How apple made simple a little more complicated (in a good way)

Apple has been known for its simple, intuitive and beautiful hardware design and today that philosophy has been applied to its software component. This expectation was driven mainly by the fact that Jony Ive (Apple chief of industrial design) took the lead in re-designing the much anticipated iOS7 and the world was given a first hand look of the updates today during the WWDC 2013 keynote address.

The weeks leading up to the event was full of supposed leaks about how the new iOS 7 was going to be "flat" and "simple". People gave these rumors a lot a credit because that has always been the over-arching principle behind Apple's hardware designs since the beginning. So the idea of it being applied to its software component was a no-brainer especially with Ive at the helm. The immediate reaction from the tech-world was "mixed" to put it mildly. Some people felt like the new iOS does not offer anything new to the table and that a lot of the design improvements were copied from other mobile operating systems. 

I will be running through the updates in this post and will explain why I am ever more excited about the future of iOS and the coming iteration of our favorite iDevices. 

Design (How it looks)

The design difference between iOS6 and iOS7 is pretty self evident. The word "flat" stands out right away when looking at iOS7 but at the same time the icons on the phone still seem to pop. If you are used to the iOS6 icons that had depth and looked a lot like actual objects you can touch, the iOS7 will require a huge visual adjustment. The icons looks a lot more integrated into the background and kind of looks like cards/ stickers that you interact with instead of actual box-like objects. My assessment however is based entirely on pictures and videos I have seen of the OS design, I will withhold my final judgement once I actually have a chance to see it on my iPhone 5 screen. Below are side-by-side comparison of the major design enhancements between iOS6 and iOS7.

Side-by-side comparison of iOS6 and iOS7 general design and look. iOS7
on the left clearly looks a lot more flat but at the same time the icons
still pop out of the screen. iOS6 icons on the right has more depth on them
and look intuitively  like objects you can interact with. 

Side-by-side comparison of Safari in iOS6 (right) and iOS7 (left). Again the design difference between the two is obvious. 

Side-by-side comparison of the Mail app between iOS6 (right) and iOS7 (left).
The biggest difference to me is the look of the keyboard. I like the translucent design
in the iOS7 giving it a more clean feel to it.  

Side-by-side comparison of Game Centre between iOS6 (right) and iOS7 (left).
This to me got one of the most radical re-design. The old and dated look of the iOS6
Game Centre got a simple and surprisingly playful re-design.

Side-by-side Comparison of the Calendar app between iOS6 (right) and iOS7 (left).
This is another aspect of the OS that got a huge and welcome refresh.
The color scheme in the Calendar app allows the event categories to be clearer.

Overall I am pleasantly surprised and excited about the new iOS design. It definitely is simpler and traces of Apples trademark hardware design simplicity is evident. I am excited about the fact that the beautiful hardware that Apple has constantly been making can now be matched by the simplicity and beauty of the OS design. To me the whole theme of the new iOS is consistent to my view of what Apple is- a company serious about creating beautiful objects no matter how risky the move is or how slow the process is. Yes, some of the design improvements may look like existing OS designs but that does not make it less beautiful.

User-Interface (How it works)

iOS7 Control Center.

The improvements we saw today were not only in the cosmetic/ aesthetics side of the OS. To me the most important part of today's announcements were the improvements to existing iOS features and the additional features introduced to iOS for the first time. I will be describing most of them below and explain why they matter to me.

