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Apple releases iOS 7.1 beta 2 to developers with speed, design improvements

Nearly one month following the initial iOS 7.1 beta, Apple has released a second beta to developers. The beta is available via the online developer center portal, and has also just begun hitting devices over-the-air. New versions of Xcode 5.1 beta and software for Apple TV are also available. The previous iOS 7.1 beta brought various, minor interface tweaks and new accessibility options. If you find anything new, you can let us know at tips@9to5mac.com.

You can find the changes below:

– Touch ID and Passcode Settings are now more prominently displayed.

– Animations are now even faster than in beta 1.

– Bug where all tones were the default is fixed.

– Control Center has a new bounce animation when you toggle it and a new label to show you which app audio is coming from.

– New list view redesign/toggle in Calendar app.

– You can now turn on button shapes so you know where to tap.

– Dark keyboard option from beta 1 has been removed.

– A new iPad wallpaper (from the iPad Air ad).

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Comments

  1. Joe Stock (@jstock35) - 10 years ago

    Did they fix the notification sounds?

  2. Hopefully we will finally see a jailbreak soon. My LockInfo is missing :(

    • rahhbriley - 10 years ago

      Amen man. Can’t wait for an iOS JB. Though there aren’t as meant features that I’ll need to supplement iOS 7 with, there are still a lot I’m really missing. I’ve always loved lockinfo but I may skip this time. I think it was stressing me out seeing it all the time. I guess I’ll still want the additions it adds to notification center. I’m looking forward to getting theses tweaks back with the jailbreak most: activator, infiniscreen, gridlock, lockinfo, sbsettings, display out and AirPlay overrides for working regardless of app. and Siri extensions. I’m sure there’s more I’m missing but those are what I miss on a daily basis. Would love to see what someone like Dave Ashman produces for a control center tweak.

  3. Random crashes back to the Home screen and even crashing back to the Apple logo and relaunch of the Springboard, and yet these release notes are mostly about UI, bouncing and animations?!

    • iHKDesign - 10 years ago

      You do realize this is just a list of things 9to5Mac has found? The actual developer release notes are much more detailed and are more about UI.

    • I think you missed the point. This article is showing things that users will see when they’re using the phone. You can’t screenshot performance and reliability improvements. However, given that it’s an update, it’s guaranteed to have them.

    • Yes (@AMillah) - 10 years ago

      I think you missed the part where it said this was a BETA. Jesus….you realize betas are unfinished and very unstable, right? Thats why its called a BETA.

      I swear…..some people

      • I was referring to the major crashes happening in iOS 7.0.4. Production release. But, thanks for the tidbit on betas, I’m sure it helped other people.

    • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

      Yeah, no beta in the history of the existence of software has ever had problems before this one!

  4. vincentteng - 10 years ago

    Hopefully 7.1 will eradicate random crashes on the iPad Air.

  5. Alex (@Metascover) - 10 years ago

    They are listening to what people are saying. That’s very good.
    For me, animation speed is the most important.

  6. Patrick Kemp - 10 years ago

    Dark Keyboard option is gone from Accessibility

  7. Giuseppe  (@T0ma_94) - 10 years ago

    no black keyboard :(

  8. Tony Nicholas - 10 years ago

    Scott Forstall must be laughing his @$$ off at the new feature introduced. “Buttons”.

  9. Matt Denton (@MbDenton) - 10 years ago

    “Turn on button shapes” is a nice step back toward better usability – lack of buttons / floating text one of the biggest complaints I’ve been hearing from people who hate iOS7 – however, the visual design of the “buttons” as shown here continues to look like a flimsy afterthought.

    • Matt Denton (@MbDenton) - 10 years ago

      Especially that ‘Done’ button shown above in the notes app. My freshman design 101 teacher would’ve flunked someone for less than that. I can’t believe Apple is behind this.

      • Andreas Olsson - 10 years ago

        You have misunderstood it. It’s not supposed to be buttons, it’s an visualization of the hit area. An option hidden in the accessibility settings menu.

