iOS 7 Beta 1 Features

CLICK HERE FOR BETA 2 CONTENT!!

This website is currently being updated. Last updated: 5:17PM GMT; 24/06/2013

The asterisks sign (*) indicates changes added on the above date and time.

Hello,

Welcome to the official iOS 7 features list (with pictures)on Imagine A World!

This post is about the new features in beta 1 of iOS 7.

The first part of this post uses pictures to demonstrate features. Scroll down to view a list of features and faults in iOS 7.

Note: Please note that features are subject to change at any time. This post is constantly updated with new features and details about iOS 7 so please keep checking back! The features shown on this page are demonstrated on an iPhone 4S. There may other key features which are exclusive to iPhone 5, which I am not able to show here.

If you choose to use any content from this post, please give credit and a link back to this blog. Thank you!

ALL NEW DESIGN

iOS 7 moves away from the usual skeumorphic look and brings a cleaner and flatter design. You could say that Windows Phone + Android = iOS 7. There are a number of subtle changes such as the lockscreen fading in and out and other notable features.

LOCKSCREEN

The first thing you see after updating your device to iOS 7 is the beautiful new lock screen. The lock screen fades in when you press the power button – which looks really nice.

You can slide your finger, from left to right, anywhere on the screen – not just the bottom. For the first time, you can access Notification Centre from the lock screen. The new Control Centre can be accessed from here too. (more on those later)

NEW HOME SCREEN

After swiping away the new lock screen, you will see the new home screen – because that’s usually how it goes. You will see the some-what puzzling new icons. They are great, but you’ll need to get used to them. You can also see the new ‘Dynamic’ (animated/live) wallpapers. When you put your iPhone to sleep, the screen fades away.

CONTROL CENTRE

Control Centre is your one stop place to get access to your toggles for turning Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Do Not Disturb off. It even lets you turn on the flashlight. Music controls and AirPlay options from the multitasking bar (now obsolete) have been moved here too.Just swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access Control Centre.

MULTITASKING

Multitasking is handled differently in iOS 7. You can see a preview of all the apps you have open. These previews are NOT live – this means video will be paused (music and voIP continues). You can now just ‘flick’ the apps off the screen to close them. Still no ‘Close All’ button. Multitasking also works in landscape mode too.

SPOTLIGHT SEARCH

Spotlight search is missing from the left of the home screen. It is no longer present as a seperate screen. To access Spotlight Search, just drag or tug your home screen down and it will appear.

NOTIFICATION CENTRE

This is the first time Notification Centre has recieved a major update since iOS 5. Its now a grey semi-transparent shade that gives you more information. There is a new ‘Today’ and ‘Tommorow’ view that appear when needed. You can see more information about weather and stocks here too. There is no way to swipe the notifications to dismiss them.

NEW FOLDERS

Folders used to hold apps in 4×3 on the iPhone 4S and 4×4 on the iPhone 5. Now the grid is, 3×3 for iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. You can have as many apps as you want in the new folders – just scroll left or right.

NEW NEWSSTAND APP

First, let me tell you that YOU CAN PUT NEWSSTAND IN A FOLDER in iOS 7! Its no longer a fancy folder, its an app on its own. Here’s what the new interface for newsstand looks like.

WALLPAPERS

You can now choose between a ‘dynamic’ or photo wallpaper. With the photo wallpapers, you can tilt your device to get a 3D effect. With the new dynamic ‘ball’ wallpaper, you can tilt your device and the balls seem to fall in that direction. Apple gives you two of each to get started (although you can see one of each in the picture below).

IMPROVED SIRI UI 

You can ask Siri system requests like ‘Increase brightness’ or ‘Turn on bluetooth’. Apple has promised improved voices for Siri, however I have not been able to turn them on or hear them. Maybe they will appear in later releases. Siri is much more smarter now, but still not as clever as Google Now though.

NEW PHOTOS APP

The new photos app puts your photos in a new perspective. You see your photos by Collections and Years.

NEW COMPASS APP

The compass app has been updated to be more accurate and makes better use of the sensors in iPhone. Swipe to the left and you’ll see a spirit level.

NEW SAFARI APP

Safari has been given the Google Chrome treatment – theres now a unified search bar and a full screen view in portrait.

NEW TAB VIEW IN SAFARI

Theres also a slick new tab view in Safari – very Chrome like, with a cards view. You can flick them away to close them. Oh, and private tabs can be opened from this page now too. Scroll up and you’ll see iCloud tabs.

NEW MUSIC APP

The music app has been made to be simpler and better than ever. Take a look at the new playback controls; which stay on screen no matter what.

NEW CAMERA APP INTERFACE

The camera app looks better than ever with a round capture button and new filters and features. You swipe left or right to choose Video, Photo, Square or Pano modes. The option for Grid has been moved in to the settings app.

NEW SETTINGS APP

The settings app has been designed to look simpler and better than ever. The arrangment of options has not changed since iOS 6, however.

NEW MAIL APP

The mail app has been given the iOS 7 look with a white colour scheme. The ‘gooey’ refresh icon has been replaced with a spinning wheel (not shown here). You can also hide or show mailboxes instead of just rearranging them – VIP can be hidden too.

NEW CALCULATOR APP

I don’t know why, but this really felt Windows Phone-ish.

NEW PHONE KEYPAD

You probably forgot your iPhone can make calls, but now theres a rounder interface for the keypad.

NEW APP STORE

The app store has been given a cleaner, whiter look. You can now see games near you.

   

PREVIOUS PURCHASES

A new cloud icon appears for apps that you have previously downloaded or purchased. You can also pause the download without leaving the App Store.

   

WISHLIST

You can add apps to a ‘Wishlist’ in the App Store

AUTOMATIC APP UPDATES

With iOS 7, your apps are automatically updated when you’re connected to Wi-Fi. You can turn this off in settings for the App Store. When an App has completed an update, you’ll see it in Notification Centre – tap it and you’ll see the update details and date of update.

  

DO NOT DISTURB WORKS IN WAKE STATE

You can now set Do Not Disturb to silence notifications while the phone is unlocked. Just select the ‘Always’ option.

NEW GAME CENTRE APP

Game Centre has lost it’s felt and gets a cleaner and simpler look. (feel free to add me on there)

NEW CALENDAR APP

Calender is much simpler and has a Windows Phone-ish feel to it. But in a nice way.

NEW MAPS

I can’t guarantee that you’ll get to Paris on the right route, but Maps has a new cleaner look, with the removal of the page curl effect.

NEW MESSAGES APP

With a flatter look, Messages is now cleaner and whiter. iMessages are still blue, SMS is still green.

NEW KEYBOARD

A new feel has been created with the changes added to the keyboard. It uses the new font and changes colour. When entering passwords, it turns dark grey/black, and in normal apps, you’ll see it in white. Apps which have not been updated for iOS 7 will still use the iOS 6 keyboard.

NOTIFICATION TWEAK

Apple has tweaked the look of notification banners. They are now a bit larger and give more information. They now just slide in to view – the top of the screen does not rotate anymore. You can finally just flick them away to dismiss them!

FACETIME IS A  SEPERATE APP

If you needed something else to occupy a folder, you can now put FaceTime there. This is because Apple has chosen to make a seperate app for FaceTime for the iPhone. You can make FaceTime audio calls from here too.

DYNAMIC TEXT SIZE

A new setting has been added which allows you to set the size for dynamic text in supported apps.

CHARGING IPHONE

When you plug iPhone into charge, you no longer see that black screen with a glossy battery which fills up. You will now briefly see an image of a ‘flat’ battery, with the percentage. Then you’re back to your wallpaper with the percentage underneath the time. This disappears after a few seconds and you can show it again by showing the lock screen again. You can of course just look at the battery percentage in the corner too.

  

LIVE CLOCK ICON

The Clock icon in iOS 7 is live and updates according the time of your iPhone. Now.. if only the weather app icon worked in the same way..

NEW WEATHER APP

Perhaps the Yahoo! Weather app was a sign of things to come. The new weather app in iOS 7 has taken many cues from that app. They are now very similar, except Apple’s implementation uses really nice animations of the current weather. Looks best when the sun shines though (haha).

ICLOUD KEYCHAIN

With iCloud Keychain, your passwords and credit card information is kept up to date on all your approved devices.

ICONS ARE 6 PIXELS LARGER

The icons in iOS 7 are slightly larger than the icons in iOS 6 and earlier.

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OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES

• iTunes Radio is built into the Music app for U.S users
• You can now “Mark All” messages in mail.
• The foreground layers are transparent like frosted glass
• You can set panoramic wallpapers
• The text of the homescreen automatically changes to black or white based on the colour of the wallpaper
• New system wide font scheme (Helvetica Light)
• Passbook passes can be shared via email or iMessage.
• Maps has automatic day or night mode
• Lyric support in iTunes Match
• Consistent colours, buttons and design throughout iOS
• A year view in Calendar
• New interface for built in Dictionary
• Option to ‘Open In Reader’ when tapping and holding a link in Safari
• New ‘Action Sheet’ design
• Private browsing is in the Safari app instead of settings
• ‘Parallax’ effect is visible in nearly every part of iOS 7
• Slightly rounder corners of Apps
• Removal of ratings in Music app
• Ability to reduce motion of parallax
• Clock app icon is dynamic
• You can now scroll faster in the cards view of the search tab in the App Store
• When turning on device, the apple logo is flat and has no sense of shine
• There is a percentage button in the portrait orientation of the Calculator app
• New animations for locking device, unlock device, launching apps and closing apps
• Newsstand is now an App, instead of an inline folder – this means you can put Newsstand in a folder and forget about it!
• Tap to Tweet and Tap to Post is removed from Notification Centre
• New 2D dock
• You can no longer choose a font for the Notes app
• FaceTime Audio calls
• Dynamic (live) wallpapers
• You can now ‘flick’ banner notifications off the screen and dismiss them quickly
• View PDF annotations
• You can choose which apps can background refresh
• Flickr and Vimeo integration
• Privacy settings for Microphone
• A flashing lightning bolt appears next to the battery when charging
• The maps icon shows the location of Apples new ‘spaceship’ campus
• Apps in iOS 7 are designed to run full screen. The status bar seems to want to blend into the app.
• While recording video, you can pinch to zoom
• Add filters to photos before capturing them (iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5th Generation only)
• The ‘message balloons’ in Messages seem to have their own momentum when you scroll
• New interface for hotspot connections – the status bar does not flash anymore – the text in it does
• The message ballons in iOS 7 get lighter in colour as they become older up the list
• On the lockscreen, the status bar icons are larger. When you unlock iPhone, the icons become slightler smaller
• In the settings for Maps, you can now choose “Preferred Directions” (driving or walking)
• Microsoft Hotmail has been renamed to Outlook
• Multitasking enabled for all apps
• Pinch towards the middle of the Weather app to view an overview of all weather forecasts
• New toggles use colour and no text
• Access Notification Centre and Control Centre from the lockscreen
• AirDrop for iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5th generation users
• You can see how much space messages are using on your iPhone in settings
• Activation Lock – remotely lock your iOS device using iCloud
• Opportunistic updates
• Support for recording video at 60fps (hint at future device feature, because current devices can only record at 30fps)
• Phone, FaceTime and message blocking
• Notification Sync – clear a notification on one device, and it also clears from your other devices too
• Takes advantage of the built in Inclinometer in iPhone
• Night mode for maps
• Walking directions (turn by turn) in Maps
• In Messages you no longer have to scroll the the top to access “Call” “FaceTime” and “Info”
• New animation for turning device completely off – like an old TV turning off
• You can teach Siri how to pronounce names instead of using phonetics*
• Siri can turn on the flashlight*
• When you have activated a timer, a live countdown appears on the lock screen under the time*
• All Apple stock apps do not have the ‘gloss’ layer*
• Some third party apps such as ‘Whatsapp’ have automatically lost the gloss layer*

CURRENT FAULTS OR LIMITATIONS

• Issues connect to WiFi
• Overall laggy experience (this is expected as this is the first beta)
• Crashes
• Battery drains a lot faster
• The wallpaper preview in the settings app shows the iOS 6 home screen and lock screen 
• Do Not Disturb does not stay on or off.
• Sometimes, when unlocking iPhone, home screen does not appear – it is blank. Need to sleep and wake again.
• Slow delivery of iMessages
• Activation failure for iMessage and/or FaceTime
• Album art does not appear properly in the lockscreen for iPhone 4 and 4S users
• Can no longer delete whole albums in the Music App, only one song at a time
• Siri does not start immediately, sometimes it also crashes and reboots the phone*
• Voice Memos app is not present in this beta (confimed by Apple to be returning soon)*
• Reminders do not appear in Notification Centre unless you turn them off and then on in settings*
• Still can not play audio from Safari in the background*
• New Siri voices have not been added*
• Can no longer delete single albums from the music app*
• Deleting single songs from the music app can be troublesome*

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iOS 7 will be supported on the following devices:

• iPhone 4
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 5
• iPad mini
• iPad 2
• iPad 3rd Generation
• iPad 4th Generation
• iPod touch 5th Generation

Alleged Future Device Support:

• iPhone 5S
• iPad 5th Generation
• iPad mini 2nd Generation
• iPod touch 6th Generation (unlikely)
• iPhone (low-cost model)

Anticipated total number of devices which will support iOS 7 during 2013:

13 iOS devices

Click HERE to read our iOS 6 post and click HERE to read our iOS 6.1 post.

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New betas will have their own post.

– Mr F