iOS 7 First Impressions

[Kaido]

1: Mine has been in the bad habit of shutting down once it hits 16% or so. So now I plug it in every time I have a cable handy. Even driving for 5 minutes, I'll plug it in.

I just ordered a replacement internal battery, a 2500 mAh battery case ($10 on eBay in neon green, whoohoo!), and a 6-pack of six-foot USB cables & A/C adapters. I'm on-call 24/7 so I need mah juice

 

[Kaido]

1. I don't like that Safari's title bar just shows the website and not the page name. It makes the title bar space usage kinda pointless.

2. When you touch the Safari title bar, it expands. But it doesn't auto-select the title or anything. You have to touch it again to select the title. That is irritating.

3. Safari has periodically crashed on the webpage of this bad article: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/chinese-food-song-video-racist/ but I don't know if it was an ad or what.

I absolutely hate the tab switcher in Safari. My fingers are not accurate enough to delete tabs in 3D view

 

[Eug]

I don't have the premature shutdown problem on any of our iOS 7 devices - iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 5s. Mind you I've only had the iPhone 5s for less than a week.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, that was the weird part. I have iMessage turned off, yet I still got the text when it was sent using my email as the ID. I'm thinking it's probably it was because I have set up iMessage before with my email, even though I have iMessage turned off now.

I don't like how iMessage is only 90% reliable. I was texting a friend last night, went back to text again today, and it stopped going through on iMessage. So then I forced it to send as an SMS instead of an iMessage. It does this intermittently with different people, and sometimes always with certain people.

SMS is pretty much 100% reliable. iMessage is not. I wouldn't mind so much if iMessage was available on Windows or via webpage using HTML5 or something like imo.im, but it's not, so when I'm at work on my Windows computer, I have no way of replying to messages other than on my iPhone.

If they want people to adopt iMessage en masse, they need to fix the reliability problems and make it available on all platforms (or at least on a Windows-accessible webpage). It's as simple as that.

 

[Kaido]

I don't have the premature shutdown probably on any of our iOS 7 devices - iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 5s. Mind you I've only had the iPhone 5s for less than a week.

I had a similar issue on iOS6, although this was different - 35%, shutdown, would not boot. Finally got the "plug me in" icon. Was out & about, nowhere near a car or charging cable to plug it into. Then later I was able to get it on and it worked for the rest of the night. In iOS6, it would just shutoff at 25% or less and need charging period. Previously I had no issues, so it's definitely software. However, I'm taking the high road and ordering a replacement battery and an extended battery case with a truckload of chargers just to be on the safe side

 

[Schfifty Five]

My apologies if this has been discussed already, but has anyone experienced a sudden drop in battery % from XX% -> 1%? When I say sudden, I mean, like instantly, not just a bad drain.

This has happened to me three times now if I recall correctly. Each time, my phone had sufficient battery (anywhere between 25%->50%) and I'd be doing normal things on it and suddenly it drops to 1% and I get a warning message about the battery. Then it will shut down.

If I go charge it, it will reboot, and then start up back at what the normal % was at before the instant drop.

This has never happened before iOS 7. I'm on an Iphone 5. Has anyone else had this happen to them and is there a fix?

 

[smackababy]

You might have a bad battery. I haven't had any issues. In fact, on my 5, my battery life is better. But, I think that is due to my phone sitting still at work and not constantly looking for a signal.

 

[Kaido]

My apologies if this has been discussed already, but has anyone experienced a sudden drop in battery % from XX% -> 1%? When I say sudden, I mean, like instantly, not just a bad drain.

This has happened to me three times now if I recall correctly. Each time, my phone had sufficient battery (anywhere between 25%->50%) and I'd be doing normal things on it and suddenly it drops to 1% and I get a warning message about the battery. Then it will shut down.

If I go charge it, it will reboot, and then start up back at what the normal % was at before the instant drop.

This has never happened before iOS 7. I'm on an Iphone 5. Has anyone else had this happen to them and is there a fix?

Yup I actually had that all the time on iOS6, even thought my battery was good. My suspicion is that the sensors that read the battery levels are not calibrated properly, so you get kind of a bell-curve where it goes from 20% to 1% (those are the rough numbers for when it happened to me as well). VERY frustrating when you're not near power. I knew my battery was good because it would last properly most of the time; just occasionally it would drop off like crazy like that.

