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iOS 7 has undergone huge changes in terms of design compared to the previous version. However, not all changes are of a visual nature. A large number of functions, small and large, have also been added. These can be observed not only in applications, but also in the system itself, whether on the main and locked screens or in Settings.

iOS 7, like the previous release of the operating system, brought some changes that for a long time we could only see on jailbroken devices through Cydia. The system is still far from being at the point where many of us would like to see it in terms of features, and it lacks a number of other conveniences that we can see, for example, in Android. Conveniences like interacting with notifications in the notification center, integrating third-party apps into sharing (not just transferring files) or setting default apps to replace pre-installed ones. However, iOS 7 is a big step forward and you will welcome some features with open arms.

Control Center

Apparently as a result of years of insistence, Apple is finally allowing users to quickly switch between the most needed functions. We got the Control Center, accessible from anywhere in the system by swiping up the screen from the bottom edge. The control center is clearly inspired by one of the most popular jailbreak apps SBSettings, which offered very similar functionality, albeit with more options. Control Center is SBSettings exactly like Apple - simplified with the most important functions. Not that it couldn't be done better, at least in terms of appearance, at first glance it seems relatively overpriced. However, it contains most of what users need

In the top row, you can turn on/off flight mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the Do Not Disturb function and lock the display rotation. Just below are controls for screen brightness, volume and music playback. As was the custom in iOS 6 and before, we can still get to the app playing the sound with one touch. In iOS 7, touching the song title is not so intuitive. Indicators for AirDrop and AirPlay appear below the volume controls as needed. AirDrop allows you to transfer certain types of files between iOS and OS X devices (more information below), and AirPlay can stream music, video or even the entire screen content to an Apple TV (or Mac with the right software).

There are four shortcuts at the very bottom. First of all, it is the control of the LED diode, because many people also use the iPhone as a flashlight. Previously, the diode could be activated either in the camera or through third-party applications, but a shortcut available on any screen is more convenient. In addition, we got shortcuts to the Clock (specifically the timer), calculator and camera applications. The camera shortcut is no stranger to iOS, having previously been able to activate it from the lock screen by swiping up on the icon - the shortcut is still present - but as with the flashlight, the additional location is more convenient.

In Settings, you can choose whether you want the Control Center to appear on the locked screen (it is better to turn it off for security reasons to quickly access your photos without entering a password through the camera) or in applications where the activation gesture could interfere with application control , especially in games.

Notification Center

The Notification Center debuted two years ago in iOS 5, but it was far from the ideal manager of all notifications. With more notifications, the center was cluttered, weather and stock widgets mixed with notifications from apps, and later shortcuts for a quick message to Facebook and Twitter were added. Therefore, the new form of the concept was divided into three screens instead of one - we can find sections here Today, All a Missed notifications, you can move between individual sections either by tapping on the top navigation or by simply dragging your finger.

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Today

Today she is supposed to act as an assistant - she will tell you today's date, what the weather is and will be, how long it would take you to get to your frequent places, what you have in your calendar and Reminders today, and how the stock is developing. He even wishes you a happy birthday. There is also a mini section at the end Tomorrow, which tells you how full your calendar is for the following day. Individual items to be displayed can be turned on in the system settings.

Some features are not completely new - we could see upcoming calendar events and reminders already in the first iteration of the notification center. However, individual items are completely redesigned. Instead of listing individual events, the calendar shows a slice of the planner, which is especially useful for overlapping events. In this way, you can visually see them next to each other as rectangles, from which the duration of the events is immediately apparent, which was not possible in the previous concept.

Comments also show more information. Each reminder has a colored wheel to the left of the name, where the color corresponds to the color of the list in the application. Press the wheel to complete the task without having to open the application. Unfortunately, in the current version, this function is unreliable, and for some users, tasks remain incomplete even after pressing. In addition to the name, individual items also display priority in the form of exclamation marks, notes and repetitions.

Thanks to the big date at the beginning, the weather and the calendar, this section is in my opinion the most practical part of the new Notification Center - also because it's accessible from the lock screen (which, like the Control Center, you can turn off in Settings).

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All

Here, the original concept of the notification center has been preserved, where you can see all the notifications from applications that you have not dealt with yet. An all-too-small and inconspicuous 'x' allows notifications to be removed for each app. Clicking on the notification will immediately redirect you to that application.

Missed

Although at first glance this section appears identical to All, this is not the case. In this section, only notifications that you have not responded to in the last 24 hours are shown. After this time, you will only find them in the section All. Here I appreciate that Apple understood the classic situation of all of us - we have 50 notifications in the Notification Center from different games and social networks, but we want to find who called us three minutes ago. Hence the section Missed it also works as a filter for the (temporally) most relevant notifications.

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multitasking

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Another improved feature is multitasking. When Apple introduced this ability to switch between apps in iOS 4, it was a big step forward functionally. However, visually it was no longer counted on in the old design - that's why it always looked unnatural in the whole iOS concept. However, for the seventh version, Jony Ive did the work to realize again what a person actually wants from such a function. He realized that we don't remember applications so much by the icon as by the appearance of the entire application screen. Newly, after double-clicking the Home button, the most recently running applications will be displayed next to each other. By dragging the last images of each application, we can move horizontally slowly, after dragging over the icons it is faster.

The concept is practical, but during beta-testing I often had a problem with returning to the application. A person clicks on an application, it zooms in - but for a while they only see a photo of the application as it looked the last time. So touches are not registered until the app reloads – which can take up to seconds in extreme cases. However, the worst part is not the waiting, but the not knowing whether we are looking at a photo or an already running application. Hopefully Apple will work on it and either add some kind of loading indicator or take care of faster loading.

