So, after much deliberation, rumor, concept and a little bit more rumor, Apple has finally shown the world what exactly Jony Ive’s vision of software design is with the introduction of iOS 7. It’s clean, crisp, and certainly a great deal brighter than ever before, but, new features aside, does it actually look better, and how does it compare? Here, we assess whether the clean lines and anti-skeuo approach is as much of a step forward as Apple has portrayed.

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.

Regardless of whether your desktop computer operating system of choice has that Microsoft feel about it, or slants more towards an Apple inspired offering, it’s probably fairly accurate to assume that there are things that you would like to change about the aesthetics. Mac OS X is currently enjoying its most successful spell to date with Apple reaping the benefits that come attached with the current surge in user adoption. However, Microsoft is also reporting a recent surge in profits that has a lot to do with the success of Windows 8 since launch.

There’s been a significant amount of chit-chat regarding third-party mail apps on the iOS App Store. The original pretender to the throne was the Sparrow app that began life on OS X before being migrated across to iOS and then ultimately snapped up by Google who promptly stopped development of the project. We’ve since had the Mailbox app that managed to generate an interest from millions of users, and more recently, we’ve seen the Mail Pilot offering that may cost a lot but also brings a new way of looking at email in a minimalist and clean interface. I’ve attempted to use all of the above mentioned apps as my primary email clients on the iPhone, but always end up falling back on Apple’s native offering on iOS 6.

Having issues with keyboard shortcuts not working properly after jailbreaking your iOS 6.x device, we have found a couple of workarounds that might help solve the problem.

As far as prominent figures in the jailbreak community go, Joshua Hill – also known as P0sixninja – is up there with the best of them. If you remove his various public Twitter based meltdowns from the equation, you are left with a person who has undoubtedly been one of the most important components in the production of recent jailbreaks. Although we haven’t heard a great deal from him since his rather acrimonious departure from the Chronic Dev Team, it looks like he could be potentially about to propel himself back to the top of the pecking order after claiming to have all the necessary exploits required for the production of a new jailbreak.

Planetbeing Of Evad3rs has confirmed that jailbreak exploits used in iOS 6, 6.0.x, 6.1 and 6.1.2 has been patched by Apple in the newly released iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 firmware.

Sn0wbreeze 2.9.10 has just been released to jailbreak iOS 6.1.2 untethered, but first things first, if you have an iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, or any of the other newer iOS device, you should follow our tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 6.1.2 using Evasi0n.

Evasi0n 1.4 has just been released to jailbreak iOS 6.1.2 untethered on iPhone 5, 4S, 4, 3GS, iPod touches, and all other devices. You can download the latest version of Evasi0n from here, and jailbreak using the instructions illustrated below.

Although iOS 6 has been adopted in record numbers since its release back in September alongside the iPhone 5, it has scarcely been able to buy a decent press report. In a week which has seen a lot of fuss being tossed around regarding the passcode security bug, which allows a user to bypass the code or password on a device with apparent ease, it has also been revealed that the Restrictions feature’s “Don’t Allow Changes” doesn’t exactly work as advertised. Namely, it doesn’t fully prevent changes from taking place, and although considerably fewer users take advantage of what is a fledgling feature, the timing of the discovery paints the usually robust iOS in a fragile light indeed.

When Apple first made iOS 6 available to the public, it managed to open a floodgate of criticism that mainly centered on aspects of the firmware which consumers felt weren’t ready for the prime time use. After a public apology signed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, an internal corporate restructure and a few point releases to the OS; the controversy seemed to have died down. However, when you’re at the top of the food chain, things are never quiet, with Apple now coming under fire for inadequacies found in iOS 6.1, first with connectivity issues on iPhone 4S, which were fixed quickly in iOS 6.1.1, then with battery life, flaw in Passcode Lock Screen, and now with an issue with Exchange support.

iOS 6.1, released last month, has already received its fair share of criticism and bad press as major connectivity issues were discovered within weeks of the system’s public release. If that wasn’t enough of a reason to put you off from upgrading for the time being, this might be: with a few simple steps, it is possible for any user to bypass the passcode lock screen on an iPhone, giving an unintended user permission to view and edit sensitive information such as contacts.