Apple’s redesigned mobile operating system, iOS7, is officially available to most every iPhone and iPad user worldwide, as long as the device is compatible with the update in the first place.
The new update is available on iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, fifth-generation iPod Touch and the iPad Mini. Sadly the original iPad has reached its end days, as has the iPhone 3GS and all previous generations of the iPod Touch.
This is Apple’s biggest software update yet, with a complete redesign of every icon and every user interface on the system, changing from skeuomorphism to a super-flat design with minimalistic touches.
As far as design goes, iOS7 is a big change and has good and bad parts trapped inside, the platform has more small animations when opening and closing apps, turning on the phone and sliding to unlock, apparently causing some lag.
Some icons are better than others, we find the Game Center icon fun but not really anything to do with games, iTunes and Apps Store look stretched, the Camera and Settings icons are a little underwhelming, but Mail, Calendar and Weather look better than before.
Apps have had a whole new coat of paint and have been redone to match the operating system, but the functionality has stuck and Apple says this is the part users will be able to recognise, a good disguise for “we couldn’t think of anything new” to the app.
Some apps do have new features, Siri and Apple Maps have been improved, Weather looks like a rip-off of Yahoo! Weather, Camera has a new UI for square photos and panoramas and Apple has added a new feature called Control Center, a clunky mess of all quick options.
Overall it is a nice design improvement but the main feature, Touch ID, is only available on the iPhone 5S.
