Just like the rest of iOS 7, Apple completely redesigned the camera app that it ships on all devices. Moving away from metaphors that resemble a real camera, Apple has reworked the interface and added new features, such as camera filters and a new square photo option.
Also noteworthy is the removal of shutter animation, which has been replaced by a stark fade animation when you snap a photo. Rather then describe it any further, take a look at the video above to get an idea of what you’ll see this fall when iOS 7 is released to the public.
iOS 7, which was announced today at WWDC 2013, hit the developer portal not long ago, and we’ve all been busy installing it on our phones. Above you’ll find a quick hands-on with the new UI in iOS 7.
Most notably, iOS 7 ditches the classic iOS look for a flat a very white user interface. Users upgrading to iOS 7 in the fall will surely be in for a surprise when they install the new operating system on their devices.
Stay tuned for more iOS 7 video coverage coming later today.
Ahead of a meeting with government officials later this month to discuss how Apple could prevent increasing smartphone crimes, Apple today introduced a new feature called ‘Activation Lock’ that it says will be “a really powerful theft deterrent” when released later this fall in iOS 7.
We told you earlier this month that government officials in the US were calling Apple, Google and others to a “smartphone summit” later this month on June 13 to discuss the increasing amount of smartphone related crime in New York city and the rest of the country. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon have been pushing smartphone makers to come up with solutions to prevent crime and discourage thefts of devices.
Today, during its WWDC keynote presentation ahead of the meeting later this month, Apple introduced the ‘Activation Lock’ feature that will require an Apple ID and password to reactivate a stolen phone after being remotely erased/wiped by the owner through Apple Find my iPhone feature. The login information will also now be required to turn off Find My iPhone.
If a user’s device is stolen, wiping the device clean will essentially leave the thief with a device that is inoperable without the user’s Apple ID and password (as pictured above): Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s head of iTunes Eddy Cue is live on stage during Apple’s WWDC 2013 keynote presentation today and just unveiled a brand new, revamped version of Siri that includes a lot of new features on top of a redesign that fits in with the rest of the new look for iOS 7. It also announced a new service dubbed “iOS in the car” that will bring more functionality to the consoles of some vehicles through a partnership with several car manufacturers. The integration will allow you to place calls, have more control of Siri, and view maps, much of which we already revealed leading up to today’s event.
As for Siri, the app now has an all new voice and users will also have the ability to change the voice between male and female. New highly quality voices in both male and female will initially be available only in English, French, and German, but Apple plans to add more over time. That’s not all, however, Siri is also getting a bunch of new features and integration with other web services such as Wikipedia.
Eddy Cue noted during his demo of the redesigned Siri that you’ll now be able to control a lot more functions on your iPhone with Siri, such adjusting the brightness of your display, enabling Bluetooth, or playing a voice mail. The just unveiled iTunes Radio will also have Siri integration.
— Microsoft Stories and News (@MSFTnews) June 10, 2013
Microsoft is happy about Apple’s decision to include Bing web results (and not Google) in Siri for iOS 7.
Siri will also be able to answer a lot more questions in iOS 7, which is in part thanks to the integration of new web services including Wikipedia, Twitter (to view Twitter account updates through Siri), and web search results from Bing.
The new in-car features through ‘iOS in the car’ will be arriving in vehicles from several car manufacturers in 2014. Expand Expanding Close
After countless hours of waiting and speculation, Apple has at last unveiled the next version of its mobile software: iOS 7. The highly anticipated software update brings an entirely new user-interface to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Apple has been steadily preparing the Moscone Center in San Francisco for its Worldwide Developer Conference all week long. Today banners for iOS 7 appeared featuring a very colorful and thin “7” denoting the version of the software Apple will preview on Monday. The dots in the banners above likely represent the transparent nature of the OS.
By this time in 2012, Apple had taken the stage and dominated the news cycle multiple times to announce products like a new iPad, Apple TV, new Mac operating system, and various other software for both iOS and OS X. However, the first half of 2013 has been low on Apple product introductions as the company, coming off of a big fall, has focused on minor tweaks to existing products.
Even though Apple has been out of the limelight, the Cupertino company has been hard at work on a slew of new hardware, software, and services products, and the company plans to introduce new versions of iOS, OS X, and the MacBook Air at its WWDC conference next week. Apple will be holding a keynote on 10 AM on Monday to talk about these new products.
Below, you can find our much-anticipated WWDC 2013 roundup along with many new tidbits about what Apple is preparing:
Topeka Capital analyst Brian White is back pedalling his iRing theory as a controller for the Apple television. In a report this morning reported by Business Insider, he said that Apple will release it’s HDTV set at the end of the year, and repeated the claim he made back in April that it will be controlled by an ‘iRing’. Perhaps he means ‘iWatch?’… Expand Expanding Close
Apple has rolled out its WWDC 2013 app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (via MacRumors) this morning as WWDC quickly approaches. Apple has promised to push out session videos much quicker this year and will be available online as well as via its WWDC 2013 app for iOS.
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off a week from today in San Francisco where we’ll be covering the event.
“We look forward to gathering at WWDC 2013 with the incredible community of iOS and OS X developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Our developers have had the most prolific and profitable year ever, and we’re excited to show them the latest advances in software technologies and developer tools to help them create innovative new apps. We can’t wait to get new versions of iOS and OS X into their hands at WWDC.”
WWDC attendees can use the app to organize their session priorities, navigate around Moscone West, and save their registration information in Passbook.
