What iOS 7 looks like (and other tidbits)

Mark’s already run down much of what we think will happen at WWDC.

I’ve been given a quick peek at an early beta of iOS 7 and can only describe what I’ve seen. I’m told I can’t post the screenshots because Apple embeds little watermarks that could land the source in some trouble.

The whole OS has that ‘skinny jeans’ Helvetica Neue Ultra Light or similar that you’ve seen in those posters. At the top, instead of carrier signal bars, Apple now has 5 dots that are white or gray to represent the signal.

The app icons are different across the board, similar but not quite the same as the one we tweeted earlier.

https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/341370303022256128

Yes, they are flat. Our in-house Photoshop guru Michael Steeber has mocked up (Above) the icons based on descriptions which closely match what I believe we’ll see tomorrow. A full mockup of a home screen is at the bottom of this post.

• iTunes is Purple-ish with white (iSync-like arrows instead of a music note).
• Camera is Gray gradient and icon is same shape as you see on the lock screen
• Facetime is like it used to be without the gray. and flat.
• The Maps icon is a different place. Perhaps near the Spaceship campus?
• Compass icon is darker and flatter.
• Safari icon is like the Mac circle icon without the silver frame.
• Photos icon is a color wheel
• Game Center is similar to the photos icon – totally different than before.

Perhaps most interesting: There are two color schemes for many of these apps – one black-ish and one white-ish. We’re not sure if they are A/B decoys, if white iPhones and Black iPhones will have their own color schemes or as someone else suggested, the different color schemes might be invoked by the amount of ambient light or the time of day. But it is super-interesting, especially since we’ve heard whispers that the whole UI might shift slightly based on external factors similar to the way the music volume icon switches based on how you hold the iPhone.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlCkE1mewk&start=4]

When in “Black mode”, the keyboard is black with gray letters. In “white mode”, gray keys with white letters – a little like Android.

We’ve heard that maps has a new walking directions functionality. Also, grouped table views no longer have spaces on the left and right now – rounded rectangles give way to more rectangular like the Twitter app UI update.

On Airdrop, we’ve now heard “the share menu has a sideways scrollable row on top of the device and and computer airdrop photos like the circles with a pic of them”. The next row has sharing services Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo. Next row has copy/paste/cut/etc.

We’re updating this post. Stay tuned for more information in the coming hours as we count down to WWDC and our Liveblog. 

Remember, this is just a mockup. Also the dock is now just a transparent line, not a bar at the bottom. Here’s another look from Twitter:

And another from a guy who botched Safari and Email: