LiFE OS: iOS 7 Beta: Comprehensive First Look

With Apple's WWDC being over for almost a week now, eager developers (and resourceful consumers) have got their hands on iOS 7 Beta. Reviews have been mixed stating that the release is the revival of the Apple mobile operating system, while others say that the update isn't offering anything new in terms of functionality. Here's a breakdown of the features you may have not heard of.

Improved Notification Center

Notification Center

-today summary

-reminders

-calendar day view

-stocks

-tomorrow summary

-sort manually or by time

-today, all, and missed notifications

The notification center has changed quite a bit since iOS 6. Instead of one unified list of notifications, the notifications have been split into three different lists: today, all and missed.

The today view lists the "today summary" which includes the current weather condition as well as travel navigation which seems to be tied together with the Maps application. The "reminders" are intended to be integrated into this section as well, however with this beta, it doesn't seem to be working properly. The "calendar day view" does work though displaying the current day agenda which is very useful for keeping track of events. There is also a "tomorrow summary" which says what is upcoming in the next day.While the social sharing widget to tweet or post on Facebook has been removed with the beta, the stocks widget remains.

The all and missed notification views of the notification center remain virtually unchanged from the traditional notification center seen in iOS 6. Here users can view their incoming notifications from applications. The notifications that aren't acted on in all are then sent to the missed section. On either list, the user can open the notification or dismiss them with the clear option. Another new feature is that users can sort the notifications by the time they were received in addition to configuring the order manually.

New Control Center

Control Center

-swipe up from the bottom
-toggle settings
-music settings
-AirDrop/Airplay
-quick access to important apps

Control Center is Apple's answer to users complaining about going through the settings to change simple options. Android has been known for their quick toggles, but for whatever reason, Apple refused to do anything about those who wanted to bring it to iOS. Nevertheless, the quick toggles finally came and they include airplane mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and lock orientation.

Do Not Disturb settings

All of these are old functions, however Do Not Disturb did get a small update. If the user received a notification while the device was being used while Do Not Disturb was activated in iOS 6, the notification sound would still go off. Fortunately with iOS 7, the all notifications can be silenced once Do Not Disturb is activated.

In addition to the quick settings toggles, there are also 3 sliders to adjust screen brightness, song progress, and media volume. In between the song progress and the media volume is the song navigation where the user can play or pause a song as well as go to the previous and next track of music.

Below the music settings, is another new feature called AirDrop. AirDrop is Apple's answer to NFC (or Near Field Communication) which a lot of Android devices have been utilizing in order to transfer files by touching two devices together. With this feature, Bluetooth would be enabled to allow iPhone users to transfer contacts, pictures, and videos with each other.

Finally below Airdrop, is application quick starts. From the left to the right: toggle the camera flash as a flashlight, clock, calculator and camera. Overall all of these are really useful to have with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

Spotlight's new location

Spotlight

-swipe down from the home screen
-quickly search through your device

Spotlight also got a subtle new update iOS 7. Instead of navigating all the way to the leftmost page to access it, spotlight has been cleverly hid above the home screen by sliding down on any of the home screens. Spotlight can search across events, reminders, notes, contacts, email, applications, music, podcasts, videos, audiobooks, and messages.

iTunes Radio Home

iTunes Radio

-create radio stations

-add songs to wishlist
-built within the music app

iTunes Radio was also unveiled sporting simililar functionality to popular online music streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify. With the already existing Music app, users can create radio stations through suggested genres or search for an artist, genre, or song to create a station out of. Additionally, the user can create stations from their own music.

Other features for iTunes Radio includes the ability to skip songs playing, and be able to add songs to your wishlist or purchase the song right then and there. Users can also tune the station more by starring songs that they like or skipping songs similar to the ones that they dislike. The history of the songs being played are also recorded to reference later for purchases. The overall playback seems solid with limited commercial interruption, however iTunes Match subscribers will be able to use iTunes radio without the advertisements.

Multitasking in iOS 7

Multitasking

-double click the home button to activate
-swipe through applications
-swipe up to close an app

Multitasking too got a major revamp. Instead of holding on the icons to reveal the red minus to kill applications in the background, double clicking the home button lays the apps out in card preview. Users can then slide across the previews and tap on the app that they want to open or they can swipe up to close them.

