Articles about iOS 7

First in a series. Every week thousands of great new iOS apps arrive in the App Store. These range from big name games to tiny gems hoping to build up a following by word of mouth. A trip into the app store can be a world of discovery, but it’s an area we’ve somewhat neglected in the past here at BetaNews.

Well that’s set to change. Every Friday I’ll highlight the best new apps of the week -- both free and paid -- for iPhone and iPad. I’ll cover the biggest releases, naturally, but also endeavor to pull out some new or recently updated apps that you likely won’t be aware of.

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Yesterday my colleague Mihaita Bamburic presented his list of the year’s top tech products, which included some obvious big choices, most notably Windows 8.1, iPad Air, Surface 2 and the Xbox One.

My list could easily be a carbon copy of his, after all the biggest tech products are hits for a reason, and despite not being a fan of Windows 8, I really like its successor, and would happily own both the iPad Air and Surface 2 if funds allowed. But I wanted to approach my selection slightly differently by avoiding products which featured on Mihaita’s list, and focusing on items I’ve bought (or been sent) and have used extensively. These are the tech products I’ve really appreciated the most this year.

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While Microsoft has its own mobile operating system with Windows Phone 8, the company generously supports its competitor's products too. After all, with its own OS having such a small user base comparatively, it would be insane not to.

Back in June, the company's flagship non-OS software, Office 365, was released for Apple's iOS to the surprise of many. Today, while less of a surprise, Microsoft announces some major changes to its cloud-storage SkyDrive app.

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Smartphones have positively impacted the gaming industry. Casual touch-based games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga have turned some non-gamers into dedicated ones. However, hardcore gamers interested in more complicated things are forced to use on-screen virtual controls (d-pad, buttons, etc.). Unfortunately, for many, this virtual solution is unacceptable. Since you cannot feel the controls, it is easy for your fingers to wander and cause unintended consequences. Sure, there have been third-party controller options, but they have mostly been unpolished and largely ignored by developers.

With the unveiling of iOS 7, Apple introduced support for game-pads. Today, Logitech announces its first such offering for iPhone and iPod touch devices, with the PowerShell Controller + Battery. The company says it "turns your compatible iOS7 device into a pocket sized mobile console, all while roughly doubling your play time with its on board battery".

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Sometimes there is revolution in evolution. That's my surprising reaction to iPad Air, which Apple started selling on November 1. This is simply the best tablet I have ever used. Period. The fruit-logo company wisely chose to resist reinventing the wheel and build a vehicle around four instead.

For people who complain -- and there are many -- that Apple's newest 9.7-inch tab shows waning innovation, let me correct the record. You are oh-so wrong. iPad Air is an amazingly refined piece of art -- like a sculpture chiseled to perfection. iPad 3 and 4 are unpolished bricks by comparison. More importantly, anyone looking for a tablet to largely, or completely, replace a Windows PC or Mac, Air is it.

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Sometime around this day, last year, I wrote an opinion piece that resonated with many of you. It's called "I want nothing to do with iPhone 5". So you may be wondering why I am not writing the same story as I did in 2012, but this time around with a "5s" replacing the "5", from top to bottom. The reason for my apparent insanity is quite simple.

Since writing that piece I've used Android and, most recently, Windows Phone 8 as my daily platform (yes, I'm calling it like that). The user experience has been, to describe it in one word, insightful. Insightful as to how good or bad Android and Windows Phone 8 are compared to anything that Apple released before iOS 7 and insightful as to how one can use different-sized smartphones with different feature sets and different quality standards.

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Two days ago Apple rolled out its latest mobile operating system offering, iOS 7. To compliment this new release, Microsoft is making sure to keep up with the latest version of the OS, by pushing out a brand new version of the Bing app. The company is hitting Apple hard with integration right into the heart of the platform.

"With the release of iOS 7 this week, you can now experience Bing search results in Siri", the software giant announces. The Bing search within Siri aims to deliver various types of results, keeping you from going to the web browser to view the same list of results. Microsoft explains, "for example, when you ask Siri a question, you will either see a specific answer or search results from Bing, including web links, related searches, images and video".

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The Innovator’s Dilemma, a 1997 book by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, made the point that successful companies can lose their way when they pay too much attention to legacy products and not enough attention to new stuff. They are making so much money they either don’t see a competitor rising up or are too complacent to feel threatened. In either case the incumbent generally loses and the upstart (usually one of many) generally wins. The best way for successful companies to avoid this problem is by inventing the future before their competitors do.