My recommendation would be to pick up a battery case for your phone. I'd recommend getting a certified one because I've heard that iOS 7 does not like third-party chargers like that (my brother just picked up a non-certified battery case on his 5S and it refused to take it).

 

[bearxor]

1. I don't like that Safari's title bar just shows the website and not the page name. It makes the title bar space usage kinda pointless.

2. When you touch the Safari title bar, it expands. But it doesn't auto-select the title or anything. You have to touch it again to select the title. That is irritating.

I don't mind the new title bar just showing the address, but I'd prefer that if you tapped it once it automatically selected the address instead of having to tap it again. I don't really care about seeing the page name.

4. I think the animation alignment may be off or something. When the zoom animation finishes, sometimes the screen seems to shift a few pixels, as if the animation finished in the wrong spot and has to correct itself.

Yeah, I think there's still some cleaning up to do. Another zooming bug I've noticed is that if you have an app with a large name (Google Voice works perfect for this) and you put it in the icon position of the second row, second app on the screen, then pull up the control center and start one of the apps (timer, calculator, camera). It zooms past the screen but the bottom part of the e from the app title is still on the screen until the app is actually active.

 

[Eug]

It seems Bluetooth pairing is as unreliable as ever. I can't Bluetooth pair my iPhone 5S with my Mavericks MacBook Pro (for tethering).

Hopefully it's just a Mavericks issue for now, that will get corrected after final release, but I'm not optimistic since Bluetooth tethering was hit and miss even in my iOS 5 and iOS 6 days, with Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion too.

WiFi tethering works fine though, albeit somewhat slowly in my living room - bad 4G signal.

 

[ttott]

at first, girlish design. But find it pretty good later.

 

[el-Capitan]

My wife is having random reboots on a 4S which has just been replaced by Apple 6 weeks ago.

:/

 

[Spicedaddy]

It seems Bluetooth pairing is as unreliable as ever. I can't Bluetooth pair my iPhone 5S with my Mavericks MacBook Pro (for tethering).

Hopefully it's just a Mavericks issue for now, that will get corrected after final release, but I'm not optimistic since Bluetooth tethering was hit and miss even in my iOS 5 and iOS 6 days, with Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion too.

WiFi tethering works fine though, albeit somewhat slowly in my living room - bad 4G signal.

Last time I tried, Bluetooth tethering was too slow and couldn't max out my internet access.

Plugging the phone in or using WiFi are better, why would you want to use BT?

 

[Kaido]

My wife is having random reboots on a 4S which has just been replaced by Apple 6 weeks ago.

:/

I was unable to slide to unlock this morning. Unlock, camera, control center, nothing. Had to do a hard reset. 7.0.2 has been garbage for me, I definitely should have waited a few more releases before jumping off iOS6

 

[Eug]

Last time I tried, Bluetooth tethering was too slow and couldn't max out my internet access.

Plugging the phone in or using WiFi are better, why would you want to use BT?

Just wanted to make sure it works, and it's always better to have a backup method. On vacation I keep the cable with me, but in town I don't, so then it's just WiFi. WiFi usually works though and it is faster, as you say.

 

[Tyranicus]

iOS 7 lets you see mouseover text for images, like on xkcd, if you hold your finger on the image.

 

[Kaido]

Working on my buddy's 3GS today running 6.1.3 - it's freaking glorious. Oh my gosh. Why did I ever upgrade to iOS7

Although in the big picture, this is really the only the second time I've been upset with Apple - the first time really was the purple flare incident on the iPhone 5. I whined endlessly about that too :awe:

 

[Shephard]

 

[Tyranicus]

Wow. Based on the screen dimensions, that's either a 4 or a 4S, right? That's really impressive. I'm lucky if my 5 lasts 3 days.

 

[MrX8503]

Looks like iOS 7 adoption is slower than iO6. Probably due to it being a big change.

 

[ControlD]

I've been running IOS7 for a bit now and given it a fair shake.

I like the control panel and that's about it. I think the flat design and pastel color scheme looks terrible. I always thought IOS was very clean and refined since the very beginning, but now it just looks like romper room. The animations, even with reduced motion on, are semi nausea inducing for me. The real kicker is that my iPad 3 now actually runs slower than my iPad 1. Johnny Ive can kiss my ass. If he is Apple's genius designer I think they are in trouble.

