I remember watching WWDC back in 2013. Tim Cook and the team took the stage as usual and, to everyone’s surprise, announced iOS 7. Okay, the announcement itself wasn’t surprising — everyone knew iOS 7 was coming — but instead of Tim Cook showing it off, the company played a four-minute-long video of Jony Ive introducing and explaining the thought process behind the radical design change.

With iOS 7, Apple was saying goodbye to skeuomorphism, the design language it had used since the iPhone launched back in 2007. Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, had previously taken over the design of both hardware and software at the company, taking the reins from Scott Forstall, previous software design lead, who had been ousted. 

Ive’s design philosophy has always been minimalistic, and iOS certainly... wasn’t that before he got control over it. However, with iOS 7, the designer was able to bring a minimalistic approach to the iPhone’s software for the first time, a huge change from the organized but ornamented approach that the company had taken beforehand. 

I remember sitting there, watching Ive unveil the new direction, and thinking, “This is incredible. And this is also going to piss a lot of people off.”

It’s how we got to where we’re at

Before I dive into why I think the iPhone, and the industry, has been better off moving away from skeuomorphism, let’s take a quick history lesson on what exactly skeuomorphism is. There’s no need to try to explain this myself, so here’s what Dictionary.com says it is:

“An ornament or design on an object that mimics the form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques, usually one that reflects a previously functional element, as an imitation metal rivet mark found on handles of prehistoric pottery.”

In iOS, skeuomorphic design was used to make digital things appear as close to their real-world counterparts as much as possible. It’s a simple idea — if the digital thing looks like the physical thing you already know, you’ll know how to use the digital thing. That’s why the Notes app looked like a physical notepad with yellow ruled paper and your notes would live on the lines of that paper, same as you’d physically write into a notepad. 

The Newsstand app, which is where magazines used to live before Apple News, would feature magazines on shelves like you would find in a bookstore. The Game Center app featured a heck of a lot of felt, something you would recognize from a lot of games like... pool? Well, that’s about all I can think of for that case. But everyone can recognize felt as being associated with a pool table, so you can see Apple's train of thought at least.

While I’m about to talk about all of the ways I prefer skeuomorphism falling to the wayside in favor of a more minimalistic approach to design, I do need to give a ton of credit to the design language carrying all of us through the iPhone’s formative years. I don’t think the transition into smartphones would have been nearly as smooth as it was if the iPhone didn’t use a skeuomorphic approach to design first.

Imagine getting an iPhone for the first time and not only having to figure out the fact that it doesn’t have a physical keyboard and one gigantic Home button that is used for multiple functions, but seeing a ton of minimalist icons that mean nothing to you. Skuemorphic design certainly made learning this whole new approach to phones easier for everyone to learn, so we have to be thankful for skeuomorphism for easing that transition — but as we became more accustomed to digital variations on everyday tasks, so too was a new style, fitting the new medium, required.

I’m glad it’s dead

Going too hard in the direction of skeuomorphism comes at the cost of aesthetics. When you look at iOS 6 and iOS 7, iOS 6 looks like trash in comparison. It looks older, less clean, and more cluttered than the next generation of software that succeeded it. However, with that satisfying, more minimalistic design, you can always create issues with usability. As Ive said, iOS 7 was about “bringing order to complexity,” and I think they did that really well.

While iOS 7 became more minimalistic, it didn’t crawl too far up its own ass and make the software unrecognizable from what came before it. While the Photos app dropped the flower, the design still looked like a flower with multiple colored petals. While the Notes app didn’t look like a physical notepad anymore, it retained the general colors and lined design of the original. The Camera app actually looked even more like a camera, opting for the outline of a camera instead of just a lens.

I personally loved iOS 7 and the entire direction that iOS has gone since then. Even though Apple has moved away from the software being totally flat like iOS 7 was, the shading has still kept the design minimalist enough to feel incredibly clean and enjoyable to use.

iOS shifting away from skeuomorphic design also dragged the rest of the industry along with it. If you’ve seen Google’s Material You design language, which is making its way through all of the company’s products, there isn’t a shred of skeuomorphism in there. Even the clock widget can be turned into an amorphous blob with a couple of arrows. 

Think about it. Are there pieces of software with what you’d consider good design that feature skeuomorphism? At this point, such design language would make a piece of software feel incredibly old and tired. I wouldn’t want to use it. I think I would actually be compelled to switch to a different piece of software if one looked like that in 2023.

Where we go next

I can’t help but wonder where Apple’s design language goes next. The last big change came with macOS Big Sur back in 2020 when the company finally brought a lot of the benefits of iOS to the Mac’s software without losing the essence of what made the Mac great. We all love iOS and iPadOS but we also never want macOS to become iPad-with-keyboard-and-trackpad-and-no-touchscreen-OS.

The real interesting move in design language when it comes to software is going to be when Apple finally unveils its mixed reality headset, which the company is expected to do so at WWDC in June. With the Apple VR headset, Apple will also need to showcase realityOS, the operating system that will power the headset. If skeuomorphic design was ever going to make a comeback, a VR/AR experience is definitely the place to do it.

While Apple would never go back to the felt-packed design as it was back with old-school iOS, I can see the company bringing together its design philosophies across its entire history to make the experience as easy to adapt to for users. For anyone who has worn a Meta Quest headset, or specifically anyone who has put a Meta Quest headset on a parent, you know the importance of familiarity when it comes to user experience.

I’ll be curious to see if skeuomorphism makes a temporary comeback, but I doubt it. While Apple may use design elements from the philosophy, the mixed reality headset is about the future, and its software design will likely reflect that. 

So, goodbye forever skeuomorphism! Thank you for your sacrifice.

Last week Apple released iOS 7.1.2, a maintenance update to iOS with some iBeacon, data transfer and Mail improvements. Most iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners have been able to update with no issues. Some, however, have run into big problems with the update — enough to brick their device. If you haven't upgraded yet, follow these instructions before you do to help avoid problems.

The same day the update was released, some users experienced a freezing problem. That was fairly easy to recover from by rebooting the device.

I work for an Apple retailer on the weekends, and this past weekend a cluster of customers came in with iPhones and iPads that were in Recovery Mode — their screens displayed a globe icon and an image of a sync cable. All of them had one thing in common: they had tried to upgrade to iOS 7.1.2 and something had gone very wrong along the way.

Fortunately, we were able to get their devices working again. Unfortunately, a few of them didn't have backups, and those customers lost the data on their device.

I submitted the question to my Twitter followers. Many of you were able to update with no problem, including some in IT who were able to update large numbers of devices without issue. Others ran into serious problems that necessitated recovering the device.

Here's a handy primer on Recovery Mode and how to deal with it:

• How to put your iPhone or iPad into Recovery Mode

So if you haven't already updated your iOS device to iOS 7.1.2, I strongly recommend you back it up before you do. That way, if anything goes wrong, at least you won't lose any data. Even if you're using iCloud to back up your device.

It's really a good idea just in general to trigger a manual backup through iTunes before attempting any sort of operating system upgrade. Why take the risk? This is your important data — you don't want to deal with the hassle of losing stuff if you're not properly prepared.

• The importance of multiple backups for iPhone, iPod, and iPad

Take this with a grain of salt, but most of the people I've spoken with who have had their phones and iPads drop into Recovery Mode have had the problem doing an Over The Air (OTA) backup — that is, they saw the update was available on their phone, waited until they got on Wi-Fi, then began the update.

Another way to do it is a little more old-fashioned: Use iTunes on your Mac or PC as the conduit to manage the update. Tether your device to your Mac using a sync cable and handle the update through iTunes instead of doing it like some crazy magician, using nothing but the air and invisible radio waves.

It's a thought. Your mileage may vary.

Bottom line: If something goes wrong with your iOS 7.1.2 update — or any system update, have a recent backup to recover from. If a problem happens during the update, having that recent backup readily available changes the situation from a crisis to a minor inconvenience. And really, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Apple released the iOS 7.1.2 update earlier today and it seems for some people trying to install via Settings > General > Software Update, things are freezing before they finish. Over-the-air (OTA), on-device updates are typically the easiest, fastest way to update, but freezes are the absolute exception to that rule. So, how can you fix?

The answer seems to be a hard reboot. Just hold down the Home button and Sleep/Wake button, just like you would to take a screenshot, only don't let go. Keep holding them down until the screen turns off and then comes back on again with the Apple logo.

When it's done, go to Settings > General > About and make sure you're on iOS 7.1.2. If not, repeat the update process.

If your iOS 7.1.2 update is frozen, if you're progress bar isn't showing any progress, give the hard reboot a try and let me know if it works for you. And if you come across a better solution, let me know about that too!

As we head towards WWDC 2014 we thought it would be fun to look back at Apple World Wide Developer Conferences past, what they introduced, and what impact they made. Today let's take a look at WWDC 2013, where Apple introduced iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, new MacBook Airs, new Time Machines and the stunning new Mac Pro...

WWDC 2013 took place from June 10 to 14 at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. Tickets went on sale in late April and sold out about 70 seconds later, prompting Apple in 2014 to offer WWDC tickets to registered developers for the first time in a lottery.

WWDC 2013 was a crucial year for iOS. Apple had reinvented iOS in the biggest single update since the iPhone was introduced in 2007 when it unveiled iOS 7, featuring a radical visual departure from previous releases. iOS 7 — the first version to be spearheaded by Apple's design chief Jony Ive — focused on clarity by removing unessential interface elements, shifting buttons to tinted text and simply getting out of the way of contents and apps. The entire interface was cloaked in a physics and particle engine that shifted as you moved the device, building a parallax engine into the home screen.

Other new features of iOS 7 included Control Center, to make it easy to access commonly-used apps and features, an enhanced Notification Center, multitasking, AirDrop and more.

By comparison, OS X Mavericks didn't have the visual pizzazz of iOS 7, but sported a lot of under-the-hood changes aimed at improving performance and efficiency, especially for laptop users. Losing the big cat moniker for the first time, OS X Mavericks is named for an infamous surf break not too far away from Apple's Cupertino headquarters.

With timer coalescing, App Nap, memory compression and other features, Mavericks makes the Mac operate more efficiently with less power and better performance. But there are some interface changes, too, like tabbed Finder windows and better document tagging. Multiple display support was enhanced, and Maps and iBooks applications have been added. Notification Center was dramatically improved with Mavericks, as well.

Cloud services got some important updates at WWDC, too. Apple introduced iWork apps for iCloud, making it possible for iCloud users to work on their Pages, Keynote and Numbers documents without needing a Mac or iOS device at all. And with pressure mounting from streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify, Apple introduced iTunes Radio.

Apple also introduced new MacBook Air laptops, the first Macs to feature Intel's Haswell CPUs, which enable heretofore unimaginable battery life for MacBook Airs - up to 12 hours of continuous use between charges for the 13 inch model. The upgrade also gave Apple a chance to incorporate 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking, with an overall speed boost of up to 3x provided you're using an 802.11ac base station. That's why Apple introduced new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule devices at the same time.

Apple also took the wraps off a machine that wouldn't ship until late December, but one that got Mac hardware fans excited: the radically different Mac Pro, a machine presumed dead after Apple discontinued the earlier model, which languished for years.

One-eighth the volume of its predecessor and turbine-shaped to speed the removal of warm air from its unified core, the Mac Pro is a parallel processing powerhouse, featuring a Xeon processor with up to 12 cores and twin AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs. SATA hard drive bays are gone, in their place went PCIe-based flash storage, and RAM with twice the bandwidth of the old Mac Pro.

Give it the keynote a watch and let me know — what do you think of WWDC 2013 and what, if anything, does it make you hope for at WWDC 2014?

A bug has been discovered in iOS 7 that causes email attachments to not be encrypted. Before anyone panics, however, in order for an attacker to exploit the bug they'd need to a) steal your device and, b) brute force or jailbreak-bypass the passcode or password, which c) currently means there's no risk to iPhone 4s and later devices running iOS 7.1 or later software. When reached for comment about the bug, Apple provided us with the following statement:

"We're aware of the issue," an Apple spokeswoman told iMore, "and are working on a fix which we will deliver in a future software update."

The bug was first reported by Andreas Kurtz:

Kurtz claims he successfully duplicated the tests on an iPhone 5s and an iPad 2 running iOS 7.0.4, though he makes no claim of testing them successfully or unsuccessfully on iOS 7.1.1. Given the requirements, anyone running an iPhone 4s or later (Apple A5* chipset or later) and iOS 7.1.x or later should not be vulnerable to this bug.

That means the only current, updated hardware affected is the iPhone 4, and an attacker would still need prolonged access to your device to perform this attack, which also means preventing Find my iPhone from wiping it. They'd also need to get around the passcode or password. (If you don't have a Passcode set they could just launch Mail.app and see all your attachments, and everything else on your device, anyway.)

With iOS, Apple has made the iPhone and iPad amazingly strong crypto bricks but bugs like this need to be squashed and fast to keep them that way.

Nick Arnott contributed to this story.

Apple's gotten a lot of attention recently for iOS 7's multipeer networking frameworks. I covered them briefly in my enterprise and education overview back in September 2013 when iOS 7 first launched but they're worth a closer look. Multipeer networking makes use of Bluetooth, Infrastructure Wi-Fi (like a Wi-Fi Hotspot), and Peer-to-Peer Wi-Fi (also called Wi-Fi Direct) to create a peer-to-peer meshed network. Once the network has been established, people on that network can share content including messages (think IM), resources (think documents), or stream content. If you have used AirDrop to share pictures or other content with others, you have already used Multipeer Connectivity without knowing it. This is something risk managers in enterprise are going to love, and here's why!

How does multipeer connectivity work?

Multipeer Connectivity allows an app to create a network, and allow others to join it. Once they join the network, they can share content, stream content (like audio or video), and chat.

When iOS7 or later devices are connecting to the peer-to-peer meshed network, they make use of any of the available radios including Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. If there is no available Infrastructure Wi-Fi network (like a Wi-Fi Hotspot), the device will use Peer-to-Peer Wi-Fi (aka Wi-Fi Direct) to join the mesh network.

In fact, when developers create apps to take advantage of the Multipeer Connectivity Framework, they are abstracted from the entire networking processes itself. The framework takes care of automatically selecting the best radio to use (as long as the user has it enabled) and connecting to the network. This means that app developers do not need to be network experts, they just need to build great apps.

iOS7 or later devices can be members of more than one peer-to-peer network session, and iOS7 or later devices can bridge connectivity between members of the same peer-to-peer network session.

If we look at the image below we can see that the iPhone on the bottom right has its Wi-Fi radio enabled, but not its Bluetooth radio. The iPhone on the top has its Bluetooth radio enabled but not its Wi-Fi radio. The iPhone on the bottom left has both its Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios enabled.

The iPhone on the bottom right can communicate with the iPhone on the bottom left using Wi-Fi. The iPhone on the top can communicate with the iPhone on the bottom left using Bluetooth. However the iPhone on the bottom right can also communicate with the iPhone on the top because the iPhone on the bottom right is acting as a bridge. All of this connectivity is taken care of automatically by the Multipeer Connectivity Framework of iOS7.

How is multipeer connectivity a meshed network?

Most of us are familiar with a hub-and-spoke network like a Wi-Fi Hotspot or our Wi-Fi network at home. In fact cellular networks are also hub-and-spoke networks. As the name implies, each device on the network connects to all other devices on the network via a central hub as you can see in the diagram below. With a hub-and-spoke network, if the hub does down, no devices can communicate. This is the single point of failure.

On a meshed network, all devices can communicate directly with each other, with no need for a central hub as we can see in the diagram below.

The benefit of a meshed network is that devices on that network do not need a central hub to direct traffic. There is no single point of failure that can stop communications and all devices can communicate with each other freely.

iOS7 Multipeer networks also theoretically have no range limit. Because all devices can communicate with all other devices, and with the added benefit that any device can bridge communications, as long as a device is in-range of at least one other device, communications can remain established.

Why will risk managers be happy?

Risk Managers, amongst other things, spend a lot of time figuring out how to keep a company or government agency working in a disaster. If there is a natural or man-made disaster that knocks out cell towers and Wi-Fi Hotspots, how do companies or government agencies keep communicating with their staff? If cell towers are down, nobody can make calls, but more importantly, nobody can communicate in any way.

With the Multipeer Connectivity Framework of iOS7, apps can be built that take advantage of the meshed network. These apps can provide Instant Messaging (IM), streaming content (probably audio), and updates to documents like evacuation plans, and other important documents.

Imagine employees being able to continue doing their job by remaining in-touch with co-workers and management via IM. Imagine companies or government agencies being able to stream important information via audio to all employees.

iOS7 Multipeer networks can also be encrypted so that information remains private within each network. In addition, authentication can be mandated so that each device must provide login information to become part of the network. These last two features are extremely important to companies and government agencies because while the idea of a meshed network is great, if you cannot secure it, it is useless.

The bottom line

In our hub-and-spoke cellular data and Wi-Fi Hotspot world, we have always been at the mercy of the hub. No hub, no communications. Meshed networks are not new and have been around for decades, however they have not been applied to mobile communications the way they have been in iOS7. Apple has provided a framework that does all of the heavy lifting for developers, allowing them to exploit the power of the meshed network without having to become network experts themselves.

Meshed networks are entirely possible on other platforms including BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Phone/Windows Surface RT, because all of those devices include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios, however the operating systems themselves do not have the frameworks in-place to make developing apps that utilize meshed networks easily. For app developers to achieve what can be done on iOS7, they would need to build their own meshed network framework, in addition to the app they wanted to build. This is not an impossible task, however it greatly complicates the process.

To see the possibilities of iOS7’s Multipeer Connectivity Framework, take a look at the FireChat app. It utilizes this technology to offer Instant Messaging even when there is no cellular or Wi-Fi coverage.

It's trite. It's cliché. But it's what a lot of people are going to say. iOS 7.1 is what iOS 7 should have been. Given that iOS 7 enjoyed less development time than any previous version — 10 months instead of the usual 12, or the 15 afforded iOS 5 — it's certainly understandable. Given that it's taken an additional 6 months — iOS 7.0 was released in September of 2013 — it's also been a long time coming. There are new features like CarPlay, and improvements like manual Siri control and auto HDR for the iPhone 5s. There are also some incredibly welcome bug fixes in iOS 7.1 including an end to the rampant Springboard crashes, the decaying Touch ID fingerprint recognition, and the performance on the iPhone 4. So, despite the long wait, is iOS 7.1 the update iPhone and iPad users have been waiting for?

iOS evolution

iOS 7 was first shown off in June of 2013 at Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC. The iOS 7.1 update became available in March of 2014. That's a long time. Previously new versions of iOS x.0 were launched in june with the new iPhones, and x.1 in September with the new iPod touches. iPhones now ship in September and x.1 whenever Apple gets around to it. They are no longer the quick updates they were. For comparison's sake, here are our reviews of past versions of iOS.

• iOS 7 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 6 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 5.1 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 4.3 for iPhone, iPad
• iOS 4.2 for iPhone | iOS 4.2 for iPad
• iOS 4.1 for iPhone
• iOS 4 for iPhone
• iOS 3.2 for iPad
• iOS 3.1 for iPhone
• iOS 3.0 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.2 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.1 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.0 for iPhone

Compatibility and updating

iOS 7.1 is a free update for anyone using an iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini, Retina iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPod touch 5. (As always, not all features are available on all devices.)

You can update over-the-air (OTA) on on-device or over USB using iTunes on Mac or Windows. OTA updates-in-place are typically the fastest, setting up as a new device is typically the best way to get the best performance.

• How to install iOS 7.1 over-the-air using Software Update
• How to install iOS 7.1 over USB using iTunes

iOS 7.1 and iPhone 4

iOS 71 on the iPhone 4 deserves special mention. iOS 7.0 performance on the iPhone 4 was bad enough that it had many people desperate to downgrade. That's nothing new, of course. The bottom end of the upgrade list is often excruciating on the x.0 but picks up on the x.1 or x.2. So it was with the iPhone 3G in its day, now it is with the iPhone 4.

I installed it iOS 7.1 on my circa January 2011 white GSM iPhone 4 and performance does indeed seem to be markedly improved. Where before it would stutter and stammer and otherwise force me to practice my deep breathing and dude-abiding skills, now it's noticeably better. It's not iPhone 5 fast, of course — that old Apple A4 chipset, it ain't what it used to be — but it's at least acceptable now.

If you have an iPhone 4, you'll want iOS 7.1.

iOS 7.1 design

iOS 7 was a design revolution. It scraped away the rich, skeuomorphic textures favored by the late Steve Jobs to expose a new focus on depth, deference, and clarity. From layers of transparency and blur to app bereft of chrome and cruft to new palettes and typography, the playfulness previously found in the interface was transferred to the interactivity. It's the iOS that former head of hardware design, now head of all design, Jony Ive always wanted. But the brutal deadline for iOS 7 meant we got only as much of it as his design team could sprint across the finish line by its September 2013 launch. It should come as no surprise, then, that iOS 7.1 contains more than the usual amount of finish and polish.

Transitions have been tightened and animations sped up. For example, what looked like app icons easing out of warp space to fill the Home screen on iOS 7 now looks like proper jump. The scaling from app to folder to full screen also seems better, the portals between worlds that used to saunter now seem to snap. The effects slowed down the perceptive speed of iOS 7. Now, whether the pixels get pushed or the bits launched faster or not, iOS 7.1 feels faster and that's what matters.

Some of the other changes are more subtle. The Lock screen "slide to unlock" feature, for example, has the same overall look but a brighter, more obvious animation. On the Home screen the green app icons, like Phone and Messages, have deeper gradients. And the "slide to power off" screen now has a blurred background and better looking, round interface elements. That includes a power icon on the slider. Here are the differences (iOS 7 on top, iOS 7.1 on the bottom):

Control Center has a tighter bounce animation now and the brightness and volume sliders have gained bounce animations all their own. Like the rubber banding on the original iPhone, it makes them feel better and more delightful.

The Weather app sees its icons move from outlines to solids. Generally in iOS 7 an outline is used to represent a normal state and a solid a selected state. However, with the animated backgrounds, the solid state of clouds, suns, etc. in the Weather app looks more balanced and are easier and faster to visually parse.

The Phone app has a much-improved call answer screen both for the locked and unlocked state, and better buttons in general. It extends the round theme found in iOS 7 avatars and toggles and makes everything look cleaner and clearer.

Another subtle yet potentially far more frustrating change in iOS 7.1 is how the state of the shift key is displayed. In iOS 6, the default shift key state (lowercase) had a dark background and light, outlined icon. When selected (uppercase), the icon became solid and gained a glow ffect. When double-tapped (caps lock), the background turned blue.

In iOS 7.0 the default was medium background with dark outline, dark fill for selected, and dark background with light fill for caps lock. Now, in iOS 7.1, it's medium background with light fill for default, light background with dark fill for selected, and light background with dark fill, underlined, for caps lock.

iOS 7.0 seemed to be consistent with the basic guidelines of the new interface in general. The new one isn't as consistent or obvious. It makes it difficult to determine the state the shift key is in, and counter-intuitive to the point that you find yourself uncertain and guessing wrong more often than not. Granted, it could be a lot worse — and was during one of the betas — but it could also be a lot better. Here are the changes (iOS 6 on top, iOS 7 in the middle, and iOS 7.1 on the bottom):

Arguably Apple could change the entire keyboard to reflect lower case vs. uppercase letters but that could add to the cognitive load — find "d", hit shift, lose "D", find "D" again. Either way, iOS 7 wasn't perfect but it was more intuitive than iOS 7.1.

Overall, however, the iOS 7 design is improved and solidified in iOS 7.1, with almost all of the changes being decidedly for the better. iOS 8 likely won't get anything close to the visual redesign iOS 7 got, so whatever quibbles remain iOS 7.1 provides a solid foundation for whatever comes next.

iOS 7.1 performance and battery life

Any time Apple updates iOS the same pattern emerges — for some people performance and battery life are markedly improved, for most it stays roughly the same, and for a few, it becomes truly terrible. The same appears to be the case with iOS 7.1. On my iPhone 5s battery life is exactly the same and performance is better (though that's mostly due to the tighter animations).

If you're experiencing problems, whether something went wrong in the update process or an old backup got restored with glitches, you'll want to take steps. iOS 7.1 shouldn't hit your phone any harder than iOS 7 did.

