On the day of its launch, I offered very early thoughts on running iOS 7 on iPhone 5 after I had used it for less than an hour. I was still waiting for most of my 3rd-party apps to install, so I was certainly in no position to offer a proper review of the beta version of iOS 7. In fact, 3 days later, I'm still not.
The iOS 7 beta has only been out for two days, and already, the first major bug has been revealed. Jose Rodriguez, a 36 year old iPhone owner from Tenerife, has found a rather easy way to bypass the lock screen on iOS 7 beta 1 and meddle with the photos. Although bugs are expected in such an early and apparently unstable release, this revelation will no doubt send a chill down the spine of those in Cupertino, to whom this kind of issue is all too familiar.
As soon as iOS 7 beta was announced and subsequently revealed by Apple on the introductory morning of this year's WWDC, many onlookers took to the blogs, forums and social networks to note of the incredible similarities in design between it and another major mobile OS - Windows Phone. The motif of clean lines and vibrant colors has long since been a set of values associated with Microsoft's smartphone platform, of course, but as you will see in a comparison video by tech fan Sean Rosairo, it would seem as though the fruit company has ripped more than a few segments directly from Windows Phone.
If you cast your minds back, you may remember Apple adding a little feature to iTunes 11 allowing you to scan your iTunes cards using the camera on the front of your Mac’s camera. Now, the exact same feature is coming to iOS 7, and although it's not new in a sense that barcode and QR reading apps have been around for a good while now, the fact that it's baked into the operating system means that developers can also make use of it, should they wish to.
The overall design of iOS 7, as has been noted considerably during the last couple of days, bears a striking resemblance to Microsoft's Windows Phone, but the aesthetics of several integral apps may not be the only elements that the Cupertino company has borrowed from rivals. The Today tab found within the brand new Notification Center is very à la Google Now, and it would seem as though Apple really took the sneers of iOS's lack of functionality to heart.
Apple officially announced iTunes Radio for iOS 7 at WWDC this week, but as is the case with most fledgling features and applications, it's limited only to those residing within the confinements of the United States. The good news is, however, that those living elsewhere can also get in on iOS 7 beta’s iTunes Radio right now, provided they have, or can create, a U.S. iTunes account. Details after the break!
If you're running a fairly new iOS device; for example, an iPhone 5 or iPad 4, you can rest assured that you'll be reaping the full benefits of iOS 7 when it does eventually become available to the end user. However, if you're in ownership of something a little more, shall we say, mature from the iDevice range, it's likely some of the latest and greatest iOS 7's treasures and niceties will be held back, due largely to lack of hardware support.
How to check and find out if your Mac is compatible with OS X Mavericks 10.9, slated for release later this year.
As I'm sure you're aware, iOS 7 was officially announced by Apple yesterday at their annual WWDC event in San Francisco. There's an enormous amount riding on this operating system release, as it's their one big chance to prove themselves as the leader of the pack when it comes to mobile innovation. There's a great deal riding on iOS 7, and it's clear that this is Apple's biggest overhaul of their iOS platform for quite some time.
As has already been discussed in quite some detail over the past 24 or so hours since the WWDC announcement, iOS 7 has changed things in a big way. Essentially every facet of Apple's mobile OS has been tweaked and altered, delivering a look scarcely recognizable from iOS 6. Through no aspect are the changes more apparent than in the new home screen icons, and to really offer some perspective as to just how much different the new icons are versus old, Twitter user @pawsupforu has delivered a comparative illustration.
