FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
Story image
Apple unveils iOS 7… 'completely redesigned'
Wed, 11th Sep 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Following a string of announcements this morning, Apple has also unveiled iOS 7, featuring a completely redesigned new user interface.

Available September 18 to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users as a free software update, Cupertino says the software has "hundreds of new features" on show.

“iOS 7 is completely redesigned with an entirely new user interface and over 200 new features, so it’s like getting a brand new device, but one that will still be instantly familiar to our users,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.

“Next month we’ll be shipping our 700 millionth iOS device, and we’re excited about what our hundreds of thousands of iOS developers are doing to bring great new features to their apps.”

With more than 200 new features, iOS 7 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch includes:

• Control Center, which gives you quick access to the controls you want in one convenient place with just one swipe from the bottom of your screen;

• Notification Center, now available from the Lock screen so you can see all your notifications with a simple swipe, and the new Today feature gives you an at-a-glance view of your day with a summary of the important details such as weather, traffic, meetings and events;

• improved Multitasking that gives users the ability to switch between their apps in a more visual and intuitive way, and iOS 7 pays attention to which apps you use most and automatically keeps your content up to date in the background;

• AirDrop, an entirely new way to quickly and easily share content with people nearby;

• new Camera app filters so you can add real-time photo effects, a square camera option, and you can quickly and easily switch between your four cameras—video, photo, square and panorama—with just a swipe;

• a redesigned Photos app that introduces Moments, a new way to automatically organise your photos and videos based on time and location;

• full-screen browsing with Safari’s new redesigned user interface, the new smart search field helps simplify searching, and there’s a new view for your bookmarks and your Safari tabs;

Additional new iOS 7 features include a new Find My iPhone Activation Lock, that requires your Apple ID and password before you can turn off Find My iPhone, erase data or re-activate a device after it’s been remotely erased; FaceTime audio for high quality calls over a data network; and new ringtones, alarms, alerts and system sounds.