iOS 7 icon grid on physical products

With iOS 7, Jony Ive designed an icon grid that was meant to give developers some guidance on how to proportion their icons so they would look “harmonious” on the new iOS 7 homescreen. As you can see above, though, Jony Ive has been using a similar mental grid to design Apple’s physical products for a long time. As Reddit user Kepano notes, however, Ive has probably not used this grid as a precise guide to design in the past.

“In my opinion as an industrial designer this image suggests that there are some intuitive similarities between all of Ive’s designs but that the iOS 7 icon grid is probably the first time he’s defined those proportions so strictly. The fact that certain shapes match so closely (e.g. the width of the donut shape on the iPod) is probably not a coincidence but a matter of taste. What the image doesn’t show is that these products have radically different dimensions which is why the corner radii are very different from one another.”

Hidden code says iPhone 5S could record at 120FPS

We don’t know much about the next-generation iPhone, which is Apple is expected to introduce later this year. It’s believed to be an ‘S’ model, with a faster processor and other upgraded internals. Outside of that, however, we literally know nothing about the handset.

But if past ‘S’ iPhone releases are any indication, the iPhone 5S will surely offer at least one ‘stand-out’ feature. The 3GS had video recording, for example, and the 4S added Siri. So what will the 5S’ killer feature be? A new report says it could be slow-motion video…

iOS 7 Beta 3 seeded to devs

As predicted last month on our Facebook page, Apple today released iOS 7 Beta 3. I'll have a video on it later this week (and since I missed beta 2 I'll show changes for both). Look past the fold for a full change log as we discover them...


New in Beta 3

• Faster and more reliable than previous releases (of course) 
• Minor UI changes in Notification Center 
• Minor UI changes in Music app 
• Minor UI changes in Weather app 
• Larger status bar on Lock screen 
• Calendar app now shows scheduled events on monthly view 
• New search bar, animations in Mail app 
• Folders now appear more transparent 
• New icon animations when downloading an app 
• New font in Settings app 
• New font and font color in Messages app 
• Minor UI tweaks in Safari (new keyboard for unibar search) 
• You can now use apps while they’re updating 
• Lock screen now shows clock while playing a song 
• Tweaked UI for wallpaper chooser. 
• New silent control in iPad Control Center 
• New app icon loading UI for download apps 
• New animation when compressing video to be shared 
• .com key in Safari’s unibar keyboard is finally gone
• New Top Charts icon in the App Store
• Boot up no longer shows spinning wheel
• Now Playing track now displayed fully in Music app
• You can now pinch-to-zoom in Music app while in landscape mode
• Now remembers app placement on the springboard, so now if you delete and reinstall an app it will be placed in the same folder or location on the springboard that it was in prior to deleting the app
• Per app settings for background refresh now honored
• Dictionary is functional (laggy however)
• Rating of a song in Music.App now changeable
• Cool new animation when going to spotlight search
• Parallax, Translucency, Transparency, and Dynamic wallpapers have been disabled for iPhone 4 in Beta 3.
• New font on 'slide to power off'.
• On iPad, now non- optimized apps (only iPhone/iPod) are rendered to be displayed almost full screen (less grainy), only one view, no 1x and 2x zoom on lower right hand corner.
• Swipe down on notifications to open Notification Center.
• Tapping on items in Today View (NC) opens their corresponding apps.
• New playlists icon in Music.app

If you find anything let us know via email, or post to our Facebook wall!

Interactive iOS 7 demo for non developers

Since Apple unveiled its next generation mobile operating system, iOS 7, it seems like that’s all anyone can talk about. Some folks love it, and think it’s a step in the right direction. And others dislike it so much that they’re considering switching to Android.

For those of you who haven’t tried it yet, and are feeling left out of the conversation, we’ve come across something that may help. The folks over at Recumbo have put together an interactive demo of iOS 7 that lets you play with the software update without a dev account…

What iOS 7 running on iPad could look like...

Apple surprised a lot of folks last week when it announced that the first beta of iOS 7, it’s next generation mobile software, would only be available to registered developers on the iPhone and iPod touch. Last year, Apple released a beta for all 3 of its mobile devices.

The reason behind Apple’s decision to forego releasing the first beta on the iPad isn’t clear. But for those of you wondering how the redesigned operating system looks on the popular tablet, we’ve come across several screenshots of just that—iOS 7 running on an iPad straight from the Xcode simulator…

iOS 7-ified Instagram (Concept)

Instagram is in desperate need of an iOS 7 redesign. The current interface looks very outdated and overly textured compared to the rest of Apple’s newest OS.