• How to trouble-shoot iOS 7.1 battery problems

iOS 7.1 and improved Touch ID fingerprint recognition

Touch ID is Apple's fingerprint identity scanner, currently exclusive to the iPhone 5s. When it senses something capacitive, like a finger, it takes a high resolution snapshot of it. The image is converted to a hash and sent to the secure enclave on the Apple A7 processor. If there's no match, a "no" token is released. If there is a match, a "yes" token.

Every time a finger is scanned successfully, Touch ID is supposed to improve its record and become more reliable. Yet for some people running iOS 7 the process would start off well but instead of getting better it would actually get worse over time. Whether errors were occurring that caused aberrations to grow in the record, or some form of decay was happening with the record itself, for some people it simply became unreliable to the point of unusable.

iOS 7.1 fixes that. According to Apple, Touch ID now has improved fingerprint recognition. So, while things like moisture can still throw off the sensor, the record itself should now work the way it's supposed to for everyone and all of the time.

Touch ID worked well enough for me in iOS 7 but it's worked flawlessly for over a month with iOS 7.1 (including the betas). What's more, if you had problems, it should just start working better. Better still, if you have to or want to reset or redo your Touch ID fingerprint registration, Apple has also moved the Touch ID — and Passcode — Settings out of the General basement and onto the top level, making them easier to access.

iOS 7.1 accessibility, reduced motion, and increased contrast

iOS 7.1 offers several additions to the Accessibility settings, though in this case they all involve altering what are defining characteristics of iOS 7. The first is an expansion of the Bold Font option, which now also enhances the weight of the keyboard, of the Calculator app, and of many of the standard glyphs (icons) like the share button and trash can. Unfortunately, due to the way iOS works, your iPhone or iPad still has to reboot for the Bold Font option to take effect. If you do make the switch, however, here's how the difference looks (standard on top, Bold below):

Reduce Motion now disables the bounce physics in iMessage, switches the scaling in the multitasking interface to a cross-fade, and freezes the animations and scrolling in the Weather app. You can also turn off Perspective Zoom on any wallpaper you set for the Lock screen or Home screen. Here's how it looks (iOS 7.0 on the left, iOS 7.1 toggles in the middle and on the right):

With iOS 7, Apple stripped out a lot of the "chrome" (heavy interface elements) including the embossed button shapes of iOS 6 and previous versions. That left them "naked" — text or icons with nothing around them. The shapes, however, helped with affordance (something that hints at how an interface element should be used). They made buttons look like buttons and their outline showed their touch-targets (the exact area you could tap to activate them). With iOS 7.1, Apple given us the ability to bring them back.

Toggling Button Shapes on fills in the background around a naked text and glyph buttons with a darker color outlining its shape and also underlines naked text buttons on dialogs to make them look more like web links. The result of the former doesn't look exactly right but it will be more usable for anyone who really missed traditional button elements. Here's how it looks (iOS 6 on the left, iOS 7 in the middle, and Button Shapes turned on in iOS 7.1 on the right):

There are also several options to Increase Contrast in iOS 7.1. You can Reduce Transparency to make things like folders and Control Center opaque. You can Darken Colors to make things like the naked text buttons slightly less bright, and you can Reduce White Point to tone the backgrounds down to a step to light gray. Here's what the differences look like (default on top, Increased Contrast below)

That Apple felt the need to add these settings is interesting. It appears to acknowledge that some people had serious usability issues with iOS 7. Rather than walking anything back for everyone, however, Apple simply added options for those who need or want them. My guess is that Jony Ive and team still firmly believe in the direction they took iOS 7, they just feel it's taking the rest of us a little longer to adjust to it than they'd hoped. So, the new settings are a middle ground. Something that's there for those who find iOS 7 challenging or distressing to use.

I still like the overall design of iOS 7, including the default typography, animations, and contrasts. The naked buttons haven't hurt usability for me but do still seem unfinished, design-wise. Either way, I've not enabled any of the new settings above. However, if iOS 7 was hard for you to read, if it made you motion sick, or if was in any way difficult or uncomfortable for you to use, these news settings will provide some welcome relief.

iOS 7.1 and CarPlay

CarPlay beams select iOS apps from your iPhone to the display in your car. It's not dissimilar to AirPlay and your television but works in a bi-drectional manner and, because there's no external box in between like the Apple TV, it requires car manufacturers to build support for it directly into their information and entertainment systems. Because it also requires a Lightning connector, CarPlay is only available on iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5.

It might seem odd to have a physical cable connection to the car rather than a wireless one like AirPlay in the living room. However Wi-Fi is not yet a standard feature on cars and while losing a connection to your TV is annoying, losing one to your car could be dangerous. Built-in cellular connectivity is also rare, making a physical tether to your iPhone's LTE radio a more realistic option at present.

Apple's been uncharacteristically flexible when it comes to the types of displays and controls that work with CarPlay. That's likely more a reflection of the state of the automotive industry than the experience Apple really wants to provide. Whatever the case, and depending on what's available, CarPlay will work with Siri, capacitive touch screen, resistive touch screen, and even with knobs, dials, and buttons.

Since Siri doesn't have an always-listening option, activating Apple's personal digital assistant requires the push of a button on the steering wheel. Capacitive touch screens, the kind found on iOS devices, are more responsive but can't be used if you're wearing gloves. Resistive touch screens, the kind found on devices from the stone-ages before iOS, are more sluggish but won't force you to remove your racing leather. The knobs, dials, and buttons allow CarPlay to work with the controls already in your car, the ones you're already familiar with.

Because of the variety of controls, and the unique demands of an in-car interface, iOS apps need unique interfaces for CarPlay. Apple calls them "re-imagined". While still in the style of iOS 7, they're bigger, bolder, more glance-able, and hopefully less distracting than their originators on the phone.

If you're worried, however, or would simply prefer to use the built-in system even when your iPhone is plugged in, iOS 7.1 provides a way to toggle CarPlay on or off in Settings.

Built-in iOS apps currently supported by CarPlay are Phone, Music, Maps, and Messages. Apple is also providing support for an extremely limited selection of App Store apps including their own Podcasts app as well as iHeartRadio, Beats Music, Spotify, and Stitcher. Like the Apple TV, getting onto CarPlay requires a special partnership with Apple. Additional apps should certainly be possible in the future but Apple will likely keep the type of apps restricted. No one needs to flap birds, crush candy, net flicks, or edit their iWork while driving after all.

Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, and Volvo have already announced and/or shown off vehicles with CarPlay support. Apple says BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Jaguar, Kia, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugot, Subaru, Sazuki, and Toyota will be building CarPlay compatible cars in the future as well. (No word yet on Tesla, Lamborghini, and other manufacturers — they may simply require more time to build compatibility into their on-board systems, or they may not (yet) have reached CarPlay partnership agreements with Apple.)

CarPlay has only just been shown off and I've yet to try it in person. When I do have the chance I'll update this review to reflect not only my opinions of the choices Apple made but how well the implementation works in the real-world as well.

iOS 7.1 and Siri hold-to-talk

iOS 7.1 brings new, better voices to Apple's personal digital assistant, Siri for Mandarin Chinese, U.K. English, Australian English, and Japanese. It also adds the ability to manually control how long Siri listens. The concept is remarkably similar to the old push-to-talk systems. Hold down the Home button and Siri listens, let go of the Home button and Siri stops listening and goes to work. Apple stresses both those things: that we can control when Siri listens and Siri knows when to stop listening.

It highlights the difference between Apple's Siri, which requires specific user action to listen, and both Google's Moto X and Microsoft's Xbox One. With those devices, whether you're touching them or you're across the room, you can simply say "Okay, Google Now" or "Xbox", tell it what you want, and it'll do it. No button press or physical contact required. To do this, however, they have to be listening to every word you say so it'll know when you say "Okay, Google Now" or "Xbox". (The Moto X even has natural language and contextual coprocessors to make doing so more energy efficient.) For some of us the convenience far, far outweighs the privacy concerns since we like Google or Microsoft and love gadgets and, hey, it feels like something out of Star Trek.

With the iPhone and the new Siri option you absolutely have to press and hold down a big, clicky, physical button and hold it down for as long as you're talking. Say "Okay, Siri" and you know what you get? Nothing. You get nothing and more nothing unless and until you're hold down the button. Don't hold it down and Siri won't be listening. For some of us the loss of convenience is more than made up for by increase in control. Siri isn't always listening but we're damn sure it isn't listening when we don't want it to.

If your hands are busy or full or messy, always-listening can seem like a life saver. If you're in the middle of confidential, personal, or sensitive moment, push-to-talk can seem like a blessing.

The best of both worlds might be the ability to tell Siri to enter an always-listening hands-free mode. It could persist for a short period of time or until you tell Siri to stop listening. That way you have the privacy and security of push-to-talk most of the time, but the convenience of always-listening when you're driving, cooking, or otherwise have your hands and attention elsewhere.

It would have the advantage of Apple's business model not being dependent on aggregating our personal data, at least so far, but it wouldn't have all the depth and breadth of Google's services. Some might find that reassuring, others frustrating.

Likewise the on-board voice parsing — no need to go to the network to set alarms or perform other local tasks — and the whole "prescience" thing — preemptively serving up what it feels is relevant information. Google Now has done both for a while now. Siri, however, still goes to the network for everything and still only speaks when spoken to...

iOS 7.1 and Calendar combo-view

When iOS 7 launched the Calendar app got a facelift but it tucked away list view under search and the combination month/list view was nowhere to be found. iOS 7.1 fixes that. There's now a new button on the menu bar that will toggle you between regular month view and combo month/list view

iOS 7.1 and auto HDR

iOS 4.1 brought high dynamic range (HDR photography) to the iPhone 4. Now, iOS 7.1 has made HDR automatic for the iPhone 5s. Where previously you had to toggle a setting to put the iPhone into HDR mode, now you can simply leave it set to Auto and, when the Camera app detects an image that would benefit from separate light and shadow exposure, it'll just take them.

Since the iPhone 5s and its Apple A7 chipset are fast enough that saving HDR is almost instantaneous most people would be best served by simply leaving the camera set to auto all the time.

It's just one more welcome step in Apple's long history of making "every day photos" turn out as well as possible is as many different situations as possible.

iOS 7.1 iTunes Match & iTunes Radio

With iOS 7.1 Apple has added a few extra conveniences to both iTunes Match and iTunes Radio.

First, if you're not already subscribed to Apple's $25 music locker service, you can now subscribe directly on your iPhone or iPad. Second, they've added a search field to their streaming music service above the featured stations section to let you more easily create stations based on your favorites. Lastly, they've added a buy button to iTunes Radio so, if you love a song enough to want to own it, you can quickly move over to the iTunes Store and complete the purchase.

Unfortunately, while iTunes Radio has recently expanded from the U.S. to Australia, it still hasn't expanded to most of the rest of the world, which makes those features accessible to only a small fraction of iPhone and iPad users.

iOS 7.1 and bug fixes

iOS 7 was subject to numerous Home screen crashes (re-springs). Every version of iOS has these occasionally. For iOS 7, however, some people had them several times a day, every day. It was not only annoying it made Apple's software look bad. And Apple didn't fix it for 6 months. iOS 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, and 7.0.6 came and went without addressing the re-springs. iOS 7.1 beta, however, addressed them months ago. I can't begin to imagine how complex a problem it was or what repercussions had to be handled to properly fix it. But 6 months. Regardless of the difficulty, it should have been fixed faster.

Apple also fixed a glitch with FaceTime notification badges not syncing properly between devices. I'd turned mine off to avoid having to deal with the glitch, so the fix is most welcome.

If you have more than 10,000 unread messages in Mail, iOS 7.1 will display that badge properly now as well. (Though I'd suggest that if you have over 10,000 unread messages you don't really need a badge — you need an intervention...)

Rotating the iPad Lock screen no longer results in the shade layer rotating separately a second later. My brain thanks Apple for this.

iCloud Keychain is now supported in additional countries, but like OS X 10.9.2, Apple has removed the ability to force auto-fill on websites that try to prevent.

Apple has also fixed several security issues, a complete list of which can be found on Apple's knowledge base

And, of course, iOS 7.1 also provided the previously mentioned iPhone 4 performance improvements and Touch ID reliability fixes.

Again, Apple didn't fix all of this as fast as they should have, and some of it shouldn't have been a problem in the first place, but with iOS 7.1, at least its fixed now and fixed well.

iOS 7.1: The bottom line

So is iOS 7.1 what iOS 7 was meant to me? No. That's trite. That's cliché. iOS 7.1 is what iOS 7 has become thanks to an additional 6 months of development and design time, experience and realization. The screws were tightened, the rough edges were smoothed, the surfaces were polished.

Yes, in the case of the re-springs the fix was too long coming and in the case of the shift key the improvement is anything but. However, for everything from the animation speed to the interface tweaks to what could very well be the beginning of iOS everywhere — CarPlay — the update is good. It's very good.

Apple is front-loading new iOS features in the x.0 releases these days, and that doesn't leave much for the x.1. That's what happens when an operating system matures, when obvious holes have been filled, and when competition intensifies. And that also means more substantial updates and improvements likely won't be seen before WWDC 2014, likely this June, when Apple gives us our first peek at iOS 8.

In that regard iOS 7.1 does exactly what it needs to. It takes something that was audacious and impressive, if flawed and unreliable in places, and makes it more than solid — it makes it downright enjoyable.

iOS 7 brought with it a new, unified palette for everything from icons to interface elements, including the tint colors give to the new "naked" style text buttons. Unfortunately for some people those tint colors are just a little bit too bright to be read comfortably, especially on the primarily white backgrounds. Luckily, iOS 7.1 gives you the ability to darken those colors and hopefully make them much more legible. Best of all, it's easy to do!

How to increase font and menu visibility with the darken colors option in iOS 7.1

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.1 or higher.
2. Tap on General.
3. Now choose Accessibility.
4. On the next menu, tap on Increase Contrast.
5. Turn On the option for Darken Colors.

To see the difference in color, quickly toggle the setting on and off and watch the Accessibility back-button in the top left corner of the Settings navigations bar. It'll switch from bight to dark blue and back. It's the most noticeable in apps such as Safari and the Calendar.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Do the darker colors make it easier to pick out menu items or read smaller colored fonts?

One of iOS 7's signature features is "depth" and by that Apple means transparent layers with gaussian blur filters beneath them. While that might look fancy it can also be distracting for some people and, for those with visual impairment, it can be downright confusing and hard to use. Luckily, iOS 7.1 has added the ability to reduce transparency and render everything from the Dock to the keyboard to Control Center and Notification Center nice and opaque.

How to reduce transparency in iOS 7.1 for better visibility in menus, keyboards, and more

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.1 or higher.
2. Tap on General.
3. In the next menu tap on Accessibility.
4. Now tap on Increase Contrast.
5. Turn On the option for Reduce Transparency.

Once you've tried it out, let me know what you think. Do you prefer the transparency in iOS 7 or does turning it off make the experience less distracting?

iOS 7.1 goes a long way towards "fixing" the usability problems some people experienced with the original version of iOS 7 — not by taking a step back but by taking a step diagonally. Apple has always led the industry when it comes to accessibility. With iOS 7, however, the added improvements were counter-balanced by some added problems. Fantastic new features like switches let you control your iPhone based only on the movement of your head, but other features like the physics and particle engine gave some people vertigo, thinner typography made it harder for some people to read, and "naked" buttons made navigation more difficult for some people to use. So what's the iOS 7.1 middle-ground Apple's found? In short, Accessibility Settings.

The first is an expansion of the Bold Font option, which now also enhances the weight of the keyboard, of the Calculator app, and of many of the standard glyphs (icons) like the share button and trash can. Unfortunately, due to the way iOS works, your iPhone or iPad still has to reboot for the Bold Font option to take effect. If you do make the switch, however, here's how the difference looks (standard on top, Bold below):

iOS 7.1 also expands Reduce Motion, now disabling the physics in iMessage, switching the scaling in the multitasking interface to a cross-fade, and freezing the animations and scrolling in the Weather app.

There are also several options to Increase Contrast in iOS 7.1. You can Reduce Transparency to make things like folders and Control Center opaque. You can Darken Colors to make things like the navigation words and glyphs slightly less bright, and you can Reduce White Point to make tone the backgrounds down to a step to light gray. Here's what the differences look like (default on top, Increased Contrast below)

Finally, you can enable Button Shapes. With iOS 7, Apple stripped out a lot of the "chrome" (heavy interface elements) including the embossed button shapes of iOS 6 and previous versions. That left them "naked" — text or icons with nothing around them. The shapes, however, helped with affordance (something that hints at how an interface element should be used). They made buttons look like buttons and their outline showed their touch-targets (the exact area you could tap to activate them). So, with iOS 7.1, Apple given us the ability to bring them back. Toggling Button Shapes on fills in the background around a naked text and glyph buttons with a darker color outlining its shape and also underlines naked text buttons on dialogs to make them look more like web links. The result of the former doesn't look exactly right but it will be more usable for anyone who really missed traditional button elements. Here's how it looks (iOS 6 on the left, iOS 7 in the middle, and Button Shapes turned on in iOS 7.1 on the right):

That Apple felt the need to add these settings is interesting. It appears to acknowledge that some people had serious usability issues with iOS 7. Rather than walking anything back by changing the defaults for everyone, however, Apple simply added options for those who need or want thm. My guess is that Jony Ive and team still firmly believe in the direction they took iOS 7, they just feel it's taking the rest of us a little longer to adjust to it than they'd hoped. So, the settings are indeed a middle ground. Something that's there for those who find iOS 7 challenging or distressing to use.

I still like the overall design of iOS 7, including the default typography, animations, and contrasts. The naked buttons haven't hurt usability for me but they still seem unfinished, design-wise. Either way, I've not enabled any of the walk-backs above. However, if iOS 7 was hard for you to read, if it made you motion sick, or if was in any way difficult or uncomfortable for you to use, these news settings will provide some welcome relief.

Have you turned on any of the new iOS 7.1 accessibility features? If so, which ones and how are they working for you?

iOS 7.1 brought many things for many people, but for us British folks Siri got a noticeable update. Until now, we've been given only one choice for how Siri sounds over here; the robotic sounding male. With iOS 7.1 a few regions, the UK included, got improvements to the quality of the voice feedback. Oh, and we also got a female voice for the first time ever!

It seems like a small thing, but the changes have made interacting with Siri should you be using UK English as your language more enjoyable. And I don't know, but I've always thought of Siri as a more female entity anyway, so it's good we get that choice now as well!

Check out the hot new British Siri in the video up top. The difference in male voice quality is subtle at first, but as you start to use it more and more it becomes more and more obvious. It's also softer and a little quieter than before – apologies for the low audio in the video on that! – and doesn't shout its answers at you quite as much anymore. So, what do you think to Siri's hot new British voices?

One of the more subtle yet potentially frustrating changes in iOS 7.1 is how the state of the shift key is displayed. Not only isn't it intuitively obvious which state the shift key is in — lowercase, Upper Case, or CAPS LOCK — but it can be downright counter-intuitive to the point that you find yourself uncertain and guessing wrong more often than not. Granted, it could be a lot worse but it could also be a lot better. If you've installed iOS 7.1 and you're having trouble figuring out the shift key on your iPhone or iPad, here's a quick reference. (Share it with your friends. All your friends.)

How to tell lower case, Upper Case, and CAPS LOCK mode on iOS 7.1

1. If the background is dark gray and the arrow is white, you're in lower case mode.
2. If the background is white and the arrow is black, you're in Upper case mode.
3. If the background is white and the arrow is dark, and there's a horizontal line beneath the arrow, you're in ALL CAPS mode.

I've been using iOS 7.1 since the first day of the first beta and while the implementation has changed considerably once and a while I still glance at it and can't remember immediately which state I'm in. Once you've had a chance to use iOS 7.1 a while let me know — how do you find the shift key?

Apple on Monday released iOS 7.1 . The new version is available immediately as an over the air (OTA) download. CarPlay, enhancements to Siri and iTunes Radio, and other changes have been made in the new release - including some performance improvement for long-suffering iPhone 4 users.

Apple officially unveiled CarPlay at the Geneva Motor Show last week. While the new technology won't be accessible until auto manufacturers roll out new models later this year, iOS 7.1 adds CarPlay support. CarPlay enables you to control Music, Maps, Messages, and select third-party apps using your car's center console display or through voice commands using Siri.

Also new in this release are changes to Siri - you can manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak, rather than letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking. More natural-sounding voices have been included for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English and Japanese.

iTunes Radio gets a search field to find new stations, along with other changes. Calendar will let you display events in month views, Accessibility gains new bold font options, offers a Reduce Motion option for Weather, Messages and multitasking UI animations, and more.

Here's the complete list of changes, according to Apple:

CarPlay

• iOS experience designed for the car
• Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
• Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
• Control with Siri and the car's touchscreen, knobs, and buttons

Siri

• Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you're done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
• New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese

iTunes Radio

• Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
• Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free

Calendar

• Option to display events in month view
• Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries

Accessibility

• Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
• Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
• New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point

Other

• New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
• iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
• FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
• Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
• Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
• Improved performance for iPhone 4
• Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000
• Continued user interface refinements

Have you updated already? Are you excited about the changes? Any trouble? Let us know in the comments!

Boy, MFi game controller support on iOS 7 hasn't worked out the way I hoped it would. Right now, it's a mess.

When Apple announced MFi controller support in iOS 7 at WWDC last June, I got excited. The iPhone and iPad are tremendously powerful devices and there are lots of great games, but not every game is good with touch screen controls. The lack of tactile response, the obscuring of what's happening on screen, and the sometimes-awkward hold you have to make to grip the device all added up to frustration for me, over and over again.

MFi controller support seemed like a great compromise: gamers who wanted real game controls would be able to get devices that worked. And the fact that support was built in to the operating system meant broad support.

Or so I thought. Five months after iOS 7's release, there's still only a relative handful of games that make use of MFi game controllers. Not to mention a paucity of MFi controllers.

What's more, the controllers that are available are either ridiculously specialized like the MOGA Ace Power and Logitech PowerShell, both designed to turn an iPhone into a handheld game console a la the Sony PlayStation Vita or Nintendo DS. They're also quite expensive expect to spend $70-$100 on one — even more than the cost of a game controller for a "real" console like an Xbox or PlayStation.

I recently put SteelSeries' Stratus game controller through its paces, which I quite like — but I came away feeling that MFi game controller support in iOS 7 is a nice benefit but not a must have, partly because the experience is so disjointed and inconsistent, with it not at all clear as to which games have MFi controller support and which don't.

Apple has to shoulder a lot of the blame here. The company has done a horrendous job of promoting games that have MFi controller support. There's no way to differentiate them in the App Store outside of checking the release notes for individual games. (Kevin MacLeod at AfterPad has assembled a list of MFi controller compatible games to help fill in the blanks — make sure to bookmark it.)

I'm beginning to get the feeling that MFi game controller support is going to be one of those orphaned technologies that Apple just ignores until it withers and dies, sort of lie what the company did with iTunes Ping.

Meanwhile, over in the Android world, we've seen specialized game systems like the Nvidia Shield appear — devices that work with Android software, but transcend the standard smartphone experience all together.

We've seen no such innovation from Apple, which brought us the "funnest iPod ever," right?

I've been carrying the mantle of Apple gaming for decades — I started my first Mac-centric game site back in 1994, and have been watching the business grow, shrink, and change ever since. iOS devices came and soon after the App Store arrived, and at that point gaming exploded on the platform. Games still take up the largest single chunk of the App Store, and represent a huge market and a huge draw for iOS customers.

Why Apple has such half-assed game controller support in iOS 7 is completely beyond my understanding. Making gaming on iOS devices a richer, more compelling experience should be a top priority in Cupertino. Instead, the way it is right now, it feels like a joke.

Visual Voicemail and iOS 7 don't play nicely together, at least not on AT&T. Complaints about it are all over the internet, and I've been suffering with it since September. So, I decided to do some digging. After researching online and wasting time on the phone with AT&T, I've realized how much of a breakdown in communication there is between phone makers and the carriers.

The first problem, which started almost immediately after iOS 7 came out (but not so immediately that I could blame it as the sole culprit), left me unable to delete voicemail messages from Visual Voicemail. I tried several things to remedy the issue on my own, from resetting network settings to trying to trick Visual Voicemail by deleting the voicemails while in Airplane Mode. No matter what I did, eventually they all came back. So, I tried calling into AT&T's voicemail system and deleting the messages that way. Then I reset network settings again and rebooted my iPhone. The result? Still there. Every last one of them. Next, I popped my SIM card into another iPhone 5s that was restored to factory defaults. All the voicemails popped right up. I couldn't delete them from that iPhone either. I replaced it with another SIM and the issue disappeared on both phones. This ruled out the problem being device related and also proved that it happens on a case-by-case basis that is in no way tied to a specific iPhone, at least on AT&T.