We see this pattern over and over in high tech. Remember Lotus? Remember Word Perfect? Remember Borland? And it’s not just in software. Remember IBM sticking too long with the 80286 processor? Remember the Osbourne Executive?

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Like my colleague Mark Wilson, I was excited about the launch of iOS 7 yesterday, but the update to the new mobile operating system took hours and hours to complete. Starting, failing, doing nothing… When the upgrade finally began -- for real -- it did so at a glacial pace. I have a 100Mbps connection, but the iOS 7 download was at dial-up speeds.

Eventually though, the install was complete, and after a few seconds of setting it up (choosing a PIN in case someone stole my iPad, etc.), I was good to go. By this time I’d read a lot of negative comments and was expecting the worst… but actually I really like iOS 7.

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So… it's here. iOS 7 has lumbered its way onto hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPads all over the world -- mine included. My iPad 2 may be slightly aging, but it still does the job for me. I've yet to find a compelling reason to upgrade to a more recent model, but the prospect of a major OS upgrade is always exciting.

I'd read great things about iOS 7 previously, but having never taken the step of jailbreaking my tablet, I had not been able to try it hands-on. The download from Apple's servers was going to be my first proper experience of the update.

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Anyone who manages to get their hands on an iPhone 5c or iPhone 5s on Friday will find that it comes with iOS 7 pre-installed. But if you’re not planning on investing in new hardware, head over to Apple's update server right now and you can grab yourself an upgrade free of charge.

The OS revamp is available as of 10am PST / 6pm BST, and if you jump on the download straight away you may well find it a slow and frustrating experience as the world and its dog tries to do exactly the same. But hang on in there... it'll be worth the wait.

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As I write this, the ultra-new iPhone 5c has just become available to pre-order from the Apple Store, as well as from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

So I figured it was a good time to address the problem(s) a lot of people seem to have with Apple’s new polycarbonate plastic-bodied iPhone, and explain -- in simple terms -- why the haters are way off the mark, and why the 5c is actually a great device, and a clever move for Apple.

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Apple changed the smartphone market dramatically with the original iPhone, which launched in mid-2007. The company took the world by surprise as it reenvisioned the basic smartphone concept by forgoing the (typical) unintuitive user interfaces and adopting a simpler, hardware and software, design instead. The iPhone had turned Apple into the top smartphone vendor, a title which the Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation can no longer claim today. Why?

The short answer is "Android". The long one is a bit more complicated. Apple began changing the smartphone market in 2007, but the smartphone market changed as well since then. The iPhone was and still is a flagship product, a high-end handset with the price to reflect it. Consumers, however, have been slowly moving away from that price range and type of device to cheaper, mid-range and low-end products. According to an IDC report from June, the smartphone average selling price (ASP) dropped from $443 in 2011 to $372 in the first half of 2013, and is expected to drop even further, to $309 by 2017. That is a price-bracket that Apple could not tap into, as it had no product to fight with. The iPhone 5C, that the company just unveiled during a special event, is designed to change that.

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As you’ll no doubt be aware Apple is currently hosting an iPhone event at its Cupertino, Calif.-based home. Like all Apple events, proceedings started with an impressive figure -- Apple will ship its 700 millionth iOS device next month -- and then after a brief look at the free iTunes Festival, we got a recap of what the next version of Apple's mobile operating system has to offer us.

The Jony Ive designed iOS 7 has a flatter, functional design and the skeumorphism -- faux wooden bookshelves, green felt and the like -- is no more. The icons have been redesigned, the typeface changed, and there’s new pallet of colors. Siri has been massively improved too. Apple also engineered iOS 7 to take full advantage of the advanced 64-bit technologies in the iPhone 5s, including the native 64-bit kernel, libraries and drivers. The built-in apps have been re-engineered for 64-bit as well.

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There’s no question that iOS 7 is a sexy looking mobile operating system. Jony Ive and his team have done a fantastic job of reinventing and modernizing the interface, but the great news for fans of Apple products is iOS 7 isn’t all style and no substance.

Apple ran through a lot of the new or improved features yesterday, including Control Center, AirDrop, Photo app, Siri (with added Bing!), iOS in the Car, FaceTime Audio, and iTunes Radio. But there were features that Craig Federighi, SVP of Software Engineering, didn’t mention but which appeared on a slide in the background.

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