I love hyperbolic statements like this. As if anyone in the history of the universe has ever defined joy as being 6 rows of static squares.
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iOS 7 Beta 5 Tidbits: Icon Settings Redesign, New Control Center Options
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I love hyperbolic statements like this. As if anyone in the history of the universe has ever defined joy as being 6 rows of static squares.
Seems like a few broken features get fixed and a few more stop working after each new beta. I miss the unlock sound and the translucency on the popup elements, hope their absence is only due to bugs.
Gotta say though, I really disliked iOS 7 after its unveiling but the performance on my iPhone 4S has gotten tighter and tighter with each iteration. Now when I go back and use iOS 6 I do see dated design choices and some superfluous details, where I didn't really before. Not every decision about iOS 7 I agree with, but I think the small details have been coming together and gelling to make it much better as it goes.
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Some of those stock icons are still ugly as hell, though.
Gotta say though, I really disliked iOS 7 after its unveiling but the performance on my iPhone 4S has gotten tighter and tighter with each iteration. Now when I go back and use iOS 6 I do see dated design choices and some superfluous details, where I didn't really before. Not every decision about iOS 7 I agree with, but I think the small details have been coming together and gelling to make it much better as it goes.
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Some of those stock icons are still ugly as hell, though.
Ironic, because it was precisely listening to the constant drone of the "Internet mob" that got rid of skeuomorphism and started all this iconic ugliness.
One thing about iOS that really needs to be fixed is media sent though MMS/Messages. There is no easy way to see how much space this takes up (it can be a lot), no easy way to selectively sync or back up this data (and therefore, to restore it).
My wife's phone is full of what I eventually figured out was videos sent to her over MMS (so full the Camera app won't even let her take a picture or video). The only way to get rid of these without using some paid third party app is to go through every thread of your text messages and delete things one by one. And if there's some videos you want to save somewhere, you can't easily transfer them off the phone.
My wife's phone is full of what I eventually figured out was videos sent to her over MMS (so full the Camera app won't even let her take a picture or video). The only way to get rid of these without using some paid third party app is to go through every thread of your text messages and delete things one by one. And if there's some videos you want to save somewhere, you can't easily transfer them off the phone.
What 3rd party tool? I keep only one thread open with the woman and it's "only" 650 MB.
Really? I actually find it much better that I can pull down the spotlight search from any page rather than sliding all the way over. Much easier and saves time.
Unfortunately, the majority will neither enjoy iOS7 nor iOS6. Most people have always preferred Android and Windows. And a lot of them even like Gingerbread and XP the most. Also most people are Chinese. Most people believe in Catholicism. Most people can not afford a phone of any kind.
So tell me how the world works without referring to science. The majority had already given up on Apple a long time ago. But they came back with advancements in human interface design based on applied research findings on humanmachine interaction. Design is how it works. And it just works.
That's still the main competitive advantage of the whole company. And it is not based on majority taste, but on design truth. Democracy is just a man-made principle of decision making. And not a very good one. Nothing in nature works that way. While there is monarchism in wildlife.
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syd430
Guest
Say what you want about ios 7, but the fact that they're persistently making such subtle UI tweaks to make things better should tell you something: These people care about what they're doing. A lesser company wouldn't bother with slightly changing the gradient of the mail icon after 3 weeks for instance. The fire is still very much alive at Apple post-Jobs in my view. The attention to detail and desire to keep everything tightly integrated is still there. Everyday I get increasingly confident that this is not 1985 all over again.
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It's even funnier that my Android is faster than my friend's iOS6 on iPhone 5. ....And I am not Android biased either so don't go there.
It worked for Jobs. The problem is you can never really know what customers want because they often are not sure what they want. Further, customers are not designers. Moreover, listen to the vocal people is not necessary listening to the majority. I loved the the OS that was shown at the developers conference.
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syd430
Guest
I use both ios and android devices devices. After all these years, scrolling on Android is still jittery even on top-end hardware. It's because the scrolling algorithms suck. The UI also doesn't have the same overall fluidity as ios. There is a lot of advantages to Android but lets not start making things up.
Moto X
Now, if only it could do all the cool things the new Moto X can do! That'd be great!
Remove from pocket, turns on and ready to go.
Touch screen, instant notifications.
Shake phone, right to Camera app.
It goes on and on. They really gave this phone's software some thought. Spent less time on making icons look good and more time on function and ease of use. Way to go Motorola/Google. Love to see these in the next iPhone. I'd never switch from the iPhone, but lets work on some other things...
Now, if only it could do all the cool things the new Moto X can do! That'd be great!
Remove from pocket, turns on and ready to go.
Touch screen, instant notifications.
Shake phone, right to Camera app.
It goes on and on. They really gave this phone's software some thought. Spent less time on making icons look good and more time on function and ease of use. Way to go Motorola/Google. Love to see these in the next iPhone. I'd never switch from the iPhone, but lets work on some other things...
My take is that part of this beta is seeking a middle ground between the textured, skeuomorphic look that evolved from iOS 1.0 to iOS 6.1 and the minimalist / Paul Rand style of graphics of iOS 7.0
One thing that I'm picking up on the public blogs and field user tested reported by many is there's a significant generation gap in opinions. The younger 35-and-under crowd is favoring the minimalism while the older crowd prefers skeuomorphic looks.
Also wondering how many that don't like the look of iOS 7.0 grew up riding in the tail gunner seat of a Vista Cruiser.
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Here are three that do and totally cashed in on it -- Paul Rand, Sol LeWitt and John McCracken.
Just seeing the settings screenshots side by side convinced me that the original design was easier to "work." I recognize that, even today, not everyone immediately recognizes play, stop, pause; but, identifying symbols work for me. The updated icons caused me to look into the color to decipher the function and I began looking at the words to see if that sped up comprehension. With the blue icons on a white background, I quickly understood that row's function and wasn't even reading the text.
There is nothing subtile in button borders to indicate touch targets. That's the most basic usability feature in every OS since 1984. Everything that is a button should have a slightly visible border. And they just dropped it in favor of a more simpler look. Windows 8.1 is also making subtle UI tweaks to make things better. And all that tells me is, how awful things are. And how much better things were with Windows 7.
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syd430
Guest
The problem is that 3rd-party settings have their own coloured icons further down the list. I think the change was more for consistency than anything else.
Err...what device are you using? Certainly not like that on my Nexus 4 and 7 with 4.3.