I called AT&T in order to see if they could resolve the issue, or at least if they knew what was going on. That one call turned into many calls to AT&T. Fast forward through about three voicemail resets, deleting VVM altogether from the account, and about 10 iPhone reboots, and I was right back where I started. AT&T had no answers for me. They claimed none of the messages were actually on their server. Since I could still play them back, however, they had to be somewhere.

The second problem started a few weeks later. I stopped being able to record a greeting. The Phone app either crashed or would cut out mid-stream. It took almost an hour of frustration to get one to fully record, or so I thought. Little did I know it was still cutting the recording off. Apparently, according to callers, even though the full greeting played back for me, it was actually using a cut off earlier version that I never even saved.

So, I asked some Apple employees what was going on. Most of them seemed familiar with the issue and the general consensus was that AT&T is mishandling the communication to the Visual Voicemail service. Something broke with iOS 7 and AT&T has yet to submit a carrier update to Apple in order to fix it. I don't pretend to know how carrier updates work or who's in charge of those, but based on what I've experienced, this makes sense to me.

A quick internet search told me that AT&T alone activates well over five million iPhones each quarter (conservative count). We also know that iOS 7's adoption rate was at 78% at the end of the year. That makes it highly likely that there are a ton of AT&T iPhones on the market running iOS 7. And they're not getting proper support for a feature that launched in 2007 with iOS 1. (iPhone OS 1.0.)

The maddening thing is this: If Visual Voicemail really is jacked because of AT&T and iOS 7, we're just going to have to wait for AT&T to push out a carrier update to fix it. And if you're having the same problem on your carrier, guess what? You're going to have to wait for them to update as well. iOS 7 came out almost four months ago. Four. Months. Complaints have been constant since then. What possible excuse could they have for not pushing out an update already?

If you're having a problem with Visual Voicemail on iOS 7, know that you're not alone, and let me know all about it in the comments!

Have you had issues with Visual Voicemail and iOS 7 on your carrier? If so let us know what you've experienced and whether or not it ever got resolved by either Apple or your carrier.

evasi0n 7 has recently been updated with many fixes to both the jailbreak itself and to Cydia, which solve a lot of the concerns that kept us from recommending it until now. If you've been waiting patiently to jailbreak iOS 7.0.4, we can walk you through the entire process from start to finish. Here's everything you need to know!

The evasi0n 7 version 1.0.4 jailbreak is compatible with all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models running iOS 7.0 thru iOS 7.0.4 including the iPhone 5s, iPad mini with Retina display, iPhone 5, and any other device capable of running iOS 7.

As always, make sure you backup your iPhone or iPad before attempting to jailbreak. Also, make sure you have updated to iOS 7.0.4 via iTunes and not over-the-air. This is mainly because OTA updates have been known to cause issues with the jailbreak process itself, so be sure you restore or update via iTunes before continuing.

1. Back up your iPhone or iPad. Always do this before attempting to jailbreak.
2. Download the evasi0n jailbreak tool: Download for Mac, Download for PC
3. Plug your iPhone or iPad into your computer.
4. Launch evasi0n on your Mac or PC. If you're on a Mac running Mountain Lion or Mavericks, you may have to right click the evasi0n jailbreak tool and click Open and confirm you'd like to open it.
5. Click Jailbreak and then wait.
6. After a few seconds, you'll see a message asking you to unlock your iPhone or iPad and tap on the evasi0n7 icon. Do that now.
7. You may be asked to unlock your device one more time if you have a passcode.
8. evasi0n should now give you a message that your device was successfully jailbroken and the process is done. Just click Exit on your computer.
9. Your device may reboot a few more times in order to complete the process and that's it! You should now have Cydia on your iPhone or iPad once more.

Once the jailbreak is complete, you'll want to pop into Cydia in order to update it. the filesystem will automatically update on its own but there may be other updates you need to install. Other than that, you're good to go!

Have you jailbroken iOS 7 using evasi0n yet? Let us know what your favorite tweaks are in the comments as well as whether or not you've run into any issues so far!

An iOS 7 jailbreak has been released by the evasi0n team. What's more, it's untethered and will work on any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that can run iOS 7.0 through iOS 7.0.4. Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends and the uncertainty begins. There are lots of reasons, even post-iOS 7, that someone might want to jailbreak. However, there are even more important reasons, with this specific jailbreak, that everyone should hold off, at least for now...

The safety of your data

According to numerous reports, when using the new evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 7, if your iPhone is set to Chinese, it will install certain Chinese "app stores". Given the nature of those "app stores", that should ring huge alarm bells for anyone even considering the jailbreak. Worse, some are going as far to say that the tool spams Cydia repos.

Privacy and security are the absolute most important concerns when it comes to allowing any tool to modify your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Unless and until more is known about exactly which hooks are in this jailbreak, and why, it's impossible to determine how safe the jailbreak is.

For this reason alone, nobody should be using it right now.

Cydia, stability, and compatibility

According to his posts on Twitter, Jay Freeman, known as saurik, and the creator of Cydia, had no idea about the jailbreak ahead of time. That means he can't guarantee how any of the foundational jailbreak infrastructure, including mobile substrate, will function on iOS 7. So far saurik has gotten some core functions of Winterboard working but hasn't pushed the update yet.

That saurik, and other prominent jailbreak developers, didn't know about evasi0n is in and of itself alarming. Not only does it mean most popular jailbreak apps, tweaks, and themes won't be updated, but it means none of them can yet vouch for the safety and stability of the jailbreak.

Another huge, blinking, neon sign to stay away.

You'll have to jailbreak again anyway

Since the evad3rs team also didn't test a current build of substrate, and the bundled version of Cydia isn't official, another update to evasi0n will likely have to be pushed in order to fix the compatibility issues. That means you'll just as likely have to go through the jailbreak process again at a later date.

That might be fun for people who love to tinker, but not for people who just want to jailbreak and get on with their lives.

iOS 7.1

iOS 7.1 is currently in beta 2. Why the evad3rs team didn't wait until it was out to push the release button is uncertain. However, it means that Apple may just patch whatever exploit evasi0n is using before 7.1 is released to the public. That means anyone who wants both will have to go back to waiting on a jailbreak all over again.

Other things to think about

Since you normally need to restore via iTunes, not OTA, in order for a jailbreak to work, there's nothing wrong with backing up and restoring via iTunes on iOS 7.0.4 now. That way you're ensuring you'll be able to jailbreak if iOS 7.1 drops before issues are worked out and Apple stops signing 7.0.4.

As always, we'll update as we know more! But for now, we'd highly recommend staying away from the current evasi0n jailbreak.

Shared Links are new to iOS 7. With them, you can see a list of all the links shared by everyone you follow on Twitter, all in one convenient place inside Safari. Think of it as a Reading List populated by people you find interesting. It's a great place to go if you have time and are looking for something serendipitous to read, but you have to know where to look if you want to find it.

How to access and use Shared Links in iOS 7 Safari

1. Launch the Safari app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.
2. Tap on the Bookmark icon in the bottom navigation of Safari.
3. Now tap on the @ icon in the top navigation bar.
4. Here are all the links being shared by your Twitter feed. Tap on any one of them to launch the link.

That's all there is to it. Shared Links is one easy to use place to manage all your links. Currently Twitter is the only kind of link supported but we'd imagine over time we may see Apple expand the service to others as well. You can also use Shared Links in Safari for OS X MavericksHow to use the Shared Links feature in Safari for OS X Mavericks"), so make sure you check that out as well!

Note: If you don't see anything under Shared Links, go into Settings > Twitter and make sure you're signed in.

How to get more help with iOS 7 Safari

If you have specific questions about Safari or iOS 7 in general, check out our iOS 7 help and discussion forum. For more on Safari in specific, check out our ultimate guide:

Apple has posted iOS 7.1 beta 2 (5B71f) to the Developer Center. It's under non-disclosure agreement (NDA), so we can't report on what, if any, changes are included. Given the turn-around time on iOS 7 in general, however, it's not hard to imagine more bug fixes and improvement enhancements are in order.

Source: Apple Developer Center

Although it might seem as though we've talked iOS 7 to death around here, there's still plenty of folks out there that are continuously discovering new features within Apple's latest and greatest. With over 200 new features, big and small, there's plenty to discover so that's entirely understandable. Previously, we asked what folks didn't like about iOS 7 but this time around we want to know what's you favorite feature in iOS?

​Apple headlined quite a bit of what is likely to be among a lot of people's favorites. The addition of Control Center which gives you quick access to the controls and apps is pretty fantastic and the updated Notification Center that lets you know about new mail, missed calls, reminders, and more is pretty stellar but what else?

There's the updated Multitasking that seems to be unanimously welcomed over what it was previously. iTunes Radio seems to be gaining popularity judging by the folks who say they're enjoying it in the iMore Forums but one of the more popular things that has risen to be a favorite is the expansion of gestures. iOS has had gestures for a while but they were once hidden behind the 'developer' walls and needed to be specifically enabled. 

The call out feature though for me? Call blocking. I've lost track of how many free cruises I've won over the phone and the number of bill collectors calling my phone asking for 'Shirley'. Before iOS 7, a phone conversation in my house was starting to sound like a reenactment of Airplane with me mocking the bill collectors by telling them to stop calling me Shirley.

So that's a bit of what folks in the iMore Forums think are some of the best features but what do you folks think? What's some of your favorite features? Jump into the forums and let us know or drop us a comment below telling us what you enjoy the most.

• Discuss more in the iMore Forums

Dropbox has been updated to version 3.0 and it brings with it an all-new, all iOS 7 look and feel. That includes a smoother, faster iPad experience with easy-to-toggle full screen mode. You can share more easily, including via AirDrop. There's also video saving, and enhanced PDF viewing.

It definitely scores highly on the deference and clarity scales. Clean, crisp, and consistent. If you like the core principles of iOS 7, you'll like this update.

If you're already using Dropbox, the update is ready and waiting for you. If not, check it out on the App Store now.

• Free - Download now

One of the things that's annoyed me most about iOS 7 is the way it handles wallpapers. iOS 7 only seems to want to position a background image one way, and no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you pinch or zoom, iOS 7 just snaps you wallpaper back in and, in some cases, makes it look ridiculous. So, I did some digging, and figured out why iOS 7 is messing up our wallpapers, and more importantly, how to fix it!

Why is iOS 7 stretching my wallpapers?

The issue seems to be more noticeable and prevalent on the iPad than it is the iPhone but the issue is definitely there on both. It seems as though iOS is now trying to find a happy medium between portrait and landscape mode. This means that iOS is automatically going to the resolution that it thinks is the best compromise resolution wise between portrait and landscape. This issue presents itself when you're attempting to use a photo that isn't exactly fit for the iPad or iPhone's native resolution. Since the iPad Lock screen and Home screen uses both orientations while the iPhone Home screen only uses portrait, that's why the problem is far more noticeable on iPad.

In previous versions of iOS, we could pinch and zoom as we'd like, even if it resulted in lower image quality. Apple has taken this option away in iOS 7, no matter how frustrating it is.

Aside from a happy compromise on resolution, iOS 7 automatically zooms images inwards is due to the parallax feature. Since tilting your iPhone or iPad re-adjusts the background in order to create the effect that the device moves with you, iOS has to take into account that the background has to have some padding on every side in order to do so.

This brings us to our first option to fix the problem...

Make sure your images are the right size

Since part of the reason iOS 7 is zooming in or out, particularly on the iPad, is due to creating a happy compromise, using the correct sized wallpaper should work just fine, especially if you've disabled the reduce motion effect like we explained above.

Here are the correct resolutions for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

• iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5th gen - 1136 x 640
• iPad Air, iPad 4, iPad 3, iPad mini with Retina display - 2048 x 1536
• iPad 2, original iPad mini - 1028 x 768
• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 - 960 x 640

There's an app for that

A sharp developer out there who was obviously irritated with the issue just as much as the rest of us has made an app called Wallax, which attempts to remedy the issue. To better illustrate how well Wallax works, have a look at the photos above. I really liked the image but it didn't center nicely on my iPad, go figure. I fired up Wallax and centered it how I wanted and then added a nice blur effect. The difference is pretty large as you can see above. I wouldn't have used the image at all if it weren't for Wallax.

Not only can Wallax instantly crop and save images to the correct resolution, it also comes with customizable gradient and textured wallpapers. Even more, you can add bokeh, blur, and focus effects to images. Once you've created exactly what you want, you can export the image to your Camera Roll to apply as the perfect wallpaper.

Wallax is compatible with both iPhone and iPad.

• $0.99 - Download Now

Use the Reduce Motion setting in iOS 7

Since the root of a lot of these problems is the iOS 7 parallax effect, if nothing else works, and your wallpaper is more important to you than the fake-3D look, you can simply turn it off. Here's a link to our guide on turning off the Reduce Motion feature in iOS 7.

• How to reduce motion and speed up transitions in iOS 7

This fix seems to work more for iPhone owners than iPad owners. If you're still having the issue, continue on.

Need more help?

If you're still running into issues, our iMore forums are a great place to ask for help and to find answers to common questions. We even have a wallpaper and ringtone forum where you can share your creations as well as view other member's.

Reduce motion is an Accessibility feature that settles down and smooths out the zooms, pans, shifts, parallax, and other dynamic elements on the iPhone and iPad. Although current versions of iOS are built on a physics and particle engine that help give make them look more alive, for people who suffer from vertigo or other versions of motion sickness, the movements results not in delight but in nausea. With reduce motion most of that goes away. Zooms become fades, parallax becomes static, and bounces settle themselves down.

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Now tap on General.
3. Tap on Accessibility.
4. Choose the option for Reduce Motion and turn the option to On.

That's all there is to it. Not only does iOS not have movable backgrounds anymore, transitions are also sped up to simply fade in and out. This results in much snappier response times when jumping into apps and back out.

Give it a try and let us know how it works for you in the comments!

How to get more help with accessibility for iPhone and iPad

Find my iPhone, which also serves as Find my iPod touch and Find my iPad, has been update with an all new, all clean design optimized for iOS 7.

No other new features to bullet point, but it looks great, works better than ever - the new designed seems to improve the user experience considerably - and is free as always and available in the App Store now.

Since Find my iPhone/iPod touch/iPad will help you track down a lost or stolen iOS device, there's really no reason not to get it. So update away, and if you haven't downloaded it at all yet, get it now.

• Free - Download now

Apple has updated their Built-in-Apps page on Apple.com to show off the new icons, and new descriptions for their iLife - iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand - and iWork - Numbers, Pages, Keynote - suites of creativity and productivity apps ahead of the October 22 iPad and Mac event. It includes this line, suggesting GarageBand might join its 5 companions in going free, although in this case free-as-in-freemium:

Looks like some new features and new templates are also coming along for the ride. It's not clear exactly what it all means, but here's the copy:

iPhoto for iOS:

iMovie for iOS:

Keynote:

Numbers:

The icons are, as you'd expect, gradients with solid white glyphs, completely unlike their previous, richly rendered versions and now matching Apple's current slate of iOS 7 apps. The screenshots, however, look the same as before so either those haven't been updated on the web yet, or Apple's engineers and designers simply haven't had time to work on them, given how busy they've been with the core OS.

New icons aren't shown for iBooks, iTunes U, Podcasts, Trailers, Remote, or other Apple App Store Apps, though presumably those, especially iBooks, are in the works. There's also no indication of new OS X versions of the iWork or iLife apps for the Mac and Mavericks yet, but given they were last updated in 2009, they're long past due as well.

Whether or not the new icons and new descriptions were meant to be pushed into production today, or whether it was simply a glitch in advance of Tuesday's update is uncertain. The pages linked to from the new descriptions come back as not found, so the latter might be more likely than the former.

Via: MacRumors

iOS 7 launched a month ago, though in truth many of us have been using it for several months now, counting the beta. Some of the amazing new features have been transformative, and changed the way we use our iPhones and iPads every day. Others... have been buggy and frustrating. So, overall, how has iOS 7 been working for the writers and editors of iMore?

• iOS 7 review

Peter Cohen

Transitioning to iOS 7 was no big deal. Much has been made about the dramatic user interface changes to iOS in this new release, but it's pretty easy to get the hang of, and while icons and lettering look different, most apps fundamentally operate the same way they did before. On the whole, I like the look and feel of iOS 7, though I find some of the embellishments, like parallax-tilting desktop wallpaper and prolific use of zoom effects, to be more distracting than helpful.

Ally Kazmucha

I've actually had iOS 7 installed since the first beta. My impressions haven't changed much since then minus the irritation of bugs. Unlike a lot of people, I like the color schemes and design direction that Apple went with iOS 7. I didn't for the first few days just out of resistance to change (I think it's human nature).

The thing I'm most excited about are all the app updates coming through that inherit iOS 7's design cues and native APIs. It's like experiencing iOS all over again for the first time, and in my opinion, that's a great thing.

Chris Parsons

I've been using iOS 7 since the first beta. Overall, iOS 7 has grown on me but to say I loved it ‘out of the box’ would be a lie. Apple made some dramatic changes with the look and styling that were less than pleasing initially. They’ve made some changes within apps that have essentially forced me to start using 3rd-party solutions. I’m OK with that. Often times those 3rd party solutions are better than the old way anyhow. My biggest gripe with iOS 7 is that while it seems fine on the iPhone 5, it has turned my iPad Mini a steaming pile of lag with some terrible looking fonts wrapped in a beautiful package.

Joe Keller

My thoughts on iOS 7 haven't changed much in the month that I've been using it full-time. I'm still a big fan of the redesign overall, even with some minor qualifications like the width of some lines. It runs very smoothly on my 5s, as quick and responsive as you'd hope.

How developers have responded to iOS 7 has been the most exciting thing so far. The best-looking apps on iOS 7 don't weren't content to just be flatter, but more colorful as well. Apps like Evernote and Vert use color both to bring attention to content and establish a strong visual identity.

The other aspect I enjoy most about iOS 7 is that despite the visual changes, much remains unchanged from the user's perspective. There's really no re-learning that has to occur when moving from iOS 6 to iOS 7, it's just the visual overhaul that takes some getting used to. Most of the truly important changes in iOS 7 are under the hood.

Richard Devine

iOS 7 is a huge step forwards for Apple, a step towards a future we're only just beginning. A lot has been made of the design, and while I don't like some of the icons and color choices, overall I love it. I think it's the best thing to happen to app design on any mobile platform. If apps are updated and haven't been given the iOS 7 glamour treatment, it makes me sad.

One of the things I've been enjoying the most is Control Center. I still believe more can be done with it, but having access to music controls and the flashlight in particular with just a swipe is so convenient it's a joy to use.

Elsewhere, I'm so, so happy that Apple has brought access to iTunes cloud music with iOS 7. I don't subscribe to iTunes Match, and I bought a ton of music over the years that I couldn't stream from the cloud until iOS 7. All the hype was around iTunes Radio, but this is much more important to me.

Derek Kessler

My experience with iOS 7 has been largely positive. As a webOS refugee, it's not surprising how much more I use the double-click home button to jump to the multitasking apps view. The iOS 4-style tray was mostly worthless to me, but by adding the full-app previews and true background multitasking it's become one of my favorite features.

The little physics bits like the active backgrounds and the accordion rebound action in lists like Messages still bring me some delight, but not nearly as much sitting there playing with it happens now as before. There are two other options that have changed how I use the phone: pull down to search in the launcher and Control Center. The latter has allowed me to reprioritize where I put apps for quick access (I no longer need to have Calculator or Camera on a first-tier launcher page). The former has made it that much easier to jump into search. It's kind of like webOS, in that it's available on every launcher page, but it's also just easier to know that I can swipe down and be in search.

I was neutral to positive on the iOS 7 visual design, and while there are some parts that still aren't quite there, once iOS 7-compatible apps started landing in the App Store (and getting pushed automatically to my device, praise be to Cupertino), it all started to gel. Now when I have to go into an app styled in the old iOS style it really stands out.

Also, is anybody else seeing the same much-improved battery life that I am?

Georgia

I have not yet updated to iOS 7. I'll do it eventually, but iOS 6 still works for me and I haven't seen any feature that's made me want to rush into it.

Rene Ritchie

Over the last few months, I've used iOS 7 for hundreds of hours and written tens of thousands of words about it. Needless to say, it's grown on me. It's become my new normal. Going back to iOS 6 (I kept an iPad and iPod touch on it) is like stepping back through time. It's still beautiful, but relics now of an era long past. iOS 7 is the future.

The back gesture in everything from Messages to Notes to Mail to Settings to a bevy of App Store apps is consistent enough that I now notice when it's not implemented. That goes for the entire physicality of the iOS 7. It's beyond delightful.

Some other things have been less consistent. I still don't know when Next Location is going to pop up in Notification Center. Maybe it's my wacky schedule, but it'll be there for a while, then go away, even when I haven't changed locations. Likewise, auto-refresh seems to still be in the process of getting implemented into apps. Sometimes updates are there, sometimes not.

For the most part reboots and re-springs are a thing of the past. The release version has been solid, more solid, in fact, than several earlier versions of iOS. And this is the worst iOS 7 is ever going to be. We're on iOS 7.0.2 already and I'm guessing 7.1 will be here soon enough.

One month in, and I'm even happier with iOS 7 than I was at launch.

Your iOS 7: One month later review?

Whether you've been using iOS 7 since launch, or since the beta, we'd love to hear what your experience has been. How's iOS 7 working for you, one month later?

• iOS 7: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Help and discussion forum

The Pinterest app for both iPhone and iPad has just been updated to version 3.0. The only new feature is the ability to now swipe left and right between pins. The rest of the update concentrates on updating the look and feel of the app to match the design cues of iOS 7.

If you've become used to pinning items and interacting with all your Pinterest buddies, don't worry, the changes aren't so overwhelming that you'll need to relearn the app itself. Honestly, I don't see changes that are particularly noticeable with the design other than a flat navigation bar along the bottom. The gestures to swipe in and out of pins and menus are convenient though.

If you noticed anything I overlooked, let us know in the comments!

• Free - Download Now

The Messages app got a complete overhaul in iOS 7 and the changes weren't limited to just visual ones. One of the best new features of the Messages app is the ability to view all images you've received and sent in a thread in one easy to access place. Here's how:

1. Launch the Messages app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Find the message thread that you'd like to view all the images in and tap on it to open it.
3. Scroll through the thread and tap on an image that you've either received or sent.
4. Now in the lower right hand corner, tap on the menu button to bring up a list of all images.

That's it. You can then tap into and view any image that you've sent or received from that person, or group of people.

As a side note, this view images screen only loads anything that's in the current loaded conversation. If you have lots of messages between you and that person, you can view even more images in that thread by performing these steps inside that message thread:

1. Tap on the time in the status bar at the top of your screen while inside the message thread.
2. Now tap on Load Earlier Messages.

Repeat the above process until you're either at the beginning of the conversation or until you feel the images you're trying to find would be contained in the loaded conversation. Then return to the view all images screen by tapping into any image and hitting the menu button again.

When Siri came around with the iPhone 4S, we were then able to give ourselves a nickname for her to call us. This nickname then got added to our contact card. If you shared that contact card with anyone, they'd then have your nickname attached to it. Ironically, if you have nicknames enabled in iOS 7, that's the name that will show up for them in message threads, their Contacts, and any other communication you have with that person. In some cases, nicknames can be quite silly and you may not want that displaying for a certain contact.

Luckily you can completely disable iOS from using nicknames. Here's how:

Keep in mind that Nicknames are different than Short Names, which we've already shown you how to editing settings for.

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.
2. Scroll down and tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Under the Contacts section, tap on Short Name.
4. Scroll down to the bottom and turn the option for Prefer Nicknames to the Off position.

That's all there is to it. iOS will no longer use nicknames that you have set for contacts. You will instead see the proper names you've set for them in your Contacts.

iOS 7 includes even more gesture-based navigation shortcuts than ever, and that means, if you master them, you can navigate your apps, peek at information, and general get things done faster and more easily than ever before. Whether it's glancing or navigating back at your list in Mail or Messages, swiping up Control Center or down Notification Center, moving through your Safari history, or flinging away tabs or entire apps, with iOS 7 gestures, all the shortcuts you need are literally at your fingertips. Here's how to use them:

1. Calling Control Center and Notification Center

Notification Center has been accessible via a downward swipe from the top edge of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad display for a while now. With iOS 7, the all new Control Center can be accessed via a swipe up from the bottom edge as well.

