So here it is, my review of iOS 7. I've had it now for just about a week, and I would like to give my two cents to add to all the rants, reviews and raves on the new OS.
What do I think? I like it.
Now I know many of you are saying: "what NEW features did they add?". And the answer is, not many. And most were already available in android anyways. But that's not actually the point. Truth is, I wasn't expecting much innovation because the smartphone market has reached its innovation saturation point. The only thing left to innovate is mobile payments. More on that later.
So, now we have an Apple device with similar features as Android. Add to that a more stable platform which is what drew me over to iOS last year.
Now let's look under the hood.
First and foremost, design.
I like the new design. I think it is fresh and modern and brings iOS up to par with the modern look and feel of Android. Let's be honest here, iOS was starting to look dated, after all, it hadn't changed aesthetics since it's first release! The new fonts would do Steve Jobs proud, as fonts were always his signature for his products.
Siri. I've actually found this to be a sour note. I like to use Siri, but recently have noticed that she's been unable to fulfill my requests. This might be that when the phone is locked she isn't able to access the network properly (bug), but time will tell. I never had issues with her making a phone call before, but yesterday she struggled with just that. Minus points here.
Email/Safari. Some nice changes here to go along with the OS look and feel. Improved ease of use for navigating through emails or tabs is a breath of fresh air. I'm finding that I'm using safari more than chrome now, something I never thought I would do.
Camera. The filters are neat (not new), but I'm finding the camera is actually more responsive than before. Took rapid fire shots of my son throwing a baseball, looked pretty neat.
All in all, I like the new look. Back to my earlier point on innovation and mobile payments. This is one of the final frontiers for smartphone innovation, and in fact I think that Apple is on its way to establish itself as a market leader here. Sure, they didn't include NFC with the 5S, but why do they need to? NFC can be compromised much easier than biometrics can. So Apple chose to develop a more secure standard and move the industry where they want it to go. Sound familiar? It should. They've done this many times before with iTunes and all of the other markets they've revolutionized. I'm willing to bet that the finger scannin becomes the way to introduce mobile payments on your phone before NFC goes mainstream. It's just more secure, period.
Now, I just have to wait to upgrade my iPhone 5 so I can use the biometrics...
What are your thoughts on iOS 7?
Brad