iOS7 Beta

The first point to make is this version of iOS 7 is in beta, it sounds obvious, but it's worth stating. It's like the preview nights at the theatre, designed to iron out the kinks, the first time for the audience to interact with it. So iOS 7 currently isn't the finished article. 

Strikingly and obviously iOS 7 is very different, Apple's CEO Tim Cook remarked, it's was the biggest change to iOS (iPhones operating system) since iPhone was launched just 6 years ago. 

Following Scott Forstall's departure as senior vice president of iOS, Apple has made improvements. 

Firstly Jonathan Ive, Apples design ledgend was appointed the leadership role of Apple's Human Interface with Craig Federighi of becoming the head of iOS software engineering. At WWDC it was Craig who was invited onstage to present to the world the first official glance of iOS 7. 

What's it like? 

It's different, a flatter, more modern, cleaner, simpler look and feel, with added functionality. 

It was Mr. Ive, who previously stated that we (Apple) take changing iOS very seriously because it's at the very heart of every iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. So to make a change and still keep it farmilar is magical. From hitting the power button the design ques are apparent. Insead of swiping across the bottom of your iOS device, in a finger width sized bar, you can now swipe left to right across pretty much the whole screen to unlock. 

 My first instinct, maybe because of the upwards pointing arrow, was indeed to swipe to unlock, but upwards. This of course is not what Apple users are used to, and therefor the upward swipe is not for this. 

Instead swiping upwards reveals the control centre, where some of the most popular and useful shortcuts are now available.

Super quick access to the likes of Alarms, Bluetooth, WiFi, Calculator, music controls and more. Having used iOS 7 from the off, I can say I love control centre. I future builds will users be able to configure its contents? 

Did you notice the down arrow at the top of the home screen, centre, to the right of the new signal strength guide? Swiping down from the top of the home screen or again almost any screen allows access to your updated notifications. 

Notifications are now split into today, all and missed, along with a preview message of what tomorrow looks like. Cheekily it can say stuff like ..."looks like you have a busy today tomorrow, not might be a good to get some rest."

Improvements to the stock camera app, brings live filters, reminiscent of those found on the iPad, but better. A square option for posting to your Sunday pub lunch snaps to your social media app of choice. 

The features of iOS7 listed here are by no means exclusive, and serve as an appetiser to the public release penned for this fall. Found a better feature, disagree or have your own take on iOS7, leave a comment for me. 

Does size matter?

I heard it said by potential iPhone customers that 64GB isn't enough storage.

I have always said, well that's what iCloud is for. Additional storage in the cloud and off your device. Of course the beauty of cloud storage when implemented well is its almost seamless and indistinguishable from items stored on your device.

In addition it's brilliant for backing up and sharing stuff across many devices, keeping them up to date.

If iPod is anything to go by, the classic at 160GB has enough storage for nearly all your entertainment needs. What if the hard drive in an iPod classic could be shrunk further to find in the confines or an slimmer, lighter iPhone. What If that shrunk hard drive was able to take advantage of Apples fusion drive, first introduced on the mac lines. Frequently used items are kept at the ready on speedy flash storage, while infrequently accessed items go to the hard drive. The best of all worlds?

Faster, and therefor a smoother proposition.

QUICK TIP - Adding Birthday's to contacts

Open Contacts

Choose a contact

Tap Edit, Top right, highlighted in green

Circled in blue tap, add field

Select Birthday

Choose the required birthday. Open Calendars and go to the birthday date

Adding birthdays to your contacts. Done

Boots Christmas App

Today The Boots Christmas App was released on the Apple App Store. It's a free download that aims to make giving gifts more fun.

Home Screen

You can search Boots Christmas offerings through the app. All the great Christmas 3 for 2 gifts are there. There's various ways to find that perfect present.

Gift ideas for those of us, who are stuck for inspiration this section is great. Tap the "gift ideas bauble" and your presented with 3 rows of gift tags Who's if for? for example man's man or party queen. Next what are they into? For example, gadgets or bath & body. Don't worry if you don't know what Uncle Dave is in to, maybe that's best. Next, what's the budget? Once you have chosen, lets get some ideas. Magically a selection of inspiration appears. You needn't select all of the options, it's intelligent enough to give you good results, although you can't aren't able to shop on just price. Come on she deserves a little more thought than that!

Search & browse another way to become the greatest gifter. Simply take what she's asked for ..."anything from Feane Cotton" or if you have a little less to go on select from "make up and hair", ect. The search function is responsive although it struggled to return any results for "Soap & Glory" however I spelled it, until I just tried Glory.

As you find gifts you can add them to you gift list, where it clear shows you the savings your making with the 3 for 2 promotions. Of course you can add a recipient, tick off a gift when it's been purchased too. Once your ready to purchase your gifts you can tap the "Lets buy it from boots.com" button and within the app it takes you to boots.com mobile site. Despite trying several times, I could not get my list to transfer across and subsequently wasn't able to shop on the go. Slightly disappointing.

The gift list is very clear, along with the savings if your buying into the 3 for 2 offer, be silly not too. I like the way the app lets you know how may points each item it worth too.

The look and feel of the app is very Christmasy and well thought out. There is more to unwrap though... See a lovely gift for the one you love whole out shopping this is the feature for you. The app will recognise all the offers in the Christmas mix and match 3 for 2 offer. Scan instore is a smart little feature to quickly add a gift to your list.

Finally the extra twinkle in the tree lights, your grandmas emergency chair or your mums forgotten condiment. This extra feature is the smoother than the best gravy, the video gift tag.

Pick up a special gift tag instore or get one free when you boots.com it. Scan the QR code on the tag and you can record a (short, 45 second) Christmas morning message to that special someone. On Christmas morning, the recipient uses their smart
phone to scan the QR code on the gift tag to reveal that extra smile. Once you have filmed your message it takes a while for it to appear in your my videos section. This is a magical idea, especially if your little sis is usually out of the country on skivation. The video gift tag, a great idea, one that gives this app longevity. I predict the big retailers stealing this idea, for next season.

Overall it's a polished app from Boots, simple to use and useable at the same time, lovely Christmas theme too. Would be great to share lists with loved ones for those secret santa ifamily's. If I found a perfect pressie, I'd like to be able to share that inspiration with someone, even just to stop me receiving socks again. Finally it's the sentiment that's nice to, give giggles, give wow, giving gifts that keep giving.

Right I'm off to put the sprouts on!

iOS6 Quick Tip

iOS6 SimplyHistory

In Safari you can quickly check your browsing history by holding your finger over the back button, for a second.

In the photo highlighted by the green circle, bottom left.