That works from anywhere in the system, though on full-screen apps you need to swipe twice - once to reveal the "handle" and a second time to activate the center itself. That's to stop you accidentally covering your game, movie, etc. If you really don't want to trigger Control Center accidentally, you can disable them from working inside apps, period. Also, if you're concerned about security, you can disable them from functioning on the lock screen - so no one can read your messages or take your device offline without authenticating first.

• How to access and start using Control Center in iOS 7
• How to disable access to Control Center from appearing within apps in iOS 7
• How to disable Control Center access on the iOS 7 Lock screen
• How to disable access to Siri and Passbook on the Lock screen

2. Peeking at, and navigating to, lists in Mail and Messages

Both Mail and iMessage include a new gesture that lets you either peek back at your messages list, or pull back to it entirely. From an individual message, simply touch the screen on the left edge and swipe right, and your full list of messages will appear. Pull back only slightly for a quick glimpse of the message list, or pull back all the way to switch to it entirely. You can also swipe from right to left on an individual message to access delete and other functions.

In the Mail app you can swipe back again to get your full list of mail accounts and folders, and in messages you can swipe right to glance at time stamps for individual messages.

• How to view timestamps for individual texts and iMessages in iOS 7

3. Swiping through history in Safari

With iOS 7, Safari gets gesture-based navigation all its own. Now, you can swipe from the left edge towards the right to go back to the previous page in your browser history, or from the right edge towards the left to go forward to the next page (if you've previously gone back). If you imagine following each link on a website adds another page to the stack, these gestures let you quickly move pages off of and onto the stack until you get to just exactly the one you need.

4. Tossing away cards and tabs

iOS 7 lets treat a lot more objects like objects, including and especially the new card interface for multitasking and the new rolodex interface for Safari. In both, when you trigger them, you can grab a screen and simply toss it away. From anywhere on the system, double click the Home button to bring up the new card interface for multitasking. Then just touch one app, two apps, or as many as three apps, and flick them up and off the screen. They'll quit and be one. In Safari, tap the bookmarks button, touch a tab, and flick it to the left to close it. Couldn't be simpler. You can even fling down passes in Passbook to get back to the wallet view.

• How to quit and kill (force quit) apps in iOS 7

5. Accessing Spotlight Search from any Home screen

While it might seem like iOS 7 banished Spotlight Search from the Home screen system, what it actually did was move it from its own screen off to the left, and integrate it into every screen. Now, instead of swiping the other way, you simply touch anywhere on the Home screen (except the top edge, that's reserved for Notification Center), and swipe down slightly. It works the same way search has worked inside apps for years. The screen drops down and the Spotlight field is revealed.

• How to find Spotlight search - and your apps! - in IOS 7

Bonus tip: iPad gesture navigation

The iPad and iPad mini also still include several, system-wide gesture shortcuts all their own. They make it incredibly quick and easy to move between apps, open the fast app switcher, and even return to the Home screen. To access the multitasking card interface, place four fingers on the screen and swipe up. To move between apps without having to click into the multitasking card first, place four fingers on the screen and swipe from right to left to go to the previous app, and from left to right to return to the next app. To return to the Home screen, place four fingers on the screen and pinch them in together.

You can also use the basic pinch to get back from a single photo to the new Moments view in the Photos, or back from single place view to multiplace list in the Weather app.

Your top iOS 7 tips?

Those are our top 5 secret shortcuts that make moving around the iOS 7 interface not only faster, but funner as well. If you've found other ways to save time, let us know how!

Yesterday I received an email from a reader who, despite wanting an iPhone 5s, decided she wasn't going to get it after seeing an article about Touch ID being "hacked" and deciding it wasn't safe. I heard from another reader who saw a similar article and so decided to turn off Touch ID. Not replace it with a strong password, mind you, but simply turn it off and go back to nothing. They were by no means the only people who've been confused, misinformed, and ultimately hurt by the nonsense that's passing for technology reporting when it comes to iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s. It's some of the dumbest I've ever seen, and it's in an area that's so important it demands the least amount of dumb journalistically possible. Here's the truth about iOS 7, the iPhone 5s, and Touch ID:

1. Convenience and security sit at opposite ends of the spectrum. The more convenient something is, the less secure, and vice versa. You can't have both.
2. iOS 7 contains a lot of new features to increase convenience or security. It's up to us, the users, to choose which one is more important to us at any given time.
3. Conveniences like Lock screen access for Siri and Control Center are easy to turn off.
4. Security in the form of long, pseudo random passwords are easy to turn on.

Here are some examples of the convenience vs. security spectrum:

1. Unlocked iPhone can be accesses by anyone, at any time, put in Airplane Mode, used to play Candy Crush, whatever.
2. iPhone with Siri and Control Center accessible from the Lock Screen but protected by Passcode can be put in Airplane Mode, but can only be accessed by someone with the time and inclination to spy or otherwise ferret out your 4 digit code.
3. iPhone with Siri and Control Center accessible from the Lock Screen but protected by Touch ID can be put in Airplane Mode, but can only be accessed by someone with the skill and determination to make a workable fake fingerprint.
4. iPhone with Siri and Control Center disabled from the Lock Screen and protected by Touch ID or a Passcode can't be put in Airplane Mode but can be accessed by anyone who can make a fake fingerprint or spy out the Passcode. (It can still be put into a radio-proof container or room, or simply shut off until it can be placed in one.)
5. iPhone with Siri and Control Center disabled from the Lock Screen and protected by a long, strong, pseudo-random password can't be put in Airplane Mode but can be accessed by anyone who can trick, intimidate, extort, or otherwise socially engineer the password.
6. Any of the above kept in a lock box, safe, vault, etc. would require the container be accessed before the device.

Since most people aren't high level threats, and since the iPhone is a consumer electronics device, Apple start off towards the convenience end of the spectrum. Siri and Control Center access from the Lock screen are turned on, and a 4-digit Passcode as default rather than a complex alphanumeric password. Anyone who wants more security can turn off that access and ramp up that password. It'll make their iPhone far less convenient, but it'll also make it far more secure.

• 5 simple ways to increase security and privacy on iOS 7 and iPhone 5s

But never forget this: If you have an iPhone, someone, somehow, can gain access to it if what's on it is valuable enough and they want that access badly enough. The only real way to protect something is not to have it.

If you're considering an iPhone 5s, don't let nonsense non-stories deter you. If you've already got one, don't get fooled into turning off features that, overall, provide a good balance of convenience and security. If you're concerned about security, get your phone, and enable the features that let you do what you need to do as securely as possible.

Then go back to the dumbass sites that mindlessly propagate this kind of stupid and demand better from them. Or just block them and hang out here on iMore.

Either way, they'll go where your clicks/taps are.

As with nearly all software updates from Apple, iOS 7 brought with it a large number of security updates for users. Ranging from entirely new features all the way down to minor tweaks and enhancements, there's a lot to discuss when it comes to iOS 7 security. iMore's editor-in-chief Rene Ritchie briefly touched on most of the changes in his iOS 7 review, but I thought it would be fun to take a closer look.

Activation Lock

Activation Lock has been one of the most highly anticipated, talked about, and scrutinized security features of iOS 7. Activation Lock is a theft deterrent that works by leveraging Find My iPhone to help ensure if your device falls into the wrong hands, that another person won't be able to use it. When Find My iPhone is enabled on an iOS 7 device, Activation Lock is enabled by default, and it means your Apple ID and password will be required to turn off Find My iPhone, erase your device, and to reactive your device. This means if your iPhone gets stolen, a thief will have a much harder time trying to sell it.

Activation Lock has come under attack for a few different reasons. The first is many people have argued that this won't prevent theft. Common criminals who may not know about Activation Lock won't realize the disincentive to steal it. Some criminals may know about it, but steal it anyway to sell it to an unsuspecting buyer or scrap it for parts. And if you're arguing "Activation Lock won't prevent all thefts", these are valid supporting arguments. It's also true that locks and alarm systems on your home or car don't prevent burglaries or theft. However, they make you a much less appealing target. Activation Lock will not prevent iPhone thefts, but it will make things more difficult on thieves which should result in the number of overall iPhone thefts dropping as more users move to iOS 7. Nothing will ever make iPhones 100% theft-proof, but the goal is to set up hurdles that make the effort required for criminals not worth the potential monetary gain.

The second argument I've seen against Activation Lock is that we're going to see a rash of iPhone users forgetting their Apple ID & password, locking themselves out of their own devices, and being left with an expensive paperweight. This could happen to a user, but Activation Lock is designed in such a way as to make this as unlikely and difficult as possible. As mentioned above, your Apple ID and password are required to reset your device. In addition to the added security, this makes it more difficult for users to erase their device, only to realize later that they don't know their password to reactivate it. Also, when you reset your device and are prompted for your Apple ID and password, this is in order to disable Activation Lock. Part of the reset process for iOS 7 includes disabling Activation Lock. This has the added benefit of helping to ensure that if you're buying somebody's old iPhone that Activation Lock is disabled before you get it.

Of course, it's still possible that maybe something happens to your device and you're forced to put it into DFU mode and do a factory restore. In this case, you will not be able to activate your iPhone and set it back up until you enter your Apple ID and password. But even in this case, you have the ability to reset your password through the Apple ID portal, the same as you would have had to do prior to Activation Lock if you forgot your password. So let's say worst case scenario, you managed to reset your device with Activation Lock on, you've forgotten your password, and you can't answer your own security questions to reset it. It's no guarantee, but there's a decent chance at this point you could go into an Apple Store or store for your carrier, prove your identity to them, and have Apple perform an unlock from their end.

As you can see, it's fairly difficult to wind up with a brick of an iPhone. And it's probably a safe bet the the number of iPhone thefts prevented by Activation Lock will far outweigh the number of people who skillfully lock themselves out of their own phone. This makes Activation Lock a huge net win for iOS 7 users. Only time will tell, but I think we can expect to see, and hope that we do, a drop in overall iPhone thefts in the coming years as a result of Activation Lock.

iPhone 5s Touch ID

Touch ID is a new fingerprint identity sensor that resides in the Home button on the iPhone 5s. The sensor scans your fingerprint to unlock your iPhone, removing the need to enter your passcode every time you unlock your phone. In my experience, it's about as fast as doing a swipe-to-unlock without a passcode. With more than half of all smartphone users not using a passcode to protect their devices, the hope with Touch ID is to make securing your iPhone easier so more users will be likely to set a passcode.

Of course with the introduction of Touch ID came the question "how long until it's hacked?" and the answer turned out to be not long at all. The day after the release of the iPhone 5s came a video from the Chaos Computer Club demonstrating Touch ID being fooled by a fake fingerprint. The relevance of this has been a point of controversy. On one side people are arguing that this renders Touch ID useless. On the other side you have people saying this doesn't negate the benefits of Touch ID for most 5s owners. The answer lies somewhere in the middle. Whether Touch ID is useful to you will depend in your situation and what you hope to get out of Touch ID. Before we look at some Touch ID scenarios, let's cover a few specifics of how Touch ID works.

The primary use of Touch ID for most is to unlock an iPhone (though it can also be used for iTunes and App Store purchases). Rather than enter your passcode to unlock your phone like you normally would, you place a registered finger tip on the Home button, iOS checks the print, and if a matching print is found, the device is unlocked. There are a few caveats to this though. The first time you unlock your phone after a restart, your passcode must be used. If you want to change any lock screen settings on the phone, your passcode will also be required. If you have no unlocked your device in 48 hours, your passcode will be required. Finally, after 5 failed attempts with a fingerprint, your passcode will be required. With these rules in mind, let's look at some of the scenarios for Touch ID.

The vast majority of iPhone users likely fall into two buckets: no passcode and simple passcode. For people who previously used no passcode at all, the convenience of Touch ID makes it much more likely that more people will set a passcode. As I said previously, using Touch ID is about as fast as using swipe-to-unlock on a device with no passcode set. Most users no longer have any good excuse for not setting a passcode if they have a 5s. Devices get lost and devices get stolen; it's a fact of life. Having a passcode on your device means not having to worry quite as much about some stranger poking around your device, looking at your personal photos, posting on Facebook, and generally meddling around in your stuff.

For users who were already using simple passcodes, consider using a more complex one. Instead of entering your passcode dozens, or even hundreds of times a day, it's now possible to go days without having to enter it at all. Consider using a numerical passcode more than 4 digits. If you use all numbers, iOS will present you with the quick-to-use number pad. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, try upgrading all the way to a complex, alphanumeric password. With Touch ID's convenience, you have a good opportunity to increase the security of your passcode.

As was mentioned, Touch ID can be fooled. The process isn't what you would call trivial, but it can definitely be reproduced, and has been. It's unlikely to be performed by a casual thief who grabs your phone or picks it up somewhere, but is perfectly suited for a targeted attack where an individual or group wants to acquire the contents of your phone. If you're worried about this sort of thing, then Touch ID may not be for you. Although it's also worth noting that in these situations, if you're entering your passcode dozens of times a day on your device, it's also feasible that somebody could monitor you until they are able to capture your passcode being entered.

Concern has also been raised about the fact that somebody such as a spouse or significant other could use your hand to unlock your phone while you're asleep. If you fall into the category of people worried about this, I guess don't use Touch ID, and maybe go to some couples counseling to address some issues.

The final scenario I want to specifically address is concerns over the Fifth Amendment. An opinion piece over on Wired.com raises the concern that a fingerprint may not be protected by the Fifth Amendment, while passcodes are. I encourage everyone to read the Wired article, but the gist is that while a password is something you know and can be considered testimonial, a fingerprint is not. A fingerprint is something you possess, like a key, which police could require you to turn over to them. Is this something most users need to worry about? Probably not. However, it's a very valid concern for anybody that may find themselves in such a predicament. If this is a concern for you, then Touch ID may not be a good idea. If this isn't a daily concern for you, but you find yourself in a situation dealing with law enforcement where it becomes a concern, consider powering your iPhone off. Remember that your passcode will need to be entered every time the phone is turned on.

Touch ID is not one size fits all. As a user you will need to evaluate your situation and the possible risks to decide if Touch ID is a good idea for you. Personally, I keep a passcode on my device to protect my data in the event that my device is lost or stolen. I ask my wife to unlock my phone and check something all the time when I'm driving or have my hands full, so she knows my passcode anyway. I unlock my phone a lot and Touch ID is a welcome reprieve from entering my passcode every time. For me, the convenience far outweighs my concerns of being targeted for an attack. And if I were to fall victim to such an attack, my hope is that I would notice my device missing and be able to wipe my device via Find My iPhone before somebody was able to unlock it.

Weak Personal Hotspot passwords

Back in June, some researchers discovered that iOS had a rather weak and predictable method for generating Personal Hotspot passwords. In iOS 6 and earlier, the password was created by choosing a four to six character word from a dictionary only including 1,842 words, then appending a four-digit number. This resulted in default passwords like "poems6235". With a relatively low number of possibilities, researchers were able to brute force Personal Hotspot passwords in less than 50 seconds. iOS 7 users rejoice.

iOS 7 generates seemingly pseudo-random, 12-character, alphanumeric passwords. This is a huge improvement and makes brute forcing the password impractical. Though for any users who updated from iOS 6 to iOS 7, the password stays the same as it was in iOS 6. This is presumably to maintain compatibility with any devices previously configured to connect to the Personal Hotspot. If you updated from iOS 6 and have been using a default Personal Hotspot password, be sure to set your own password to avoid brute forcing by anybody attacking iOS 6 default passwords.

No more juicejacking

At Black Hat earlier this year, researchers presented their findings on a malicious charging station dubbed Mactans. The attack, also called juicejacking, had the ability to surreptitiously install malicious software onto your phone while also grabbing a copy of your data if you unknowingly plugged your phone into one of the malicious chargers. This relied on the fact that prior to iOS 7, iOS devices did not require user authorization before establishing a trusted connection between a device and a computer; the device only need be unlocked.

As of iOS 7, a user must explicitly trust a computer the first time it is connected before a trust is established. When a device is plugged in to a computer for the first time, a prompt appears asking the user to Trust or Not Trust the computer. Obviously if you're at the airport trying to charge your phone from a wall outlet and you're prompted to trust a computer, you should tap Not Trust. Even better, trust is not required to charge a device. This means even if you want to charge your device on a friend or co-workers computer, you don't have to allow it to transfer any data. With that said, it's still probably best to not just go around plugging your iPhone into random USB ports.

Lock screen bypass

As you've probably heard, several lock screen bypasses have been found in iOS 7, including the latest version, iOS 7.0.2. These bugs make it possible for an attacker to access certain information on your phone, even if it is locked. Depending on the bypass trick used, different information might be available, but generally speaking these bugs can grant unauthorized access to your photos & contacts, and allow a person to post to Twitter or Facebook as you (if you have Twitter and Facebook accounts configured in Settings).

These are definitely security bugs, there's no denying that. The good(?) news is such bugs existed in iOS 6. At the very least, you're no more at risk by updating to iOS 7. There also haven't been many reports of this actually being exploited in the wild. The bugs seems to provide more novelty for people than actual usefulness in stealing a user's address book. Apple fixed a lock screen bypass bug that had been found in 7.0 when they released 7.0.2. They will surely release another update that includes fixes for the bypass bugs that have been found since then.

iOS has to be able to access your contacts while the device is locked in order to show caller info. Photos presumably can't be blocked entirely because you can use the camera from the lock screen and iOS has to be able to save those photos to the device. Most of iOS' filesystem is encrypted and completely inaccessible without providing your passcode or fingerprint. These special cases like Photos and Contacts need to stay accessible for certain lock screen functionality, and limiting a user's interaction with those areas requires proper sandboxing by Apple. Given the history of these bugs, we'll probably see more of them pop up after the current batch is fixed and the cycle will continue.

If you're concerned about being affected by Passcode exploits, you can decrease the surface area of possible bugs by disabling Siri and Control Center on the lock screen. In the case of Twitter and Facebook, you can prevent abuse there by not signing in to those accounts in iOS Settings and instead using 3rd party apps. Hopefully at some point Apple figures out a way to properly sandbox these apps and end this cat and mouse game for good.

Siri security flaw

You've been able to use Siri from the lock screen by default since her introduction in iOS 6. It's not a security flaw. Stop saying it is. Go change the setting if you're so worried about it; that's why it's there.

Changes to user permissions

Back in February, iMore raised the issue that apps did not have to get a user's permission in order to access a device's microphone or camera. iOS 7 brought some changes to user permissions. First let's look at the good.

Microphone has been added under the Privacy section of Settings and apps must now get a user's permission before accessing the microphone. This is good news for user privacy as it means apps won't be able to record audio from your device without your knowledge. In addition to the microphone, Motion Activity is another new addition to Privacy, though it only shows up on the 5s. The 5s' new M7 motion coprocessor tracks and records movement information about your device on a much more granular level than previous iPhone models. The potential sensitivity to such information combined with the fact that many apps will have no business accessing this information means that it makes sense for apps to have to request permission. M7 data doesn't pose the greatest of privacy threats, but it's a wise move on Apple's part to restrict access to it.

Now let's look at the bad. Apps still don't have to request access to use the still camera. Any apps that wish to record video have to ask for permission to access the microphone, but even if permission is denied, they can still record video, it just won't have any sound. The threat of not requiring user permission is that any app can access the camera. Any app can take photos without a user's knowledge or consent. Any app can record video without your knowledge. That's a concern. A malicious developer could create an app that takes photos at a set interval, or records video, while the app is running, then uploads those photos or video to their server. Camera access is certainly something that not all apps need, so why not require that apps get permission to do it? There may be a good reason that Apple doesn't want to put the camera under the Privacy umbrella, but I don't know what it is.

The other item I would like to see added under Privacy is iBeacon. Some of you may already be screaming "they are under Privacy you moron!" but hear me out. iBeacons are new to iOS 7 and they are Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy devices that can effectively act as micro-locators. They're already being adopted by Major League Baseball for placement in stadiums as a way to customize a user's experience with MLB's At the Ballpark app depending on where they are within a stadium. Instead of simply know that you're in the vicinity of the stadium, iBeacons through the ballpark can communicate with your phone to give it a much more granular idea of your location.

Technically speaking an app wanting to make use of iBeacons does have to get a user's permission first. The trouble is that permission is lumped in under Location Services. That's certainly a reasonable grouping to put iBeacons in, but the problem is iBeacons take location tracking to an entirely new level. Let's use the Target Store app as an example. The current app requests access to Location Services when you first run it. One of the purposes of this is to help me find a Target near me, which makes perfect sense. This is a permission that I would be inclined to grant for a use like that. Of course, I've now also given Target permission to use iBeacons as part of Location Services. This could conceivable be used to track my movements through the store. Perhaps Target will decide they want to see which sections a customer spends the most time in, and taylor the app's behavior to better accommodate that. They could display ads and products that they think would appeal to me based on which sections of the store I walked through. This usage also has its merits, but I want no part of it. And as a user, I should have the power to determine which apps can track me at such a fine level of granularity.

You can work around this by just disabling Bluetooth, but that's a hack and one that many average consumers may not even consider. The proper solution is to pull iBeacons out from the Location Services umbrella and assign them their own explicit permission. People have a right to know about the behavior of the apps that they use. Of course apps aren't a glass box that we can see all the inner-workings of, but privacy controls are one of the few mechanisms we have to exert some control over what the apps on our phones can and cannot do.

Overall, iOS 7 took a couple of steps forwards and a few steps back when it comes to user permissions. This is an area of iOS that seems to change with every major update. I hope that by the time iOS 8 rolls around, we'll have a few more additions to the Privacy section of Settings.

Block Contacts

Let's end this on a high note. iOS 7 brings with it one of the most requested features from iPhone users (in my not-at-all official poll of friends who have asked how to do this over the years); the ability to block phone numbers. Searching Google for answers on how to do it yields millions of sites where users have been asking and trying to figure out how. Rejoice, friends. The day is finally here.

iOS 7 allows you to block phone calls, text messages, and iMessages from any contact. Telemarketer interrupting your... well... anything at all, since not even the most mundane and boring tasks on Earth make you wish a telemarketer would call. Just got a new number and the previous owners' bill collectors are harassing you? By tapping the info button for any recent caller in the phone app, there is now a button near the bottom for "Block this Caller". The same option can be found in Messages by tapping on a message, tapping Contact, then tapping the info button.

While the option says "Block this Caller", it actually applies to texts and iMessage as well. If you block a caller, no calls or messages from that contact will come through on your iOS 7 device. In the case of iMessage, the sender will see "Delivered", but you'll never get the message (this could be problematic in some cases, but let's not look a gift horse in the mouth). If the person tries calling you, the call will go directly to voicemail and the voicemail will go into a "Blocked Messages" group that can be found at the bottom of your voicemail. Okay, so maybe we do need to look a gift horse in the mouth. This is wonderful for callers you truly never want to hear from; telemarketers, robocalls, crazy ex's, etc.

The downside is the way the blocked communications are handled could make it extremely difficult to figure out why you're not getting any messages from somebody if you accidentally block them. Your messages will get through to them, but any responses will disappear into the ether. Voicemails, while retrievable, will likely go unnoticed unless it occurs to you to check your Blocked Messages. The transparency of the block from the blocked contact's perspective seems ideal for a lot of scenarios. But for some situations it could be nice to make the block obvious to the contact. In fact, I would rather have spam callers get completely shut out than allow them to continue to leave voicemails. This would also make it much more apparent why you haven't heard from your old friend in a while if it turns out that you blocked them by mistake.

Nit picking aside, the ability to block contacts is a wonderful and welcome addition to iOS. It's been a long time coming and I'm thrilled to see users finally get the power to block the scummy texters and callers of the world.

Final thoughts

Overall I'm very happy with iOS 7, as a whole, but also specifically from a security and privacy standpoint. For the vast majority of users, iOS 7 offers some nice security and privacy enhancements over iOS 6. I'm eager to see the impact that Activation Lock has on thefts. I love Touch ID and can't imagine going back to a phone that doesn't have it. I get an almost worrisome amount of delight from blocking unwanted callers. There are definitely a few things I hope get added or changed in a future update, but I'm pleased with the direction Apple continues to head and look forward to what it brings in the future.

If you've upgraded your iPhone or iPad to iOS 7, you've probably already noticed that the Messages and Mail apps both default to only showing the first name of a contact in a conversation thread. For those of us that have more than one John in our contacts, it can get pretty confusing. Fortunately, there's a way to turn last names back on by default.

Here's how:

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.
2. Scroll down and tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Under the Contacts section, tap on Short Name.
4. Turn the Short Name option to Off.

