How to update your iOS 6xx device to iOS 7 version, a video tutorial for you

Here is a video tutorial to upgrade your iOS 6xx device to the newly announced iOS 7 beta version and check out all the features I have given here.   Please remember, do not upgrade the phone if you have jail broken it.

And if you don't like the Apple's new offering you can always downgrade your phone back to  iOS 6.1.X (6.1.4 for iPhone 5, 6.1.3 for iPhone 4S) check this video tutorial

Are Apple engineers copy cats and will they face Patent Infringement or was it just inspiration, lets find out!

The iOS 7 has been announced and Apple engineers have done a great job with the new interface but the fact remains that iOS 7 has heavily borrowed ideas from Android and Windows Phone.  In the intensely competitive world OS, change is a arbritary must, or you go the Symbian way.  And for that reason Apple engineers have done a very good job of keeping the entire iOS experience consistent with the new UI.  

But where and what has inspired?  Lets take a look :

The Lock Screen : Borrowed from Android and heavily too.   The new lock screen in iOS 7 will now have a slider at the bottom of the screen, which you have to pull up to unlock the phone.  The engineers are further influenced by Android for the new Notification Center.  The new Notification Center will now be visible right from the lock screen.  This detailing is available in Android since Ice Cream Sandwich version.

Control Center :  The Control Center is similar as the TouchWiz, Sense UI and Optimus UI and almost all versions of Android have the quick toggle present.  The Control Center in iOS 7  lets you access the most-commonly used settings  viz. Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb and screen rotation  and toggle the Wi-Fi on and off.  The Control Center also allows users to adjust brightness and control the music player, and get to the torchlight, clock, calculator and the camera. Users can access the Control Center from anywhere on their phone with a swipe up from the bottom of the display which is a new idea.

Multi-tasking  : This is the area were Android devices scored heavily over Apple devices.  Apple as of yet was unable to provide  good multitasking options.  But now with the Card Style UI which has been borrowed from WebOS.  If you remember, the Android has a similar style of multitasking UI called the Recent Apps screen since its version 4.0.  

The iOS 7 has a big similarity with  Windows Phone 7/8  only thing is that in Windows Phone users have to use a long-press on the back button to activate it.  So it seems that the multitasking has been borrowed from 3 major sources, Android, WebOS and Windows Phone. The net addition in the multitasking front is the data management in low connectivity situation.  Users can stifle, accelerate or kill a process depending on the connectivity available to them.  Killing a App has has been made very easy with users having to swipe their cards upwards.

Automatic updates : Another one of a Androids Google Play Store default features which was sorely missed by Apple iOS 6 users.  For the updates the iOS 6 users had to go to the Apple Store to update an App manually and that too depended on connectivity issues.  Now with iOS 7, Apple has brought about automatic update service.

The new Photo App is, as I have already written in my previous blog, a 'Instagram' clone in all respects.

Despite all the copying and inspirations, the iOS does have a unique Apple feel to it which users are often accustomed to.  However how much technology of the above is Patented and how many suits Apple will face is a big big question for the Apple top honchos.  Further it may keep the Apple lawyers busy for several years and earn them a nice packet.

It all depends on how you look at a half filled glass, either the glass is half empty or half full is always your choice.  

iOS 7 goes for radical changes alongwith Siri at WWDC 2013; iRadio launched

A lot of hype was built around the Apple's WWDC 2013 conference and believe me it has lived up to the hype.  As I had written on my blog, Apple has made radical changes to the newly launched iOS 7.   I would prefer the word a brand new OS, and you may agree with me by the time you reach to the end of the article.

The byword for Apple engineers seems to have been change....!  The current lot of iOS devices pale in front of the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S IV and Apple had to do something about it.  The result is iOS 7, a complete redesign of the marquee OS from Apple.

And change it is, the changes become apparent from the lock screen itself.  The new lock screen has a slider at the bottom of the display which has to be pulled upward for unlocking the phone.  The notifications centre can now be accessed directed from the lock screen.  

Once you enter the chamber, the changes are ever more apparent.  The icons have been redesigned and give a more surreal and utopian look which I found pleasing.  Apple engineers have added a whole new bunch of animations at every turn. Folders on your home screens now support apps on multiple pages.

The Apple iOS signature Apps like Messages, Game Center, Weather and Calendar all sport a new trendy look. The Weather app has great new animations which is almost similar to HTC’s weather App. The Calendar app is now redrawn and comes with complete white interface except for the appointments, which get new colours.  The contrast looks smashing.  Another Android follow method on iOS 7 is now you can now swipe between months and weeks. Messages has also gone for a flatter look. The text bubbles are more spacious then before and the white and blue design of the UI is consistent with the rest of the iOS colour symmetry  The Game Center App now gets a new icon, instead of the antique green-baize table you get several intersecting bubbles.  Its not just the bubbles Apple has introduced, the App now has a cleaner interface with a more prominent place for your friends’ profiles. The Mail app has also been rehashed and gets a symmetrical interface in iOS 7. It brings edge-to-edge images and the ability to delete emails with a slide, another Android follow. 

iOS 7 has been given a brand new Control Center feature, which lets users get to their regular settings by swiping up from the bottom. These include brightness, Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. A very big plus is that now users can even turn on the torch and control the music player directly from here.  WebOS type multitasking on iOS 7 is now possible with cards of all your open Apps popping up to help you.

The iconic Safari browser has not been spared either.  The new look browser now supports a full-screen browsing with options to open as many as 8 tabs.  Another missing feature, the Parental controls have been added to the browser.  And you get more integration between the desktop version of the browser. 

