News: iOS 7

So, iOS 7 has finally come and if you have an iPhone 4 and up, an iPod Touch 5 or an iPad 2 and up (as well as iPad Mini) you can download it. In this blog post I am going to show you some of the new features as well as give a comparison to iOS 6.

iOS 7
The first thing you may realise when you try to download iOS 7 in the first few days after launch, is that it will take a really, really long time. Mine bounced between 1 hour and 20 hours a lot and I had to try again a couple of times, just due to the sheer amount of people trying to download it. But stay with it as it is well worth it in my opinion.

Downloading iOS 7:

1. Go to Settings - General - Software update. 
2. If your iDevice is compatible, then it will show up iOS 7 on the screen. 
3. Select download and agree to the terms and conditions. 
4. Your download will run in the backround so you can continue to use your phone whilst downloading. 
5. After it is downloaded a message will pop up saying the update will start in ten seconds or you can click to start it up straight away. It will then install which will make your phone restart a few times and then will turn off. 
6. Turn on to be greeted with the iOS 7 welcome screen and start setting up the new features.

Or you can download through iTunes (make sure it is up to date). Connect your iDevice up to iTunes on your computer and click on the connected device. Then click check for updates and wait for it to download. Read from instruction 5 onwards.

Start Screen

Hello screen

New Features: from Apple
Here is the complete list of all the new features to grace your new phone.

New design

Redesigned interface updates the entire system and every built-in app

Subtle motion and animation; layers and translucency provide depth

Elegant new colour palette and refined typography 

Updated system sounds and ringtones

Control Centre

Quick access to commonly used controls and apps with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen

Turn on and off Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb; adjust screen brightness; access media controls; turn on AirPlay and AirDrop

Quickly access torch, timer, calculator, camera and music controls

Notification Centre improvements

New Today view gives you an overview of your day, including weather, calendar and stocks 

Notifications dismissed on one device dismiss across all your devices

Multitasking improvements

Preview screens of open apps when you switch between them

Permits any app to keep content up to date in the background

Camera improvements

Swipe through different camera modes — video, still photo, square aspect and panorama

Real-time photo filters with iPhone 4S or later, and iPod touch (5th generation)

Photos improvements

Automatically organises your photos and videos based on time and location into Moments

iCloud Photo Sharing supports multiple contributors and videos, plus a new Activity view

Add photo filter effects

Flickr and Vimeo support

AirDrop

Quickly and easily share content with people nearby

Securely encrypted transfers with no network or setup required

Supported on iPhone 5, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini and iPod touch (5th generation), and requires an iCloud account

Safari improvements

New iPhone tab view that lets you easily switch between open web pages 

Unified smart search field for both search terms and web addresses

Shared Links shows web pages shared by people you follow on Twitter

iTunes Radio

Streaming radio service

Pick from over 250 featured and genre-focused stations

Start your own station from your favourite artist or song

Siri improvements

New, more natural-sounding male and female voices for US English, French and German

Integrated Wikipedia, Twitter search and Bing web search results

Change settings, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and brightness

Supported on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini and iPod touch (5th generation)

App Store improvements

See apps relevant to your current location with Popular Near Me

Discover age-appropriate apps in the Kids category

Keep your apps up to date automatically

Find My iPhone Activation Lock

Turning off Find My iPhone, erasing your device, reactivation and signing out of iCloud requires your Apple ID password 

A custom message can be displayed on your device even after a remote erase

iTunes Store improvements

Preview and buy songs you've heard on iTunes Radio while inside the iTunes Store

Add to, and shop from, your iTunes Wish List

Scan code with camera to redeem iTunes Gift Cards

Music improvements

Play music purchases from iCloud 

Rotate your iPhone or iPod touch to browse your music with the Album Wall

Videos improvements

Play film and TV programme purchases from iCloud 

View similar films and TV programmes from Related

Maps improvements

Turn-by-turn walking directions

Automatic night mode 

Bookmarks shared across devices via iCloud

Mail improvements

New Smart Mailboxes, including Unread, Attachments, All Drafts and To or CC

Improved search

View PDF annotations

FaceTime audio calling

Block unwanted Phone, Messages and FaceTime callers

Support for sending long MMS messages

Pull down on any Home screen to reveal Spotlight search

Scan to acquire Passbook passes

New ringtones, alarms, alerts and system sounds

Definitions of a selected word for additional languages: Italian, Korean and Dutch

