What do you guys initially think of the IOS 7 experience

Boy I'm older and have tired eyes but I think overall I find the IOS 7 display to be much more difficult to read than IOS 6. Poor home screen icon to background contrast unless you pick a just right background. Apps (like camera) with lots of light blue text against a white background. It used to be when I inverted the colors with IOS6, I found the results psychedelic and funky. When inverting with IOS 7, I find the text generally more readable. One good example is imessage where you have thin white text against a blue backdrop (used to be black text). I upgraded the iphone to IOS 7 but going to hold off doing so with the Ipad. Wish there was the ability to customize the font and text color of the various apps, can you do so with Android phones?

Other features are vastly improved, the notification center, multi-tasking for a couple but I'm having a real hard time getting by the display change.

I like the easier to access lock screen, safari is going to take some getting used to.

Yeah, I'm not a super huge fan of some of the aesthetics. I also don't like how some of the buttons are separated more than they used to be (keycode unlocking, perhaps some other places as well). It's more annoying to me to have to move my thumb farther than we used to have to do so since the numbers used to be clustered more closely.

I also don't like how if you double press the home button with the phone screen off and no music has been playing for a while then it doesn't bring up the music controls automatically (unless there's an option to enable that and I don't know about it). It's quicker to do that to go back to where you left off in a playlist rather than have to click the button, swipe up, and then hit play in iOS 7.

The animations could also be sped up more in my opinion. Sometimes I want to do something before an animation is completed so that slows me down. Oh, and I could be dreaming, but my battery life seems to be a little worse than before.

I agree that most of the other features are great. Honestly, though, I might switch to Android and get the Nexus 5 when it comes out. I think that Android is now pretty high quality as well, and I'm missing the extra RAM found in some other smartphones (I have an iPhone 4S and I'm tired of Safari pages reloading constantly because they won't stay in memory; at least that's my assumption as to why that happens so often). We'll see though. I've always been an iPhone fan, but things are starting to get a little stale for me.

geepondy said:

Boy I'm older and have tired eyes but I think overall I find the IOS 7 display to be much more difficult to read than IOS 6.

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Settings / General / Accessibility / Bold text on.

Norm

I like it so far. Been an iPhone user since the first one and it's about time we saw a graphical overhaul. The interface is clean and the animations are fun. The new icon styles are outstanding, less visual clutter and easier to identify at a glance.

I have heard that if you are using it on a non-retina device (iPhone 4, iPad 2) the text can be harder to read due to the font change. Looks okay to me on my 4S.

Additionally my battery life seems to have improved, so that's a big win for me.

Original iPad, this iOS 5.1.1 sure seems outdated..

I've been using it since Beta 1, so I'm past the shock of the new interface. I'm liking the 3rd party apps that have redesigned to match - it's forced a few lazy developers to coagulate their feces.

I'm loving that the passcode screen has nice big buttons that take up the whole screen instead of tiny ones that use half.

Control center is excellent, except I wish it had a Personal Hotspot toggle as well.

I'm on a 4S, speed is good, graphics don't seem to cause any lagging. Battery life is within a margin of error of "normal" for me.

Maps are much improved.

Well I've had an iPhone since the 3 and I would say that Steve is probably rolling over in his grave with this update.

It's not that I don't like some of the changes. Built in flashlight it pretty neat. Individual app control over hardware buttons and functions are neat too. I like that the folder brings up a new windows - but damn you think they coulda fit more than 9 icons on the screen by shrinking them down a bit - I mean scrolling a folders window is just silly. The camera seems quicker to take a picture which is a plus with children.

What pisses me off - having to slide left to delete an email versus right.
What makes me happy - the option screen for when you choose what to do with an item (such as Photo) are much more expanded and it looks like you can attach more than one photo to an email.

My overall impression is that it somehow just isn't as pulled together as Steve's iOS was. Steve kept everything under control and kept it simple. Many complained that you couldn't tweak your phone enough - but he kept it simple for the laymen (ie: my 72 year old mom bought one and she figured it all out in no time - granted she is probably a bit better than most 70+ people on the computer, but I also gave my Dad an iPad mini for his 80th birthday and he's doing okay with it, and he just about knows where the power button is on the computer ).

My biggest concern is with the direction Apple is heading. I this they are going to try and make every customer happy and you see it already. There are more hardware versions available across the line than ever. The scope creep in hardware and software will make it harder to decide on what to do - and that will turn away the people that came to Apple in the first place for it's simplicity.