A new Photos App has been added to iOS 7.  And the new App comes with very interesting pro Instagram filters. The new App's gallery has a new Moments features which arranges your pictures based on time and location and you can ‘zoom out’ to see a large chunk of time and the resulting mosaic of all images taken in that period. Just as I had predicted the Photos can be shared through AirDrop and iCloud and the app also supports photo streams where your friends can drop images to an album. Another plus from is for the new App because it now supports video-sharing via iCloud.

The fight between Siri and Google Now has narrowed with the new Siri.  It has got a new translucent background with two voices, male and female.  Take you pick, they can now speak in French, German and English.  The new Siri will now let you control Bluetooth and brightness and search through Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing.  Another feature that Apple has added to Siri is the car integration, which I think will be the next big thing in mobile telephone.   The Maps and iTunes can now be accessed via the display in their vehicles.  They can also have their messages read back to them and can dictate texts to be sent while driving.  This seems a bit fatal but a definite add on.  With Honda, Merc, Nissan and Ferrari already on board for the integration, your new Merc can do all of the above.  

And the final piece of good news, Apple showed off iTunes Radio along with a redesigned Music app. The new streaming service lets you create stations based on your library and listening habits, and also share them with friends.  As of now the free version comes with Ads and non Ads version is a subscription based one.

The best is yet to come, the new iOS 7 will have a 'Activation Lock'   I have written separately about the new feature.

This is a complete departure from Apple from iOS 6 or I would prefer the word launch of a new OS.  As you can see, Apple has included every bit of detailing in the new OS.  Though iOS users may complain that it is more closer to Android now thus losing the iOS charm, but I think, keeping in with the times, the changes were more then necessary.  

Will keep you posted on the launch dates and other updates.

More news (rumours) on iOS 7, Apple may include AirDrop file sharing by default in the new launch

The news is just getting better for the iOS users and fans.  Apple may include AirDrop's direct file sharing tool native version on iOS 7.  According to a 9to5 report, the Apple is in the testing stages of the AirDrop's drag and drop sharing facilities with iOS 7.   Users may know that AirDrop is already available as a ad-hoc service in the OS X operating system.  

The AirDrop function that Apple seems to be trying to work on for iOS 7, will work between two iOS devices and potentially an iOS and Mac device. You will possibly be able to send images and files from your iPhone to your friend’s iPad and vice-versa. 

This will be quite unlike iCloud Sync that works to transfer files between two iDevices owned by the same person. AirDrop will let you drag-and-drop files in order to send them to others’ iOS devices. 

Though it was rumoured that Apple was working on an AirDrop tool to use the new WiFi hardware within the latest iOS devices, but alas, it remained a rumour.  But with the 9to5 report, it seems certain that AirDrop's drag and drop option will be available on iOS 7.  9to5 was quick to warn that Apple could possibly not include this feature in the final release of iOS 7, expected around mid-June, since it had scrapped the idea last year.

While we are on the topic of rumours surrounding the iOS 7, another of the rumour(mostly likely to be true) is that  iOS 7 update will contain deeper Flickr and Vimeo integration. This even seems very likely considering the deep integration of Twitter in iOS 6.  

You will be able to sign in using Flickr and Vimeo networks using iOS 7’s built-in settings application. A single log-in will give you full sharing access to these social networks using your iOS devices.

Will keep you posted on the rumours as and when they arise and evaporate in the thin air.  I intend to post only those rumours which are most likely to feature on iOS 7.  Do read my earlier article on iOS 7 here.

Vijay Prabhu

iOS 7 a radical concept even by Apples standards, a sleek peak into the world of new iOS 7

iOS 7 as we all know is expected to be release at the  upcoming WWDC 2013 conference.  And one question everybody has right from iOS lovers to its competitors Google has the same question will iOS 7 be a game changer in the field of operating systems.  By the looks of it and by what Art Director of Simply Zesty, Phillip Joyce's video, it will be a rather radical operating system. 

By watching the video, you will find that the concept completely overhauls old look of iOS. It opts for flat square icons with sharp corners which remind us more of Windows Phone's tiles. The lock screen has also been changed with the slider to unlock the handset being moved to the top. 

The concept also has provisions for widgets from the pull-down notification centre, but it ends up looking too cluttered. Apps have also been changed to better align with the general interface. The apps generally seem to follow a two-tone colour theme.  It seems that the concept is heavily borrowed from the MIUI custom ROM.  Android users will remember MIUI custom ROM which brought iOS type UI for Android phones and it had the same kind of heavy use of white and bright colours.  

If Apple indeed were to apply this radical concept for iOS 7 it would have a unforeseen problem because every single App on the Apple Store would seem out of sync with the design of the concept and it would have to redesign of hundreds of thousands of apps.

As a iOS follower, I don't think Apple would embrace such radical changes with iOS 7 but Apple sure is going about the job of launching iOS 7 in a hurry.  Just this month, it was revealed that Apple is gathering additional engineers and UI designers from within the company to get a preview of the OS ready for the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.  It is also said the Apple is borrowing engineers from the OS X team so that it can meet the June deadline.  . 

“The key question here is whether those changes deliver on the core Apple promise of improving customers’ ability to make productive use of the device and deliver a clearly superior experience,” Forrester analyst Charles Golvin told AllThingsD. “Presumably they don’t need the flashy stuff to realise that vision,” he added.

What ever the changes iOS 7 will guarantee hardware and software optimisation to the users.  Write in your comments on what you think Apple should do with its new operating system.

Vijay Prabhu