All Things Mac/ Apple
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Here are my iOS thoughts:
iOS wins: love the config pane, parallax, multitasking architecture/preview UI and gestures, Safari UI, especially the tabs, general flatness as seen in calendar and the general UI. Love the removal of skeuomorphism.
iOS fails: I think the iconography is hamfisted and amateurish. They are inconsistent and in some cases too similar to each other (email and Safari). The best looking icons to me are Messages and the phone, and those are the flattest in terms of gradients. I also find the font to be too thin; it would read more easily with a little more weight. In general I think it steals from Metro and Android a bit too much, but they were operating under an impossible deadline.
All in all, the fails are nitpicks and the wins are significant, so I'm happy.
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So far I like it. Can't wait till the final. I'm sure it will be even snappier.
There are a lot of small details that really make me like this release.
The control center is amazing. Being able to quickly turn on/off wifi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, do not disturb and having brightness controls, iPod, airdrop, a flashlight, calculator, alarm, camera is super convenient.So far I've noticed a few bugs but nothing major. The eBay app doesn't load and Instagram is buggy.
IRadio is exactly what you'd expect. Nice to have that integrated now. You can even get a preview of the stations which is cool.
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Is iRadio a Spotify-killer? I am already a Match subscriber, so hoping I can terminate Spotify.
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Never really used Spotify so I can't say. I think it's probably very similar to that and Pandora, now it's just integrated into the Apple system. I'm sure it will be a nice addition to iTunes as well.
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Am I the only one who thinks that texting in messages is going to be a real eyesore?
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No, you're not. That lime green bubble with a white font that thin to me is very difficult to read. This is a large image and it's still hard to read:
Also, hate the new signal bars. We're accustomed to the bars metaphor and it is a natural affordance. There's no real natural affordance for a series of circles…
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I'd say 90% of the people I regularly text with have iMessage which have the blue bubble. The blue is def more pleasing to the eye than the green. Also, the most current text message is darker in color than the top messages. If you look closely there's a gradient happening which is why your example is so light.
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Blue indicates a text message; green indicates an iMessage. Both have black text so you can read it.
But yeah, I didn't know that about the gradient, if it just sort of fades away maybe that's OK. In general, my main nitpicks revolve around form triumphing over function.
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Blue is definitely better, but I feel like even that will be an eyesore. I'm wondering why they decided to choose such harsh colors for something as important as the messaging app which you probably use many times a day.
The only real complaint I have with ios7 is that in my opinion the entire os is a little too "bright" for me, like the mainly white background in every app…
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Blue indicates a text message; green indicates an iMessage. Both have black text so you can read it.
Not in the US on AT&T. It's the opposite.
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Sorry, I was talking about the current iOS and I thought you were as well there.
So, does the gradient continue when you scroll through your message history? Does it just fade away? And if it just stops, that seems arbitrary. Doesn't seem well thought-out…
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I really think that apple should use your screenshots as examples Shane, haha
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Sorry, I was talking about the current iOS and I thought you were as well there.
So, does the gradient continue when you scroll through your message history? Does it just fade away? And if it just stops, that seems arbitrary. Doesn't seem well thought-out…
iOS6 and iOS7 both have blue as the iMessage color and green for normal texts, at least on my phone.
The gradient seems to start wherever the text input bar is and go up from dark to light. When you scroll, the gradient stays consistent making whatever texts that are closest to the text input bar the darkest.
Anyways, doesn't bother me.
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I really think that apple should use your screenshots as examples Shane, haha
Haha. That would be the day.
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Ah, so the gradient is fixed. That's sort of cool as long as you can read the text. I think I must have the iMessage colors reversed, especially since my OS X Messages is all blue bubbles
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I also find the font to be too thin; it would read more easily with a little more weight. In general I think it steals from Metro and Android a bit too much, but they were operating under an impossible deadline.
IOS7 is using Helvetica Neue Ultra Light for it's typeface, and IOS has always used a Helvetica variant. Android started using Roboto in 4.0, which is copy of Helvetica (http://theunderstatement.com/post/11645166791/roboto-vs-helvetica). So it's actually Android copying IOS. Nit picking a nitpick, but I enjoy typography
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Well I didn't mean that strictly within the context of typography, but lets not ignore the elephant in the room when it comes to Android copying Apple (most of Android itself!)
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Great time to pick up a Mac Book Air. The new models were just released a week ago;
http://www.apple.com/macbook-air/ 13" would be my pick of the lot.
If you want to get a bit more weight, a prettier screen, etc
15" rMBP would be the pick.
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/I use my 13" MBA as my do-everything laptop and literally cycle with it to work daily and often forget it's there.
My MBP (from last year) sits on my desk at home and I have it maxed out as a desktop replacement.
What do I use, what do I go to to
do stuffon? My Air.If you want it on your lap, I'd suggest the Air. If not, rMBP and get an external drive for photos.
Hard to go wrong either way. I'd suggest questioning the desired portability be the driver, then cost (new job and all, right ?
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