That's all there is to it. Your Messages and Mail apps should now show last names again if you've got them listed as such in your contacts. Any other native apps that use name shortening will also stop doing so.

iOS 7 by default shows photos of all the contacts you have under the Favorites tab in the Phone app. People who regularly save contact photos will most likely enjoy this feature. Those that don't may find it looks funny if only some of their contacts have photos, if any. Luckily, you can disable it if you'd like.

Here's how:

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap on Phone.
3. Turn Off the option for Contact Photos in Favorites.

That's all there is to it. The Favorites tab in the Phone app will no longer show contact photos. You can turn it back on any time you'd like by following the same steps above again.

One of the most amazing new features of iOS 7 is that it's built on top of a physics and particle engine, allowing almost any and every element to come alive with movement - shifting, colliding, bouncing, floating, and more. It looks and feels like a game space. And therein lies a problem for some people. It's reportedly making them motion sick.

I have a friend who can't play 3D games or watch 3D movies on big screens for more than a few minutes without feeling sick and having to stop. Another with Labyrinthitis that's, off-and-on, threatened his ability to get around and even stay standing. I myself can't read for long in a moving vehicle without getting nauseous and having to stop. None of us have had a problem with iOS 7 to date, but for those who do, it can be a show-stopper level problem. Craig Grannell has been tracking the issue closely, and has written about it on Revert to Saved:

You can keep up with his information campaign by following him on Twitter @CraigGrannell. You can also email accessibility@apple.com and go to Apple's feedback page and let them know exactly what causes you problems. (Heartfelt emails to Apple executives have been known to get responses, at the very least, in the past as well.)

For many people the iOS 7 parallax effect is cool, dynamic wallpapers amazing, the Messages bubbles fun, the folder and app zooming transportive, and so on and so on. For those for whom they trigger motion sickness, they're off-putting, nauseating, or simply impossible to use.

Parallax can be turned off in Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion. So can Dynamic wallpapers in Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness. Message bubble bouncing, folder and app zooming, not so much. Apple also provides UI Dynamics as an application programming interface (API) so developers can more easily add some of those effects to their own apps.Those often can't be turned off either. That some of the effects can be turned off means Apple probably foresaw at least part of the issue. That all can't means they probably didn't foresee enough of it.

If 3D games bother you, it sucks but you can avoid playing them. If reading in a car, train, bus, or plane bothers you, that sucks too but you can listen to or watch something else. If the entire operating system discombobulates you, you have far fewer options other than seeking out an alternate platform.

I don't know enough about either medicine or programming to know if higher frame rates, faster animations, or less fiddly movements would help, or if there's any practical way to add a big honking toggle in Settings that turns off all physics-based animations throughout the OS. All I know is that attention levels need raising.

If you've had any problems with iOS 7 and motion sickness, let me know in the poll, and give me the details (which particular elements are causing it) in the comments below.

Safari, Apple's web browser on both Mac and mobile, got a substantial update with iOS 7, including a new interface, new features, and for developers, new API. The latter brings with it some benefits, but apparently a bunch of bugs that need to be avoided, worked around, or otherwise dealt with. From Max Firtman on MobileXWeb:

And from Michael Mullany on Sencha:

This stuff is way above my brain grade, so if you're a developer working on HTML5 apps that depend on Safari, give the full articles a read and let me know what you think. Either way, iOS 7.1 is already being tested at Apple, let's hope a lot of fixes are already being tested with it.

Source: MobileXWeb, Sencha, thanks Dev!

I don't know why iOS 7 transitional animations feel slower than those in previous versions of iOS. But they do. The zoom ins, the carousels, the spin-around, these were never instant things. Yet I never felt like I was waiting of iOS to catch up to me as often as I do now. Maybe the leaps forward in iOS 7 make it feel like a more physical place, and make me think I should be able to run, not just walk, through it. It makes me think I should be able to fly.

But I'm waiting. Not waiting for data to load or be processed, for apps to wake up or content to render - those things are unavoidable and those things are why we get better technologies like Apple A7 processors and LTE radios - but simply for animations to finish.

iOS 7 includes a lot of great, transitional animations, including all the Home screen icons coming out of warp space in staggered formation when you unlock. Same with the zooming in and out of the stacked planes of icons and folders and Home screens and apps. It's amazing, stunning even at times. It visually teaches you how you're moving through the interface space, never letting you get lost or disoriented.

But once you've learned, it insists on teaching you over and over again. Once you've watched, you've got to keep watching. And that pulls you out of the very experience it was initially implemented to provide.

It's like playing a great video game - you enjoy the cut scene the first time, but when you replay, all you want to do is skip it faster each time.

As currently implemented, a lot of iOS 7 transition animations are cut scenes you can't skip.

Mobile Safari nailed this in iOS 1 (iPhone OS 1.0) by keeping a page responsive, even if it meant rendering a checkerboard pattern, no matter how fast we moved around it. It waited on us to stop moving, then rendered. We never waited for it to stop rendering so we could move. That's what made it feel so fast. That's what made it magical.

Because they're short, because they make sense, there's no need for the transition animations in iOS 7 to be removed or made skippable. They just need to be made faster and responsive. I'm nowhere near the first to comment on this. During the beta period I, like many others, held out hope for an animation speed up prior to general availability. Unfortunately, none came. Hopefully, one will.

It doesn't have to be doors-in-Star-Wars-fast. Smash cuts can be disorienting. But at 2x or 4x, they'll still provide the same visual cueing as they do at their current speed, but far less interruption. If touching the screen automatically finishes them and takes the input, they'll still delight the viewer without frustrating them.

They'll once again make iOS feel as fast as we are.

Like much the internet, we're getting flooded with messages from people who're finding themselves repeatedly logged out of Mailbox, Snapchat (we don't judge!), and other apps following the iOS 7 update. Not only can that be tedious, but in some cases the apps demand the entire setup process be repeated, which can be a showstopper. A bug in Apple's new background update API could be the culprit, according to Ellis Hamburger at The Verge:

You can turn off background refresh in Settings > General > Background App Refresh, and on a app-by-app basis. That could help mitigate feature loss for apps that aren't experiencing the issue.

In the meantime, if that really is the cause, lets hope iOS 7.0.2 or iOS 7.1 fixes this and fast! Apple could get some anger over this, developers could lose customers.

Source: The Verge

Apple released iOS 7 on Wednesday of last week, and now more than 200 million devices are already running the new version of the operating system. The news came as part of a press release announcing the sale of 9 million new iPhone 5s and 5c models. That's quite an uptick from last year, when Apple announced - along with sales of 5 million iPhone 5 phones - that 100 million devices had been upgraded to iOS 6.

iOS 7 is the most ambitious update to iOS since its first release. In addition to a singificant overhaul to the user interface, getting rid of most of the skeuomorphic elements that were the hallmark of ousted Apple VP Scott Forstall, iOS 7 also makes many under-the-hood changes like improved multitasking, incorporating new features like AirDrop, Control Center, and more.

Are you using iOS 7? Or have you held off for now? Sound off in the comments, and check out these links for more info.

• Complete iOS 7 review
• More iOS 7 tips and how-tos
• iOS 7 help and discussion forums

The Messages app got a brand new look in iOS 7 and with that came some new features. One of them is the ability to view timestamps for every text or iMessage you send or receive. Previously you only saw sporadic timestamps but now you can see when you send and received each and every message on your iPhone or iPad.

Here's how:

1. Launch the Messages app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on the message thread that you'd like to view a particular timestamp for and find that particular message.
3. Anywhere in the message area, slide your finger from right to left to reveal timestamps for each individual message.

Once you're done viewing a timestamp, just release your finger and the timestamps will again be hidden off to the side. That's all there is to it. It's not a very obvious feature at fight sight but it's definitely a welcome addition.

iOS 7 made some drastic changes to the default Calendar app and the list view is one of the items that got moved to a place that isn't so obvious. If you're like me and you like to quickly flick through the list view in order to see what's on your plate over the next several days, you'll immediately notice its absence. Fortunately Apple didn't do away with list view, they just moved it.

Here's where you can find it now:

1. Launch the Calendars app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on the Search bar in the top right corner.
3. You'll now see the list view aggregate under the Search bar.

That's all there is to it. I'm not quite sure why Apple decided to lump the list view in with the Search function of Calendars. It's a weird move to say the least. I'm just glad it's still there. Hopefully a later update will make it a little easier to find. For now, you'll need to access to Search menu to use it.

With iOS 7 Apple has taken their existing support for Enterprise, Education, and Government to the next level, adding even more functionality and better iPhone and iPad device management. This follows years of Apple adding more and more features that allow IT administrators to have more control over iOS devices. iOS obeys all Exchange ActiveSync policies plus it can be further controlled and configured via iOS Configuration Profiles that allow administrators to pre-setup connections to your company's email system for example, or to pre-setup connections to your company's secure Wi-Fi networks, but also restrict the device in many ways including preventing access to the iTunes App Store, or the Safari browser. These are just two examples but the list is quite long.

This has always made iOS devices much more attractive in the enterprise and other platforms like Android have not been adopted because of their lack of support of all ActiveSync policies, but also because there are no ways of restricting apps or pre-setting up things like email or Wi-Fi, amongst other things.

iOS has also provided what are called Mobile Device Management (MDM) Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow MDM vendors like Air-Watch or MobileIron (to name just two) to securely query and control iOS devices.

Lets take a look at the new management features found in iOS 7.

Managing Apps with iOS 7

In iOS 6, through the use of MDM APIs you could:

• Install Apps via MDM. This feature tells the user that they must install an app. The user could ignore this message and the administrator will have to decide how to handle this. They could set the MDM system to automatically lock their device out until they install the app. They could keep calling the user asking them to install the app. Either way, the app cannot be installed for the user by the IT team.
• Delete the app and its data. In much the same way as the app install, the user can only be told they must remove the app. If they don't action can be taken including locking them out of corporate access.
• Prevent app from backing up to the iCloud. This prevents an app you have deployed to a device from backing up its data to iCloud.

With iOS 7 the following has been added:

• Silent app installation. Now via the MDM API, an IT administrator can send an app to the device and have it installed silently in the background. There is no need to ask the user which delays compliance, the app just installs itself. This works both for apps in the iTunes App Store that the company may have purchased a volume license for and apps developed by the company itself for internal use, that are not stored in the iTunes App Store.
• App configurations. This is a very powerful feature that allows an app to receive configuration updates. This could be any configuration information like a URL that the app currently uses for example. The IT administrator can send this configuration update to the app and the app ingests it immediately and from that point onwards has different behavior. Those of you familiar with the old BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) may remember that corporate BlackBerry apps can also be configured in a very similar way by adding extra configuration strings to the IT Policy.
• App feedback. Another very powerful feature allows an app to report back, or provide feedback to the MDM system. This could be anything the developer wants to send like errors the app is encountering for example. Allowing the app to provide feedback will certainly cut down on app troubleshooting and even help desk call lengths as companies will now have visibility into the app on a user's iOS device. The MDM system can then make the feedback available in a secondary system to be consumed by that system.
• Managed "Open In". When you choose to open a file (like an attachment) or share a URL or file, you are presented with the Share Sheet that lists all apps that can deal with that file type. With Managed Open In, an IT administrator can, via an MDM system, limit the list of apps that are presented to the user on the Share Sheet. This allows a company to ensure that all data that is stored in corporate apps cannot leak out through an inadvertent sharing to public systems or apps not controlled by the company.Managed Open In can be applied to apps and managed accounts meaning that if you are using your companies email account and want to open an attachment, the list of apps to use is restricted, but if you are using your personal account (like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo!, etc., the list of apps will be unrestricted).
• Control which apps use cellular data. iOS 7 brings that ability, via an MDM command, to specify which apps can use cellular data. You can imagine how useful this can be for an organization who wants more control over data usage on company provided iOS devices.
• Extra Accessibility Options for Single App Mode. Interestingly for a while now iOS has supported the ability for you to set the device to Single App Mode. This forces the device to only run a certain app no matter if the device is rebooted or the user presses the Home button. iOS 7 brings more control to how this app behaves and more importantly, allows an app to request Single-App Mode, and then later request to exit that mode. Through an MDM setting, you can decide which apps can request Single App Mode. Single App Mode is a good solution for situations like exam taking, kiosks, Point of Sale apps, etc.

Single Sign On (SSO) in iOS 7

In previous version of iOS, apps written by the same vendor could share login information allowing a user to login only once into one of the apps, and then be automatically logged into other apps by the same vendor. In iOS 7, this can now be done for any app. This means that via MDM, an IT administrator can allow one or more apps to share a common set of login credentials. This is not restricted to apps built by the same vendor, but any apps that the IT administrator assigns.



SSO supports a group of apps, and a group of URL prefixes. Supporting URL prefixes allows an enterprise to tell an iOS device that if the user (or an app) browses to a URL that starts with a common phrase (e.g. https://iMore.com/thisisprivate) then the SSO information must be passed to the web server.

Improved Apple Store Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) in iOS 7

Today an enterprise can make volume purchases of an app using a special VPP portal. Once an app is purchased, the enterprise is provided with codes that allow the app to be installed on multiple devices (one code per device). MDM vendors try and make this a bit easier by managing the code assignments and revocations themselves but remember that since an app cannot be uninstalled remotely, revoking the code just means that the app is now not legally allowed to be on a device.

In iOS 7, codes have been replaced by licenses. MDM vendors have been given new APIs to interact with a companies VPP portal and manage the installing and revoking of apps. When an app is revoked, the user is notified that they have 30 days to purchase the app themselves. If they don't, the app will simply stop opening after 30 days making it useless.

IT Administrators can purchase volume licenses for apps and books.

Per-App Virtual Private Network (VPN) in iOS 7

Today on an IOS device, the IT administrator can pre-configure a VPN so that when you start up apps that need access to company data, the VPN provides that secure tunnel into the organization. The problem with this approach is that the VPN is available to any app on the device. This allows personal and private data to be sent via your company's network (which normally means that the apps will break because the company blocks many sites that are considered personal) which could expose your companies data to a rogue app.

 In iOS 7, an IT administrator can specify a VPN per app. This means that only the apps that are provided by your company, and need company data, will start and use the VPN connection. Apps that are personal will simply connect to the Internet as they normally do. Apps managed and installed by your company are pre-configured at installation time to use a specific VPN connection. This approach is by far more desirable than the current iOS 6 approach.

Default Encryption Class for all Installed Apps in iOS 7

On all versions of iOS, including iOS 7, an app developer can choose to use one of three encryption classes for the files their app writes.

• None. This means that no encryption is applied to the file
• Complete With Authorization. This means that after the iOS device is rebooted, the data is encrypted until the user enters their device password the first time. After that the data remains unencrypted, even if the device is locked.
• Complete - This means that a file's data is encryption always until the user types in their device password and then it remains unencrypted until the device locks. The data is then encrypted again until the user enters the device password again. So essentially whenever the device is locked, the data is encrypted.

The encryption used by devices running iOS 6 and later have the US government's very stringent FIPS-140-2 certification which not only means that the encryption is excellent, but it means that iOS devices are able to be sold into the US government.

In iOS 7, this remains the same however any new apps that are installed will automatically be assigned to the Complete with Authorization class so that after a device reboot, the data will remain encrypted on the device until the device password is entered.

Prevent Keychain Secrets From Being Restored To A New Device in iOS 7

The encryption classes mentioned above also apply to items in the Keychain and in iOS 7 you are now able to set a new attribute which prevents Keychain secrets from being backed up from one iOS device and restored onto another one. This ensures that the Keychain secrets will only ever be revealed on one iOS device.

Manage Apple TV in iOS 7

Apple TVs are so cheap at $99 that they are ideal for classrooms and conference rooms. Using AirPlay, teachers in classrooms, or presenters in conference rooms can easily do screen mirroring from their iOS or OSX devices, or simply stream PowerPoint presentations or videos from their devices to the Apple TV. In iOS 7 (running on your Apple TV), IT administrators via the use of their MDM system, will now be able to enroll and control Apple TVs.

Using the MDM system, IT administrators will be able to do things like set the language and locale as well as pre-setting up 802.1X payloads for secure network access.

Manage AirPlay Mirroring in iOS 7

In iOS 7, an IT administrator can, via an MDM system, pre-setup iOS devices to start mirroring to a specific Apple TV, and also setup Apple TV whitelists and Apple TV passwords.

Streamlined MDM Device Enrollment for Company Provided iOS 7 Devices

Apple has added a much improved and streamlined method for enrolling company provided iOS devices (that is devices a company purchases and provides to their employees). This new enrollment method is not for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

It is a two-step process.

1. The company purchases devices and assigns them to the new Apple Enrollment Service, providing the enrollment settings (which include the URL for your MDM solution, and certain enrollment settings including the ability to skip device setup screens). This enrollment process can be handled via an MDM solution.
2. The employee gets their new iOS device sealed in the box and since the enrollment steps are built right into the device setup screens, simply runs through the normal setup screens. Because enrollment is now built into the device setup, the user will be prompted to login to your organization.

 The architecture of this new enrollment mechanism is as follows.

You'll notice from this architecture diagram that the MDM solution you use will be able to interact with the new Apple Enrollment service and your iOS and Mac devices to provide this automatic enrollment.

AirPrint In The Enterprise in iOS 7

AirPrint is a print protocol that allows for seamless and driverless printing from iOS and OSX devices. AirPrint printers (of which there are a lot – here's the list) are available to iOS and OSX devices via Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections, but in the future also via USB. The Bonjour protocol is used to find them but AirPrint printers can also be added to a company's Domain Name Server (DNS) as static printers and the iOS or OSX device is able to query DNS to find AirPrint printers.

AirPrint also supports IPPS (Secure IPP with TLS) for those worried about someone sniffing the contents of a print job going to an AirPrint printer.

 In iOS 7, via an MDM system, an administrator can pre-define AirPrint printers to iOS devices.

AirPrint has also added a few new classes of printers of interest to the enterprise that include Roll Fed printers, enterprise class laser printers, label printers, and Dye-sub photo printers.

Later this year certain consumer and enterprise print server manufacturers will be adding support for AirPrint which means that using AirPrint, iOS and OSX users will be able to print to any printer (no matter if it support AirPrint or not) attached to one of these print servers.

One anecdote about developing apps that you want to support AirPrint in, XCode includes a printer simulator that makes seeing your app's output very easy, certainly easier and cheaper than printing to a real printer.

Multipeer Connectivity in iOS 7

Multipeer connectivity is a new feature in iOS 7 that allows many iOS 7 and higher devices to communicate with each other over Bluetooth, Infrastructure Wi-Fi, and Peer to Peer Wi-Fi. Once connected devices can send message type data or stream data between devices.

 Since the process of connecting devices has been abstracted from the developer, it makes writing apps to support this technology very easy, in fact down to the point where the framework will use multiple radios to ensure that all device can communicate with one another no matter which radios each one may have enabled.

There is much more to read about Multipeer connectivity but I wanted to point out that this technology supports authentication and data encryption. This makes is possible for enterprises to make use of it since connections can be forced to be authenticated and the data is encrypted.

Multitasking For All Apps in iOS 7

iOS has for a while now, allowed certain apps (like GPS, VoIP, and streaming audio apps) to run in the background, but all other apps go to sleep and are paused once the user switches to another app or the device goes to sleep.

In iOS 7, any app can run in the background but in a manner that is conscious of battery life. You can read more on how iOS 7 handles multitasking but in the enterprise space this allows apps to be more up to date and new content available to the user before they switch to the app.

64-bit in iOS 7 (iPhone 5S and later)

iOS 7 is now a full 64 bit mobile operating system which provides short and long-term gains. In the short term it means a performance boost for the iPhone running on the Apple A7 chipset, as long as all apps running on it are 64 bit. This is because the 64-bit CPU provides twice as many integer and floating-point registers as the previous 32-bit CPUs allowing 64-bit apps to work with more data at once for improved performance.

Core iOS apps will ship as 64-bit apps of course.

Number crunching and working with more data at once will allow companies to create better number-crunching apps like financial dashboards, but also graphics intensive apps.

Biometrics in IOS 7 (iPhone 5S and later)

Touch ID is fingerprint ID sensor on the iPhone 5s that handles biometric authentication and authorization via a reader on the Home button and a secure enclave on the Apple A7 chipset. The Touch ID system is completely secure, and returns a simple yes/no response to iOS 7, which will then unlock or authorize a transaction. One of the biggest corporate hurdle is end-point security. Ask any Risk Management officer at a company what keeps him up at night and he or she will tell you that it is weak passwords.

Sure you can make your users enter 10 character alphanumeric passwords with special characters because it provides greater security, but you will likely be overruled by other company officers who want to make it easier to enter and remember those passwords. This ultimately leads to a compromise that makes the end-points unsafe.

Using your fingerprint to unlock your iPhone in a one-step motion will make Rick Managers happy, and your iPhone more secure.

Additional MDM queries and controls

There are additional MDM features in iOS 7 that don't fit into the above categories

This feature allows an IT administrator to prevent an iOS user from making changes to or removing accounts on the device. This prevents a user from tampering or removing a corporate account, for example to connect to Exchange.

This feature allows an administrator to control which devices an iOS 7 device can pair with. In iOS 6 and below, pairing was uncontrolled.

No information was provided about the restrictions and queries below so I am just listing them for completeness, however many are self-explanatory.

• Wallpaper Changes
• Find My Friends Changes
• Define Service for Text Selections
• Limit Ad Tracking
• iCloud Keychain Sync
• Over-The-Air PKI updates
• Lock screen Wi-Fi and Airplane Mode buttons
• Ability to Set a Custom Lock Screen
• Put a device in Lost Mode
• Disable Personal Hotspot
• Query a device to see if it has the HotSpot enabled
• Query the device to see if has Do Not Disturb enabled
• Query the device to see if it has Find My iPhone enabled
• Query the device to see if it has an iTunes account signed in.

The Bottom Line

Since iOS 4, Apple has been catering to the enterprise, government, and education space through the implementation of hardware file system encryption and the plethora of MDM controls that can be used to tightly control iOS devices.

iOS 7 has made the case for iOS in Enterprise, Education, and Government stronger. Even if Apple's primary audience is the consumer, it has been quietly supporting the enterprise in a big way which is the reason we see much more iOS than Android in the enterprise space.

• Complete iOS 7 review
• More iOS 7 tips and how-tos
• iOS 7 help and discussion forums

iOS 7 is here and not only do we have your complete iOS 7 review to tell you everything you need to know, but a ton of iOS 7 tips and how-tips ready and waiting to help you out. But if you don't have time for all that, if you just need to know the most important tips and tricks now, now, now, then this top 10 list is for you!

1. How to update - and trouble-shoot updating! - to iOS 7

iOS 7 is here, and there's a ton of people trying to download it. As such, we're getting many people reporting problems getting, installing, and using the update. Truth is, some of it may just be down to Apple's servers being slammed right now, but there's other issues that you can help resolve yourself. Here are a few alternatives and pointers:

• How to update to iOS 7 using over-the-air (OTA) Software Update on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad
• How to update to iOS 7 using iTunes
• How to update from iOS 7 beta or GM to official release version
• Having trouble downloading iOS 7? Got a 16GB iPhone or iPad? Server error? Here's what to do!
• Having trouble updating apps? Here's how to fix it

2. How to find Spotlight, video camera, Calendar list view, and more

Some of the features and controls you know and love have changed locations in iOS 7. They've taken up residence elsewhere. They've moved. For example, Spotlight Search isn't on a separate Home screen any more, it's one swipe away on any Home screen. The video camera doesn't turn on with the swipe of a toggle button, but with the swipe of an entire screen. The Camera grid is now in Settings, and Private Browsing is no longer in Settings, and now in Safari. Some things are legitimately gone, but others can still be found. Here's where to look:

• How to find Spotlight search - and your apps! - in IOS 7
• How to switch to Video mode in the iOS 7 Camera app
• How to find List view in Calendar in iOS 7

3. How to use gesture navigation and peek at data in iOS 7

iOS 7 continues Apple's long history of gesture-based controls, some system-wide like the new swipe up from the bottom bezel to open Control Center, and some app (or multi-app) specific, like the new swipe right from the left bezel to travel back up the hierarchy Mail or Messages or the history in Safari, or the new toss to close apps in multitasking or tabs in Safari. There are also fantastic new "peek" gestures that let you pull left just a little bit to see individual time stamps in Messages, or pull down to turn a notification banner into the full-fledged Notification Center.

The video above shows you how many of them work!

