Apple iOS 7 download opens today: 7 things you need to know

Apple’s iOS 7 is up for download today. iOS 7, which is the mobile software for Apple’s iPads, iPod Touch and iPhones, will be available as a free download. The downloads should go live by 10 AM PST which is around 10.30 pm in India.

iOS 7 will support iPhone 4 and later, ipad 2 and higher, iPad Mini, and iPod Touch fifth generation. At the launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c, Tim Cook also spoke about iWork, iPhoto and iMovie apps which will be free with any new iOS device. Apple’s hasn’t made too many changes to iOS 7 except that Apple’s apps on iOS 7 now support 64-bit system for the new iPhone 5s.

Here are 7 things you need to note about iOS 7.

New design: According to Apple, the new interface is purposely unobtrusive and they have done away with conspicuous ornamentation, and removed unnecessary bars and buttons.

Gone is the Magazine stand from the NewStand app. Almost every single app from Games Centre to how folders look on iOS 7 have been redesigned. Some of Apple’s most iconic apps look very different now. For instance the Music app has a reddish-background with the music symbol on it. The weather app is animated now. The app will also show Thunder, and cloudy weather for the pertinent conditions.

iOS 7 also has a lot more colour than previous version of the software.

Notification Centre: The Notification Centre is still on top but its much less clunky than in the previous versions of iOS. It will give details about new mail, missed calls, etc. It also has a new feature called ‘Today’ which will give users a summary of everything they have lined up for the day. Users can also access the Notification Center from any screen, including the Lock screen by swiping
.

Control Centre: There’s now a control centre at the bottom and users can just slide upwards to access the settings. They can turn on Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Do Not Disturb, volume settings etc from here. Also adjust screen brightness from the Control Panel. This works even in Lock Screen mode. Access to the flashlight, timer, calculator, and camera is also available from the Control Panel.

Multitasking: If you have an app that you’re always using, iOS 7 will make note of that and make sure its updating in the background. According to Apple, So if you tend to check your favourite social app at 9:00 a.m. every day, your feed will be ready and waiting for you.

Camera: The Camera app now comes with inbuilt new features and you can edit photos as you shoot them. Filters in Camera are coming only to iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5th generation, while Filters in Photos app will be available on iPhone 4 and above, iPad (3rd generation or later), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).

Photos app: Instead of unorganised mess of photos, this will now store photos according to the time, place they were clicked. Photos will be stored in albums. Users can tap years and all shots for that year will fill the screen.

AirDrop: Apple’s answer to NFC, this will let users shares videos, email, photos, etc with their friends on iOS. You can just click on the Share button on any app that supports AirDrop, tap to share, select the person you want to share with and it will be done. AirDrop uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

All transfers are encrypted, so what you share is highly secure. AirDrop is available on iPhone 5, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account.

Bonus:  Siri has an improved voice and interface and Apple has bumped up the Find my iPhone feature.