iOS 7.1 Beta 3 Tidbits: Revamped Keyboard, Darker Icons, New Phone Look, and More

[bruno7]

Fix the Music App!!!

Screw all these cosmetic changes!

How about the good ol' user experience and app funcionality?

Here's my older post, I think it fits here quite well:

I open Music App. I go to Artists tab. On my iPhone 4 I used to see I think 8 artists at the time. Now there is totally useless artwork on the left which is probably downloaded form the net - sometimes CD art, sometimes generic pretty artist picture. And it only lets me see 3,5 artist now instead of 8. Then I go for example to my favorite artist - The Cure. They’ve got 31 albums. So I click on the artist and what do I see? Instead of alphabetical album list I get bunch of album art which isn’t important at all at this moment in time (I will see it when I click on the album and then again with every song from that album so why should I look at it now?). And again - intead of 8 albums I get to see 3,5. But what is much much worse - they’re not sorted at all! Nor alphabetically neither chronologically. And what’s really bad - they’re all showing all the songs within them. So when I want to go to the last album (which I don’t even know what it is due to that non-sorting problem) I have to scroll through 360 songs to get there! Does this make any sense? I’m afraid not. And then - as I scroll, I stop at one album and decide to play it. I click on the artwork hoping it would take me directly to the album but nothing happens. So I click on Shuffle icon next to album art and instead of shuffling that album it starts playing all the songs from that artist. Also - if I want to play just one particular album from the artist I should be able to do it from here, too. But it doesn’t work that way as it plays continually till it reaches the last album song, then it starts playing the next album. That’s Artist Tab. Ruined. Yeah - and it doesn’t even show me the alphabet on the right side.


Songs Tab - artwork everywhere. Why exactly? Does anybody search within this tab for a particular song using the tiny album artwork? I am trying to understand the reasons your teams have while redesigning this app. Again instead of 8 or 9 songs I see only 6. So I try to search for a particular song. But to my surprise it searches not among the songs only but it searches all the artists and albums, too! Useless. Difficult.


Anyway - I go to play a song. Here the app is almost perfect. I strongly believe you should put back those little icons for Shuffle and Repeat though. It’d be much cleaner and easier to use. Few taps only instead of a tap and then moving finger to the middle of the screen to choose my option. Shuffle Album, Shuffle All (from the artist), Repeat 1 song, album, off. That’s it. Easy. Clean. Fast.


Video App - on iOS6 I could see my list of my videos scrolling up and down with names and some info - artist, length etc. Now I get this strange grid with 3x3 tiny thumbnails without any names or information. I have to guess by the thumbnail what video I want to play. I don’t understand why.

Not much better on my new 5S either...



This is what you should be fixing, Apple.

And you give us round buttons instead?

Hm, thanks...

 

[C DM]

Did any of you discover this new mode in the Calendar app? Apple have brought back the split calendar view that was present in iOS 6 and I like it.

I'm not sure why the back button is labelled 'Jan 2014'. That doesn't make sense to me because tapping it takes you back to the 2014 year view.

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Happened back in beta 2 actually.

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Control Centre also bounces when brought up, and frame rates have been dramatically improved

Also something from beta 2 days.

 

[FoxMcCloud]

I got excited when I read keyboard revamp. But then got sad when I saw the picture and realised it's still the same. Slightly modified would've been a better phrase than revamped.

 

[Masquerade]

Revamped keyboard!!!

 

[BeyondtheTech]

Darker iOS 7.1 icons on the top, brighter iOS 7 icons on the bottom
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OMG, they made the icon of the phone look like the icon of the messaging app and vice versa. That's going to screw everyone up!

 

[Masquerade]

That microwave looks like it was born before mighty ive

 

[kd5jos]

The sign of an idiot...

Steve Jobs was known to call people in the middle of the night to complain about the subtlest issues with colors and icons etc. Sure doesn't seem like there is anyone on board with that attention to detail anymore. So many questionable design choices.

Steve was a genius for lots of things. This was NOT one of them. Did he do this because people are most creative when they are asleep? Did he do this because people are at their most capable of problem solving in the middle of the night? No, he did this to demonstrate how enormous his ego was. If an employer EVER called me in the middle of the damn night to fix something that could wait until the next day....

No, I am not a slave, I am an employee. I work to live, I do NOT live to work. It is sad that anyone let him get away with this.

I like Apple products, but you can be committed to quality without needing to be committed to a sanitarium.

 

[acslater017]

Ok seriously they really don't need to spend time changing things just for the sake of change. How about lets go back to the old days where 0.1 releases actually added some good functionality. Now even major releases aren't even adding much and are focusing more on aesthetics which is a real disappointment

As SJ would say, design is how it works. Sure, iOS 7 needs some under-the-hood improvements to stability, frame rate, etc. But these 0.1 "aesthetic" changes are rooted in usability and are useful. I would presume they make it harder to accidentally dial, make it easier to type, and strengthen the consistency of visual language used.

The entire UI was overhauled in 7.0, and brought with it TONS of new features. I'm not surprised that 7.1 focuses on usability, graphics tweaks, etc. In any case, we are reading the first impressions of a beta product - things like "it crashes less frequently" will take some time to perceive.

 

[Cristian .b]

on the lock screen, is the status bar icons still bigger than usual?

 

[millerlite]

Add "Up Next" to Music app

In iTunes, you can add a list of songs to play next (not a playlist), but the iOS app doesn't do this. It drives me insane. It's such a simple feature! Add it!!!!

 

[flux73]

wow !

and nobody thought apple could innovate!


seriously though these changes are so minor it's a joke.

Apple needs to take a cue from Google and push larger changes on a more frequent manner.

What were you expecting from a x.1 version? This isn't iOS 8.