Control your iDevice with ease and simplicity with Control Center. Now you have the ability to control device functions/ settings without actually going through the phone settings. With just one swipe, you can access some of your device functions like wifi and bluetooth toggles, brightness adjustments, play or pause a song and more. The best part, you can access Control Center by swiping up from any screen on your iDevice. This allows you to save so much time toggling your device settings and allows for much better user experience over all. Say you are reading something on your iPhone then suddenly you felt a sudden urge to take a selfie. With iOS6, you had to exit out of what you were reading, find your Camera app, Launch your Camera app and take a picture- that is at least a 3 step process. With iOS7 all you have to do is Swipe up from your current screen, tap on the Camera icon and you are all set. It is simple but is stacked with a lot of functionality.

iOS7 Notification Centre - Today Tab

Get notified like a true VIP with the revamped and improved Notification Center. The notification center now shows two tabs (Today, All and Missed). Today: is a preview of your calendar for the day. Missed: shows all missed notifications like the old notification center did. All: is self explanatory. There are a few things missing from the old Notification Center though: i. Twitter and Facebook shortcut, Weather update and the Stocks ticker. Those things I always considered as some sort of a nuisance in the the Notification Centre. The stock ticker had no value to me personally as I did not trade in stocks and the weather app was a redundancy to my stock weather application. As for the social media toggles (Twitter and Facebook), they too made no sense being in the notification centre because if I wanted to Tweet something, most likely I would not be starting off from the notification centre. In short these 3 functions were clutter and the move to cut them makes a lot of sense. Finally the Notification Centre is all about your Notifications. 

iOS7 Multi-tasking Option w/ Preview Screens.

The old Multi-tasking option on steroids. Human beings were never built/ designed to be multi-taskers which is why that word has always been associated with being over-worked. People always think that multi-tasking is something you do when you have too much work to do. Apples iOS7 however is poised to change the meaning of multi-tasking through its smarter and intuitive multi-tasking options. It is Smarter because it allows you to preview apps that are currently running through the Preview Screens and it is intuitive because closing the apps has just gotten easier. Simply swipe the apps up to close instead of pressing on the red button on the wiggling app icon. 

Unleash the artist in you with the juiced up Camera App which now supports filters so you do not have to rely on 3rd party applications and you can take and share instagram-like photos without relying on Instagram. 

Today iOS7 has just made organizing your life-moments much simpler with the new Photos. iOS7 organizes your photos and vides into Smart Groupings- Location and Year. Within each groupings, your photos are then organized into Collections and Moments. This is a very smart way of organizing photos. Think about it for a while. We usually go photo-crazy during trips or events that happen during a specific time (year) in a specific place (location). The new Photos uses the same logic in the way your photos and videos are organized making it more intuitive. This option also has one of the best visual updates in iOS7. When you tap on Year for example, all your photos and videos are shown like a montage/ collage. 

iOS7 Photos - Year View

iOS7 Photos - Collections View

Why send a txt or email to someone right beside you when you can simply AirDrop it? AirDrop has been one of my favorite features in Mac OS X and its entry into iOS is very much welcome. AirDrop is a convenient way of sharing files to other people nearby using bluetooth or wifi. It also allows you to share content from any application that has a share button! So if you want to share an article you are reading to someone right beside you, you can simply AirDrop it. 

Browse better with better utilization of your iDevice screen with the new Safari. With iOS7, buttons and bars on Safari now stay hidden unless you reveal them. This gives web-content more screen real estate. Apple has also utilized on-screen gesture even more in Safari. Since your browser navigation bar is hidden, a simple swipe on the screen will allow you to go back or forward a web-page. iOS7 clearly utilizes the touch screen of your iDevice even more which makes a lot of sense. Touch screen gesture controls are way more intuitive than pressing on a virtual button on a touch screen. The new Safari still supports multi-tab browsing and the interface is even way better than before.  

iOS7 Safari - Multi Tab browsing

Safari also added security features that will allow you to keep your information safe while browsing the internet. iCloud Keychain allows your iCloud account to remember your account information, passwords, credit card numbers, etc. It will then auto-fill the information for you whenever you need to. This could go in handy when filling out web-forms that asks for your personal info like name, address, phone number, etc. With this feature Safari can auto-fill them for you. I love this feature in my Mountain Lion and it saves me so much time. Since iCloud can be synched with all your iDevices and OS X devices, the auto-fill function works across all platforms too! In layman's term, say you created a Twitter account using your Macbook and had your username and password stored on your iCloud account, as soon as you open Twitter.com on your iPhone, the username and password is auto-filled! I personally won't be using this because I have always been opposed to the idea of keeping all my eggs in one basket. Although Apple does say the information is encrypted using 256-bit encryption so that should keep your data secure. 