[do action=”citation”]Apps now have the ability to run in the background when prompted by the system.[/do]

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However, [/one_of their behavior is at a much higher level in iOS 7 than ever before. As Apple has boasted, iOS tries to observe how often and which apps you use so that it can always provide up-to-date content. Applications now have the option to run in the background when the system prompts them (Background Fetch). So when and for how long the system will allow the application to run in the background depends on how much you use it. So if you turn on Facebook every morning at 7:20 a.m., the system will learn to offer the Facebook application at 7:15 a.m Background Fetch, which will therefore allow you to have up-to-date content whenever you start it. We all know the annoying wait when we turn on the application and it only starts asking the server for new data when it starts up. Now, this step should happen automatically and on time. It goes without saying that iOS realizes that, for example, it has a low battery and is connected to 3G - so these background data downloads mainly take place when the device is connected to Wi-Fi and the battery is sufficiently charged.

Although this should be a last resort, even in iOS 7 you can manually close the app. We no longer need to call up the editing mode and then click on the small minus, now only drag the application up after calling up the Multitasking screen.

AirDrop

AirDrop has just arrived on iOS. We could first see this feature in OS X version 10.7 Lion. AirDrop creates an encrypted ad-hoc network, using both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to transfer files. So far, it allows (on iOS) to transfer photos, videos, Passbook cards and contacts. Additional file types will be enabled only by the eventual API for AirDrop. AirDrop on iOS 7 should be compatible with OS X up to 10.9 Mavericks.

You can control the availability of AirDrop in iOS from the Control Center, where you can turn it off completely, turn it on only for your contacts, or turn it on for everyone. Transferring files between devices has long been a subject of much criticism. Apple refused to use classic Bluetooth for transmission, which even dumb phones used before the iPhone was introduced. He was also critical of the NFC. AirDrop is a very elegant way to transfer files between iOS devices, but to transfer between other systems you will still need to use a third-party solution, e-mail or Dropbox.

Crab

After two years, Apple has removed Siri's beta label, and there's a reason for that. During this time, Siri has gone from a perpetually malfunctioning, inaccurate or slow assistant to a multilingual, reliable and, for many (especially the blind) irreplaceable tool. Siri now interprets Wikipedia search results for certain queries. Thanks to its integration with Wolfram Alpha, available in the system since the introduction of the iPhone 4S, you can have a conversation with Siri without ever looking at the phone. It also searches for specific Tweets for you, and is even able to change certain phone settings, such as turning on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and brightness control.

It's now using Siri for Bing search results instead of Google, probably related to a less friendly relationship with the Mountain View company. This applies both to keyword searches and, now, to images as well. Just tell Siri what images you want to see and it will display a matrix of images matching your input through Bing. However, Google can still be used by saying “Google [search phrase]” to Siri. Siri also changed her voice in iOS 7. The latter sounds much more human and natural. Apple uses voice synthesis developed by the company Nuance, so the credit goes more to this company. And if you don't like the female voice, you can just change it to a male one.

Siri is still only available in a limited number of languages, Czech is not one of them, and we will have to wait for some time before our mother tongue is added to the list. Currently, the servers on which Siri is running are apparently overloaded and you will often see a message that it is currently not possible to answer questions. Maybe Siri should have stayed in beta a little longer…

other functions

[three_fourt13px;”>Spotlight – System search has moved to a new location. To activate it, you need to pull down the main screen (not all the way from the top, otherwise the notification center will be activated). This will reveal the search bar. Since this is generally a less used feature, the location is more convenient than next to the first screen in the main menu.

  • iCloud Keychain – Apparently, someone at Apple is no longer interested in constantly entering passwords on new devices, so they decided to synchronize the Keychain on OS X 10.9 and iOS 7 via iCloud. So you will have the password storage with you everywhere. The first device with iCloud Keychain on serves as a reference - every time you want to turn on this function on another device, you must confirm the action on your reference. In combination with the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S, you can therefore achieve a really high level of security at the cost of minimal workflow slowdown.
  • Find iPhone – In iOS 7, Apple is also trying to make your devices less susceptible to theft. Newly, the user's Apple ID is "imprinted" directly on the phone and will persist even after reinstalling the operating system. Even if your iPhone is stolen, if you have Find My iPhone turned on, this phone will no longer be activated without your Apple ID. This obstacle should therefore contribute to a radical reduction of stolen iPhones, as they will no longer be resold.
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    • Folders – desktop folders can now hold more than 12 9 apps at once, with the folder paginated as the main screen. So you are not limited by the number of included applications.
    • Kiosk – the Kiosk special folder now behaves not as a folder, but as an application, so it can be moved to a folder. Since few people use it on the iPhone, this improvement to hiding the Newsstand is very welcome.
    • Recognizing time also in Czech - for example, if someone writes you a time in an e-mail or SMS, for example "today at 8" or "tomorrow at 6", this information will turn into a link and by clicking on it you can immediately create a new event in the calendar.
    • iCar – iOS devices will be better integrated into the car. With AirPlay, the vehicle's dashboard will be able to access some iOS features
    • Game controllers – iOS 7 includes framework for game controllers. Thanks to this, there is finally a standard on iOS for both controller manufacturers and game developers. Logitech and Moga are already working on the hardware.
    • iBeacons – A relatively unobtrusive feature within the developer API could replace NFC in the future. Learn more in separate article.

     Contributed to the article Michal Ždanský 

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