I only rarely use iOS, what's all the talk about 7?

There seems to be as much excitement in comment threads for the iOS 7 announcement as there is about the new XBOX stuff, I've used iOS on and off but completely missed the train with the new stuff they've announced, to my eyes it just looks like someone installed a different theme. Flatter icons? Where am I? It seems literally insane for this to garner the reaction it has.

Am I missing anything?

Looks purdy

I don't know it looks nice I guess?

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/10/apple-ios-7/

I haven't really looked into it, but it seems to mostly be a UI / design overhaul. There doesn't seem to be any real new features. I could be wrong.

New features:

• Swipe up for "control center", to adjust brightness, media controls, Do Not Disturb mode, WiFi/Data/Airplane mode, etc from within any app
• Better multitasking and faster app switching
• Notification center on the lock screen
• Better Siri, including Wikipedia integration
• iTunes Radio - streaming music ala Rdio or Spotify
• New flatter look
• Better integration into Mac OS

Have they mentioned whether you'll be able to change default apps for email, web browsing etc.?

@Agnogenic said:

Nothing I saw or read mentioned anything like this. So I'd guess it is still a no.

The Music App has been rebuilt along with iTunes Radio are also big features.

Personally I think the new Mac Pro and OS X 9/Airplay feature about proper multi-monitor support is more important.

Yeah I actually really like where they have gone with the new Mac Pro.

7 looks like a catch up for Apple in terms of functionality with other OS's. I'm going to end up sticking to my HTC One after seeing it. I appreciate the new look though, it looks nice and I can see myself going back to iOS in the future without having to worry about taking a step back.

From the screenshots it looks like a much needed facelift from what has become an ancient looking interface. Good on Apple. Now if they could stop being such fascist, controlling bastards, maybe I could buy one of their products without feeling like I sold my soul to the devil. Maybe one day, huh?

Aesthetically it's a big improvement over the current iOS I think. Haven't really delved into the details other than that, though.

New Mac Pro looks like a fancy bathroom trash can. The internals sound super interesting, though.

iOS 7 looks pretty nice. The parallax background was pretty cool. The rest of my family might be a little sad about it being iPhone 4 and up, though, since they are running with 3GS still.

@lebkin: Fuck yeah, better Siri. I love speaking Japanese to my phone and having it work. It feels like the future. A lot more so than speaking English to it, somehow...

@slaegar If they are still on 3GS it might be time for them to move to something else since the 3 year window of support ends this year.

@reisz: That's basically it. Apple has been big on skeuomorphism (evoking real world materials and mechanisms in digital interfaces) for a long time. It's just surprising to see them do such an about face and join the rest of the industry in flat, clean interface without all the leather, brushed aluminum, paper grain textures and such.

The skeuomorphism was always one of my primary turn-offs for Apple products, really. Unfortunately, there are others that are still in place, namely exorbitant prices and their closed system.

Looks nicer, but not enough to sway me from Android. I don't think they went far enough.

I still might get the new Nexus tablet over the new iPad Mini when that comes out.