iOS 7: what to expect

iOS 7: what to expect

Rex- Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off on 10 June and among the things we expect to see unveiled is iOS 7, the latest edition of the operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently revealed that iOS 7 could be a drastic departure from the iOS we’re used to, with Apple’s British-born design chief Sir Jony Ive taking the helm and steering the user interface and look away from skeuomorphism and taking a more minimalist approach. “What is skeuomorphism?” we hear you cry. Well, on the digital front it’s a design approach that incorporates the look of real-life materials and textures as a way to add familiarity. In the case of iOS, this means on-screen buttons and sliders that appear to be made from shiny metal, Game Center’s green baize table or the calendar’s liberal use of leather. How might Apple reinvent iOS? Read on and find out.... (Please note, a lot of the images used in this gallery are concept designs and not official shots of iOS 7)

imjeanmarc- Also rumoured to be getting the flat black and white treatment is the iOS notifications panel, which currently rocks a skeuomorphic cloth-textured background. This will be replaced by a flat black or dark grey panel with white text. Again (assuming the sources are correct) the digital metaphors and shininess are being stripped out in favour of something much flatter and arguably cleaner: think Windows Phone, with its flat, colour-block tiles. There’s also a chance we’ll see a lot of extra interactivity built into the notifications panel, and more access to information at a glance. So there might be weather info and localised news feeds included – a little like the notification bar widgets on Android. There may also be a panel to quickly let users access Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controls, and to toggle Airplane Mode on and off.

ConceptsiPhone- The iPhone’s icon-mosaic of a home screen is undoubtedly iconic – so much so that it spawned a thousand rip-offs and almost as many lawsuits – and Apple isn’t likely to change its layout too drastically in iOS 7. According to 9to5Mac, it’s again the gloss that’s going as Ive and co seek to impress a uniform visual flatness across everything. Shine and shadows are being removed from the dock at the foot of the screen, and also from Apple’s own app icons like Camera, Photos and Clock. But in most respects the Home screen will look similar and work similarly to its current incarnation. One other thing picked up on in 9to5Mac’s report is panoramic backgrounds. You’ll apparently be able to set panoramic images as your wallpaper (we assume Apple will include some of their own photos too) and have the image scroll left to right as you swipe through the various home screens.

Corbis- Previous iOS updates have added deeper Facebook and Twitter integration into the mix, and iOS 7 is reportedly set to continue this trend, albeit with slightly less popular social networks. According to a few outlets, Flickr and Vimeo are getting the integration treatment, allowing iOS 7 users to sign into these networks using their iPhone or iPad’s Settings application. Users will be able to share photos stored on taken on their devices directly to Flickr, and most likely share photos taken in third-party apps like Instagram directly to Flickr with a single button press. Any Vimeo integration seems likely to work in the same way, by allowing video clips on an iDevice to be uploaded easily to the site – much as they can already be shared directly to YouTube