iOS 7 will bring major UI upgrade

Over the past few weeks, there have been rising complaints that Apple’s iOS has grown stale, since it hasn’t seen a major upgrade in so long. Indeed, the core functionality of the OS has remained remarkably similar to its initial state, with more features getting added on top.

However, according to several sources who are known to have good inside info of Apple’s workings, the next major upgrade to iOS, iOS 7, will bring a host of new features, as well as a complete design overhaul. Renowned blogger John Gruber of Daring Fireball has this to say:

“What I’ve heard: iOS 7 is running behind, and engineers have been pulled from OS X 10.9 to work on it. (Let me know if you’ve heard this song before. tuaw.com)

Regarding Ive: Word on the street is that iOS engineers with carry privileges all have some sort of polarizing filter on their iPhone displays, such that it greatly decreases viewing angles, thus making it difficult for observers to see the apparently rather significant system-wide UI overhaul.”

We here at JBN have observed this phenomenon ourselves. Such a change is long overdue, and will do doubt make a lot of people very happy. Gruber agrees:

And regarding that system-wide UI overhaul, I hear the same thing as Rene Ritchie: “Ive’s work is apparently making many people really happy, but will also apparently make rich-texture-loving designers sad.”

Jony Ive, for people that do not recognize the name, is the chief designer behind all of Apple’s products. A large portion of his work has been hardware, but with Scott Forstall gone, his responsibilities have shifted to iOS as well.

If all goes as planned, iOS 7 will be debuted this summer at WWDC, but this redesign could push development past the scheduled release. All in all though, it will be worth it to have the overhaul that many Apple fans have been waiting for for quite some time now. Keep checking back for more news of WWDC and Apple’s upcoming announcements.