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iOS 7 Beta 3 Reportedly Coming on Monday, July 8
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They can make any changes they wish. As with the addition of Voice Memo in beta 2. They also change buttons, layouts, etc if beta feedback suggests it.
Its not supposed to be ready for reliable use. Thats why its beta tested for months....
Agreed. I had to switch back to 6 because on my iPhone 4 Beta 2 was essentially unusable. I was hard resetting my phone 7-10 times a day, apps would lock up or crash, the keyboard or touchscreen would stop working randomly, it was a nightmare. My "favorite" was when I couldn't swipe to unlock - that element just wasn't working. I could swipe up, or down for features, but not side to side - it just wasn't registering for anything.
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I think (S)He gets that. But there are good betas and bad betas, and it's always good to know which ones can be played with and which ones can be lived with. I could live with beta 1 and use it on my usual devices without too much issue. beta 2 though became a real enough issue that I had to downgrade.
I can guarantee that I hate the old iOS icons at least as much as all the iOS 7 icon-haters hate the new icons.
The only things I can find that are wrong with the iPad mini version of beta 2 are the gestures don't respond well and when I do the multitasking gesture sometimes all of the windows on the multitasking disappear and I have to restart to get them back. That and slow UI overall. All my other problems are just because of the lack of apps made for iOS 7
My quick thoughts on iOS 7
Well I had beta 2 on my 4S for a couple of days, but then had to restore it back to 6.1.3 yesterday because it had a lot of issues that I didn't seen in beta 1. LOTS of crashing. My phone couldn't handle opening up text messages without crashing, and after switching back to iOS 6 I realize that these betas run VERY slow. Back on 6 and my 4S is incredibly snappy, and I realize that these are just betas that haven't been worked on for all that long, so I think I'm just going to wait until beta 5 or 6 and give it a go then. Really the only improvement I saw in beta 2 was the multitasking was much more fluid, and I'll admit I've gotten used to flicking up to close apps, however I must say that I don't like the look or functionality of the new multitasking at all. Sorry, but on a phone screen size that small, I don't need an entire preview of whats running on the app, especially if it still isn't real-time. Also it is not nearly as fast to switch apps as the multitasking in 6, as far as a UI point is concerned. I could be wrong, but it also seems like in 7 you can't see as many of your open apps as you could in 6, which was 4 per page. Also, the new UI for multitasking kinda takes away one handed use. Its much easier in 6 with one hand because it pops up at the bottom of the screen, and any movements you need to make are side to side, not up and down, which personally I find easier to do with my thumb. But all that aside, I really just think they should've kept a very similar UI and improved all of the under-the-hood stuff as they spoke about, since this is now supposed to be REAL multitasking, or at least more improved functionality wise.
Well I had beta 2 on my 4S for a couple of days, but then had to restore it back to 6.1.3 yesterday because it had a lot of issues that I didn't seen in beta 1. LOTS of crashing. My phone couldn't handle opening up text messages without crashing, and after switching back to iOS 6 I realize that these betas run VERY slow. Back on 6 and my 4S is incredibly snappy, and I realize that these are just betas that haven't been worked on for all that long, so I think I'm just going to wait until beta 5 or 6 and give it a go then. Really the only improvement I saw in beta 2 was the multitasking was much more fluid, and I'll admit I've gotten used to flicking up to close apps, however I must say that I don't like the look or functionality of the new multitasking at all. Sorry, but on a phone screen size that small, I don't need an entire preview of whats running on the app, especially if it still isn't real-time. Also it is not nearly as fast to switch apps as the multitasking in 6, as far as a UI point is concerned. I could be wrong, but it also seems like in 7 you can't see as many of your open apps as you could in 6, which was 4 per page. Also, the new UI for multitasking kinda takes away one handed use. Its much easier in 6 with one hand because it pops up at the bottom of the screen, and any movements you need to make are side to side, not up and down, which personally I find easier to do with my thumb. But all that aside, I really just think they should've kept a very similar UI and improved all of the under-the-hood stuff as they spoke about, since this is now supposed to be REAL multitasking, or at least more improved functionality wise.
They've made slight tweaks to the UI between beta1 and 2, but minor. 9to5mac has an article that talks about the history of how the UI has changed through the betas across the various versions of iOS here that may be helpful to you.
While I would agree that Apple appears to have done an excellent job so far with iOS7 the icon design, while not as bad as many paint it, is rather muddled from a design perspective and needs work to create what could be considered a consistent well designed set of icons. Personally I am not too fussed about the icons as long as the functionality is solid behind them.
I had to downgrade from ios7 to ios6, due to some major bugs. Not a big deal since its a beta, so I can't be mad that certain things didn't work. I'll probably wait until beta 3 and try it again. Can anyone on beta 2 answer the following questions? 1) did they fix the mail glitch? (The option to control the amount of emails it retrieved per account) this was a big one for me, as iOS 7 tried to download every email from the servers. Before I knew it I had over 25k emails on my phone. 2) does apps like google voice and ebay work? (These and other apps would crash on startup and where not available for use). 3) Did they fix the music glitch? (I would click on a song and it would say its playing the song I clicked on but would play a different song, and some purchased songs where not available to play.) I didn't like the icons at first as it felt like a bag of skittles exploded inside my phone, and was constantly reminded to taste the rainbow but like anything else I got used to it. It felt weird once I downgraded and it turns out I kind of miss it :0
They have added a lot of little things too, one thing I really enjoyed in beta 1 was the ability to customize the vibrator for notifications and calls. It came with several presets and the ability to make your own pattern. Did they keep this in beta 2? Overall I'm pretty happy with the direction ios7 is going.
