The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c go on sale today [UPDATE: And I bought my new iPhone 5s this morning], and this past Wednesday Apple released iOS 7. That makes this the busiest week this year in the world of iOS. If you have not yet updated to iOS 7, I encourage you to do so. The different appearance is startling at first, but you will get used to it, and along the way you will discover hundreds of improvements. For example, did you know that when you swipe to unlock your iPhone or iPad, you no longer need to swipe across the bottom, and instead you can swipe anywhere on the screen? Did you know that you can see a list view in the Calendar app by tapping the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen? Did you know that when you tap the tabs button in Safari not only can you scroll (in 3D) through open tabs, but your iPhone can also show you tabs that are currently open on your iPad and iPad mini? There is a seemingly endless number of small improvements, not to mention all of the important new big improvements. I cannot even begin to list all of the interesting articles that were published this week, but here are some of the highlights:
- California attorney David Sparks has been using a beta version of iOS 7 for six weeks and here are his observations.
- Kevin Bostic of AppleInsider reports that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon issued a joint statement encouraging users to upgrade to iOS 7 because of the additional security features. So if you don't upgrade your iPhone or iPad, you are ignoring bi-coastal law enforcement advice, something that I am quite sure that I have never said before.
- Glenn Fleishmann of TidBITS explains those new security features in iOS 7.
- If you are looking for a long, comprehensive report on what is new in iOS 7, thre are quite a few good ones out there. Rene Ritchie of iMore wrote this epic article. Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica wrote this one. David Pogue of the New York Times wrote this review.
- Having trouble finding some of the features you used in iOS 6 now that you have upgraded to iOS 7? Thorin Klosowski of Lifehacker offers this advice. (via Houston attorney Reginald Hirsch)
- Siri is much better in iOS 7. Steven Sande of TUAW notes some of the Siri improvements. You can also now ask Siri to read you your recent emails.
- Chris Herbert of Macstories provides some iOS 7 tips and tricks.
- Aaron Souppouris of The Verge points out some of the best hidden features of iOS 7.
- Macworld has more articles on iOS 7 than you can shake a stick at. Just to pick a few good ones, here is what the Macworld editors have to say on AirDrop, Siri, Notification Center, the Activation Lock, Safari and Settings.
- Marco della Cava of USA Today interviewed Jony Ive and Craig Federighi, the Apple executives responsible for the new iOS 7 and new iPhones.
- Sam Grobart of BloombergBusinessweek interviewed Ive, Federighi and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
- Joseph of Keller of iMore notes that the Quickoffice app is now free. Quickoffice is one of the best apps for viewing and editing Microsoft Office documents on an iPhone or iPad. Google now owns the app and has decided to make it free. I hope that doesn't mean that Google is ending development of the app (I keep waiting to see the app add the ability to view and edits footnotes), but now that the price is free I definitely recommend that you check it out.
- And finally, if you plan to get a new iPhone 5s, one of the decisions that you need to make is what color to get: Space Gray (essentially the black model), Silver (essentially the white model) or the brand new Gold. The funny folks at the Conan TV show put together this video to help you decide which is best:
