With the imminent release on the new iOS, there was a building anticipation at Jesuit. Reading through preview articles and watching feature videos, students across the school tried to evaluate iOS 7 and decide whether it was time to make the change. The decision to stick with the established operating system or take a leap of faith with the untested one is always difficult, but I am here to help you make that decision.
Although apparently glossy and sleek in its preview video, I had doubts about iOS 7 from the beginning. Even though the operating system seemed to have changed greatly, I didn’t understand what aspects were actually different. There seemed to be very little improvement to the performance. Nonetheless, I downloaded the new operating system with an open mind.
After spending several days sorting through the bells and whistles of the operating system, I was able to identify some of the good and bad features.
The Good:
Although the update was lacking in changes to the functionality of the iPad, there were occasional glimmers of Apple’s innovation that we have all grown accustomed too.
Control Center
With a simple swipe up from the bottom of the screen, you have access to your music, camera, timers, and brightness as well as the ability to turn Airplane Mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and Mute on or off. This greatly reduces the amount of touches you need to get to the most essential features on your iPad. Even though this greatly improves performance, the lack of customization is disappointing, as many users never utilize every included features. Additionally, it is often difficult to bring the Control Center up, requiring several tries to display it.
Auto-app Updates
Apple has yet to integrate much app activity in the background of your device, meaning that apps don’t update or complete tasks when they aren’t opened. In response to this, iOS 7 features optional auto-app updates, eliminating the stack-up of updates in the App Store. Although this feature does increase functionality, it is by no means landmark.
Notification and Calendar Changes
Fan favorites, the notification center and calendar work together better than ever. Bringing you the events of your day on a drop-down screen, the notification center helps you remember all your upcoming events as well as see things like the weather. Additionally, the calendar was slightly changed with a new, more flowing interface which allows you to scroll seamlessly through month after month.
Photo Changes
With a new camera interface, new image editing tools, and a rearranged image organization, your photo library just got revamped. Allowing for smoother transitions from video to photos as well as the ability to take pictures very quickly, the camera had a refreshing redesign. Paired with new filters, an overall more friendly photo editing interface, and a more intuitive day-by-day organization system, this redesign makes taking pictures even easier; however, the old camera interface was not really lacking, so it is disappointing to see such a substantial portion of the update dedicated to an arguably unneeded change.
Activation Lock
Arguably the best change in the update, new features to the security of the iPad diminished the threat of theft. It is now impossible to factory reset an iPad without the Apple ID and password of the owner. This means that stealing an iPad is now less reasonable than ever. With an increased difficulty in actually using a stolen iPad, the implications of theft are largely mitigated. Even so, keep your iPad close and make sure to have a passcode on at all times, and make sure it has the Jesuit background for that matter!
The Bad:
With a totally new redesign of the interface yet very few significant functional changes to the operating system, iOS 7 left many disappointed.
Interface Redesign
Although some may think the overall design changes may appear sleeker or more modern, I did not like the new interface. Although some features, like the new lock screen, have very little impact on the overall quality of the update, others detracted from it. For example, the change in the default icons of apps, a seemingly unnecessary change, makes the apps appear very two-dimensional and less like real buttons than before. Additionally, iOS 7 seems to have an overhaul of white in the interface, a feature making it noticeably more difficult to read at night.
Multitasking
Although multitasking was relatively simple and fast in iOS 6, iOS 7 opted for a bit glossier but less functional version of multitasking. With a rather slow, swipe-up feature to close apps, you can no longer close a large number of apps in an efficient manner. Additionally, although the change was meant to make it easier to see what you were working on in another app, the preview screen often fails to update, displaying a screen that is from long before. Scrolling between this screens is also rather slow. Multitasking simply takes more effort now, a failure in the update. But of course apple tried to throw a spin on their new feature, allowing the user to swipe up to three apps at once to close them, however, such an addition seems to be over complicated and unnecessary.
Spotlight Feature
If I was told that iOS 7 would make it more difficult to scroll from one screen to the other on your homescreen, I would be dumbfounded as to what that could be. With the new spotlight search, Apple did just that. Not only is the drop-down animation quite slow, I often bring it down when simply going from one page to the other. Yet again, there was absolutely no problem with the previous interface, with the spotlight search on the first page. Apple seemed to be grasping at straws for this update as it was trying to fix problems that didn’t exist.
Default Apps Unchanged
Despite a complete redesign in the look of the apps, there were really no improvements in the usage of the apps. They did not have any real changes that made them more user-friendly. Other than changing some color schemes and icons, the default apps are no better than before.
Noticeable Slowness
One thing that I noticed throughout my iOS 7 experience was that everything seemed to be a bit slower. Multitasking was significantly slower than before and the animation was not smooth. Spotlight search seemed especially slow, seeming to drop down in intervals. Entering and exiting folders, with the new zoom function, seemed a bit choppy. Even closing apps seemed to have a delay that did not exist before.
What iOS 7 Needed to Add:
Although many changes were made to the operating system, there seemed to be very few changes that significantly affected the usability of the iPad. Ultimately, the user-friendliness sets an operating system apart, as opposed to the showiness of its design.
Among the changes, a split-screen function would have been greatly appreciated, taking multitasking to a whole new level. Rather than having to four-finger swipe back and forth between apps, a split-screen would allow you to much more efficiently complete a variety of tasks.
Something as simple as adding numbers to the top of the keyboard would be a major benefit. Rather than having to click the numbers button, select your number, and then hit the numbers button again, you could simplify this to a small bar over the top of the alphabetical keyboard. Instead, the color of the keyboard was changed in iOS 7, not exactly the landmark change that we were hoping for.
Conclusion:
Although I felt that iOS 7 was a very disappointing update, it shouldn’t severely hinder your usage of the iPad. The update simply did not live up to established standards. Nonetheless, the update is here to stay, so I would recommend installing it after the first patch, which will hopefully address some of the main issues.
When Apple builds great anticipation with the release of their new operating system, there is an inherent expectation of excellence. Between the success that the company has had and the innovation it has produced, we expect that every update will provide us with some life-changing feature. Unfortunately, this was not the case with iOS 7, an update which I think will be remembered for its lack of changes to the actual functionality of the iPad.
