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jonnyb098

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2010
4,395
7,017
Michigan
Just wanted to give a list of thoughts/changes that Ive noticed using iOS 7.1 beta 3 on iPad Air that may not have been covered yet.

Overall stability is very good so far. Still a couple of springboard crashes using multitasking but thats all.

Parallax: Is very very pronounced now. Like they turned up the sensitivity. You can now turn it off only for wallpapers without turning off all the other animations.

Animations: Everything is very very fast and smooth. No stuttering on any animations and animation speed is on par with iOS 6. Unlock animation is also sped up. The icons fly in noticeably faster. However there is a lot of stuttering when the keyboard is up and you switch orientation (was smooth on 7.0.4). EDIT: Seems theres a new transparency to the keyboard. This seems to be causing the lag. (why they cant get this blur stuff running fluid on certain things is still a mystery. If the chips are having trouble they shouldn't be using it.)

Music app: Now actually works mostly the way it should. The shuffle buttons on artists actually work to shuffle specific albums. Itunes radio seems more stable and doesn't crash my iPad randomly like it used to.

Control Center: New bouncy animation introduced in beta 2 doesnt really fit with any other animation system wide. Note sure why they decided to to this. You can now flick the volume slider which is cool. You can more easily tap a current song to get back into the music app. More contrast to the buttons for even easier reading.

Accessibility: The new white point switch basically makes everything dimmer and "warmer" looking.


So far its been very stable on my iPad. As stable as 7.0.4 if not more so in the 2 days I've used it. Battery life is good, but not quite as good as 7.0.4. Barely noticeable.


EDIT: Video below showing the features.

http://youtu.be/lx4MAq4_AEg
 
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Thank you for the info.

In control center... do we now have control over specific BT devices? (Instead of just turning global BT on/off).

This is a big annoyance for me as I still have to go into settings right now when one of my cars loses synch.
 
Thank you for the info.

In control center... do we now have control over specific BT devices? (Instead of just turning global BT on/off).

This is a big annoyance for me as I still have to go into settings right now when one of my cars loses synch.

Not that I see.
 
The music app has been my biggest complaint about iOS 7.
  1. When you open an artist, can you get the albums sorted by name?
  2. When you open the album list for an artist, is it still really a "song list" that continues playing from one album to the next? Or can you expect an album to stop playing when it gets to the end of the album?
  3. Can you get albums or artists in a collection view (grid) instead of a list view?
The new music app is a horrible experience for people with very large collections, and for classical listeners (where album "boundaries" really matter).
 
The music app has been my biggest complaint about iOS 7.
  1. When you open an artist, can you get the albums sorted by name?
  2. When you open the album list for an artist, is it still really a "song list" that continues playing from one album to the next? Or can you expect an album to stop playing when it gets to the end of the album?
  3. Can you get albums or artists in a collection view (grid) instead of a list view?
The new music app is a horrible experience for people with very large collections, and for classical listeners (where album "boundaries" really matter).

Albums are not sorted by name. Still a long list that includes songs. The only way to play a specific album without it going to the next one is the hit the little shuffle icon. No grid view for albums unfortunately.

the iTunes radio tab looks so nice not sure why they dont bring some of that over to the other panels.
 
Thanks OP !

Have you tested Beta 3 on an iPad 3? Sorry for the rhyme. :eek:

I only have an iPad air. However I can make an educated guess that things are going to be improved on older devices. Especially the animations.
 
Albums are not sorted by name. Still a long list that includes songs. The only way to play a specific album without it going to the next one is the hit the little shuffle icon. No grid view for albums unfortunately.

the iTunes radio tab looks so nice not sure why they dont bring some of that over to the other panels.

Thanks for the update. If I can find the time, it sounds like I need to write my own music app.
 
Music app was crazy slow opening an artist with hundreds of songs. Like lock up slow.

Same with my iPhone.

Beta 2 did not have these issues

On phone the beta3 dial pad takes quite a bit to render too. And power off while looking cool didn't seem that smooth
 
Parallax: Is very very pronounced now. Like they turned up the sensitivity. You can now turn it off only for wallpapers without turning off all the other animations.


How do you turn it off for just wallpapers? I like the animations, especially now that they are much quicker, I don't like the "floating" icons over the wallpaper. I couldn't find that option in the Settings.
 
Here is a video I put together. Excuse my voice. Getting over a cold.

http://youtu.be/lx4MAq4_AEg

Excellent stuff Jonny. :)

I don't like the shift key animation. You are correct it is somewhat confusing as it's backwards now. The bold font doesn't bother me either. Animations look fluid.

The only thing that annoys me is that someone I believe mentioned that a previous beta, Apple had a dark theme keyboard. Now they have reverted back to the white keyboard. I much prefer the dark keyboard they use.
 
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