 

[Eug]

No partial charges in the last 11 days? Also, what kind of usage?

For me on my 5s I get standby of about 2 days and change with regular email and surfing (like posting on AT as I am now) with some calls and photos thrown in. Maybe 3 days max.

My last charge was after 2 days and 20 hours and 8 hours active use.

 

[Kaido]

I've been running IOS7 for a bit now and given it a fair shake.

I like the control panel and that's about it. I think the flat design and pastel color scheme looks terrible. I always thought IOS was very clean and refined since the very beginning, but now it just looks like romper room. The animations, even with reduced motion on, are semi nausea inducing for me. The real kicker is that my iPad 3 now actually runs slower than my iPad 1. Johnny Ive can kiss my rear. If he is Apple's genius designer I think they are in trouble.

Totally agree. The only thing I like is Control Center. Even the apps are harder to use because everything is using smaller buttons and goofy fuzzy rainbow transparency :thumbsdown:

 

[Kaido]

Article: Why I Returned My iPhone 5s

http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/why-i-returned-my-iphone-5s/240162771

He makes some excellent points:

1. He paid full-price ($900 off contract) for a phone that didn't perform any differently in real-life usage from the iPhone 5, save for the fingerprint sensor
2. The iPhone 5 was not buggy on iOS7; the iPhone 5S crashed a lot
3. He felt that Apple should offer yearly design updates instead of every two years

I wonder about that too. Everyone else is getting big, gorgeous screens with great battery life on Android & Windows phones. We still don't even have Swype or Swiftkey on our keyboards. I wasn't feeling behind previously with the iPhones I've had, but I am now! Plus 7.0 was buggy, 7.0.1 was buggy, and 7.0.2 is buggy, all with weird design elements.

Again, I still have no desire to jump ship, but when you're worth $100 billion+, the user experience matters a LOT. Not updating the phones physically, releasing buggy updates, and having weird new design language...welp. Yeah.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm.... I can seem to find a data usage meter anywhere in iOS 7. Is it still there?

I'm currently tethering over USB in the airport and have no idea how much data I'm going through on the laptop.

P.S. The Airport has free WiFi, but it's totally unusable. Why do they even bother then? Luckily tethering on the iPhone 5S gives me about 25 Mbps down and 12 Mbps in this part of the airport, which is quite decent. Not anywhere max LTE speed, but faster (aside from the 38 ms ping) than my home access, and it feels really responsive for general surfing and small file downloads.

No partial charges in the last 11 days? Also, what kind of usage?

For me on my 5s I get standby of about 2 days and change with regular email and surfing (like posting on AT as I am now) with some calls and photos thrown in. Maybe 3 days max.

My last charge was after 2 days and 20 hours and 8 hours active use.

Oh, I see now that if you plug it in and it doesn't fully charge, it will say at the bottom that it has been plugged in since the last full charge.

So, Shephard, your battery life as shown is outstanding. I'm still curious as to what type of usage though. Obviously usage with the screen off is going to be a lot better of course.

Article: Why I Returned My iPhone 5s

http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/why-i-returned-my-iphone-5s/240162771

He makes some excellent points:

1. He paid full-price ($900 off contract) for a phone that didn't perform any differently in real-life usage from the iPhone 5, save for the fingerprint sensor
2. The iPhone 5 was not buggy on iOS7; the iPhone 5S crashed a lot
3. He felt that Apple should offer yearly design updates instead of every two years

I wonder about that too. Everyone else is getting big, gorgeous screens with great battery life on Android & Windows phones. We still don't even have Swype or Swiftkey on our keyboards. I wasn't feeling behind previously with the iPhones I've had, but I am now! Plus 7.0 was buggy, 7.0.1 was buggy, and 7.0.2 is buggy, all with weird design elements.

Again, I still have no desire to jump ship, but when you're worth $100 billion+, the user experience matters a LOT. Not updating the phones physically, releasing buggy updates, and having weird new design language...welp. Yeah.

As much as I love the 5S, I wouldn't recommend upgrading to the 5S if you already own the 5.

That said if you were buying new, there is no question I would recommend the 5S over the 5/5C. The fingerprint sensor is wonderful, and the camera is a big improvement.