Inclinometer in the Compass app

Wi-Fi HotSpot 2.0 support
Some devises have a bug that causes all messages unable to be sent

Accessibility features

Individuals with limited physical motor skills can now control their device using Switch Control

Customise closed caption style

Handwriting input support in VoiceOver

Maths input support using Nemeth Braille in VoiceOver

Select from multiple premium voices for speak selection and VoiceOver 

Support for Made for iPhone Hearing Aids and stereo audio for iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation)

Enterprise features

Manage which apps and accounts are used to open documents and attachments

Per-app VPN

App Store licence management

Enterprise single sign-on

Remote configuration of managed apps

Automatic data protection for third-party apps

Exchange Notes syncing

Install custom fonts

New management queries and restrictions

Education features

Mobile device management for Apple TV

Request AirPlay Mirroring from a student device to Apple TV

Pre-configure AirPlay destinations and AirPrint printers

Streamlined MDM enrolment

Ability to restrict changes to accounts

Web content filtering

Authorised apps can initiate single app mode

Configure accessibility settings for single app mode

Features for China

Tencent Weibo integration

Chinese-English bilingual dictionary

Improved handwriting input with improved accuracy, stroke order independence and support for simultaneous multiple character input

Bug fixes

Some features may not be available in all countries or all areas

With over 200 new features (some big and some small) this update has a lot. However, this comes at a price as you have to have 2.9 GB available on your iDevice before the update. Depending on which iDevice you use, this update will take different amounts of storage.

Here are some of the best new features: note- I have an iPhone 4 so won't have Siri etc.

Cleaner Icons

Control Centre

Spotlight Search

Notification Centre

Multitasking

Weather

App Store

Reminders

New folder icon with multiple pages

As you can see there are some massive changes to the interface of the device, with a cleaner feel to it. The new multitasking and notification centre is good to and gives you more customizability. One problem though is that apps not made by Apple feel out of place with the cleaner layout and some applications like GameCentre just don't look right.

Comparison:

Here is a comparison between iOS 7 (iPhone 4) and iOS 6 (iPod Touch 4) with some of the apps and the interface.

iOS 6

iOS 7

iOS 6

iOS 7

iOS 6

iOS 7

iOS 6

iOS 7

iOS 6

iOS 7

iOS 6

iOS 7

iOS 6

iOS 7

As you can see, iOS 7 is a much cleaner interface and while iOS 6 was good in some aspects like multiple wallpapers supplied by Apple, I think iOS 7 is better overall.

Thanks for reading, Satamer.

P.S if you have any queries or disagree with me then contact us through the About Us page or comment.
Update: there is now a small update which fixes some bugs with the lock screen and keyboards among others.

Update: 7.1 contains improvements and bug fixes: from Apple:

CarPlay
iOS experience designed for the car
Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay-enabled vehicle
Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages and third-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 favourite 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 colours and reduce white point
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

You have to have 1.6 GB available on your iDevice before the update. Depending on which iDevice you use, this update will take different amounts of storage.

Update 1.7.1:
More bug fixes and performance improvements. I missed the actual patch notes so if anyone else knows them then please comment.

Update 1.7.2:
Improves iBeacon connectivity and stability
Fixes a bug with data transfer for some 3rd party accessories, including bar code scanners.
Corrects an issue with data protection class of Mail attachments

You have to have 1.0 GB available on your iDevice before the update. Depending on which iDevice you use, this update will take different amounts of storage.