I know it's Beta, but it honestly looks and feels like Android with a bit of lag here and there, some stuttering animations, confusing unlock and answer call screens, too thin fonts for my taste, icons and iconography aren't that great either (opinion), completely unnecessary eye-candy with animated parallax background which doesn't even work very well, etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that bad, but 'leaps and bounds better', I say no. I'm sure they'll redefine the design for final product though.

It's utterly fantastic. What is surprising is how much all the apps have changed - all the functionality was seemingly ripped apart and put back together.

It's definitely rough. This is a beta, not a Google "let's call it beta even though it's actually finished". A real beta. With plenty of bugs; occasional crashes. Lots of graphics glitches esp. when using 3rd party apps. Seems to use tons of battery.

If you don't understand what a beta is, better don't install this. Beta means buggy.

But as far as the UI is concerned, it's fantastic. It's beyond that - it feels as if a great weight has been lifted from iOS and I can feel the blood, sweat, and tears, as well as enthusiasm and sheer euphoria, of the people putting this together in an insane timeframe. 7 months!

Sure there's inconsistencies in the design - those will get fixed over time, probably before the GM; there's so many glitches - I expect some will remain past GM. There's some weirdness that'll only get fixed next year.

But all in all, this is one fantastic update. This is Apple at its best. If you can't see that, I feel sorry for you, but I also feel confident that you will see it in hindsight, next year, when everyone will talk about how Apple re-invented itself yet again with iOS7.

Samsung meanwhile is already hard at work copying all those features, expect them to pop up in Android within the next 6 months. Parallax background will be first.

  Samsung meanwhile is already hard at work copying all those features,
  expect them to pop up in Android within the next 6 months.
  Parallax background will be first.

One example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=opotech.image3...

But the cynic in me will not be surprised to read more stories about how Apple revolutionized and invented multitasking, flat UIs, quick settings and file sharing on mobile.

But that's not the point. The point is Samsung will copy it. Just wait, I am pretty confident here ;) I mean they could just buy that existing app but something tells me that they won't... past behavior and all that...

Frankly I don't think Apple is taking any design clues from anywhere. They don't care what Android is doing - they do their own thing. And with iOS 7, they have revolutionized iOS. That's a fact.

You should apologize, though clearly you're being sarcastic. If you're going to claim that Samsung is copying what Apple has done, you'd better know what Samsung, stock Android, and probably at least a couple other flavors, have already done.

The point is Samsung will copy it.

Copy what, exactly? The look and feel of iOS 7 (at least from a few initial screenshots; I haven't tried it myself yet) looks how Android has looked for over a year and a half now.

Certainly the UX of iOS 7 is (presumably) still distinct from Android, but that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about.

They don't care what Android is doing - they do their own thing.

You clearly -- by your own admission -- aren't qualified to make this statement. Multitasking on iOS is a watered-down, shittier version of multitasking on Android. Notifications on iOS were basically ripped from Android. You may claim that Apple never saw what Android was doing and happened to come up with similar solutions, but that seems a bit naive to me.

That's a fact.

No, it's your opinion.

It's OK to be a fanboy, but at least try to understand what's going on.

Also, they might have revolutionized iOS but they didn't revolutionized mobile OS in general.

But seriously, the amount of snark (and hypocrisy imo) in your comment was too much to take.

Uhh... the whole idea with the present generation of smartphone (software) comes from the iPhone. That (and applying it to create pads people were willing to pay for) was new.

Everyone should be able to agree on that, at least.

Oh come on. It's an evolution of what was there before; Palm OS was already very clearly moving in that direction. There is very little that is conceptually new in the first iPhone.

The execution was superb, and everyone certainly got shaken awake by the fact that that level of quality was even possible... but the core ideas were already there.

In 7 months (after Ive got in charge)? Let's see any team in the world do better in the same time. Not to mention that if they had gone further, people would also complaint ("oh, this is not the iOS we knew and love at all anymore").

People talk about Windows Phone similarities. It took Microsoft 4-5 years AFTER the iPhone was introduced to copy all the basics (that all modern smartphones copied anyway) and get something out there compelling enough to consider buying (and it's not like many people did buy it, anyway).

In contrast, this redesign took Apple only 7-8 months. Along with new features and lots of behaviour changes in the UI.

This is essentially version 1 of the new UI. It will be polished further in iOS 8.

>that there attempt to copy other trends is different than what apple has done before.

Didn't Apple adopt the Delicious Library skeuomorphic real-life look around 6 years back? Including snatching the Delicious Library graphic designer from the company he worked in?

How do we know this is about "copying other trends" instead of what Ive would have liked to do all along, if he was in charge for the UI?

Well, as Jobs said, the iPhone was ahead of the industry by about 5 years. Those 5 years have passed.

Did anyone think the competitors would never catch up? It's not like Windows for the desktop is like XP anymore. It has also seen much more refinement and maturity, and could be compared far more favourably to OS X.

That said, Apple / iOS retains the benefits of the 5 year head-start: iOS is more coherent and mature, the whole ecosystem is bigger (from apps, to accounts on file, to third party peripherals, etc), etc etc.

This is just speculation, I haven't run the iOS 7 developer preview yet.

This sort of lag has been a common artifact throughout the iPhone's history. Crashing apps, lag, and outright unresponsiveness are daily occurrences on my iPhone 5. It's honestly gotten to the point where, if I didn't have an astronomical amount of money tied up in their ecosystem, I'd switch to a Nexus 4 tonight.

I'll bet the entire os has debug symbols and other things turned on that never reach production.