The other security feature I am most excited about is "Password Generator." Say you create an online account that requires you to create a password, our human tendency is to use the same password we use for all other accounts. This has been long considered as a very unsafe way to secure our information. What password generator does is it allows Safari to generate a password for you and store it on iCloud.  This means every account you create has a unique password that not even you can remember. This will work very well if you are fully integrated into the iOS Ecosystem (and might be problematic if you are not). Not too much information was given about this new feature so it would be interesting to learn more about it in the coming weeks. Some people may see a lot of problems from this feature but all I honestly see is a better way at securing our information online.

iOS7 Itunes Radio

Find more musical inspiration with iRadio and enjoy ad-free Radio streaming, customizable stations, with Siri integration. Teach the app what you like and do not like w/ options like "Play more like this" and "Never Play this song." The best part is you can even tell Siri to do this for you.  So you can be in the middle of a run and want to favorite a song currently playing, no need to stop running and press "Play more like this", just tell Siri to do it for you. This feature however is only available in the United States (for now). 

Your favorite virtual assistant, Siri, just grew some balls. With iOS7 you can chose a male voice option for Siri and overall Apple has improved Siris's speech pattern. This means Siri will now respond in a more "natural" and "human-like" voice. Siri is also smarter with iOS7 as it now searches multiple sources (ie. Bing, Wikipedia and Twitter.) Apple has also allowed/ supported more commands for Siri and opened a deeper integration with device functions. With iOS7 you can tell Siri to return a missed phone call or to listen to your Voicemail. 

The 50 Billion downloads is so last year now that we have seen the new App Store. There are two major update to the apps store: i. Auto Update apps and ii. Apps Near me. Auto Update is convenient but be very wary about your data consumption and cost when using this feature. You might have up to date apps but a huge hole in your pocket. Apps Near me is what I am most excited about. Apparently, when this feature is toggled the app store suggests Apps most relevant to your location. Say you are near a major restaurant district, Apps Near me will most likely show you restaurant reservation apps (ie. Open table, etc.).

Losing your iPhone is now only half as bad with the new Find my iPhone. How many of you have lost an iPhone? I'm sure you felt like you just lost a limb right? How many of you lost an iPhone and realized you did not turn on/ activate Find my iPhone? If you are one of these people, I can't imagine how you felt. But fear not because with iOS7 whoever steals/ finds your iPhone will never be able to use it because turning off Find My iPhone or erasing your device requires your Apple ID and password! Find My iPhone can also continue to display a custom message, even after your device is erased. And your Apple ID and password are required before anyone can reactivate your iPhone. 

Give your iphone some wheels and horsepower and claim the Guinness world record for the worlds biggest and most bad-ass iPhone accessory- your Car. With iOS7, your iPhone can be more deeply integrated with your car. 

What to expect? (iOS7 and beyond)

Now that iOS7 is being seeded to registered developers, we should slowly start to see more information about what iOS7 is fully capable of. In the coming weeks we will slowly start hearing about hidden gems in the iOS7 codes that might give us a glimpse of future hardware iterations. The news about a 128GB iPad broke because some developer saw a reference about a 128GB device embedded in the code of the iOS 6.1 beta.  

One thing I see as a trend in the iOS7 User Interface is the fact that Apple is slowly moving towards maximizing the device touch screen with gesture controls. This could point to a possibility of future iDevices having more screen real estate and the eventual death of the Home button. To me, this move make a lot of sense as it allows more content consumption on the device and makes device navigation more intuitive. I have always believed that pressing on virtual buttons on a touch screen is a dying concept and it is about time Apple realized that.