than a few similarities to Nokia's MeeGo in colour and layout. For instance, the icons have been given a more 'rounded' feel, as well as being given a colour overhaul.

The font has also been tweaked as well, with some fancy-looking schematics showing how some things have been changed height wise... although it does look pretty similar though.

Control Center is now a pervasive part of the whole ecosystem, allowing users to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to control everything from the Airplane Mode to the integrated Flashlight. Music is still available in this screen, while you can also control the brightness on screen without having to exit the app.

This isn't the most novel of systems, and was already in place when it comes to music and brightness control; but at least now it looks much nicer and there's a torch/flashlight to play with as well.

The notifications bar is now a full-screen affair, and will also be available on the lock screen, meaning you won't need to wander around through the redesigned number pad any more to see who wants to play some boring game with you.

iOS 7 features

Apple decided that while there were a large number of enhancements to get excited by in the new release of the software, there were ten that it wanted to get properly excited over and tell the world about.

While the design was overhauled, the internal bits and pieces were something of a more incremental upgrade, but one that showed Apple was looking to the future in its battle against Android.

Control Center

Control Center is one of the big ones, as it now allows you to control the main guts of the phone; swiping up from anywhere on your iPhone or iPad will bring up the new hub for loads of options no matter where you are.

It's been given the same translucent sheen as with most of the iOS 7 updates, but gives a lot of space up to the music player and brightness controls, as well as making AirDrop and AirPlay the stars of the show at the bottom.

Airdrop

You're probably impressed with our segue there: Airdrop is now finally available on iDevices, allowing you to share anything from an app that supports Share Sheet.

A quick tap on the screen will give you access to the functionality - Apple didn't miss the chance to mock the need to tap the phones together on Android here - and you can share multiple items at once by adding in more caresses of the screen.

iTunes Radio and Music

Music is obviously a big thing over at Apple and the Cupertino-based firm reckons the player it's chucked into in iOS 7 is "the best music player we have ever done".

Instead of showing just the music stored on your iDevice, the Music app on iOS 7 also adds in your library stored on iCloud, allowing you to view all your tracks in one place.

Turn your iPhone to landscape mode and a wall of album art tiles appear which you can slide sideways through, and tapping on one will zoom you into that album.

Safari

Safari has gained something of an update, with the same visual overhaul coming to the browser to allow dynamic resizing of the URL bar, giving you more space to see what's on the screen, as well as allowing you to slide back and forth through your browser history.

One cool feature is the updated bookmarks element, which sits on the start screen of the iDevice, and collates links posted through your Twitter friends in one place for easier information discovery - meaning you don't have to worry about that pesky Twitter app if all you like doing is passively watching your stream.

The Tab system has been updated visually too - you're no longer are limited to eight tabs open, as the new 3D rendering will allow you practically limitless tabs open at once, which can also be synchronised across multiple accounts and machines thanks to iCloud Tabs.

Camera

The camera app has been given something of an overhaul - there's not a lot of extra functionality added in, more a change on the layout taking things to a simplier, swipe-friendly interface which has a few more options than on iOS 6.

You do get some extra features in the shape of various lens shapes including square, circle and panorama elements to lay over the top of your snaps in iOS 7, while live photo filters let you see what your subject will look like in a multitude of effects before you even hit the shutter key.

Photo gallery

Viewing your photos has also been given a Jony Ive finish, with iOS 7 automatically arranging pictures by location into groups, which Apple is calling "moments".

Pinch to zoom out and the Photo app will re-draw your photo library into collections, recognising a day trip or recent holiday and then slinging them all into one group automatically.

There's no extra functionality like the Zoes found on the HTC One, or burst mode found on the Samsung Galaxy S3 or S4 - but then again, Apple didn't show the camera in that much detail.

Zoom out once more and you get a year overview of all the images in your album, with locations tags to remind you where you were each year. If you want more fun-time functionality, then just hold your finger over the thumbnails to see an exploded view of each individual image, and release your digit on the one you wish to view full screen.

Siri

Fan-boy favourite Siri hasn't been left out with a fancy new interface and, wait for it: new voices! Huzzah!
You can now choose from male or female intonation of being told 'no internet connection present' while cultured French and German languages have also been added, with more promised "over time".

There are a range of new commands for Siri in iOS 7 too, such as "play my last voicemail", "turn on Bluetooth" and "increase my brightness".

The likes of Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing search results have all been integrated into Siri, and Apple promises there's even more to come from its personal assistant in iOS 7 - stay tuned for more information as it drops.

iOS in the Car

iOS 7 allows car manufacturers to integrate the operating system with built-in screens in vehicles, as well as full Siri support for eyes-free usage. This means you can finally live the dream of owning a Ferrari, using Siri but not owning a single Apple device. Truly, the future.

Cars will be able to read your iMessages to you and allow you to dictate a response, as well as use other features such as accessing Maps for directions and controlling the music player.

If you have a hankering to get hold of one of these iOS 7 enabled cars then you'll have to wait until next year when 12 manufacturers will produce compatible vehicles - but Nissan, Honda and Volvo are all there. Score.

App Store overhaul

There's an all new look for the famous App Store, which we found out earlier now has over 900,000 apps, making it easier to find those tiny programs to fritter away precious moments before death.

You can search for apps based on age range in iOS 7, which Apple is pushing as a great feature for parents, while the 'Apps near me' feature will show you the most popular apps based on your current location. We assume it's a good idea to drive swiftly away if you suddenly near a car park and apps to 'make friends easily' come up on your iPhone.

And something which will probably please a huge amount of the Apple fan-base: apps will now update automatically in the background. Presumably this can be turned off, or simple changes that wreck an app will leave users helpless to do anything about it.

Multi tasking

And let's get to the end of this interminably long list: Multi-tasking has been changed somewhat to allow you to see what you're jumping to in a lovely visual manner, replacing the little bar that comes up at the bottom of the screen.

We're going to miss that little user interface that flipped up and allowed us to see what was going on in the app above at the same time, but the new version is pretty neat to look at, with the app icon flipping along below the pane.

There's plenty more to come from iOS 7 in the near future, so keep having the odd look back if you want to know more about the future of Apple's mobile platform.