New iPhone iOS 7: What Do You Think?

So if you didn’t hear, Apple released a new operating system yesterday for the iPhone and iPad called iOS 7. I downloaded it last night and WOW, crazy different look and feel!

I thought I’d take a minute today to show you some of the differences when you download the new operating system.

First thing… the home screen. The old iPhone/iPad operating system seemed to have more drop shadows and shading to the graphics. The new iOS7 has very flat, more modern graphics.

As you can see in my Main Menu folder, many of the app icons have changed, including the calculator, compass and contacts.

Also, if you swipe up from the new home screen you’ll get taken to a control screen. Here you can change options for your Bluetooth, brightness, sounds, and even grab a handy flashlight.

One of the first notifications, when you update your operating system, is about the Spotlight search feature. Instead of swiping to the left, you’ll now swipe down to gain access. So swipe up for the control panel, swipe down for the spotlight search.

Another big change is with the Photos app. Besides the new look, your photos will now be sorted into collections based on date and location.

Your photo albums will also now include a separate folder for videos. And the camera? Well, let’s just say it’s awesome. Directly in the app you can add filters to your photos, plus crop them into squares (great for Instagram) or panoramic views.

Another updated app I’m totally loving is Safari. You can see all of your open pages in a cool new view, plus the search feature is so much better now with autofill!

In case you didn’t know this before, you can double click on the home button (the circular button at the bottom of your iPhone) to view all of the apps that you currently have open. Now you’ll get a screenshot of the open app and you just need to swipe up on the image to close it.

Thankfully in Apple iOS7 they finally updated the sounds (found under settings). You can still access the old iPhone classic tones as well, but it will be nice to finally change from my Marimba ringtone.

Text messages have a new look. Not too crazy about this change thus far, but hopefully it will grow on me (and yeah, that’s me and my girl Chelsea from Two Twenty One texting yesterday. She kills me).

The keypad in the Phone application has updated as well. Again, a little flat and bland, but I think the people with fatter fingers will have fewer issues, ha!

Some new things to the iOS7… first up is iTunes radio. Umm… hello. LOVE! I use this all the time at work on my Mac Book so was super thrilled to have it available now on my iPhone. It basically streams music from over 250 stations. And the more you listen to it, the more it learns what music you like and will start playing the songs you love.

Siri also got a bit of a makeover. The screen changed where a little line shows the sounds wavelengths, plus Siri is available in two new voices as well (male and female options). And Siri is smarter than ever before and can understand more directions than the older version.

In case you don’t know how to download the new operating system, click on the Settings button on your home screen. Click on General > Software Update. Then you should see a button that says Download and Install which will prompt you to download iOS7.

So I’m definitely going to have to get used to this new operating system. While the graphics are a little too flat for my personal preference, I do like some of the new features. And after playing with it for the past 12 hours, it is kinda like having a brand new phone.

So, have you downloaded the new operating system yet?
What do you think?