With Tim Cook teasing the Jony Ive redesign of iOS 7 that we exclusively told you would be introducing a new flat design for iOS, we thought it would be interesting to get former Windows lead Steven Sinofsky’s opinion on the changes. While Sinofsky left Microsoft after 20+ years back in November of last year, he was involved in the latest releases of Windows 8 that many argue helped pioneer the flat UI design Apple is now moving towards. Our own Mark Gurman asked Sinofsky his thoughts on a new flat iOS 7 during his interview at the D11 conference earlier today. Expand Expanding Close
At this year’s All Things D conference, (catch our liveblog here), Tim Cook spoke briefly about the future of iOS in regards to Jony Ive replacing Scott Forstall:
When asked about the executive shakeup at Apple last fall, Tim gave a very closed response:
Kara: Asking about Scott leaving & collaboration. Scott was powerful and significant. What happened?
Tim: I won’t talk about anyone specifically. I think it has been an incredibly great change. Craig [Federighi] is running iOS and OS X. Eddy [Cue] focused on services. These changes have been great. Really, really great.
As we reported in April, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive has been leading a thorough overhaul for iOS 7 that focuses on the look and feel of the iOS device software rather than on several new features.
Sources have described iOS 7 as “black, white, and flat all over.” This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements.
Sources say that over the past few months, Apple has re-architected iOS 7’s new interface several times, so until the new software is announced at WWDC, interface elements could dramatically change from what Apple has been testing internally in recent weeks.
Nonetheless, you can find what we have been hearing about iOS 7’s new user experience below:
Apple has confirmed to AllThingsDthat this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will kickoff with a keynote address on Monday, June 10th. Apple typically kicks off its WWDCs with keynotes.
Not much news coming out of a new Bloomberg piece today on Sir Jonathan Ive’s new software design role. Earlier this week, 9to5Mac first reported on some big upcoming changes to iOS spearheaded by Ive based on multiple sources who have seen or been briefed on the new “flatter” OS. While echoing most of what we already reported, Bloomberg adds that Ive’s new role will provide potential delays for iOS 7:
The introduction of new features, along with an emphasis on cooperation and deliberation, comes at a cost for Cupertino, California-based Apple. Engineers are racing to finish iOS 7, the next version of the mobile software, in time for a June preview at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. While the company still expects to release iOS 7 on time as soon as September, internal deadlines for submitting features for testing are being set later than past releases, people said… Bigger shifts, to such features as e-mail, may not even be ready this year and may be introduced in future releases, people said.
Bloomberg adds that Ive has met with companies behind gesture control technology that sounds similar to the Leap Motion controller. The report also noted that Ive led a two-hour town hall meeting in March to discuss upcoming changes, while pointing out that he now regularly attends meetings with Greg Christie and the software design team and has provided them with “an earlier look at what future hardware products will look like” Expand Expanding Close
We’ve seen lots of iOS 7 concepts popping up lately thanks to all the rumors that Jony Ive’s new role on the software side of things could mean major changes for the next major iOS update. Many of the concepts borrow from features already available to jailbreak users, and there seems to be a big focus on widgets and lock screen enhancements. We’re not too sure that iOS 7 will get the full Ive treatment like some are expecting, but this latest iOS concept from designer F. Bianco certainly gives us a taste of the possibilities. Rather than just focusing on one area of iOS, Bianco presents a number of concepts for widgets, app switching, media controls, and much more. Go past the break for screenshots:
What I’ve heard: iOS 7 is running behind, and engineers have been pulled from OS X 10.9 to work on it.
As he points out, Apple had this problem/solution before. In 2007, Apple had to devote some Mac resources toward getting the iPhone out the door. The press statement at the time read:
“iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team. As a result, we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard’s features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us.
We recently showed you some of the possible innovative and or highly requested new features Apple could add in the next version of iOS. It’s unclear whether Jony Ive’s new software design responsibilities will lead to a radically new design for iOS 7, but many features of iOS are becoming more and more outdated with every slick new jailbreak tweak that gets released. One example is the lock screen—something that new jailbreak tweak Peekly aims to revamp.
Peekly brings weather, a selection of clocks, and a 3-month calendar in a two-page theme that reimagines the lock screen:
Peekly is a 2 page lockscreen theme for iOS. On the first page, you get the time and date. Currently you can choose between the default clock, a digital clock or no clock/date at all. More clocks coming soon! Dragging your lockscreen to the right will allow you to “Peek” at a 3 month calendar. This is the default peek. You can currently choose to put in a Twitter feed, yourGoogle Calendar events or an RSS feed. More options will be added soon. Swiping the lockscreen to the left will bring you to page 2, which has today’s weather. “Peeking” to the left on this page will show you a 4 day forecast.
With the recent departure of longtime iOS chief Scott Forstall, many expect some big changes in iOS 7. Not only is Jony Ive taking over design responsibilities related to iOS, but also Apple is increasingly coming under criticism for its aging core iOS apps and highly requested features already available on other platforms that it has yet to implement. We discussed some of the big software features iOS 7 might have in store, but today we present a roundup of the best iOS 7 concepts we could find starting with a new one from the creator of jailbreak tweak Auxo.
Sentry, the original designer behind the popular Auxo jailbreak tweak, yesterday posted the new Quick App Switching concept above (via iFun). While Auxo provided a screenshot of running apps integrated into the iOS multitasking tray, the concept above takes a different approach and aims to add speed to the app switching process.
This next concept comes from YouTube user imjeanmarc and shows a tray accessible from the lock screen, providing quick toggles for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.:
