Apple Finally Launches iOS 7

Apple finally announced the arrival of their newest operating system, iOS 7. In the event of Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Craig Federighi announced the latest generation of iOS, which is called the biggest change since the presence of the iPhone.

Apple has given the operating system for its iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches a new look with the introduction of iOS 7. But what are the differences between the previous generation? Is it quite enough to satisfy eager Apple fans who are constantly looking to upgrade to the next generation of iPhone? The differences that are immediately visible on iOS 7 is a flat design icons and more brightly colored than the previous generation of iOS. This new operating system is compatible for devices starting to iPhone 4, iPod Touch5 and iPad 2.

Here are some new features in iOS 7:

Control Center
Apple has finally put all the frequently used settings in one place, which is called the Control Center. From here you can control your music and switch on and off airplane mode, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, as well as turn on a flashlight or increase the screen's brightness. It should make managing and using different features on your phone much, much easier.

Safari
Apple has improved the Safari mobile browser in iOS 7. The biggest change to the browser is a unified search and URL field. Now there's more flexibility with browser tabs. The tabs now preview as vertically scrolling rectangular cards, and you can swipe them away in a gesture, just like we've seen on some Android phones. The new Safari in iOS 7 will also let users access Apple's new iCloud Keychain, which stores passwords and credit card numbers in the cloud to provide access across multiple devices.

Multitasking
In iOS 7, Apple has finally improved multitasking. All apps will now be able to update in the background while you're handling other tasks on your phone. And, Apple promises this won't affect battery life. You can double tap the screen to bring up a tiny thumbnail of icons of open apps. Again, it looks like Apple has borrowed a bit from Microsoft and Android in the design of this new feature.

AirDrop
Another new feature included in iOS 7 is AirDrop, which lets users create a local ad-hoc network among other iOS users that are nearby. It allows you to share a photo or some other bit of content simply by hitting a share button. Apple uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to send the content over a very short distance to the recipient. The feature is similar to Samsung's own sharing tool that uses the tap and go technology called NFC. This is one of those features that is limited by hardware. And it will be available only via the iOS 7 update on the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod Touch, fourth-generation iPad, and iPad Mini.

Camera and photos
As part of the redesign of iOS 7, the look and feel of the camera app has been updated. In a nutshell, Apple has made it easier to access available shooting modes, such as still, panorama, video, and a square, Instagram-like configuration. And it's also made it supersimple to apply filters to the still or square shots. The new iOS 7 also provides a different way of organizing phones in the Camera Roll. Instead of just allowing you to organize photos by when they were taken, it now organizes them by geotagged location. You can also arrange your pictures by year and get an overview of a particular year with teeny tiny images. It's much like the organizational features available in Apple's desktop iPhoto app.

iTunes Radio
Apple has launched its own Internet radio station. There's nothing new or different here when compared to other music services. It basically lets you build radio stations around a favorite artist, song, and genre of music. The service can be used on any device running your iTunes account. And it's ad-free for iTunes Match users.

Siri
Apple has also updated Siri, its voice activation feature. The updated version lets users switch to a male Siri voice and it offers non-English speakers access to the service. But the most substantial addition to the feature, is that the updated Siri can now trigger actions on your phone's system settings, like play a past voicemail, turn on Bluetooth, and increase the brightness settings on the screen. You can also ask Siri to search Wikipedia and Twitter.

FaceTime audio
FaceTime isn't just for video chats anymore. The new iOS 7 will allow people to make audio-only voice calls using the FaceTime app via a Wi-Fi connection.

iOS in the car
Apple has greatly improved in-car functionality for its iOS devices with iOS 7. The update will let people control more systems in their cars via their iOS device. This includes placing calls, playing music, and looking up directions. All of it is voice activated, thanks to integration with Siri. Some car brands have teamed up with Apple to integrate iOS in their cars. Next year, several models of Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Chevy, Kia, Volvo, Acura, and a few other brands, will integrate their system settings on the dashboard with iOS

App Store
Another cool new feature for those using iOS 7 is an update to the App Store that allows users to search for popular apps based on location. So for example, say you're in a museum, you can search and find apps relevant to that particular museum.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/