iOS 7 Preview!

The MacMentor’s iOS  7 Preview!

Happy Thursday!  Welcome to our quick look at the upcoming release, iOS 7!  Very excited to be able to offer you some insight into the new operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.  Now iOS 7 will not be released to the public until later in the fall, but I was lucky enough to get a version to test out and I wanted to share with you some of the coolness thats coming your way soon!

First, iOS 7 gives us the first new look since iOS was released back in 2007.  The fresh look and feel is VERY WELCOME!  One of the big differences you’ll notice off the bat  are the “flat” icons, and the icons themselves.  All new icon pictures for the Apple Apps that come with your phone.  Calendar, Weather, Settings, Clock, Phone, Mail, Safari etc. all have been given a fresh new look, and it’s about time!  One of the first things that popped out to me, was a cool new feature with the Clock app, it actually tells the time now.  You probably never paid much attention to this, but if you look at your phone, the clock app is right, twice a day!  Now it’s right 24 hours a day!  If you look along the top of the picture, you’ll see it says 9:07 PM.  Now look at the clock app, it also says 9:07, nothing world changing here, but a fun new addition!  

My first favorite feature of iOS 7 is the Control Center!  

This great new feature, which is WAY overdue is a new swipe feature.  From any app, or any screen, you simply swipe up and you are presented with this FANTASTIC easy way to access many of the some of the most used settings of your device.  We will start top left, where you see the airplane icon, a simple way to turn Airplane mode on and off.  Next you have the wireless icon.  Now you have a quick way to connect, or disconnect from a wireless network!  You’ll also see Bluetooth, DND and the Lock immediately following.  Below those you have the brightness setting, below that, a quick easy way to turn your music on and off, and below that, your volume control.  Finally, on the bottom of the Command Center you have a new addition to iOS, a Flashlight!  Now you don’t have to download a flashlight app.  Next to that is an alarm app (also new, you had the alarm feature of the clock, but never simply an alarm app) then you have your calculator app, and Camera app.  What I’ve found in the week or so that I’ve been playing with iOS 7 is that the Command Center rocks!  Having quick access to these settings is a huge help.

The next feature is not new, but how you access it is.  Now, to Search your phone (or the internet), from anywhere in the middle of your screen, you’ll swipe down, instead of swiping left to right.  You’ll also have the option of using Bing as your search engine, instead of Yahoo! Or Google.

The next feature I’m going to highlight is the folder.  Previously, on the phone you could have up to 12 apps in a folder.  Apple has vastly improved folders for iOS 7!  Now (at least in the beta) you can have more than 20 apps in a folder.  How you ask, 

These two screen captures are of the same Apple folder, you’ll notice on the one above I’ve got 9 apps, on this screen capture, another 4 (notice the FaceTime app!  That’s new for the phone!)  To access the 2^nd page of apps in a folder, you guessed it, simply swipe right to left to access the other apps in the folder (or left to right to get to the previous page of the folder).

Here is the new look and feel of the lock screen with Passcode.  It’s a much cleaner, cooler screen than what’s currently offered in iOS 6.

Next, the New Settings screen.  Again notice the clean look and feel, something very welcome.  You’ll notice the familiar settings here, except for one new one Control Center (which was what I covered first).  Each setting is accessed the same way it was in iOS 6, so you don’t have anything new to learn here, which is great!

Next I want to show iCloud.  Again nothing earth shattering here, but there is one new, much welcomed addition to iCloud, Keychain!  For those Mac users, Keychain is a great way to save your passwords in one place, encrypted!  Well you now have the ability to do that for your iOS devices as well!  Much needed as I’m sure we all have numerous passwords, to numerous to easily remember!

Lastly, and again nothing earth shattering here, another Search engine to choose from.  Not the biggest deal in the world, but it is great to have choice.  

Now these screen shots don’t do justice to some great new touch features available in iOS 7, but as this isn’t a video blog, it’s impossible to show!  So get excited, you’ll love iOS 7 when it comes out this fall, and the great new features it brings to your devices.

I’ll certainly keep you up to date with features and functionality as it becomes available.  So until next time, best to you and your devices!