My First Day With iOS 7

After downloading and installing iOS 7 on my iPhone 5, I’ve had just one day to see what I think. Don’t forget, this is the first beta firmware of a major redesign so there is still room for improvement. First, the design itself is just ok. It makes me feel like Apple is trying to keep up with Windows or Android phones. That makes me sad. I’d rather see them lead than follow. The design isn’t horrible but it just doesn’t feel totally Apple. Besides the look, I have a few things that I really don’t like. Here’s some of my observations after the first day.

Folders

I like that you can scroll in folders now, but I was doing that before with a hack called Infinifolders. I know what Apple is trying to do here, they want the folders view to look like a big icon so when you open a folder the transition looks nice. The problem is you can only see 9 apps at a time. There is a lot of wasted space going on. And when you have a folder with a lot of apps in it, it’s a long process to get to the app you want. I do like the big folder title at the top. And, if you add some emoticons in there, they are big and clear.

Folders

3D Wallpaper

I’m not sure what Apple calls this… I must have missed it. Basically your wallpaper moves behind your icons as you tilt your iPhone to make it appear 3D. This works on the lock screen as well as your home screen. They’ve tried really hard, even making the icon badges move but honestly, it does nothing for me. It’s a bit glitchy, not smooth and looks nothing like it does in their video. Not impressed. As a side note, they do have “dynamic” wallpaper which is like video wallpaper. Not sure how to get more of those but there are two that are included. They move slowly but again, glitchy.

Dynamic Wallpaper

Battery Life

Horrible. Again, this is a beta so this is pretty typical, but my iPhone 5 that was jailbroke with a ton of hacks ran way cooler and lasted longer. Now, my iPhone is quite warm most of the time and I’m pretty much keeping it plugged in any time I’m at my desk or in the car. We’ll assume this will improve with new betas and the final release. I do like the new look of the charging symbol that flashes next to the battery bar while charging and the one that appears on the lock screen when you plug the device in.

Bugs

The first thing a lot of people ask me is, “Is it really buggy?” I’d say no. I’ve had a few small things here and there but this beta is actually really good. I’m always afraid that some app won’t work or a feature will be totally missing and then I can’t do my job. But so far, it’s been fully functional.

Siri

Siri has not been updated yet with the new voice and it still works about half the time for me. But the new controls work well and even give you quick access to the settings when requesting things like more brightness.

Siri

Swiping

So there is a new feature that allows you to swipe in from the left of your iPhone to go back a screen. Great idea, one problem… I swipe that direction to delete emails and now that doesn’t work. You have to start from the right. Annoying. :( It is nice not to reach clear to the top left side of the screen with my right thumb to go back but I’m not sure which feature I’d rather have.

Control Center

This is a great feature and is basically SBSettings. I like the flashlight button and quick access to brightness, wifi and rotation lock. I wish you could customize it a little more. I don’t need quick access to the calculator or clock but would like to put a couple of other apps there.

Movement

Not sure what to call this but the motion between apps, the way the apps open, the lock screen fading in and out and the new animations that Apple is using are nice. It’s a fresh update to a five year old design. I just have to get used to the colors!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer you. Thanks!

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Comments

  1. Do you experience the following that I do?
    1) I ask Siri to turn on the flashlight, it works. When I ask her to turn it off, she tells me it is already off. Similar experience with using Siri to control Bluetooth

    2) The today tab of the notification center shows my calendar from yesterday.

    3) The all tab from the notification center shows notifications that I dismissed months ago, had to clear them once.

  2. Personally, the largest annoyance for me is the sheer amount of white making some of the stock apps gareish, plane and difficult to distinguish between elements. For example in the email app I prefer the bar at the top to be more easily distinguishable. Also in the photo app, have white around the photos looks bad and when you tap to hide or show the controls, it looks really silly how it switches from black to a white.

    The features of ios7 are great though and I don’t plan to go back to ios6 anytime soon!

  3. Have you figured out how you end app’s?