Refreshed iOS 7 features for Apple iPhone 6. Ready & funked up!
Apple has been leading the merry smartphone conga line for six years now, with a staggering run of success for its iPhone range helping to fill its coffers with untold riches, much to the annoyance of its rivals in the mobile industry.
Although things like handset design and marketing have been important over the years, at the heart of the iPhone’s success is the iOS platform, which is the software that engages users and keeps them coming back for more. So whats in store with the refreshed iOS 7 features for Apple iPhone 6?
The problem is that iOS has got a little stagnant in recent years and been left by the wayside as Android, Windows Phone (see our Android OS vs Windows 8 OS comparison) and BlackBerry have forged ahead. So when Apple unveiled iOS 7 during last week’s WWDC conference, iPhone fans across the world were rejoicing at the sight of a platform reborn for the cutting edge era of smartphone functionality.
But what has Apple altered to make iOS 7 stand out from its predecessors and are there any new features which could help to make the next iPhone a must-buy device?
Design and interface
The first thing that reaches up and slaps you in the face is that iOS 7 has undergone a serious overhaul in the design department. The homescreen icons, which became so iconic, are now a little more rounded and a lot more colourful. There are pastel hues all over the place and Apple has attempted to make them look a bit more minimalist and flat. This means that the interface is much more lively and engaging, while a parallax effect makes it look as if the app icons are popping out of the screen when you tilt your phone.
There is even an all-new lockscreen which needs to be swiped upwards if you want to get it out of the way. The side-sliding unlock bar of past iOS iterations is long gone and while it might be missed, this new approach feels a bit funkier.
A new feature called Control Centre lets you experience more swipe-based control over your iPhone. It is basically a pop-up menu that appears from the bottom of the display and lets you control media playback, volume, display brightness and other settings, as well as allowing you to quickly launch things like the natively available flashlight function.
Apple has also added a new multitasking interface which gives you snapshots of open apps, letting you see what is going on in them before you load them up in full screen mode. It looks suspiciously similar to the Windows Phone approach to multitasking, but then that is no bad thing.
Safari
Browsing the web on iOS 7 will be even easier thanks to the updated Safari app, which now supports many more simultaneous tabs and can even synch your browsing sessions across multiple devices.
The address bar stays out of your way by default, which means you get more of the screen dedicated to your favourite sites, while switching between tabs is handled neatly via a 3D carousel effect that looks cool and is also very finger-friendly.
Siri
Siri was big news a couple of years ago, although the voice-controlled digital assistant service has not caught on in a huge way, with most people toying with it from time to time before going back to using their fingers.
In iOS 7, Siri becomes more powerful and clever than ever, with better integration with third party services helping to improve the answers it delivers. It has access to Wikipedia, Twitter and Bing so that results pop up from within Siri rather than requiring that you open a separate app to find relevant info.
Siri’s voice has also been changed to make it sound a little bit more natural, which means the slightly robotic tones you are used to will soon disappear.
iTunes Radio
Apple has been jealously eyeing up rival streaming services like Spotify in recent years and has finally launched its own equivalent platform called iTunes Radio.
This could be one of the key iOS 7 features for Apple iPhone 6, since it effectively means that people will not need to populate their phone with songs they have purchased from iTunes but can instead create streamable playlists that can be accessed without using up local storage.
The social element of iTunes Radio is significant because it will encourage people to share playlists they have created and interact with friends and other users. In short, Apple might be able to topple its streaming rivals.
iOS 7 release date and compatibility
Those lucky people who develop apps for iOS have already got their hands on the seventh generation, but the rest of us will have to wait a few months until Apple’s autumn launch window arrives.
The iPhone 4 and all of its newer siblings will be compatible with iOS 7, as will the iPad 2, 3 and 4 and the iPad Mini.
Apple has not committed to a firm date for the software’s release, but you can expect it to coincide roughly with the arrival of the iPhone 6, or whatever name is given to the next flagship smartphone from this Californian company.
So there we have it. iOS features for Apple iPhone 6.