        The whole idea of getting rid of buttons is that it’s just adds clutter. You don’t really need to know the hit area. There’s not a single user who thinks “oh, so there’s 30px hits area beside the text I shan’t to tap, let’s tap beside the text!”

        Buttons is a convention related to the physical world. We don’t really need these conventions any more and we need to gradually get rid of them to create far superior UIs.

      • Matt Denton (@MbDenton) - 10 years ago

        @Andreas “Buttons is a convention related to the physical world. We don’t really need these conventions any more and we need to gradually get rid of them to create far superior UIs.” – It is not a “superior” UI, it is simply a matter of subjective tastes, and it is arrogant and laughable (when apple or people in website comments) proclaim otherwise. Further, I have plenty of user testing data that prove this claim false. I do this for a living. Removing the obvious hit areas from an interface slows down the speed which people can use it, in test after test, especially when they are in a hurry.

        iOS7 is still loaded with buttons with obvious hit areas – look at the call button, the number buttons, the keyboard, etc. Some of these were actually added back in during the early betas because it was so difficult to use without them.

      • lexxkoto - 10 years ago

        Don’t forget to take away all his light switches and door handles. They’re unnecessary clutter.

    • PMZanetti - 10 years ago

      If iOS 7 was how it was form the beginning…there would be no complaints. People don’t like change, and the change from iOS 1-6 to 7 (for those who didn’t see it coming/expect it) are shocked into immediate dislike. Not a rational reaction in anyway. Just instinct. And its dumb.

      Large READABLE text makes a world of difference compared to microscopic text inside of a giant space wasting hideous button.

      • You also just described the change of going from Windows 7 to Windows 8.

      • Matt Denton (@MbDenton) - 10 years ago

        LOL. Yes, everyone who hates iOS7 is simply not having a rational reaction to it. Genius thinking.

        Please allow me to paint the entire inside of your home white including the floors and furniture, lecture you on how it’s superior, and gauge your reaction.

  10. Rob Attrell - 10 years ago

    Nooooooooo, the method for non-members of Dev Program that I’ve been using since iOS 5b5 is apparently broken now. OTA update has temporarily bricked my phone. I wonder if Shift+Update to a new beta firmware in iTunes will also be broken…guess nothing to do but go listen to Beyonce, or pay $99…

  11. I thought dark keyboard was a step in the right direction after making everything so blindingly white in iOS7. Can’t believe this option is gone now. Am I the only one who loved it?

    • Matt Denton (@MbDenton) - 10 years ago

      Personally I would rather see them make the default keyboard easier on the eyes than offer the dark keyboard option as a band-aid.

      • Well yeah, that’s the ideal. But at least making it an option was a *step*, right? Taking it away must be some kind of indication of something…I can’t figure it out, though.

    • rondrinksgrolsch - 10 years ago

      Nope you aren’t the only one. Other than BBM I don’t see the KB unless entering a password

    • Dark Keyboard was having a slew of problems. I reported a bunch of them to Apple, I honestly think it was removed in order to work through some of these issues.

  12. ⽃™ (@toptopt0p) - 10 years ago

    Color of switched active call notification in the top of the screen is changed: http://d.pr/i/gcZb

  13. i updated and now i have an activation error can anyone help me !!!!

  14. Van Du Tran - 10 years ago

    How about a new Camera icon?

  15. Frank Imperato - 10 years ago

    WatchABC and Crackle have joined us now on the Apple TV — not sure if it’s just beta or a coincidence that I updated and now have it!

  16. rondrinksgrolsch - 10 years ago

    I like the black keyboard hope we have the choice in the final release of 7.1 to keep it on for good.

    More importantly I hope apple fixes all the low memory crashes I encounter with Safari and various other apps causing them to close or crash.

  17. miApples (@miApples) - 10 years ago

    Sorry to disappoint .. Our 3rd iPad Air is still crashing like crazy .. Everything is crashing ..
    As is our iPad 2 & iPad 3.
    Bring on the full 7.1 please Apple.
    In the meen time .. iPad Airs are being courierd back to Apple & being replaced with Samsung’s new Note 10.1 (2014 Edition – Note 3).
    Pete/ed – miApples

  18. carltausend - 10 years ago

    I have Albinism I really liked the dark keyboard it made it so much better on my eye!

  19. Belu Mira (@belu_mira) - 10 years ago

    they removed the dark keboard option? WHY?!

  20. Yazan M Af - 10 years ago

    Hey all i updated my iphone to ios7.1 beta 2 and my device not registerd to developers cent so after i updated it say activation error because iphone is not registerd to develop center so i cant downgrade from itunes what should i do please help me :((

  21. I was looking forward to the dark keyboard. Bummer. Maybe it will be back in the final release. I really don’t have any real problems with the UI in iOS 7, but enhancements, and customization choices are always nice to have. I don’t want to jailbreak since I need my iOS devices to function perfectly all the time. I’m not going to place my trust in hackers who have no stake in making sure that my devices function properly.

  22. Mark Ke - 10 years ago

    Why in the world would they remove the dark keyboard so many people asked for? Not bright!

  23. I updated to it and I go through the activation steps for it to just restart on apple logo and make me do it again…. Any ideas in how to get it to stop

  24. Thomas Thomaidis - 10 years ago

    Only prob I’ve come across so far, is a transparecy issue with Pulse app, where the top part of the app kinda flashes with every scroll instead of depicting the transparecy correctly.

    On the other hand, try locking/unlocking your phone. There’s a very beautiful wallpaper zoom in/zoom out animation that, at least I, haven’t seen on previous iOS releases.

  25. Kadir Deli (@delikad1r) - 10 years ago

    iphonebetas dot com registers udid for just 3.99. 15 buxx is realy expensive!

    I payed it with pp and it was instantly active… Also live chat was available

  26. i’m still using iOS7.0.4 can I use SHIFT+Update in iTunes to update to Beta 2? I’m seeing news about activation error using OTA.

  27. i’m thinking that the “Touch ID & Passcode” icon should be color gray. because they kinda broke their own rule. Anything related in connectivity is light blue (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, App Store, iCloud, Mail, even Safari) Airplane mode is Orange for Off Connectivity while Cellular Data is Green for On and everything that is related in connecting to someone is green = Messages, Facetime, & Phone Dialer. Everything related to Settings are gray (Notification Center, Control Center, General, Privacy) but they follow Touch ID’s color which is kinda pink, but it falls on Sounds color scheme. I think it’s supposed to be gray. Just saying ^_^ I’m really concerned in their designing patterns but what I really hate is the Music App to be mostly white, the Remote App is way and TOTALLY WAY BETTER than the built-in app. why did they do that? I hope they rebuild the music app in IOS7.1 but i’m 100% that it is not going to happen.

  28. Any one installed this beta 2 Without UDID Developer account ?

  29. Renz Aguirre - 10 years ago

    how to update? when i update in itunes saying 7.0.4 is latest update..

  30. the1kraken - 10 years ago

    One added feature that has not been mentioned anywhere is when making a phone call and exiting to the homescreen during the call, the green “return to call” bar at the top has been changed to a lighter green. Small update but worth mentioning!

  31. Varun Dilip - 10 years ago

    7.1 Beta 3 didnt work in my 4 …Call hangs,still having problems with swiping(unlocking).Called id photos seems small,WIFI Hotspot not working,While on charging and calling.!!! Only positive thing is speed..! hope apple will fix all d issues in next version.

  32. hey guys !! If you want to use IOS 7.1beta4 *or* IF ur stuck in the activation screen then, register your UDID to get activated in ios 7.1 legitimately !

    I am registering UDID to Apple Developer account for $15USD each device for IOS 7.1 . Once your UDID is registered then you can update to ios 7.1 without any problem and your iphone will be activated. You will enjoy full features of IOS 7.1 .If your interested then inbox me or you can Email me too (iapplestuffs@gmail.com). Else you can go to our official website to register your udid directly. Thanks

    http://iapplestuffs.blogspot.com/2013/09/udid-registration-to-apple-developer.html