To be fair, iOS 7 won’t ship to the public for months, and I’m sure Instagram’s talented designers are working on an update right now. But in the meantime, the above concept looks great. The navigation buttons and typography meshes perfectly with iOS 7, and I would totally use it on my iPhone.

The design is by Michal Vasko on Dribbble. What do you think?

Alternate iOS 7 icons spotted on Apple's website

This is kind of interesting. New versions of some of the stock app icons in iOS 7 have been spotted on Apple’s website. The reason for the changes is not yet known, but the app icons have received the blunt of the criticism thus far regarding Apple’s new mobile OS.

Some of the new icons are starkly different than the ones seen in the first developer beta of iOS 7, while others appear to only feature subtle differences. And it’s not clear if this was a mistake on Apple’s part, or these will be the new app icons in iOS going forward…

iOS 7 Beta 1 Hands On

I've been using iOS 7 a lot over the last few days. I finally made the first batch of hands on videos. I'll be uploading some more through out the day, and a new one for every new beta release featuring what's changed. Look just past the fold for the videos...

iOS 7 VS iOS 6: icons and UI

Just past the fold I've included a comparison of both the UI elements of iOS 7 VS iOS 6 and, for those of you who missed it, icon comparison...

iOS 7 Beta Tidbits

Cellular Data Tracking by App - In Settings / Cellular, users can track cellular data usage on a per-app basis. Apps can have their cellular data access disabled individually as well. 

Update Apps Manually - The App Store now updates apps automatically, but for users who prefer to handle things themselves, automatic updates can be disabled via a slider in Settings / iTunes & App Stores. 

How to Get to Spotlight - Spotlight is now accessible from the home screen by swiping down from the middle of the screen. Additionally, in Settings / General / Spotlight Search, users can manually turn search result categories on and off, as well as change the order results are presented in. 

Live Clock Icon - The clock icon provides the correct time, including a live second hand. The weather app does not update -- it is always partly cloudy. 

Newsstand Has Permanent Icon - Newsstand's icon remains the same regardless of what publications are inside it. The app itself works similarly, though the design is substantially different. Newsstand can now be put inside a folder as well. 

App Permission for Microphone Access - Apps are now required to ask permission to access the microphone, similar to how apps currently ask to access location data or the camera. 

Multitasking Switcher Works in Landscape - The app switcher works in landscape mode. Double-tap the home button to access. Control Center can also be used in landscape. Apps can also be manually quit by swiping up, and multiple apps can be closedat the same time. 



Skips in iTunes Radio - iTunes Radio listeners get 6 skips per station, regardless of if they are on the ad-supported or ad-free versions of the service. It is believed that the skips reset each hour. 

Parallax Everywhere - As part of the new 'layers' user interface that Jony Ive has built, nearly everything in the interface subtly shifts to give the UI depth when the phone is moved -- wallpaper, pop-up alerts, notification bubbles and more. 

Dynamic Wallpaper - Apple includes two 'dynamic' wallpaper images by default. These images have subtle animated bubble shapes floating around the background. We'll likely hear more about these going forward. 

Panoramic Wallpaper - In addition to the dynamic wallpaper, users can also setpanoramic images as wallpaper -- instead of the subtle parallax image shift shown in the keynote, tilting the phone pans around the image. 

iPhone 4 is Responsive - One forum member who installed iOS 7 on the iPhone 4 said the device was as responsive as under iOS 6, though many of the UI graphics trickery is disabled. 

'Mark All' in Mail.app - Users can now mark all messages as read in Mail.app. 

Share Passes - Passbook passes can be shared via iMessage or email. 

Navigation has Automatic Day/Night Mode - When viewing turn-by-turn directions, Maps automatically switches from day to night mode using both the current time and ambient light sensor to judge which is more appropriate. 


Dynamic Font Size - Users can select a system-wide font size for apps that support 'Dynamic Type' in Settings / General / Text Size. 

FaceTime Gets Own App - FaceTime has been spun out into its own app on the iPhone. Previously, it was built into the Phone app. 

Reminder Alerts Have More Options - Pop-up alerts from the Reminders app now offer options to 'Remind me in 15 minutes', 'Mark as Completed', 'View Reminder', or to simply close the notification. 

Weather App Shows Sunrise-

The weather app now displays what time the sun will rise in the hour by hour forecast. 

There are many more changes that will likely be discovered over the next few months as the iOS 7 beta continues, and there is a growing thread on the MacRumors Forums detailing them.

Pictures of iOS 7

Look past the fold to see several pictures of iOS 7.