Welcome to ASKinfor

As I’m sure you’re aware, iOS 7 was officially announced by Apple yesterday at their annual  WWDC event  in San Francisco. There’s an enormous amount riding on this operating system release, as it’s their one big chance to prove themselves as the leader of the pack when it comes to mobile innovation. There’s a great deal riding on iOS 7, and it’s clear that this is Apple’s biggest overhaul of their iOS platform for quite some time. A very large collection of new features were added to iOS, and you’ll be hard pressed in finding an app or panel that looks identical to iOS 6. The user interface has been totally overhauled, linen and leather replaces with soft gradients and background bokeh.

One of the more obvious alterations to Apple’s iOS 7 is the overall change in design ethos, with Jony Ive leading the Cupertino company towards a flatter, skeuo-free environment. It’s fair to say that John Gruber’s pre-WWDC assessment of the interface, in that it would be polarizing, has rung true, but irrespective of consensus, it is the look Apple will be sticking with. While Android won’t be seeing such radical changes any time soon – at least, not from what we hear – those running Google’s mobile OS can get a little taster of Apple’s new UI through an app called  iOS 7 Calci , which offers a passable emulation of Apple’s new Calculator app.

The red hot news in the world of smartphones right now is what Apple is doing to redesign its iPhone and iPad software, with iOS 7 proving to be quite the change from the norm. Placed in charge of iOS less than a year ago, Jonny Ive has overseen the biggest change in an operating system we’ve seen since we first got our eyes on Windows 8.

So, after much deliberation, rumor, concept and a little bit more rumor, Apple has finally shown the world what exactly Jony Ive’s vision of software design is with the introduction of iOS 7. It’s clean, crisp, and certainly a great deal brighter than ever before, but, new features aside, does it actually look better, and how does it compare? Here, we assess whether the clean lines and anti-skeuo approach is as much of a step forward as Apple has portrayed. As noted by my colleague Oliver in his post: ‘ iOS 7 on iPhone 5 – First Impressions ’, it certainly is bright, and echoes John Gruber’s pre-WWDC utterances that iOS 7 would be polarizing. Some seem to love it, others are completely bemused, and while the features offered inarguably represent the biggest version leap hitherto, the look is proving fairly divisive.