Reviewing iOS 7 for Apple - Part III
Welcome to the last part in this three-part review on Apple's latest software update, iOS 7. In the time span between the last review and this one, Apple's already gone ahead with a tweak...that adds up to absolutely nothing at all.
But, this blog post isn't about that! Rather, it'll be showcasing the last round of hits and misses in some of the new features.
App Organization
Apple hit a triple when they introduced the feature that'd allow users to organize apps in folders; with iOS 7, they brought that hit home. Now, users aren't number-limited in organizing their apps and can put all their newspapers in one app and media apps in another. There's no more four folders for each category, resulting in a cleaner look and a hit for Apple.
Siri and Safari
I feel obliged to mention these two because they're such integral parts of the iPhone, but I'm of the group that never thought they were good in the first place and in need of more upgrading, then they got in iOS7. Nevertheless, Apple went in there and fixed up a few things.
Siri
Siri comes in a bigger variety of voices and in both genders, too. She's a little more responsive to searching, and has opened up herself to other countries. For example, if a user in Canada wanted to know where to buy an iPhone case or know where the closest restaurant was, they couldn't. Now they can, as well as "operant conditioning" to train her. But the voice feature is still so lousy, you'd be better off using the voice search feature on the Google Chrome app, which segues to...
Internet Browsing
Google Chrome was and is, hands down, the best internet browser for iPhones. Chrome is fast, Chrome is responsive, and Chrome for iPhone is exactly the same, except a miniaturized version that loses none of its awesome qualities. But Safari? Simply a boy among men. It might have taken Apple a while, but they've realized how lacking Safari was and changed it (even though it still doesn't measure up). Now, users can quit their tabs more easily, take advantage of a smart field search, and see all their shared Twitter links in one spot. Not quite a hit, but not a miss, either.
Camera
With a couple of pokes around, this app presents itself with an entry as grand as Hamlet. To say the built-in camera sucked before is like saying cats with butter on their backs that fall off a counter will spin in the air indefinitely: it just was, and there was no changing it- until now.
The camera app was so bad before, it was a key reason in Instagram becoming huge, and gave any other camera app an immediate leg up. But now, Apple's smartened up and introduced new doohickeys: filters (but still not a great selection), camera-video-square-panoroma available by swiping sideways at the bottom, and an enhanced photo album. Not quite jazzed up enough to be a solid hit, but definitely more than a miss.
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