Ever since Apple released the very first iPhone, its technical design – from the app designs to the lock screen – hasn’t changed much. Now, with so many new competitors, such as Samsung with its series of Galaxy smartphones or Google with the Android phones, the Apple Company has released the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.
The iPhone 5c is known as the “low-cost” iPhone, manufactured for the purpose of attracting more people to Apple’s smartphone. For the 16 GB iPhone 5c and a two-year contract with a phone company, a customer would pay about $99, a price that’s pretty attractive for somebody who has never had an iPhone before or just wants to replace an older version.
In great contrast, a 16 GB model of the iPhone 5s and a two-year contract would cost $199.
Besides these two new additions to the iPhone series, Apple also released new software for any iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad called iOS 7.
iOS stands for “inter-network operating system,” meaning that iOS 7 is the seventh generation in a family of mobile operating systems, created and used solely by Apple.
Released on September 18 around 10 am Pacific Time, iOS 7 was eagerly awaited by Apple customers. When the update was finally available, there were Internet crashes on some college campuses due to the amount of people downloading it.
In addition, on Monday, September 23rd, Apple reported that iOS 7 had been downloaded over 200 million times.
All of this totaled to more than 50% of all iOS devices having upgraded to iOS 7.
The entire frenzy caused longer waits while downloading and error messages as Apple’s servers struggled to keep up with the increasing demands.
Once iPhone users were able to successfully download the new software, there were numerous, very obvious differences to be noted. The first difference seen would be the lock screen.
With the new update, sliding a finger across the screen takes you to another page where a user would type in their passcode, unlike the older versions where sliding the block across the screen would cause the numbers to appear on the same page.
Going past the lock screen, a user would find that all of the apps and their designs have been altered. The colors (which are similar to the color palette used in Apple’s original rainbow-themed logo) are much more vibrant, vivid, and eye-catching and the icons in themselves appear to be slightly bigger.
A big, possibly confusing change with iOS 7 is the way pictures are categorized. Previously, all pictures were immediately saved under “Camera Roll” and selected pictures were able to be placed into specific, personalized albums. Now pictures are filed away according to the date of which they were saved.
Something that has caused a ruckus among music lovers is the addition of the iTunes Radio. This radio is much like Pandora, maybe even Spotify, where you can create stations according to your favorite genres, artists, albums, or songs.
Not all of the changes were simply for looks. By sliding up from the bottom of the iPhone’s touch screen, a menu of shortcuts can be brought up.
These shortcuts include airplane mode, brightness adjustment, the basic music player controls (play/pause, volume, skip forward/back), and a flashlight.
All of these changes can be something exciting and enjoyable for Apple customers, especially those younger, tech-savvy customers. They want to learn about this new software, want to explore it, and want to master it all
At the same time, this can be difficult to adjust to for those who were already accustomed to older versions of iOS. They may have a hard time trying to find their way around this modernized theme.
In agreement, Osiris Morales, a Spanish teacher at PattersonHigh School, says, “I feel like it’s a brand new phone! It kind of threw me off at first since it looked really different, but it’s not extremely hard to figure out.”
For the most part, the people who have downloaded iOS 7 seem to be taken with it and very satisfied.