{"id":2047,"date":"2013-09-18T15:35:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T23:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2013-09-18T15:35:36","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T23:35:36","slug":"7-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=2047","title":{"rendered":"7 Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

In retrospect, it’s almost as if Apple was specifically offering a middle finger to everyone who was deriding iOS as old and stale. \u00a0Here is a new version of the OS, with a completely new look\u2026and almost totally identical functionality. \u00a0My June assessment stands<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“This isn’t an overhaul of the design, this is a re-skinning for the sake of appeasing people who were bored of the old UI. The underlying functionality is the same – everything is where it was, this is literally just new chrome – and I don’t know if it’s just the newness, but it feels challenging in a way that recalls the move from Mac OS 9 to OS X. \u00a0And given what a radical change that was, it’s a bigger conceptual leap than should be necessary from iOS 6 to 7.”<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re looking for some sort of radical departure, forget about it. \u00a0There are plenty of tiny tweaks that are nice – the hours-ahead-or-behind in the clock, the scale-bar and compass on Maps – but only the Android-inspired Control Center (long overdue) and the WebOS-inspired app switcher with easy-swipe quit (badly needed and useful) are really significant. \u00a0Everything else is a wash at best, and some things – like the removal of the actual weather widget and quick-Tweet button in the Notification center – are actually a step backward.<\/p>\n

The real innovation relies on hardware, at this point. \u00a0The A7\/M7 combination will actually make the location-based apps (and the Google Now-Lite functions in the Today pane) useful without destroying battery life, while the fingerprint authentication opens up new possibilities\u2026but those are things that require a 5S. \u00a0When they trickle down to the notional revised-5C next year, and presumably remain in the notional iPhone 6, there’ll be enough of a critical mass of devices with those features for software to really start exploiting them. \u00a0At that point, you can imagine a greater paradigm shift in UI and functionality.<\/p>\n

For the most part, though, the fact is that iOS is good enough already, and has been pretty much since iOS 5. \u00a0It’s hard as hell to sell “it’s already plenty good”, though, especially in Silicon Valley, so here we are, with a fistful of tweaks and a shiny new look. \u00a0At this point, the number one thing I would kill for is more battery life, which is why I’m most intrigued by the prospect of an AIO Wireless SIM and a GSM-based iPhone 5C\u2026or a developer-edition Moto X. \u00a0And it’s been a long, long time since any Android device could claim equal curb appeal with the new iPhone. \u00a0It’s not at all lost on me that the unlocked dev Moto X is the same cost as a contract-free 32 GB iPhone 5C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In retrospect, it’s almost as if Apple was specifically offering a middle finger to everyone who was deriding iOS as old and stale. \u00a0Here is a new version of the OS, with a completely new look\u2026and almost totally identical functionality. \u00a0My June assessment stands: “This isn’t an overhaul of the design, this is a re-skinning … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “7 Out”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}