Now, on the flip side, I manage our Exchange and mobile messaging environment where I work so I get to trial many devices and lots of enterprise apps. I have to say that I've been working with the Samsung devices lately and the S4 is a damn impressive phone. I've been running an iPhone 4S (been saving my upgrade for the 5S for half a year), but when I go to the AT&T store if I am not blown away with improvements in the iPhone 5S I will very likely jump ship and switch to a Samsung S4 or S4 mini.

just updated mt 4s today. was a bit surprised by the new colour scheme at first but its starting to grow on me. am just wondering if it will be harder to read in bright sunlight(my eyes are getting old!).

ShineOn:

The uncontrollable spread of hardware options is what nearly killed Apple in the 90's. They're hopefully smart enough to learn from that lesson. Jobs was able to come back from banishment to save them that time - from the dead is a whole lot less likely.

mvyrmnd said:

ShineOn:

The uncontrollable spread of hardware options is what nearly killed Apple in the 90's. They're hopefully smart enough to learn from that lesson. Jobs was able to come back from banishment to save them that time - from the dead is a whole lot less likely.

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My point exactly. I don't want to go too off-topic here - but I've fully converted to OSx and iOS in my personal life and feel that it is a much better experience than Windows for a home environment. I'd hate to see history repeat itself.

I updated my iphone and ipad at the same time which I kind of regret. I like the new features like the flashlight and quick access to bluetooth and wifi. But that's about it.

The whole UI looks like it came from a kid's drawing board. It looks really cartoonish to me. The iphone is my work phone and just use it for calling/texting and nothing more. Thank god my personal phone is android. I wish I could revert my ipad to ios 6 though... The ui looks really weird on it.

Agreed, ios has been going to hell since ios 4. Symbols are getting spindly and illogical, unnecessary animations eating up valuable resources, every function seems to be slower, graphics look like something I made with MS paint as a toddler. The new safari is even more inconvenient than the last one, fortunately opera have released a new browser called coast which is a lot like the old style safari (ie; user friendly, fast, elegant, has thumbnails instead of these ridiculous tabs).

Now don't get me wrong, I like apple and their products (some of them anyway), but these latest blunders are catastrophic.
I just don't understand why they've thrown away the perfection that was ios 3.

Rant over

HaileStorm said:

The whole UI looks like it came from a kid's drawing board. It looks really cartoonish to me.

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I looked at some screenshots of the 7 interface and I agree 100%. I would expect this if the phone was made by Fisher-Price but for a business phone it seems to lack dignity. I'm hoping they'll come out with an update that will allow you to set it back to the older interface.

Are things significantly different on an iPhone 5 or 5s with the new iOS than on my old iPhone 4 or something? I see all these complaints about the graphics and stuff and I honestly can't understand what you guys are complaining about. It's not that wildly different. :thinking:

Half the stuff doesn't apply to the I phone 4, pretty much as expected.

I wish they had an option for better themes.

PhotonWrangler said:

I looked at some screenshots of the 7 interface and I agree 100%. I would expect this if the phone was made by Fisher-Price but for a business phone it seems to lack dignity. I'm hoping they'll come out with an update that will allow you to set it back to the older interface.

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Not a chance. Not Apples way of doing things at all.

nbp said:

Are things significantly different on an iPhone 5 or 5s with the new iOS than on my old iPhone 4 or something? I see all these complaints about the graphics and stuff and I honestly can't understand what you guys are complaining about. It's not that wildly different. :thinking:

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The GPU on the 4 isn't up to the job of most of the funky newness. My 4S has all the graphical stuff, but no Airdrop (BT chipset too old). 5 and 5s have the whole feature set.

The general UI isn't changed more than 10%. Everything is where it was, and does what it always did. They've just changed the look and feel - for better or for worse, depending on your opinion. (Personally I don't see the "Fisher-Price" resemblance - I have a 4 and 2yo, so I know their products well!)

PhotonWrangler said:

I looked at some screenshots of the 7 interface and I agree 100%. I would expect this if the phone was made by Fisher-Price but for a business phone it seems to lack dignity. I'm hoping they'll come out with an update that will allow you to set it back to the older interface.

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I disagree. The screenshots look a little strange when you view them on a computer screen but when you view them on the vibrant retina display the overall aesthetic fits very well. As with everything else, "you'll get used to it" certainly applies here.

Ill probably be using my old 4 for another couple months. Is it slow on the 4? I'm not super keen on the look but will probably get used to it. I'm hoping to get a 5s so won't have much choice!