4. How to turn off automatic app updates in iOS 7

If you're running iOS 7 on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you no longer have to manually check for app updates. They'll just automatically install for you whenever they're released, with absolutely no effort on your part. However, if you don't like that idea. If you're worried about potential bugs, or just want to control your own destiny, you can turn automatic app updates off. Here's how:

• How to turn off automatic app updates in iOS 7

5. Where did the quick action Tweet and Facebook post buttons go in iOS 7 Notification Center?

With iOS 6, Notification Center had two quick button actions, tweet and post to Facebook, that could be reached from anywhere on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with the downward swipe of a finger. Now, in iOS 7, they're gone. Disappeared. Taken out back and shuttered. So where did they go, and how can you quickly tweet or post to Facebook now, on iOS 7? Short answer, they got obliterated. Not moved. Not hidden. Obliterated. There are, however, some workarounds...

• Find out what happened to the quick Tweet and Facebook post buttons on Control Center in iOS 7

6. How to stop iOS 7 from tracking your frequent locations

By default, iOS 7 will track and record places that you visit most often to provide better location-based data such as in the Today summary of Notification Center. If you value your privacy more than you do the convenience and general coolness of that feature, however, , you can turn it off in Settings. Here's how:

• Find out how to turn off iOS 7 frequent location tracking and increase your privacy

7. How to quit - and kill - apps on iOS 7

From iOS 4 to iOS 6 you quit apps by double clicking the Home button, holding down on the icons in the fast app switcher tray until they jiggled, and then tapped the X to shut them down. Now there's not fast app switcher any more, there a card view, and holding down creates no jiggles and presents no X. So how do you kill apps in the new, carded, iOS 7 world? And if you really need to, how do you force quit (kill) apps?

• Watch how to quit - and kill - apps on iOS 7

With iOS 7, Siri gets improvements. It's no longer beta, and it adds new functionality thanks to deals with new partner services. The interface has changed, and for the first time, you can select the gender of Siri's voice. Here's how.

Siri's voice changes from country to country, but up to now, if you live in the United States or Canada, Siri has had only a female voice. Now you can make Siri sound male, or vice versa:

1. Tap Settings
2. Scroll down to the General setting. Tap it.
3. Tap Siri on the next screen.
4. A list of options will appear - you can turn Siri on or off completely, and select the language that Siri will understand. Other options enable Siri to provide you with voice feedback, help you identify yourself, and determine what you need to do to activate Siri.
5. The second option down is Voice Gender. Tapping it pulls up the option of Male or Female. Set Siri's voice to whichever gender you'd like.
6. Press the Home button to exit out of Settings.

This option isn't available in all countries, but it's there for Americans and Canadians.

Have you swapped Siri's gender? Or are you sticking with the tried and true voice you're used to? Or do you not have a gender option for your localized version of Siri? I want to hear from you, so please sound off in the comments.

• Complete iOS 7 review
• More iOS 7 tips and how-tos
• iOS 7 help and discussion forums

With iOS 6, Notification Center had two quick button actions, tweet and post to Facebook, that could be reached from anywhere on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with the downward swipe of a finger. Now, in iOS 7, they're gone. Disappeared. Taken out back and shuttered. So where did they go, and how can you quickly tweet or post to Facebook now, on iOS 7?

Short answer, they got obliterated. Not moved. Not hidden. Obliterated. The truth is, they never fit into Notification Center, because they're not notifications. They're actions. They were out of context. However, the brand new Control Center seems to exist to take on just exactly those jobs. Quick access to Settings, quick access to apps, why not quick access to tweeting and posting to Facebook?

Apple, in their infinitely looped wisdom, however, hasn't seen fit to include them there. Maybe they will in a future update, maybe they've decided those quick actions just weren't right and we won't ever see them again. In the meantime, if you loved the iOS 6 quick action tweet and Facebook post buttons, you're in for a huge disappointment. They are no more.

One alternative is to use Siri, which can now post to both Twitter and Facebook. Simply say "Post to Facebook" or "post to Twitter" and then dictate what you want to say. It's incredibly fast and convenient... if you're in a situation where you can talk out loud to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

If not, the alternatives aren't anywhere nearly as quick or convenient. You can use the Twitter and Facebook app, one or a third-party alternative Twitter apps like Tweetbot or Twitterrific. They're nowhere nearly as always-accessible as Notification Center, nor are they as single-purpose or streamlined as the quick action buttons, but they still exist.

You can also use the tweet or Facebook post action in the Share Sheets in most apps to quickly send out a message, but the catch is you have to share something to do it, and you're not always going to want to do that.

In a perfect world Apple would include them in Control Center, or a similar mechanism, and enhance them with actionable notifications so we can reply and reset within apps as well, making even more of our actions quick. Sadly, we don't live in that world yet. Strangely, the upcoming OS X Mavericks not only retains the quick action tweet and Facebook post buttons in Notification Center, but actionable notifications as well. And it's not even mobile, where those features are inarguably more urgently needed.

So, no good answers, but if you used and relied on the old quick actions button, feel free to vent in the comments, and if you come up with any brilliant work arounds, let me know!

Google's suite of apps for iOS already look pretty swell in iOS 7, but that hasn't stopped Mountain View today pushing out an update to the Chrome Browser. Beyond a slightly tweaked look and feel for iOS 7, the headline news here is better integration with Google's other apps for iOS.

Single sign-in is something that has been creeping out through Google's apps in recent weeks, and if you're heavily invested in them, it's a tool of ultimate convenience. Additionally, links within Chrome can now directly open in the respective YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Drive and Google+ apps on your device. This is entirely optional, too, and all can be enabled or disabled at the tap of a button.

Voice Search also gets some new goodies, with the ability to now string together more than one voice search at one time:

Try it out by asking:

• “Who is the prime minister of Canada?” and then, “How old is he?”
• “How many people live in Pennsylvania?” and then, “When did it become a state?”
• “Who directed Star Trek Into Darkness?” and then, “Who is his wife?”

Love them or hate them, Google's apps are among the finest examples iOS has to offer. Grab the latest version of Chrome from the App Store at the download link below. Are you using Chrome, or since you can't set it as default browser are you still drawn back to Safari?

• Free - Download Now

Source: Google

A complete visual departure from previous versions, iOS 7 focuses on clarity by removing all but the most essential elements and chrome, deference by getting out of the way of content and apps, and depth by building the entire experience on top of a physics and particle engine that moves, blurs, parallaxes, and layers in virtual 3D. It touches every app, every pixel, and every bit of the system. It's far from perfect, and there are issues — as superficial as icons and as deep as consistency — yet to be overcome, but along with new features like Control Center and AirDrop, and improvements to Notification Center, multitasking, the Camera and Photos apps, Safari, Siri, and more, it's the most exciting update to iOS in years, and to mobile interface since the original iPhone. But it's also facing most competitive market ever. So, given the alternatives, is it enough?

iOS evolution

iOS was introduced back in 2007 with the original iPhone and has been expanded, refined, and improved ever since. Part of knowing where we're going is knowing where we've been. Here are our reviews of past versions of iOS for iPhone and iPod touch, and since 2010, iOS for iPad as well.

• iOS 6 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 5.1 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad
• iOS 4.3 for iPhone, iPad
• iOS 4.2 for iPhone | iOS 4.2 for iPad
• iOS 4.1 for iPhone
• iOS 4 for iPhone
• iOS 3.2 for iPad
• iOS 3.1 for iPhone
• iOS 3.0 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.2 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.1 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.0 for iPhone

Compatibility and updating

iOS 7 comes pre-installed on any new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. It's available as a free update to anyone using an iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, or iPhone, an iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, or iPad mini, and an iPod touch 6. Not all features are available on older devices.

You can update over-the-air (OTA) on on-device or over USB using iTunes on Mac or Windows. OTA updates-in-place are typically the fastest, setting up as a new device is typically the best way to get the best performance.

• How to update to iOS 7 using over-the-air (OTA) Software Update on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad
• How to update to iOS 7 using iTunes
• How to update from iOS 7 beta or GM to the official release version

iOS 7 interface and experience gets its game on

The biggest change to iOS 7, and the most important, is the system-wide redesign. With, Apple has taken interface and experience from static to dynamic. It's more nuanced than that, of course, but that you have to see it moving to understand how it looks and works reveals the essential truth of that statement. iOS 7 feels alive and vibrant. It's the vision of Apple's senior vice president of design. Formerly restricted to hardware, he's now responsible for hardware and software both, and his predilection for stripping away everything inessential until only the most authentic, most necessary elements is evident. The green felt is gone. The wooden shelves are gone. The stitched leather Steve Jobs was so fond of is gone. In their place is a lot of solid colors with only the subtlest of gradients and textures remaining. Architecturally, it's laid bare. Design-wise, there's nowhere left to hide.

If you've used iOS before, everything is going to look different after you update to iOS 7. The change is striking. Here are some examples showing iOS 6 on top and iOS 7 on the bottom, including the Lock screen, Home screen, and Notification Center. (Yes, the hands on the Clock icon on the iOS 7 Home screen really do move now.)

Say goodbye to rich textured themes in Game Center, Compass, and Newsstand. You're not going to have green felt to kick around anymore:

And say hello to objects that exist in a virtual three-dimensional space, and can be directly manipulated, like multitasking cards, Safari tabs, which behave like a souped up version of Passbook passes.

Every screen of every app has been given a fresh coat of paint, from Calendar to Notes to Reminders. Every. One.

The redesign is based on three key principles: clarity, deference, and depth.

Depth is handled by the new physics and particle engine. The entire interface and experience is built on it. Screens no longer move because someone animates them, they drop and collide and bounce because of behavior ascribed to them. Likewise icons fly in like a fleet coming out of hyperspace, and apps and folders and days and months zoom in and out like portals into deeper worlds, chat bubbles bounce like balloons, cards knock together, and wallpapers and entire Home screens that shift with your every movement, providing glimpses into what's just below the surface.

Gaussian blur shaders are used liberally throughout iOS 7 as well. So much so they seem to be on more than they're off. The pixels below are sampled in real time, so if a banner moves in the App Store beneath Notification Center, you see it, blurred, moving beneath Notification Center. When you swipe between modes in the Camera app, the live preview image you're looking at blurs as it transitions. When you start FaceTime - now a dedicated app even on iPhone - before you place call you see your own image, captured by the front-facing camera, blurred and looking back at you. It's computationally expensive enough to make a graphics engineer cry, it's also something as visually distinctive as the physics and particle animations.

Here's what it looks like:

iOS has always stressed direct manipulation and 1:1 touch tracking, because it created the illusion of genuine interaction. Combine that with the new engines, and now the illusion is even better. You're not just tapping buttons, you're moving objects through their own virtual space. You're not just flipping through a stack of tabs tediously drawn to look and move like cards, hiccuping and losing proper perspective as you go. You're flipping real card-shaped objects that fly past, always in perfect perspective because they're rendered to be. It's so real, it begins to feel like a game. and that's exactly the point. Real gamification is about enabling discovery though play. It's about rewarding intuition with delight. It's about making computing fun.

Here are some examples of directly manipulable objects in the form of multitasking cards, Safari tabs, and Passbook passes:

Deference is handled by getting rid of the heavy chrome, the obtrusive and unmoving title bars and tab bars and thickly delineated buttons past. Now everything is edge to edge, from the subtle animations of snow and rain and lightning in the Weather app to the unified search field that minimizes and controls that fade away in Safari, to the use of translucency so content can continue to provide context. It's also philosophical, prompting developers to rely less on Apple's default UIKit and paint the screen in a way that best suits their own tastes and apps.

Buttons have also been simplified to the point where, in many cases, I don't even know if I can still call them buttons (though Apple does). They're utterly without chrome or adornment of any kind, naked bits of sometimes colored text that trust in a new generation's learned knowledge of multitouch.

Clarity is best highlighted by the new Text Kit, which allows fonts to dynamically scale not only in size but in weight so type always looks great, and people who want a bigger size for increased legibility can have it, screen size be damned. Text Kit isn't getting the attention other elements of iOS 7 are getting, but it absolutely deserves it.

It also highlights one of Apple's best qualities. They look at problems that need to be solved, not solutions that keep being proposed. When people said they wanted multitasking, they didn't mean they wanted battery-melting infinite processes. They wanted to listen to Pandora while surfing the web. So Apple made an API for that, and other high-demand background services, and has now created just-in-time multitasking to meet even more needs (see below). Likewise, when some people say they want a bigger screen, what they're saying is they want to see more content and have text at a bigger size. Deference and Text Kit solve both those problems on devices of all sizes.

Here's the new Lock screen, which shows the text, the translucency, and the physics-based wallpaper:

Speaking of which, the new default system font is Helvetica Neue, and it tends towards the ultra-thin at times. Why Apple didn't go with their own, custom system font is a mystery, and while Helvetica Neue looks beautiful at times, it can be hard to read as well. Luckily the same Text Kit system allows you to easily scale and thicken it if and as needed.

There are other problems too. The icons all reference the same grid now, one that seems drawn from Apple's hardware designs. They range from beautiful, like Photos, to unbalanced, like Safari, to background dependent, like Stocks and Voice Memos. Rumor has it they were specced out by the graphic design department instead of the human interaction department, something Jony Ive felt would bring fresh eyes and a new approach. It's triggered some legitimate criticism and some change aversion both. Over the last 3 months most of the icons have come to no longer bother me, but flat or not, few leap out at me as genuine improvements. Also, the glyphs are thin the point of looking fragile, and sometimes simplified to the point of non-obviousness.

Likewise, some of the interfaces are breathtakingly gorgeous to the degree that even now I can't stop starting at them. Everything from passcode entry to the dialer is palpably improved. Other interfaces, not so much. Particularly the status bar, which comes off as much cluttered and confusing now than at any point previously. Also, the cellular signal strength indicators, circles now instead of curved bars, convey the same information yet take up far more space.

Here's a look at Safari, which shows the deference of receding interface, but also the status bar and glyphs:

It feels like some of the key ideas of iOS 7 - clarity, deference, and depth - were taken a step too far in some places, to the point where they get in their own way. Maybe that's the way it works. Maybe it's what happens when you're sprinting so quickly towards something new and you can't decelerate fast enough after crossing the line.

Hopefully that gets pulled back and polished in future versions. It's hard changing something used and depended upon by hundreds of millions of people. Even with the massive changes in iOS 7, most major components remain spatially consistent. People familiar with where the phone icon was in iOS 6 will find it in exactly the same place in iOS 7.

The new buttons that look like naked text links on the web might confuse some people. The new location for Spotlight - swipe down on any Home screen - might frustrate those simply trying to find their apps and the new way to access video - swipe left on the Camera - might escape those simply trying to make a recording.

That'll change quickly. Shock, if any, will pass. This is better. It sets the stage for the future and since Apple seldom looks back, they'll drag the rest of us along with them. A week in, a month, a year, we'll look back at old versions of iOS the way we look back at old video games.

iOS 7 also looks fantastic on the iPad. It should. The original iOS was designed in a pre-iPad world and was retrofitted onto its bigger screen. This is the first iOS designed for the iPad. It's open. It's expansive. It fills the screen without spreading itself too thin. You could argue it looks even better on the iPad than iPhone.

Right before iOS 7 was announced, I asked what was next for human interface. With iOS 7, Apple answered.

iOS 7 Siri gets Wikipedia, Bing, Settings, Twitter, but doesn't get on-board

Siri sits on top of iOS as a secondary, natural language interface layer. A personal digital assistant big on personality and partnerships, but challenged in reliability, with iOS 7 Apple has continued to add new services while redesigning everything that's come before. Gone is the linen and beautifully rendered sports, movie, and other widgets, and in their places is the starker, cleaner, and more translucent treatment. It'll even fly in sample questions for you if you're not sure what to ask. The resulting look is sometimes hauntingly great, other times murkily bad.

The principal new element is a sound wave that harkens back to Siri's predecessor, Voice Control. It's a fun visual. Not as fun is the heaviness of the text, which looks out of place compared to the thinner treatment found in the rest of the interface. It does help usability, however, and more specifically, glance-ability, which is more important than consistency when it comes to how Siri is used.

Siri gets two new, high quality voices in iOS 7. One is male, the other female. They're not available in all languages yet, but it's just a matter of time. Having new voices was increasingly important for Apple. The original female Siri voice wasn't exclusive to Apple, and that was an odd choice to begin with, and something others could use to graft onto Apple's attention, and competitors could use to tease them. Hopefully these new voices are original, and Apple's alone.

New features include the ability to change Settings. While that's geek-centric and mirrors another new iOS 7 feature, Control Center, it's also welcome. Likewise Siri can now access more communications feature. Where previously Siri could find email and messages, and read messages, playing voice mail is a nice addition. So is the ability to find and show tweets. Hopefully Apple continues to expand on this until Siri can find, read, and otherwise access with all messaging on iOS.

New services include Wikipedia and Microsoft for Siri search, especially image search. Some might assume that it's just one more casualty in Apple and Google's cold war, but Siri has always been a partnership play and it's just as possible Microsoft offered Apple the best deal. What remains to be seen is how good the results are, because that's the only thing that really matters at the end of the day.

Siri has also become persistent. Previously if you left Siri for any reason and then came back, all your previous results were gone. Now you can simply scroll backwards and see search results, movie listings, and whatever else you recently called up. This might seem trivial, but it's incredibly useful.

What Apple hasn't added is any local, on-device functionality for Siri. Google's been doing this for a while, and it helps minimize network connections and backend servers as a point of failure. Basically, for any action that involves only the apps on the phone or tablet, for example, toggling a setting or adding a reminder, all voice parsing is done on the device. Only when a request needs to go online, like to check the web or check with a service, does it hit servers. Siri currently goes to the servers for everything, making it slower and subject to more failures than Google's voice tech.

Siri also didn't get was any of the predictive assistant services Google Now enjoys. Like Google on Android (and in more limited fashion in the Google Search app for iOS), Apple on iOS can aggregate all sorts of calendar, location, environmental, and social data, and can synthesize from it where we are, where we need to be, with whom, and under what conditions. Instead of waiting for us to ask, Siri could be providing it preemptively so we don't even need to ask.

Apple has shown they're doing a little bit of that with Notification Center's new Today screen, which will tell you the time (with traffic) to your next most likely location. Perhaps they'll evolve a system complementary to Siri, rather than a component of Siri, to handle predictive assistance. That's be a shame though, since Siri has that Pixar-like personality that helps make assistant services accessible.

Ideally, a predictive Siri would replace the current notifications on the Lock screen, and the Today screen. Either way, Google seems closer to the movie version of Tony Stark's Jarvis right now than Apple, and I hope that turns around, and soon.

iOS 7 Notification Center flirts with prediction, stays away from action

Notification Center could previously be pulled down from anywhere in iOS except the Lock screen. Now it can be pulled down from the Lock screen as well. Notification Center previously shared the linen texture indicative of the sub-layers below iOS. Now it shares the gaussian blur shader - smoked glass variant - indicative of the layers above. That makes it more consistent both visually and behaviorally. If privacy is a concern, however, Lock screen access can be disabled in Settings.

Because, like the rest of iOS 7, Notification Center uses the new physics engine, you can not only pull it down now but yank it and watch it collide with the bottom, bounce, and then settle into place. Fun. It also makes use of navigation gestures, in this case to move through three new, tabbed states: Today, All, and Missed.

All is similar to what Notification Center has shown since iOS 5, though the Weather and Stocks widgets have been moved to the new Today view, and the iOS 6 Tweet and Post to Facebook button are gone. Some might lament their loss, but they were out of place there. The wrong solution to a real problem. Unfortunately, no right solution has replaced them.

Missed is similar, but constrained to the last 24 hrs. How useful that is depends on the volume and type of your notifications. Labeling it "Missed", however, doesn't seem to accurately define its contents. "Recent" would be a better fit.

Today shows you the current day and date with a brief, written description of the current weather in your current location, and a written description of your next appointment. It can also tell you if current traffic conditions will impact your next trip. As visual representations of data go, it's non-optimal.

The written out weather and next appointment are a step backwards when it comes to glance-ability, if a step forwards in terms of informational density. The graphical weather widget was easier to take in a glance, but provided little more than "sunny" or "rainy". In a perfect world, Apple would find a way to balance both. Re-introduce a graphical element and keep the deeper text. Likewise with stocks, which used to scroll in one tidy widget, and now sprawls out row after row after row after row...

Integrating traffic information for frequent locations, on the other hand, is outstanding and hopefully only the first indication that Apple is heading towards a more Google Now-style implementation where they parse location, time, calendar, and every other metric they have at their disposal and present contextually appropriate, predictive alerts in Notification Center or in something even better that replaces it in the future. Hopefully the near future.

If you're not a fan of your phone tracking you, which is how it predicts where you want to go and when, you can disable Frequent Locations in Settings > Privacy > System Services. Privacy, like security, is at perpetual war with convenience.

Beneath the text you get a more elaborate, more graphical look at Calendar, Reminders, and Stocks, as well as another written out description, this time recapping what's coming up tomorrow. If you can make it down that far. Like in previous versions of iOS, you can turn off what shows up in Notification Center, and in the Today view specifically, and use Do Not Disturb to selectively make sure notifications don't become annoyances.

Unfortunately, Apple still hasn't added any gesture-based way to dismiss notifications. Other platforms have allowed you to swipe away notifications for a long time already. The immediacy of "tossing things away" is tough to beat. Hopefully Apple addresses this, because the tiny little X button is discoverable, but not very usable.

Apple has, however, added notification sync, so when you dismiss a notification on one device, it will dismiss it on all devices, so you don't have to deal with the same alerts, again and again and again...

Perhaps the biggest omission in the whole system remains interactive notifications (sometimes called actionable notifications), which Apple just introduced for the Mac in OS X Mavericks but hasn't added to iOS. The ability to quickly respond to a message, reset a timer, or otherwise handle simple items without having to switch apps is even more necessary on mobile than on the desktop. Android has had them for while, so here's hoping OS X is just a precursor to the same or similar system on iOS, and sooner rather than later.

iOS 7 Control Center provides quick if not customizable access to toggles

Quick access to system-level toggles has been something every power user has wanted since the day the original iPhone shipped. Some 7 years later, Apple gives us Control Center. Like Notification Center, Control Center is a layer that you can slide over the main iOS interface, including the Lock screen if you so choose. It enjoys the same, bouncing, playful iOS 7 physics, and the same blur effect that mutes but doesn't entirely obliterate what's underneath. Unlike Notification Center, which comes from the top down, Control Center is activated by swiping up from beneath the screen, and rather than dark, smoked glass, it's given a light, frosted treatment.

That Control Center functions so much like Notification Center, and even uses similar nomenclature makes it easy to understand, even for non-power-users who haven't been lamenting its absence on iOS for years. It'll give the obsessive compulsive among us nearly instant access to toggles we probably ought not be toggling all the time, but it'll also give plenty of regular people a fast, easy way - and more obvious than the old fast app switcher controls - to get at things as simple as media controls and even a flashlight when they need them.

Control Center's top row provides handy on/off switches for commonly used settings like Airplane mode (which, when turned on, will turn off the cellular radio), the Wi-Fi radio, and the Bluetooth radio, as well as toggles for Do Not Disturb mode, and the portrait/landscape orientation lock. Black means off, white means on, and a brief bit of text will show up to confirm it so.

The next row is a brightness slider, from dark to light, then media controls that includes a positional scrubber, the title of the track/episode you're listening to or watching, the name of the album/series that track/episode is from, skip backwards or forwards buttons, pause/play, and a volume slider. If you tap the track title, you'll be taken to whichever app is currently playing the media, be it Music, Podcasts, or something else.

If available, AirDrop and AirPlay occupy the next row, and allow you to quickly access sheets with their individual options.

The bottom row consists of icons to toggle the LED flash-come-flashlight on or off, and variants of Clock, Calculator, and Camera icons for quickly accessing those apps.

The wedding cake design is serviceable and keeps all the controls organized while avoiding clutter. The toggles on the top look good, though some of the lines lower down are thin to the point of fragility. The only downside is that Control Center isn't customizable, at least not yet. If you'd rather have different toggles, like personal hotspot, or different fast app access, like Twitter, well that's your tough luck, at least for now.

But, baby steps. I once wrote that iOS wasn't meant for geeks, and while I still think that's generally true, with iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, Apple is now showing that they have more than enough love to go around.

iOS 7 Gesture navigation provides expert if inconsistent shortcuts

iOS 7 continues Apple's long history of gesture-based controls, some system-wide like the new swipe up from the bottom bezel to open Control Center, and some app (or multi-app) specific, like the new swipe right from the left bezel to travel back up the hierarchy Mail or Messages or the history in Safari, or the new toss to close apps in multitasking or tabs in Safari. There are also fantastic new "peek" gestures that let you pull left just a little bit to see individual time stamps in Messages, or pull down to turn a notification banner into the full-fledged Notification Center. Gesture controls can be tricky, however. If not direct they can be hard to discover, if not consistent they can be hard to habituate, and if not carefully considered they can collide and conflict with each other, both system-wide and app specific.

For example, when Apple first introduced four-finger navigation gestures for the iPad, you could accidentally swipe your way out of Fruit Ninja and into Mail. Now, you can swipe up in Hue to try and manage your lights and end up with Control Center instead. You can disable Control Center from being accessible inside apps, but since not everyone will, developers have to assume it'll stay on, and cede basic gestures to Apple and the system.

Because the swipe-right gesture appears limited to certain apps, namely Mail and Messages, it won't collide with other apps already using that gesture. However, the way Apple is implementing the interface in iOS 7 in general, because of that gesture in Mail or Messages, could make other apps look odd. Especially ones that currently use the popular "hamburger button and basement sidebar" design (I'm looking at you Facebook, Google apps, etc.) Even if iOS doesn't stomp all over them, if they look wrong, or simply feel wrong on iOS 7, they may be forced to change and become more Mail or Messages-like. (And that might not be a bad thing.)

The good news is that all of these are direct manipulations. The bad news is that they're not all consistent or symmetrical. Direct manipulations are more easily discovered than abstract gesture controls (which iOS stays completely away from for everything but accessibility), but in order for them to be habituated they need to be consistent. Notification Center is the perfect example. Any time, from anywhere, you can swipe down and what happens is exactly what you expect to happen - it appears. Control Center is the same.

The sideways gestures are where iOS 7 starts running into problems. First, because they're only implemented in specific apps, they require the user to remember which apps include them. Worse, because they're implemented inconsistently and asymmetrically across apps, they require the user to remember what they do in each app. That's a high cognitive burden.

For example, in Safari - and in Photos, Calendar, Weather, and other apps before it - swiping from left to right takes you backwards through the sequence, and swiping right to left takes you forward. That's logical and symmetrical. Even Camera, where swiping changes modes, moves through the modes in sequence and remains consistent.

However, in Mail and Messages, swiping from left to right doesn't take you back through the sequence of messages, but up in the message hierarchy. You swipe back from message to message list to - in mail alone - message list box. Where it gets more challenging is swiping from right to left, because not only doesn't that take you forward through the sequence, it doesn't take you deeper into the hierarchy either. What it does is switch from direct manipulation to quasi-abtract command, revealing a destructive action - delete. That's not only asymmetrical (swiping different directions results in different behaviors), and inconsistent with other apps, it's a massive contextual change.

Photos can have hierarchies with albums, Calendar days with months, so there's some overlap, but Apple's recognizing that hierarchies in Messages and Mail are far more important in real-world use cases than they are in other apps, and re-assigning the gesture. They're also keeping it simple by not, for example, leaving a one finger swipe to move through sequences of messages and using a two-finger swipe to move back to the hierarchy. That's understandable and, in a world filled with trade-offs, sensible.

Switching from direct manipulation to go back to abstract command to delete is less understandable and sensible, but more a reflection of a legacy control Apple's been using since iOS 1 (iPhone OS 1.0).

Here are some examples, with the Mail gestures (back vs. delete) on the left, Safari gestures (back vs. forward) in the center, and downward swipe gesture on Home (Notification Center vs. Spotlight) on the right:

In a perfect world swiping from right to left from the edge would move you into whatever message your touching, while touching a message and holding would allow you to delete it, much like cards and tabs. Apple has used modal gestures before, for example an edit button that changes an upward movement from the general scroll gesture to a specific item re-arranging gesture. Likewise, swiping down from the bezel reveals Notification Center, but swiping down from the screen in Home reveals Spotlight search. It adds complexity but also functionality. Detect if the gesture started at or near the edge, and if so make it navigation. If not, if it started on the meaty part of an item in a list, make it editorial. It will require learning, but not much.

The most important thing is consistency. Unless and until a swipe takes you back in every app where there's something to go back to, it'll always be harder to remember and become habituated to. Unless and until a forward swipe does something in every app where there's a backward swipe, and there's something to forward to, likewise. Unless you can pull a pass up out of Passbook as easily as you can shove one down and back into the stack... You get the idea.

For gestures to succeed for the mainstream, they have to always be where they're expected, and always do as expected. With iOS 7, we're only part way there.

iOS 7 Multitasking made intelligent

Mobile multitasking is all about compromise. You either limit what can be done by apps, or you limit the battery life of the device running them. iOS has always been fantastic at multitasking. It was built on the same foundation as OS X, after all. The very first iPhone demo showed Steve Jobs start some music, fade into a phone call, jump out to check the web and email, jump back to the call, and then fade back to the music. The compromise then was no third-party apps, and post iOS 2.0 and the App Store, no multitasking for third-party apps.

iOS 4.0 brought multitasking to App Store apps, but compromised on who got access and what they could do. VoIP, navigation, and streaming audio were wide open, everything else tightly timed or still turned off. With iOS 7, Apple is trying to have their background and their battery life too, and they're using some very smart technology to do it. Instead of simply allowing persistent, pre-emptive multitasking like OS X does on the desktop, and like how some competitors do on mobile, Apple is recognizing that they have neither a power cable plugged into the wall, nor a desire to offload battery and task management to their customers, and they're using a dynamic, just-in-time system to try and get the best of both worlds. Here's how it works:

Intelligent scheduling lets apps you use frequently - for example, Facebook or Twitter if you check them near-constantly - to update frequently so whenever you launch them, they'll have all the latest information ready and waiting for you. Apps you use regularly but not frequently - for example, if you check the news when you wake up and before you go to sleep - can update just before you typically check them so they use less power but still have the information you want, when you want it.

Opportunism and coalescence let apps take advantage of circumstances to update efficiently as well. For example, apps can update during any of the very many times a day you unlock your device and the system is powered up. Apps that require it can update when your radio signal is strong and power requirements are at a minimum. And if and when something like GPS gets powered up for one app, other apps that need it can tag along for the ride and get their updates handled as well.

Where previously you'd get a push notification, go to the app, and then have to wait for the app to download the data, now push triggers prompt background updates so that the data is ready and waiting for you by the time the app opens. At least in theory. Developers can even send silent/invisible push triggers to wake up their apps for update, which greatly increases the usefulness.

With the iPhone 5s specifically, the M7 motion coprocessor will persistently track accelerometer, magnometer (digital compass), and gyroscope data without the need to power up the main processor. Apps can then pull the data, which essentially gives them full background access without the need to actually be open and consuming resources in the background.

This all works based on the concept of perception being reality. It doesn't really matter when an update happens as long as it happens before we see it. That's what makes just-in-time so much more efficient - and so much less wasteful - than all-the-time.

All of this sounds great in theory, but it remains to be seen how well it will work in practice, especially at first. As more and more developers integrate the new multitasking features, and Apple continues to improve the system, it should become better and better.

The new multitasking interface, however, is a huge improvement right now. The old fast app switcher was never a great solution. Apple tested other metaphors for iOS 4 before they settled on it, including something like OS X Expose, but Safari Pages, and more expressly, webOS cards, always felt like a better solution. Cards not only match the physicality of iOS 7 in general, they're something with which almost everyone is already familiar.

Not that it looks perfect yet. There's a Home card, for example, that might help ensure mainstream users aren't confused about how to find the Home screen, but there's already Home button for that. All Home does in card view is break the metaphor (how can the card view sit on top of Home when Home is in it?).

Unlike some other platforms, cards aren't kept "live". You can't watch a video play in card mode, for example, and it doesn't seem like websites update if you just sit there staring at Safari either. It's arguable live cards aren't necessary and not a great use of resources, but like constant blur filters they can be an impressive effect.

Also, in webOS, every instance of an app could have a card. For example, you could have multiple web pages open at the same time in card view, or multiple email message drafts ready and waiting. Multiple web pages would quickly over run the interface, however, and are better handled in Safari's rolodex. webOS used Stacks to organize sets of cards. Again, greater complexity, but greater functionality. Right now, simpler feels better.

Thankfully, Apple did duplicate the webOS method for closing apps. Instead of holding apps down until they jiggle, and then hitting the little X badge - which conflated the action with deleting apps from the Home screen - you simply touch and hold a card and then toss it up and away. You can also toss multiple cards away at once (up to three - the maximum shown on screen at any time). And no, there's still no option to "kill all apps", because you don't ever need to "kill all apps" even if sometimes it's a fast way to troubleshoot rogue processes.

In addition to the new card interface, Apple also retained the old fast app switcher's icons, placing them at the bottom of the cards. Cards capture static views from the apps they represent, but those representations might not immediately be recognizable. One mostly white page can be hard to differentiate from another mostly white pager. Icons are made to be recognizable, even at a glance. Cards and icons together provide for both greater information and faster recognition. Win. Win.

Back before iOS 6, I hoped for a better fast app switcher. With iOS 7, Apple delivered.

iOS 7 Camera gets real-time filters... and a square

Like much of iOS 7, the Camera app has gotten a complete makeover, but for the most part has remained spatially consistent with previous versions. The shutter button, flash button, camera-switch button, and photo thumbnail are all exactly where they used to be. Options has been replaced by a dedicated HDR button, however, panorama moved, and the grid toggle banished to Settings.

Moreover, the method for changing between still and video has changed. Instead of a binary switch, you can now swipe left from still to video camera, and also swipe right to get to the new square mode (cropped still), and right again to get to panorama. Taking the place of the old still/video switch is the new filters button. There's a real-time blur effect between each mode, of course, just for good measure.

On the iPhone 5s you also get an additional video camera - 120fps slow motion.

And you can set in and out points right in the Camera app.

Taking photos on iOS 7 in general is lightning fast. Gone is the old shutter closing animation, new is a fade-to-white-and-back so fast if you blink you might miss it. You can just tap, tap, tap, and take photo after photo after phone. Did I mention how fast it is? Even high-dynamic range (HDR) is noticeably faster, though still much slower than non-HDR photos.

if you hold your finger down on the shutter button it'll take continuos photos. On the iPhone 5s, you also get a proper burst mode that, Instead of overwhelming you with tens of photos per second, Apple leverages the new A7 to automagically choose and present the best ones, including the multiple highlights of an action shot, if available, yet still lets you dive into all the shots if you ever want to pick your own. That's a great example of providing primary level ease of use, and secondary level expanded use, and how these types of features should be done. By everyone.

The new filters apply to the still and square cameras. They don't apply to the video or panorama cameras. If you apply one, they're live and you'll see them in the preview the way they'll look when the photo is taken. They're subtle, as filters go. Mono, Tonal, Noir, Fade, Chrome, Process, Transfer, and Instant. There are three types of black and white, one desaturated, one over saturated, and and one each that tint towards blue, red, and green. Nothing blown out, nothing vignetted, and nothing overly dramatic.

Here's what the iOS 7 black and white filters look like when compared to the black and white filters from,Instagram, Google+, Twitter, and Camera Noir, in order:

There's no tilt-shift, no frame or border effects, and no sliders for controlling the amount of filtration. Depending on your tastes, that's either a huge negative, or a huge plus. I've wanted Apple to co-opt filtering for a while now, given how many other apps were piling on the feature. Whether this helps calm that down, or only spur it on further remains to be seen.

Alongside the new square mode, the new filters highlight the immense influence Instagram has had on mobile photography. I don't mind it at all. When not using Instagram I've still had the urge to square-cut photos anyway, and having to do it in post with the crop tool is less than elegant.

The new eye-candy, the new features are fine. It's the new speed that's killer.

iOS 7 Photos filter your life into years, collections, and moments

After 6 years and 6 versions of iOS, the trusty sunflower icon that's come to represent the Photos app has been retired and a new, more abstract, multi-color "flower" has taken its place. So has a completely new interface metaphor. Back in 2007, the ability to pinch-to-zoom photos was one of the major multitouch selling points of the original iPhone. Back in 2010, so was the ability to peek into stacks of photos on the iPad. What was once done by genius animation is now done by iOS 7's new physics engine. You can still swipe. You can still pinch. You can still peek (though it's a little clumsy right now). But after 6 years and 6 versions, Apple is also replacing the default view, the never-ending linear chronology of images known as the Camera Roll, with a new Photos view, divided in Years, Collections, and Moments, that automatically organizing your images based on time and location.

Moments divides up your photos more completely, introducing breaks for every major change in time or place. Photo thumbnails are roughly the same size as they were in the old Camera Roll, fitting four across in portrait mode.

Collections are intelligent groupings of moments. They further coalesce a few places and dates that are close together. So a day that has a few places, or a place that covers a few days. The goal seems to be to break up the view into more easily glance-able chunks while still providing some general time and location data for context. The photo thumbnails are slightly smaller here, fitting ten across in portrait mode.

Years simply divides photos up by year. So, 2013, 2012, 2011. Location highlights are also shown. It's very literally a bird's eye view of your year in photos. And the photo thumbnails are tiny, fitting what looks like 32 across in portrait mode.

To help make up for the tiny size of thumbnails in Year and Collections views, Photos lets you touch your finger down on a photo to pop up a larger sized thumbnail for that photo. Moving your finger around switches between photos. This lets you more easily select a specific photo out of the much higher density of photos presented in some views.

The idea of using automatically generated metadata isn't anything new for Apple, but making them the primary point of entry is, and it's a change very much for the better. Rather than absolutely breaking sets up by time and place, however, Photos lets the coalesce together in right-sized sets. Too few, or too little, and even the new Collections and Moments lose utility. It's very clever.

What's not so clever is the use of iOS 7-standard white as the initial background color, especially on the single photo view. You can tap to get rid of it, and set the photo on far less visually competitive black, but then why have it to begin with?

Once in the single photo view, you can still Edit, Share, or Delete. Edit includes previously available functions like rotate, auto-enhance, red-eye removal, and crop, as well as the same new filters as the Camera app. Again, they're subtle.

Here's what they all look like, None, Mono, Tonal, Noir, Fade, Chrome, Process, Transfer, and Instant, in order:

The Places tab is gone, locations now accessible by tapping on a place name label. Shared is now the second tab, and the old, raw Camera Roll is now buried in the Albums tab along with My Photo Stream.

You can share using the Select button/text at the top right in most views, or entire moments or photos from moments can be shared using the Share button/text atop each individual moment in the Moments view. (Yes, that is a lot of Share buttons on the Moments view...)

Share sheets have been completely re-imagined. You can now swipe through and add more photos right from the share sheet. You can also share via the new iOS version of AirDrop, with integrated services like Messages, Mail, iCloud (Photo Stream), Twitter, and Facebook. Flickr is a new addition to supported services. You can also can still perform basic functions like copy, slideshow, AirPlay, assign to contact, use as wallpaper, and print. Their glyphs, unfortunately, are as thin and fragile-looking as the new iOS 7 design language dictates.

The ability to add extra photos right from the Share Sheet is fantastic, and saves having to cancel, add more, and share again. Much more efficient. Likewise, the horizontal scrolling in the additional photo selector, AirDrop, services, and functions selectors is both space efficient, and usable.

Given the iconic nature of the original iOS camera apps, iOS 7 had some big shoes to fill. It's done it, even if there are some sore spots that will take some time to wear in.

iOS 7 Photo Streams finally get truly social sharing

Apple is often criticized for not "getting" social and rightly so. Ping was a non-starter, Game Center has had growing pains, and the original Photo Stream was unidirectional sharing at best. With iOS 7, however, Apple has given Shared Photo Streams some much needed, and much better thought out, improvements. While technically part of the Photos app, the update is significant enough to warrant special attention.

You can add a photo - and now a video as well! - to Shared Photo Stream using the Share Sheet. The sheet itself has been redesigned, of course. No more paperclip renderings needed. You can still add a comment, however. The big difference is that once you've added a photo or album, the people you've shared it with can add additional photos of their own.

That's right. Apple's social photo sharing service can now actually share photos socially and multi-directionally!

You can see all your shared photos, and all the photos shared with you, along with comments and other social cruft, in the Shared tab of the Photos app. There's also a new landscape mode for faster swipe-based browsing. You can tap a photo to switch from the white to black background and remove said social cruft in either orientation.

The only limitation to the new Shared Photo Streams, the only anti-social aspect of Apple's social photo sharing, is that - like iMessage - it's bound to Apple devices. Perhaps one day Apple will add a Shared Photo Stream viewer to iCloud.com, replacing the old MobileMe Gallery viewer that used to live there, but that day is yet to come.

For now, as long as you and everyone you want to share with is using a Mac or iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, it'll work great. If you're using multiple platforms, or anyone you want to share with is using multiple or alternate platforms, Photo Streams could be onerous or even a non-starter. Given the popularity of Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, 500px, Path, and other services with great iOS support, however, no one will be hurting for options.

Like iTunes Radio, Reading List, the upcoming iCloud Keychain, and other iOS-exclusive features, Shared Photo Streams isn't aimed at everyone, and especially not at geeks. It's aimed at the mainstream who just want a simple, easy solution that gives base level functionality. And for them, all of the aforementioned services including Photo Stream, are the zero-effort starting points.

iOS 7 AirDrop lets you easily share your stuff, no bumping needed

With iOS 7, Apple's peer-to-peer, ad-hoc Wi-Fi file transfer protocol, AirDrop comes to the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. Originally introduced on the Mac with OS X 10.7 Lion, it was attached to the Finder to allow anyone to beam any file or folder to anyone else with in range. The iOS version doesn't have a user-facing filesystem to work such universal wonders with. In a perfect world it'd be hooked into my long-lusted-after Files.app and FilePicker system, but for now it's Control Center and Share Sheet bound.

AirDrop works with photos, videos, contacts, voice memos, passes, and anything else that can hook into the iOS sharing system. Once an item is selected, AirDrop will automatically detect any discoverable iOS 7 devices within Wi-Fi range and, if available, show you the contact picture of their owners. Tap one or more contacts to start the sharing process. Providing the detection process works like it's supposed to (try toggling Wi-Fi off and then back on if not), it really that simple. Tap, tap, tap. Share. Share. Share.

If someone tries to send you an item via AirDrop, you'll get a popup. Decline, and it'll go away. Accept and the item will transfer and then open for you in the appropriate app. You can choose to be discoverable to no one, to contacts only, or to everyone with iOS 7.

It works by creating an ad hoc point-to-point Wi-Fi connection between devices. You don't have to be on the same Wi-Fi network, just within range with Wi-Fi turned on. It doesn't use or need cellular networking (3G or LTE), and while there may be reasons to hope it eventually ties into Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, it doesn't do that yet either.

iOS 7 AirDrop also doesn't work with OS X AirDrop at present, which is perplexing given the shared branding. Hopefully that's coming soon. Probably not coming soon is near-field communications (NFC). Apple hasn't seen fit to include an NFC radio in any iOS device, and has gone out of their way to make fun of how competitors have implemented NFC-dependant features.

At the end of the day, NFC is a chipset not a feature set, and nothing any human should ever concern themselves with. Does a device do what it needs to do for you is the question. If it does, then who cares what chipset it is or isn't using. If it doesn't, then who cares what chipset it is or isn't using.

The ability to exchange small binary blobs without the need to physically bump phones, however, is compelling. PalmOS used to do it over infrared, and it was tedious and frustrating, but it was the future. Point-to-point Wi-Fi is way better than infrared and NFC both. BT LE might be as well. Maybe some day the distance limitation will be overcome and any contact we have, anywhere online, will be immediately available for... WarpDrop?

iOS 7 Safari amps up search, tabs, sharing, reading, and more!

Safari is one of the most important apps on iOS, and so it's not surprising it gets one of the biggest redesigns in iOS 7. The gateway to the web on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, Apple finally gives it a unified search bar, along with some slick new social features, a better reading list, and an all-new, all awesome new tab interface that really shows off the new design language of iOS 7.

Page rendering is fast, as you'd expect. Thanks to the ongoing browser wars, the WebKit HTML rendering and Nitro JavaScript rendering engines show no signs of slowing down. Neither do mobile processors. iOS 7 Safari flies on an iPhone 5. The new gesture navigation is perhaps best implemented here as well. You swipe from left to right to go back in your page history, from right to left to go forward. The direct manipulation is near-perfect and the pages are layered to make it visually obvious what's happening. More of this please.

Unified smart search fields - omnibar if you're retro - means what used to be two separate boxes - URL address and search - in iOS 6 are now combined together in iOS 7. It's something desktop Safari did a while ago, and browsers like Chrome and Firefox have been doing for longer still. I'm still not a huge fan of unified address and search fields in general - I never saw the need for the URLs I type in to be parsed by the company who made the browser. Even if they separate fully formed URLs from search terms at the interface level, there are all sorts of opportunities for user errors that spawn searches, and they don't need any more data from me - and on me - than they get already. However, they're convenient in a lot of ways as well, and it looks like they're truly, fully the new normal now. Safari Reader integration - a text-row glyph to the left of the unified search bar on sites where it's usable - is also well done.

The idea of the unified field minimizing and controls disappearing when you scroll down, and maximizing and reappearing again when you scroll back up again is great. Sometimes you just want to hit something now, now, now and having to stop and remember to scroll up a ways to trigger their return can be frustrating. Letting a single tap on the screen call back controls would be a good compromise, since that's a common behavior in iOS already.

Tapping into the unified smart search field lets you enter a URL or search term, and also gives you a grid of your favorite sites or bookmark folders. When you start typing in the unified smart search field, you get shown the top hits for that term, results from Google (or whatever your default search engine is set to), as well as results from Bookmarks and History, and Find on Page results for the text string as well.

The Bookmark button opens up a tabbed interface that starts off with the traditional list of your bookmarks.

The next tab, represented by a reading glasses glyph, is for Reading List. As the name suggests it shows you pages you've saved to Safari Reading list on iOS or OS X. You can toggle between Show All and Show Unread. You can swipe to delete items from your reading list, as always. Best of all, you can scroll continuously through articles without having to go back to the reading list. At the bottom of each article is an "Up Next:" footer that, if you scroll past it, seamlessly pulls up the next article in the list. It's excellent.

The third tab, represented by an @ symbol, is for Shared Links. It uses the built-in iOS Twitter integration to parse out and present links shared by the people you follow. If you're interested in things to read, but don't want to wade through chit-chat, photos, and other material, this is your view. If you have multiple accounts, you'll be shown items from all of them. Unfortunately, there's no de-duplication yet, so if you follow the same people from multiple accounts, you'll get multiple copies of the same items in the list. Tapping on the tweet takes you to the article, and the tweet remains shown on the top so you don't forget the context and who shared it. Just as with Reading List, when you get to the bottom of one article, there's a footer you can scroll past to go straight onto the next. Also excellent.

The new Tab browser is epic. It shows off everything that's great about iOS 7, including the new physics engine that allows for the rolodex metaphor, the parallax effect that allows for "peaking" at what's behind things, the direct manipulation that allows for intuitive re-ordering and removal, and the absolute delight of the experience in general. It's just so well done, it makes me incredibly eager to see what this type of interface work can lead to in the future. Layering iCloud tabs at the bottom works great as well, though the lack of a tab limit means they could take a moment or two to scroll down to them.

One of my favorite new features is a Privacy toggle right at the bottom of both the smart search, bookmarks, and tab views. Easy access to privacy mode means you don't have to switch to the separate Settings app to toggle it any more. If there are web sites you'd rather not have tracking you, but others that require tracking to provide a service (say Google.com vs. TestFlightApp.com) it can save you considerable back-and-forth time. Hopefully we'll eventually be able to have private tabs co-existing with non-private tabs at the same time.

iCloud Keychain, a way to manage, sync, and generate passwords for websites in Safari, was originally included in the iOS 7 feature set, and in the betas, but isn't included in the release version. It's possible Apple is waiting on OS X Mavericks to ship before enabling it on iOS 7. Either way, here's how Apple described it:

• Complete iOS 7 iCloud Keychain preview

Safari is one of the most important apps on iOS, so it's great to see it getting so much attention, and such good attention.

iOS 7 App Store gets location-based popularity, goes kid-friendly

The App Store debuted with iOS 2 (iPhone OS 2), and over the years added genius recommendations, card-based search, and more. Now, in addition to a complete visual make-over in iOS 7, it's also getting in on the location game with Apps Near Me, and finally - yes, finally - adding a kids category for children of all ages.

The App Store, like the rest of iOS 7, has a completely new look and new, native-esque speed. There's a new Kids category, which is subdivided by age range (i.e. 6-8) to make it easier for parents to find appropriate apps for their children. That's great to see. The whole category system in general, however, seems ripe for innovation and hopefully Apple will step on the gas in improving that as well.

The new Popular Near Me tab shows you location-based recommendations, so, for example, if you're at the ball game, or shopping, or at a popular tourist trap, you can see what apps other people are finding useful while there. I really don't care what apps other people are using on my street, but I might care what apps other people are using at a specific venue or attraction. Still, of all the things Apple could have spent time on when it comes to the App Store discoverability...

iOS is tied into social now, why not start some advanced matching based on my friends, or what other people on the entire network have that's similar to me but not yet owned by me. Also, the search-results-as-cards metaphor has somehow survived another year. Again, ripe for innovation.

We do, however, get Wish Lists.

The App Store can now also be set to automatically update apps when new versions become available. Automatic updates will be great for me. No more firing up an iPad and seeing 65 updates pending, and then me having to wait as they update. There's always the chance of a bad update, but there's probably more chance of a needful update not being done. Net positive? Still, for those who don't want them, or don't want them absent a roll-back mechanism, they can be turned off in Settings.

When you download an app from within the App Store, you get a small, round, almost iTunes music preview-style icon that lights up, draws a thinker circle around itself, and offers you a handy stop button at its center to pause the install if needed. If you exit the App Store, you'll see a really slick animation of the Jony Ive icon grid getting filled with a faded icon, and then a circle that lights up like a radar-sweep inside it. Updated apps get a small blue dot to the left of their name so you know they've been updated at a glance. The dot disappears after you launch them for the first time, post-update.

If you're using an iPhone 5s, you can have Touch ID authenticate the iTunes transaction instead of typing in your password, if you prefer.

If you're downloading over 3G or LTE, the limit has been raised to 100MB. That's not just for the App Store, but all cellular downloads. Plan your data usage accordingly.

iOS 7 FaceTime audio disrupts voice calls, Contact Blocking disrupts stalker calls

Apple's FaceTime is a built-in way for anyone on a recent iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Mac to quickly, easily make and receive video calls. It's been a boon to long distance families and relationships, traveling lovers and parents, and those who use sign language alike. Sometimes, however, you're just not dressed, styled, or simply in the mood to be seen. While there's always been a workaround to kill the FaceTime camera, with iOS 7 Apple is, at long last, making FaceTime Audio its own, proper thing.

To put it in perspective, FaceTime audio is doing to voice calls what iMessage did to SMS and MMS - taking the carrier out of the loop. Unfortunately, just like FaceTime Video at launch, Apple's not allowed to run FaceTime Audio over the cellular network yet. That means Wi-Fi only for now. But my goodness the sound quality! People actually sound like people! Everyone I've tested it with has been amazed at how great it sounds. Apple's just put a VoIP phone into the hands of every iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad user on the planet. And more importantly, once that comes with all the great calling systems iOS 7 has to offer. Yeah.

Apple is also adding the ability to block people from reaching - especially disturbing or otherwise harassing - you via the phone, FaceTime, and Messages. One of the downsides of the constant connectivity we enjoy on the iPhone is constant availability, and while it's annoying when people we know expect us to respond 2/47, it's even more annoying when wrong numbers or malicious people can reach us all day, every day.

Last year, with iOS 6, Apple added a Do Not Disturb feature to prevent iPhones, iPads, and iPods from buzzing, beeping, and otherwise going off when we were trying to sleep, rest, or otherwise enjoy some gadget-free time. However, it was a general and temporal system, so you could turn everything off for a certain period, not specific people persistently, or forever. Blocking seems to handle that second, incredibly important part.

You can access your blocked list via Settings, and the list exists in, and is identical in, Phone, Messages, and FaceTime Settings, so it doesn't matter which one you use. Adding a person to the blocked list adds all their phone numbers and FaceTime and iMessage-associated email addresses to the block list. You can edit the list to remove one or all of the telephone numbers and email addresses afterwards.

There's been no explanation of how exactly blocking works yet, but in our tests it seems to prevent any blocked contact from reaching us on any iOS 7 device. It won't block contacts from reaching you on devices that don't run iOS 7, including non-Apple devices (i.e. if you take your SIM card out of your iPhone and stick it in an Android phone).

As someone who's had FAX machines dial my number over and over again, repeated wrong numbers, and even enjoyed carrier telemarketers-gone-wild calling to pitch me dozens and dozens of times a week, I've got a finger hovering over the the block hammer already. Come at me, bozos.

iOS 7 security locks down activation, mics, fingerprints, and more

Find my iPhone - also referred to as Find my iPod or Find my iPad on those devices - has always been a great way to help you find your phone or tablet under a sofa, in another room, or even at a restaurant, coffee shop, theater, or similar public place. It's been great for lost devices. Stolen devices, not so much. Now, with iOS 7, Apple is addressing theft with what they hope is a powerful new deterrent - activation lock.

There's a Lost Mode which track down your iOS device and shows its approximate location on a map, much as it always had. There are also handy buttons to enter Lost Mode, and well as to play a sound and to remotely wipe the device. What's more, if a thief wants to try and disable Find my iPhone, or wipe the phone to disable tracking, activation lock will force them to enter your Apple ID and password first, and if not entered, prevent any software tampering with the tracking.

That goes for anyone as well. If you plug your iPhone into iTunes and hit Restore, it'll tell you to turn off Find my iPhone - which requires you to enter your Apple ID password - before proceeding. Likewise, it'll ask you on the device if you want to trust the computer it's connecting to.

iPhones and iPads are valuable targets for criminals and activation lock looks like a good way to make the devices less attractive. While it probably won't do much to slow down crooks who want to grab iPhones and iPads for parts, anyone hoping to resell a functional device now has to worry about circumventing activation lock as well.

Use of the microphone is now regulated by Privacy Settings, which is a great addition. Also, as mentioned under Notification Center (above), so is Frequent Locations. Furthermore, Personal Hotspot now generates stronger default passwords.

One thing to take into consideration is that iOS 7 is also more convenient than past versions, including offering Notification Center and Control Center access on the Lock screen. Siri, which previously had Lock screen access, now also gains access to Settings, like Control Center. That means, for example, someone could put your device in Airplane Mode even without knowing your Passcode or having your Touch ID fingerprint. If that concerns you, you can disable Lock screen access in Settings.

• 5 simple ways to increase security and privacy on iOS 7

If you have an iPhone 5s, you also get Touch ID. By far the most mainstream friendly biometric authentication technology, with the Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor, you can unlock your iPhone 5s without the need to enter a passcode, and authorize iTunes account purchases without the need to enter a password.

In the perpetual battle between security and convenience, where many people would rather go without a passcode or strong password than fuss with anything complicated on mobile, Apple's Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor aims to do for authentication what iCloud did for backup and restore - make it easy enough that people will actually use it.

It also sets Apple up as an authentication provider, and in a way that doesn't require you to broadcast your real name the way FaceBook and Google do. It uses the secure enclave on the new Apple A7 chipset to make sure fingerprint data can't be taken off the device, a capacitive scanner to make sure only your real, live finger can activate it, can handle up to 5 different fingerprints per person or group of persons, but also absolutely identifies you as the person doing whatever you're doing.

iOS 7 offers big improvements for big business

iOS 7 continues Apple's tradition of consistently improving and extending Enterprise support for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Previous years introduced such basic, core functionality as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and hardware encryptions.This year offers more specific additions that, never-the-less, might make a big difference to big business, both those who manage devices in IT, and who use them, in corporations and SMB (small and medium sized businesses) alike.

Open in Management allows IT to control which apps can open which documents/attachments. For example, if you get a work PDF, your company can make sure only their approved app can open that PDF. They can also make sure that, if you get personal document, you can't open it in the company's app. Though it doesn't sound anywhere nearly as encompassing as something like BlackBerry Balance, it does sound like a good start towards compartmentalizing corporate and personal data.

Per-app VPN lets IT to control VPN access for corporate apps and data, while excluding non-corporate/personal apps and data from the tunnel. That means, for example, you can connect to the company internet securely, but your private web browsing doesn't go through HQ...

App Store license management changes the way apps purchased in volume work. Previously, companies could buy a ton of apps and basically give them to their employees. But, if an employee transferred or left, and no longer needed the app, they kept it anyway and the company had to buy it again. Now, the company can retain ownership, revoke an app from an employee that no longer needs it, and give it to another employee who does. It also keeps both the company's account, and the employees iTunes account separate and distinct, so install and re-download work on device, but control remains with IT.

Apple has made Mobile Device Management (MDM) faster with iOS 7 as well. Company-controlled devices can be enrolled automatically, configured with settings and policies more quickly, and get iPhones and iPads in user hands more easily. Over-the-air (OTA) supervision has likewise been improved. New MDM configuration options also allow third-party solutions greater functionality under iOS 7, including app management, custom fonts, accessibility options, AirPrint, and even AirPlay destinations. So, basically, more can be managed on-device by the remote administrator.

Single sign-on (SSO) means people can log in to their enterprise accounts once, and have that login work for all their enterprise and App Store apps. (Think login into Twitter on iOS and having all Twitter apps authorize based on that login.)

Third-party app data protection uses the existing iOS Passcode lock (and perhaps Touch ID?) to secure corporate data, encrypting it with a strong, unique key. That means IT doesn't have to worry about securing data separately. If an iPhone or iPad is rebooted, the encryption is enabled until the passcode is entered.

Caching Server 2, part of OS X Mavericks Server, means people don't have to go all the way to iTunes - to the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store - to get updates and new content. It's all waiting for them on the in-house system.

And, of course, all the improvements made to the rest of iOS 7 will make life for enterprise users easier and better as well.

• Detailed look at iOS 7 features for Enterprise, Education, and Government

iOS 7 SpriteKit, UI Dynamics, and inter-app audio

At the beginning of this review, I mentioned how it almost feels like you play iOS 7 as much as you use it. The original iPhone's interface required OpenGL support to such a level that it eventually birthed a mobile gaming empire. iOS 7's physics and particle engine seems poised to take all of this not only to the next level, but to the next generation. The reason for that is as simple as it is spectacular - Apple's taken everything they used to make iOS 7's engine and bundled it together into not only a new set of UI dynamics for app developers, and Sprite Kit for game developers.

That means developers and designers get a lot of really good stuff "for free" that used to have to be custom made, or brought in independently from something like Box2D, if at all. Existing projects can throw away code and let the new APIs take its place, and new developers can just include it from the get go, adding effects they might not have been able to do on their own.

Making high quality interactions in iOS 6 and older versions sounded tough and tedious, animating more than modeling, and building even a few types really well was really difficult. iOS 7 and technology like UI Dynamics removes that burden. Designers and developers can dream up the perfect interactions for their apps, and iOS 7 will help make it a reality.

Neither the new UI Dynamics or Sprite Kit are customer-facing feature. Neither was a 10 tentpoles Apple's senior vice-president of software, Craig Federighi, spent any time on during the WWDC 2013 keynote or iPhone event. However, he did show off every delightful ricochet in Notification Center, every bounce in Messages, every flip, every spin, every zoom, every parallax, every pan, and every bit of interactive awesomeness that the new physics engine enables.

Once again Apple is providing amazing frameworks that'll allow for even more amazing apps down the road. 3 months post-iOS 7 launch, 6 month, 1 year... They could fundamentally change the nature of the apps we use every day. It's something that could be transformative. Again.

It's not everything though. At least not yet. Full-on inter-app communications -- similar to Android's intents or Windows Phone's contracts -- were high up on many geek's iOS 7 must-have list, yet nothing of the sort was announced by Apple at WWDC 2013. Well, almost nothing. Apple has added inter-app communications to iPhone and iPad, they've just restricted to one very specific type: Inter-App Audio.

It means apps like Apple's GarageBand and third-party apps will be able to pass around audio files, which means artists and producers will be able to create even better work. It means... it's at least a beginning.

iOS 7 adds support for Game Controllers and iBeacons

Accessory makers are getting some great new features in iOS 7 as well, and that means, presuming they take them and run with them, we'll be getting great new accessories that tie into our location, that let us get our game on, and that make our existing speakers, keyboards, and more work better than ever.

Games are, in part, defined by the control schemes available to them. Pong was fantastic with paddles. Modern real-time strategy games can benefit from a full-on PC keyboard. By going beyond the touch screen, and allowing not only accessory makers to create MFi (Made for iOS-device) controllers for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but developers to create games that take advantage of them, it'll open up a whole new category of games.

It's also a step towards the future Guy English spoke about on Talk Mobile 2013, where we can walk into a living room, drop our phones on a table, pick up a controller, AirPlay to a big screen TV, and displace the current consoles. It's a step towards the mobile devices becoming mobile brains, and adapting to different environments. (Imagine Nintendo bundling Mario or Zelda for iOS with a custom controller...) Now the manufacturers and developers have to start delivering on that future, today.

The same holds true for iBeacons. Their success or failure depends on more than just Apple, but on enough places deploying them for them to become meaningful. Micro-location requires micro-locators, small, Bluetooth 4.0 LE devices that are placed in homes, offices, schools, or other places in order to create a navigation system something like GPS (global positioning satellites) but in an indoor, decidedly terrestrial way.

The interaction between an iOS device and an iBeacon could turn off a light when you leave a room, or on a coffee maker when you enter a house. It could help you find your way to a meeting in a building you've never been to before, or your way along a hiking trail for the first time. It could help a child who requires visual assistance get to their class on time, or a group of children making their way through a science exhibit. It could make transactions possible without the need for additional radios like NFC.

Again, if they're deployed in sufficient quantities. I'm not sure if the technology or its implementation is specific to Apple, but if it is, and if it's iOS only, than that might curtail wide-scale deployments which require a service with cross-platform support (like GPS). Hopefully iBeacons are a type of micro locator that works with general micro locator technology, and bolster accessibility.

iOS 7 also handles on-device Wi-Fi accessory setup, and it's a sign that we're increasingly moving to a mobile first, or mobile only world for some, where the post-PC is no-PC and iPhones and iPads need to be able to handle things all on their own. Using your iPhone to automagically setup your Apple TV is an example of another NFC-style technology BT LE and Wi-Fi can do all on their own. It'll be interesting to see where, and how far, Apple can take it next.

Battery life and performance

Battery life and performance for me on the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s, and on the iPad 4 and iPad mini have been excellent. There was an initial hick-up after new installations, which could be the result of re-indexing or some other short-term overhead, but day-in, day-out I've been getting as good a battery life and performance on iOS 7 as I got on iOS 6.x.

iPhone 4 and iPad 3 performance hasn't been as good. Both were first generation Retina display devices, and the tax on the graphics processing unit (GPU) was already heavy. Still, being able to run iOS 7 apps will be incredibly important going forward, so updating might become a necessity, as might upgrading to newer hardware that runs iOS 7 better.

• How to diagnose fix battery life issues with iOS 7

iOS 7 and the new beginning

When BlackBerry 10 launched earlier this year, it made iOS the oldest of the modern major mobile operating systems. webOS, Android, Windows Phone all launched after Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone in 2007. (Some well after.) iOS, which had started the smartphone revolution, was facing a world where it was no longer revolutionary, and it was unclear what, if anything, Apple would or even could do about it. After all, it's difficult if not impossible to change course when hundreds of millions of customers are being dragged behind them.

But that's what Apple does. They ditch floppies. They ditch PowerPC chips. They reorganize their executive teams, shake up the very people who got them to where they were, and they radically change course months into their product cycle. In short, instead of dragging legacy, they get out and push the future.

It's messy. And iOS 7 is still messy around the edges. I've been using it since June, through all the betas, on all my main devices. I know from its messy. But it's also damn good. Excellent even. It's computationally expensive in a way that will be non-trivial for the competition to match, especially when paired with the equally forward-thinking new Apple A7 and Apple M7 chipsets in the iPhone 5s. That's good for us, because when competition is hardest, the results are the best. Case in point:

After the iPhone in 2007 and webOS in 2009, I wondered often and out loud what would be next. It's this. iOS 7 is what's next.

And most importantly, it's just the beginning.

At some point in the next 24 hours or so, Apple should unleash the first public release of iOS 7 upon the world. Millions - and I mean millions - of iOS device users will install it. But I encourage you to exercise caution. Why? Let me explain.

The hype around iOS 7 is exceptional. Since its first unveiling in June, we've been enticed with iOS 7's flat design, its reworking of essential user interface elements and its brand new features. And it is a major change for iOS users, regardless of whether you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Apple's legion of registered third-party developers have faithfully downloaded the beta releases, have learned their way around the new and improved developer tools, and many of them have already updated their apps to make them work well with iOS 7. Many more are behind them, bringing their code up to snuff for the new release.

But that's still a work in progress, and that brings me to my first point.

Your apps and services might break

As I said at the outset, iOS 7 is a significant rework of iOS. It's arguably the most significant change to iOS since iOS was first introduced. That change is going to come with a few growing pains. One of them is that not all apps are going to be ready for iOS 7 on day one.

Just anecdotally, I've been seeing loads of apps I use every day updated. I know developers are doing a good job of getting their stuff ready for the new release. But I've also had a few talks with developers who aren't ready. Along with others who are biting their nails, hoping Apple's review team gets their apps up in the store in time for the iOS 7 release.

Some developers are also taking the route of replacing old apps with entirely new ones, optimized for iOS 7 and with other new features, that they're charging money for. After all, the App Store still provides no direct way for developers to charge for upgrades. So even if your apps are all "up to date," that doesn't mean they'll all work with iOS 7.

Even if they work, some apps will look like crap

iOS 7's most ballyhooed feature is its new look and feel. That change is pretty radical. And while a lot of apps coming from iOS 6 will work, many of those haven't been reworked to look nice on iOS 7. They haven't adopted iOS 7's new visual language. That'll come in time, but it's a process.

In the interim, you're going to see a mishmosh of apps that are up to date with iOS 7's fundamental design and user interface changes, and those that aren't. If you're looking for consistency, you'll need to wait until all your apps have been updated or replaced with new versions.

Your older device may not support iOS 7, or may not support it well

Bear in mind that iOS 7 doesn't work on all iOS devices. If you're using any iPhone prior to an iPhone 4, for example, you're out of luck. Original iPads are out of luck. And any iPod touch prior to the fifth-general current model doesn't qualify, either.

But more than that, even if your device does make the cut, it may be a diminished experience. If you have an iPhone 4 or an iPad 2, for example, it might be worth waiting and seeing what the experience is like for other users of the same hardware. Sometimes devices right on the edge of minimum system requirements don't provide the best user experience with the newest software.

You probably don't have to be on the bleeding edge

If you have a legitimate reason to upgrade to iOS 7 on day one, don't let me stop you - go right ahead. If iOS 7 has some absolutely critical feature that you need, or something that's going to make your device use experience or your life way better, then by all means install it.

But if the best reason you can come up with is "because it looks cool and I want to give it a try," stop yourself for a moment and ask yourself: Is the novelty of using iOS 7 worth the potential risk in stability and the impact on my productivity?

If the answer is no, you may want to take a back seat on this one and let other users try out iOS 7 before you. While there's something to be said for being the first kid on your block with a shiny new toy, don't paint yourself in a corner by killing your ability to work, either.

You haven't backed it up

Please, please, please make sure you've backed up any iOS device you plan to install iOS 7. Back up your data to iCloud, if you're using iCloud backups. Tether your iOS device(s) to your Mac or PC and back them up using iTunes.

And while you're at it, you may want to use the opportunity to do a little bit of spring (fall?) cleaning. If there are apps installed on your iOS device that you're not using, by all means use this opportunity to delete them. You'll be saving space on your device for new iOS 7-optimized apps, and unburdening yourself from stuff you don't need in the process.

You won't be able to downgrade

If you do upgrade to iOS 7 and find the experience lacking, there isn't a mechanism for reinstalling iOS 6 afterwards. Even your backups won't help you there - they save application files and settings, data and so on, but not iOS itself.

Certainly, developers have been able to downgrade to iOS 6 from the iOS 7 releases (and the GM release), but all that changes once the general release is out in the world. Apple doesn't want you to go back to iOS 6, they want everyone who can to march into the bright new future together.

Your device is jailbroken

If you've jailbroken your iOS device and you want to continue to use whatever tweaks you've installed, you'll need to stick with iOS 6 for now. While prominent iOS jailbreak developers say they're working on the problem, no one is going to have a working, public jailbreak on day one. So if you want to keep using your device jailbroken, you'll have to stick with iOS 6 for now.

Expect more updates from Apple

Almost inevitably, x.0 software releases from Apple are followed in fairly quick succession by x.01 updates. After all, Apple can't fix everything all at once, and there was a line in the sand that Apple's own developers had to make in order to create a GM version in preparation for release. Certainly Apple's tried to fix as much as it can, including total showstoppers.

But stuff happens. So if you can get away with it, it may be a good idea to wait out the initial rush of iOS 7 downloads to get a sense of what works, what doesn't, and what's left to fix or optimize, before hopping on board. Apple will clean as much up as it can with the next few incremental maintenance updates, I'm sure.

There are a lot of good reasons to get iOS 7, but nothing in it is going to be helpful if you can't get your work done with your device. So if you can, wait a little bit before jumping in.

Are you planning to get iOS 7 as soon as it comes out? Or does waiting sound like a better idea? I'm interested to hear from you, so please let me know what you think in the comments below.

iPhone 5s - GSM

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.1{.nofollow}

iPhone 5s - Global/CDMA

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.1{.nofollow}

iPhone 5c - GSM

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.1{.nofollow}

iPhone 5c - Global/CDMA

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.1{.nofollow}

iPhone 5 - GSM

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7{.nofollow}

iPhone 5 - Global/CDMA

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7{.nofollow}

iPhone 4S

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7{.nofollow}

iPhone 4 - GSM

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7{.nofollow}

iPhone 4 - GSM (2012 model only)

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7{.nofollow}

iPhone 4 - CDMA

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7{.nofollow}

iPad Air

• iOS 7.0.4 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - Cellular{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - Cellular{.nofollow}

iPad mini with Retina display

• iOS 7.0.4 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - Cellular{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - Cellular{.nofollow}

iPad mini - 1st gen

• iOS 7.0.4 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - CDMA{.nofollow}

iPad 4

• iOS 7.0.4 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - CDMA{.nofollow}

iPad 3

• iOS 7.0.4 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - CDMA{.nofollow}

iPad 2

• iOS 7.0.4 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.4 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2 - CDMA{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - WiFi{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - GSM{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0 - CDMA{.nofollow}

iPad 2 (2012 WiFi model only)

• iOS 7.0.4{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.3{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0.2{.nofollow}
• iOS 7.0{.nofollow}

If you're updating an iPhone from iOS 6 to a beta version of iOS 7 for either development or testing, Apple will check the UDID of the device in order to make sure it's registered to a developer account. I ran into an issue this past week where an iPhone that was legitimately registered to my personal developer account would not activate. After a quick internet search, I discovered I definitely wasn't alone in having this problem. Luckily, I was able to find a way around it. Here's how:

As always, this isn't a way to bypass activation if your UDID isn't on file, nor will it work that way. This is a workaround if you're experiencing issues activating a device that hasn't been on a beta before but that is legitimately registered to a developer account.

Restore to iOS 6

Before you can fix the activation error, you will need to downgrade the iPhone having activation issues back to iOS 6. In order to do this, you can follow our downgrade guide.

• How to downgrade iOS 7 beta back to iOS 6

Once you have the device back up and running on iOS 6, continue in order to finish your iOS 7 beta install.

Update to iOS 7

If you're having activation issues, odds are you probably clicked the Restore option in iTunes when installing iOS 7 beta instead of the Update option. Normally this isn't an issue but lately it seems to not want to play nice with activation.

This is what seems to be causing issues lately with installing a new iOS 7 beta. Follow these steps instead:

1. Connect the device to your Mac or PC if it isn't already.
2. Launch iTunes.

3. Under the device options, hold down alt+option on your Mac keyboard (Shift for Windows users) and then click Update instead of restore.

4. Navigate to the current iOS 7 beta file that you've downloaded from the developer portal and select it.

5. Let iTunes do its thing and update the device.

That's all there is to it. This should fix the activation issue and the device should boot up like normal and be able to activate this time. Let us know how it works for you in the comments if you were experiencing legitimate activation issues.

Remember, this method is for users who legitimately have their UDID on file with an Apple developer account. If you don't have a reason to install the beta, stay away until the public release. It should also never be installed on a user's primary device.