iOS 7 is the free software update for iPhones (iPhone 4 and later), iPads (iPad 2 and later) and iPod Touches (fifth generation). It's a radical, huge redesign. The look is sparse, white — almost plain in spots. No more fake leather, fake woodgrain, fake green felt, fake yellow note paper. It's all blue Helvetica Neue against white. The complete absence of graphic embellishments makes it especially utilitarian — in both senses of the word. That's good, because whatever button or function you need is easier to find; it's bad, because, well, it can look a little boring.
Then again, the new look is primarily visible at the Home screen, where a jarringly different colour palette greets you on the Apple app icons, and on the options screen. The rest of the time, you'll be using your regular apps, many of which will look no different than before.
You no longer have to burrow into infinitely nested Settings screens to adjust your control panels. Now you can just speak what you want, using Siri: "Open Wi-Fi settings," for example , or "Open brightness settings."
Or, when speaking to your phone isn't socially appropriate, you can swipe upward from the bottom of the screen to open the Control Center: a compact, visual palette of controls for the settings and functions you're most likely to need: brightness, volume, Bluetooth, WiFi, Airplane Mode, Play/Pause Music , calculator, camera, and — my favourite — Flashlight. This panel slides in over whatever app you're using, so you don't lose your place.
This idea — swiping in from the margins of the phone — also plays out in the new Back gesture. The iPhone doesn't have a Back button, as Android phones do. But now you can swipe in from the left margin of the phone to go back one screen.
The iPhone has never had a system-wide Search button, either, but here again, Apple has made some strides. The Search screen is no longer off to the left of the Home screens; now it's above them — all of them. You can now open Spotlight search by dragging downward from any Home screen.
To turn on Private Browsing in Safari , for example, you used to have to open the Settings app, burrow around, find the on-off switch, then return to the browser. Now the Private button is right in Safari, where it belongs.
The Camera app has gained a better design. Now you swipe across the preview screen to switch among modes: Video, Slow-motion video (on the iPhone 5s), still photos, Square photos with Instagram-type filters, and Panorama.
The new iTunes Radio is here, and it's very good. The idea is exactly like Pandora; you choose a "seed" song, performer or musical genre, and it plays nonstop songs in that style. But it's not as sophisticated as Pandora, and not nearly as powerful as Spotify; on iTunes Radio, you can't explicitly request a certain song or album by name. Siri, over all, is much better. The voice sounds more natural, and you have a choice of male or female.
