iOS7 was presented yesterday (June 10) and will be released this fall. I'm going to point out my favorites of the new features.
The new Control Center feature means now some functions are directly accessible by sweeping from the bottom of the screen. Turn on or off Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Do Not Disturb are all available that way, but so are some functions you tend to need regularly and quickly, like flashlight, timer, calculator and camera.
There's one great Control Center feature I would have liked to see: sweep access to the settings of the current app. I hope someone at Apple reads this.
Notification Center access from the Lock screen. Very useful!
Real multi-tasking. This is a feature that Android has had for a long while. I think Apple waited to add this feature until they solved the battery draining problem that multi-tasking usually brings. I guess Apple's approach could be called smart multi-tasking.
AirDrop for iOS is great. Proctele can't wait to include that in some of its apps.
iOS Safari's new tab view is so beautiful I've got to put a picture of it right here:
It's like you're looking into a drawer and seeing pages of paper standing up, is it cardboard ;-)? Beautiful!
App Store app automatically updates your app with the newest app versions. Good!
iOS devices are among the most popular devices in the world and thieves know that. The existing Find my iPhone app counters that problem. A new feature is that turning off Find My iPhone or erasing your device requires your Apple ID and password. To reactivate the device your Apple ID and password are required.
And lastly. The icons have been redesigned. See them here. iOS7 looks good.
Google Reader is about to expire. The sad date is July 1st.
Google Reader has been in operation since 2005. It is a so-called content aggregator. With it you can find feeds and subscribe to feeds, manage feeds and read them, and Google Reader tells you if there's new content in your subscribed feeds. This is a great service. Professionals have used Google Reader to stay informed about their fields of expertise.
Google has been warning about the expiry since the expiry announcement in March this year. Google Takeout let me export my Google Reader user data. Google insists that my user data belongs to me and I couldn't agree more. So what do you do when your favorite service is taken away? Look for replacement of course. I found Feedly in Chrome Store. It looks promising, definitely better looks than Google Reader whose user interface Google hasn't updated for several years.
A few words about Windows 8.1 the soon to be announced Windows version. Rumors have it that Microsoft are fearing that Windows 8.0 may have been too big a step from Windows 7. The previous Windows version looked much like an evolved Windows XP, so most users instantly felt comfortable with it. But Windows 8.0 started with a fresh slate, and that's not a Microsofty way of evolving. Of course something as different as Windows 8.0 is exciting and fresh, but probably scared a few IT managers. With Windows 8.1 Microsoft is reacting to bad sales (only about 100 million ;-) ) and reversing to some degree.
A more conservative way of introducing a touch-friendly user interface would have been to keep the Windows 7 interface (with start-button and all, but slightly evolved) and to make the touch-interface available at the press of a toggle button. This would have enabled desktop and laptop user to get used to the new interface without having to take the big plunge. What's more, the IT managers would have been kept secure and happy. I look forward to the release.