Toggling settings with Siri

Siri

-toggle settings

-search results within interface

Siri also saw an update at WWDC where it too also has a sleeker design. Instead of the traditional gray panel obstructing the view of the phone, a semi transparent layer comes over the screen when asking the personal assistant for help.

The big changes this time around are the ability to toggle settings including Bluetooth, WiFi, Airplane Mode, Brightness, and Flashlight. With iOS 7, Siri also has the ability to embed search results from Wikipedia, Twitter, and Bing. While Bing replaced Google as the deafault search engine for Siri, users can still return search results from Google by saying "Search Google for..." however the result will be opened in Safari, not within the Siri interface.

Another interesting fact is that if Siri is turned off, Voice Assistant will take it's place offering commands from the 4th Generation iPod Touch.

Contact option in Messages

Contacts/Messages/FaceTime

-custom notifications
-contact option
-FaceTime Audio

As for the communication portion of iOS 7, not much has changed. Contacts now allows users to set custom ringtones or vibrations for specific contacts. For messages the edit button that was seen on the top right of the screen in iOS 6 was replaced with contact, so users can easily view the contact's information, FaceTime, or call them using FaceTime Audio. FaceTime Audio, similar to last years iMessage with text messages uses WiFi to make phone calls to other iDevice users.

Filters in Camera

Camera/Photos

-toggle between camera views
-built in photo filters
-organize and share moments

Both the camera and the photos app in iOS 7 received a pretty significant update. Now with the camera, users can toggle between regular frame, square frame (for social networks such as Instagram), panorama, and video. The update also included the ability to add photo filters to images while you are taking them.

As for the photos themselves they are organized in a completely new way. Instead of being simply organized by date taken, Apple has introduced moments, identifies your location paired with the date to intelligently determine a group of photos that you took at once. By doing so, the photos are much easier to view, edit and share with your friends.

Tabs layout in Safari

Safari

-full page browsing

-starred bookmarks

-shared links

-private view

-tab navigation

-unified search and address bar

Safari in iOS 7 now supports several new features. The first being full page browsing. Instead of the user being weighed down by the frame of options while online, they disappear as the user scrolls down. In addition the bookmarks were modified to include starred bookmarks for important and useful books and shared links which lists all of the shared links through the native sharing within the OS. Private view was also introduced along with a new tab layout and a unified search and engine address bar for a neater and cleaner mobile browsing experience.

Near Me in App Store

iTunes Store/App Store

-Near Me

-Automatic Downloads

iTunes Store and the App Store received small updates as well. iTunes Store introduced a slick new layout which changes color based on whether the content is audio or video. For audio the layout is white and for video the layout is black all within the same iTunes app.

As for the App Store, Apple scrapped Genius and replaced it with Near Me. Instead of Apple trying to determine what apps you may enjoy based on the ones that you already have, it would make more sense to determine what apps other people have nearby.

For both iTunes Store and the App Store there are now automatic updates so users no longer have to worry about missing out on the content.

Calendar main view

Calendar/Reminders

-week view
-endless agenda
-drag and drop
-improved notifications

Calendar and Reminders also received some pretty simple, but useful features. Calendar now has a more clean UI to view upcoming events and even has the ability to rearrange events by dragging and dropping them to a different time slot. The user can also access an endless agenda that goes over every event in the calendar by tapping on the search icon.

Improved Notifications

While only the layout changed Reminders and Calendar alert notifications have been improved as well. Now when a calendar event pops up on the screen the user has the ability to snooze the event, view the event, or close the dialogue box. Similarly with Reminders, when the dialogue appears, the user can be reminded again of the task in 15 minutes, mark the task as completed, view the reminder all from that same window.

iOS 7 has a lot of features, but not everything can be covered as it is currently still in beta. There is no telling how much or how little it will end up changing by Fall 2013. Where do you think the OS stands or will stand in comparison to iOS 6, Android, and Windows Phone?

Here are some additional screenshots from the native apps