They have added a lot of little things too, one thing I really enjoyed in beta 1 was the ability to customize the vibrator for notifications and calls. It came with several presets and the ability to make your own pattern. Did they keep this in beta 2? Overall I'm pretty happy with the direction ios7 is going.
Definitely. MacRumors should implement a filter to automatically hide every message saying snappier safari or fix icons.
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That latter part is completely subjective - you may as well force people to 'like' a piece of art just because you think it's perfect as it is. I really don't like some of the new icons myself and it's not because I'm attached to the current ones.
Also, I didn't realise that icons were synonymous with a particular century...
That latter part is completely subjective - you may as well force people to 'like' a piece of art just because you think it's perfect as it is. I really don't like some of the new icons myself and it's not because I'm attached to the current ones.
Also, I didn't realise that icons were synonymous with a particular century...
Please fix the horrid icons
Dude, this is a beta. Nothing more. Its for devs to test their apps and for Apple. If the Icons are not that beautiful, thats might be why. Wait for the GM version
I wouldn't say there is anything new and inovative enough to make people run and sell their Android phones and buy an iphone if they currently prefer Android devices.
Technically they have just caught up to some android features and actually did it less intuitively. Instead of just having on simple pull down for all notifications and togles the pull down has three tabs today, all, and missed (the missed one I don't get shouldn't just all fall under all?) and then you have to pull up for the toggles.
Animated wallpapers are a nice touch but again Android already has this.
They have added some swipe gestures in messages and mail which are clunky and feel less intuitive.
I like the new weather app and animated clock icon hopefully the weather icon becomes a live icon as well in the final additon.
Whether you like the rest of the other icons and new white gui or not is subjective. I'm personally not a big fan but its also not a dealbreaker for me anyway.
What ios still has going for it is overall simplicity and intuitiveness, the most reponsive keyboard and I've used swiftkey and swype for android and an app that I couldn't live without Mailbox.
What Android has going for it is openess, better notification/setting pull down, more customization (biggest one for me is being able to set different notification sounds for different applications)
I wish I could fast forward to next year with a fully baked ios 7, iphone 6 vs. the newest version of android and best Android device. Should be fun.
I really like iOS 7. I couldn't care about the icons, only about functionality, which is definitely improved. A few things to iron out:
1. New lock screen "slide to unlock" doesn't indicate which way to slide. In fact, the "control center" arrow beneath it might lead you to think you should slide up. They should put a left arrow beside "slide to unlock".
2. The "OK" button on the lockscreen is very small when you are in multi-numerical password mode (haven't tried any other modes).
3. Panorama backgrounds are a nice feature but pretty glitchy/jittery so far, and can lead to unreadable icon text, as the UI can't change from black to white writing on the fly to reflect the underlying picture. This is particularly unhelpful for folder icons, where you can't tell the contents from the icon itself.
4. Photo stream "Moments" categorisation is pretty random - doesn't appear to split them in a sensible way e.g. by location or date. Perhaps some way to edit this might help.
5. The white-on-light-green text in the Messaging app is not clear. Please make the green darker. And the independently moving speech bubbles are a bit silly.
6. I would prefer the Safari "screens/tabs" icon to tell me how many I have open, as in previous versions (even though there is no 8 screen limit any more). I would also like some sort of finger gesture to flip between screens as per the iPad.
7. Control Center is excellent, but a "turn on/off cellular data" button would be very helpful for me.
8. Calendar has gone all wrong. In month view, there is no longer any indication of which days have events, and you have to click on a date (even today) to see the list of things that day - this was previously helpfully shown at the bottom of the screen. Even then, it shows a timeline instead of a list, so you have to scroll up and down to see events that day (there is no way to compress/expand this timeline).
1. New lock screen "slide to unlock" doesn't indicate which way to slide. In fact, the "control center" arrow beneath it might lead you to think you should slide up. They should put a left arrow beside "slide to unlock".
2. The "OK" button on the lockscreen is very small when you are in multi-numerical password mode (haven't tried any other modes).
3. Panorama backgrounds are a nice feature but pretty glitchy/jittery so far, and can lead to unreadable icon text, as the UI can't change from black to white writing on the fly to reflect the underlying picture. This is particularly unhelpful for folder icons, where you can't tell the contents from the icon itself.
4. Photo stream "Moments" categorisation is pretty random - doesn't appear to split them in a sensible way e.g. by location or date. Perhaps some way to edit this might help.
5. The white-on-light-green text in the Messaging app is not clear. Please make the green darker. And the independently moving speech bubbles are a bit silly.
6. I would prefer the Safari "screens/tabs" icon to tell me how many I have open, as in previous versions (even though there is no 8 screen limit any more). I would also like some sort of finger gesture to flip between screens as per the iPad.
7. Control Center is excellent, but a "turn on/off cellular data" button would be very helpful for me.
8. Calendar has gone all wrong. In month view, there is no longer any indication of which days have events, and you have to click on a date (even today) to see the list of things that day - this was previously helpfully shown at the bottom of the screen. Even then, it shows a timeline instead of a list, so you have to scroll up and down to see events that day (there is no way to compress/expand this timeline).
Regarding the icons, if they do change them, they won't be changed until the GM at the iPhone event in September I wouldn't have thought... It doesn't seem like something they would just sneak into a new beta, plus they usually wait to introduce new UI elements like going from dots>patchwork in iOS4 beta and old>new UI in OSX 10.5 beta + dock in 10.8 beta...
Many of the icons displayed at WWDC were amateurish and clearly needed work. I assume the interface designers are using this opportunity to make much needed tweaks.
It's hard to enjoy your meal if the walls in a restaurant are unsightly.
Please fix the horrid icons
I remember how many people pushed this line when OS X was released. You probably have them for the next 5 years. Deal with it.