What are these large changes by Google you're referring to? And how frequently do they happen? Apple puts out a new iOS version every year. That's too slow for you?

 

[Yojimbo007]

All moves in the right direction... More contrast everywhere Apple !!!

Please get rid of the white background in the photo app !!!!!!!

 

[C DM]

on the lock screen, is the status bar icons still bigger than usual?

Yes. It's part of the iOS 7 design pretty much.

 

[flux73]

For all the crap that everyone is giving Apple, you understand that this is why Apple fans choose Apple? That they sweat the little details that everyone else dismisses. We all know that iOS 7 had to be rushed a bit to meet their deadline. Thus, there are probably a lot of things Ive wanted more time to work on and well, now's the time. On top of the mountain of other work he has for iPhone 6, iPad Pro, iWatch, iTV, etc.

 

[dannyyankou]

Did any of you discover this new mode in the Calendar app? Apple have brought back the split calendar view that was present in iOS 6 and I like it.

I'm not sure why the back button is labelled 'Jan 2014'. That doesn't make sense to me because tapping it takes you back to the 2014 year view.

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Nice to see they're listening to customers' feedback.

 

[NOTmacbookpro13]

Don't like the changes to the keyboard. The skinny font was perfect. Looks pretty bad to me on the iPad Mini retina.

Battery life seems to be very good so far though. Drained 3% in an hour of watching 1080p video & some wifi browsing after.

 

[RedOrchestra]

For all the crap that everyone is giving Apple, you understand that this is why Apple fans choose Apple? That they sweat the little details that everyone else dismisses. We all know that iOS 7 had to be rushed a bit to meet their deadline. Thus, there are probably a lot of things Ive wanted more time to work on and well, now's the time. On top of the mountain of other work he has for iPhone 6, iPad Pro, iWatch, iTV, etc.

NEVER a shortage of Apple apologists!

 

[dec.]

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Darker iOS 7.1 icons on the top, brighter iOS 7 icons on the bottom
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OMG, they made the icon of the phone look like the icon of the messaging app and vice versa. That's going to screw everyone up!

I love the unconventional but logical approach Apple has taken here. It does make perfect sense if you consider that it's called a "Speech Ballon" and the spoken word is the communication factor in a phone call, while when you message someone typically your smartphone and its keyboard are the main communication factor.

 

[flux73]

NEVER a shortage of Apple apologists!

Not apologizing for anything. I just don't see the justification for such complaints. People are writing as if iOS 7 is useless or broken. A little perspective is in order.

 

[ssdeg7]

I preferred the older music icons, they were a bit less intrusive. Kind of hate all the changes.

The power off buttons are too sophisticated for iOS 7 (I don't know what's wrong with the red slider).

A smaller call button? Well I guess i'll just have to live with all these "small" but useless changes.

 

[melendezest]

I still don't see anything that'll make me come back from Android, phone-wise.

Although the Calendar changes are welcome, and the iPad Air is very nice hardware (bought one for me ma), I'll still be rocking the iPad 1.

Don't need anything else yet, since my S4 takes care of 90% of my content consumption.

For me, the iPad 1 is sufficient (at home) for Netflix, email, Internet surfing, comics apps, and the kids' free casual games. And I prefer the "pre-7" iOS look and functionality way, way more, esp. on a tablet. No jailbreak required, either.

It goes to show how much Apple nailed it from the outset.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Don't like the changes to the keyboard. The skinny font was perfect.

it wasnt perfect -- i dont like the skinny fonts. boom.

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NEVER a shortage of Apple apologists!

not. facts is facts...apple is the highest rated in consumer satisfaction reports, for good reason. they sweat details. meanwhile other carriers cant even get the newer versions (note the plural) of Android onto their handsets *at all*.

also, news flash -- youre on an apple enthusiast website. if you dont expect to see good will here toward one of the most successful, beloved brands in history of the species, then youre thinking wrong.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Keep in mind that one of the major features planned for 7.1 is iOS in the car. So many of the changes may be a result of trying to maintain a consistent UI and colors between the iOS device and what will appear on the display in car. Apple doesn't make changes to the UI without some legitimate reason for it, how ever superficial. Example, the iOS 7 color pallet changes were to compliment the iPhone 5C range of colors and a few animation changes thrown in for fun. Otherwise, the colors would have clashed. I am sure Apple has other products in the pipeline which some of these changes are in anticipation of. Take for example the slide to power off button. Looks a lot like the power button on the Mackbook. Do I sense an iOS based Macbook Air in our future? Or it could simply be Apple finally got around to updating the power off to be consistent with iOS 7 theme/colors. Nonetheless, iOS beta releases give you an advance look at what new products are coming if you interpret the changes correctly. Apple also knows that any radical change will upset a certain segment of their consumers. By making the changes public, it allows Apple to receive feedback, for it to grow on customers, and a little bit of public press manipulation. Example, iOS 7 gave press/competitors something to speculate about while diverting everyone away from what Apple really had planned. Bam! Apple releases the iPhone 5S with 64 bit and a Touch ID sensor. Although some iOS developers had speculated Apple would go 64 bit vs. power hungry quad core, and it was expected Apple would do something with fingerprints after their recent acquisitions. It just wasn't anticipated so soon.

 

[RedOrchestra]

"...they sweat details"

REALLY ... when will that sweating details include iOS optimization for iPad.

 

[C DM]

I love the unconventional but logical approach Apple has taken here. It does make perfect sense if you consider that it's called a "Speech Ballon" and the spoken word is the communication factor in a phone call, while when you message someone typically your smartphone and its keyboard are the main communication factor.

What approach? The icons weren't changed--it really wouldn't make sense to change what are essentially universal and standardized icons for basic things like that.