That said, the jerky animations are annoying in use. But its mostly spit and polish things nothing overly broken. I did set this up on a 4s with a new install and not restore (i'm not putting a beta on my main phone).

Having said that I do use a Blackberry (but not really out of choice,) and it also drives me nuts!

I'd have thought that the number one priority for most of these UI developers would be to make something that was intuitive and very usable. Getting the phone part of the phone nice would be a good start.

Adding contacts, viewing call logs, checking balance, turning on and off answerphones etc.

Being able to read the display in sunlight. Being able to use it as a clock, and it be readable. Not having the thing beep at 4am to tell you that it's running out of battery etc.

There's loads of directions these UIs could go in. And they could be completely different to one another, but share some underlying principles. Like intuitive computer game interfaces, that you pretty much pick up immediately.

What I have been most impressed with is watching babies/toddlers play with iPhones. Which suggests the interface is pretty good. Though there have been cases of kids racking up huge account costs. But how about an easy way to child lock the damn thing, or make this harder.

And how about a phone that doesn't crack when you drop it. I watched someone destroy his Galaxy S the other morning, and he wasn't that pleased about it.

Hope I've suitably ranted for you.

I am, however, not a fan of some of the graphical choices they made. A few subtleties like a thin 1px inset color on the NavBar text would do wonders for UI and contrast - but I'm not hired by them to make those decisions.

I understand hardware is required for the features to work. But to suggest zero fragmentation is reality distortion.

THe iPhone 5 and the 4" display was a step backwards in that regards, but still, you can safely target iOS 5+ and reach about 95% of active, current app-buying iOS users, or target iOS 6+ and reach 90%. But you can't do that with Android (yet) - targeting 4.0+ would lose you a lot of sales.

This will be fixed in the Android market in the next couple of years though, but until then, iOS users/developers/lovers can rightfully boast about "less fragmentation".

I've been using it on my phone and I love it. I always had to jailbreak my phone, but I don't feel like I need to with iOS 7. Though I wish they'd add Quick Reply and then I'd be set.

But, so far, for me, it's been very fluid and smooth.

Drains battery like crazy though. I went to bed 100%, woke up at 3% six hours later.

I am actually thinking it's kind of shocking to do something as radical as that. Is my mom going to get it? She's barely gotten used to the old iOS.

And for the jailbreak sentiment: iOS 7 finally has the ability to block calls and messages. So now I don't need a JB anymore.

Let's face it; look to the Samsung vs. Apple case to see how it is the laymen making billion dollar calls. Not designers. It's not designers that Apple has a majority rule over.

The damages were reduced to $600 million after the judge ruled that the jury's used an "impermissible legal theory" to award damages, and ordered a new trial.[1] The jury foreman had a technical background and lied during voir dire by failing to mention that he had history of suing others for patent abuse.[2] He was the one he told the other jurors to ignore prior art and assume that Samsung had violated the patents.[3] So it isn't fair to say that laymen decided the damages.

After the trial, a patent('380, bounce-back) that Apple relied heavily upon during the trial to prove that Samsung was "infringing on their innovative designs" was invalidated by the USPTO.[3] This means that if the jury had been competent and searched for prior art (which the foreman with technical experience told them to ignore), or if Samsung had been allowed to present evidence demonstrating prior art, it is probable that no damages would have been awarded at all.

[1]: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130301161659602

[2]: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20121031200136965

[3]:http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130402121308772

Parent doesn't say that at all, or make any comparisons.

The most important features of the new UI are the behavioural and conceptual changes.

Not the icons or the hues. Those can and will be fine-tuned easily in upcoming versions, just as OS X went from lickable glowing candy buttons, pronounced stripes and metal windows to today's look.

There should be no better argument that software patents (in most instances) are idiotic.

No one is arguing that this sort of copying is wrong. Instead, they are merely identifying the inherent hypocrisy and irony in Apple's actions over the past year.

I agree that patents are imbecilic and Apple v. Samsung was one of the lowest points in the industry's history, but it just seems absurd that Apple can lament how other's have "copied" them, only to turn around months later and "copy" wholesale many features from other platforms.

Can Apple take elements from Windows Phone and Android? Yes, that is reasonable and benefits the industry as a whole. Do I, as a current Apple user, benefit from this process? Yes; good design trends make for a better experience. Does it seem dickish? Yes.

They're living up to the motto of great artists stealing. It's done in every industry, and it's done by great designers. It's a myth that great designers don't 'steal' constantly, of course they do. Ditto great musicians, and any other artists.

While Apple winning 600M on the same argument?

In the past I managed a few remote Windows Servers, and to keep from confusing them, I gave each a unique desktop background colour (a pleasant pastel shade) for no reason other than to keep them visually distinct.

First - Samsung was found not to infringe on design patent D'889, which is commonly criticized as the "rounded rectangles" patent. Most of the patents in the case covered other ideas ('381 patent - "rubber band" scrolling, 'D '305 patent - home screen design, '163 patent - double tap to zoom onto a specific block). The "rounded rectangles" issue had little bearing on the verdict.

Second - Read patent D'889 (Please note that it isn't a regular patent, rather, it's a design patent). The patent specifically (and only) covers a touch-screen handheld tablet shaped like a rounded rectangle, with a thin bezel, edge-to-edge glass, and minimal extras, a charging port at the bottom and no stylus. It's hardly as simple as a patent on "rounded corners" - it's a patent on very specific design features, and if a single one was changed, the patent wouldn't apply (and it didn't!).