Ever since Apple announced iOS7 at the WWDC 2013 it has drawn flank for its departure from skeumorphic design to a childish looking flat and colorful design interface. The design does seem a bit childish but definitely not primitive as some of the critics feel.
I held myself from diving straight into trying out the first few betas. But with beta 5 out just weeks ahead of the actual launch I decided to take the plunge.
After 7 days with the new iOS, I feel it does not deserve the criticism it received. Here is my favorite feature of the new iOS - the Control Center.
This feature was long over due. I don't understand what took them so long to work on this one. Thankfully it's here.
An upward swipe from the bottom of the screen brings up the control center. It provides quick access to frequently used controls.
Switches
The top most part of the Control Center contains toggle switches for Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Orientation Lock.
Now if you are reading a really long and interesting article in Safari and do not want to be disturbed by calls and texts, all you have to do is swipe up, tap Do Not Disturb switch, swipe down. You are back to your article in less then 2 seconds!
Same is the case with switching on or off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Orientation Lock. 2 swipes and a tap is all it takes.
The quick access to Orientation Lock is God send, it saves you those annoying moments when the screen keeps rotating when you do not want it to specially when you are feeling lazy and laying down.
Brightness
Adjusting the screen brightness is just as simple. Swipe up, adjust the slider and swipe down.
Music Player
Accessing the music player just got simpler and faster. Swipe up and you have access to most of the functions to your favorite media player. You can view the name and length of the current track, play the next or previous track and control the volume of the track.
Apps
The bottom of the Control Center contains shortcut to a built-in torch, Clock, Calculator and Camera.
The built-in torch is an indispensable feature added to iOS7. This one happens to be my favorite one. All you have to do is swipe up, tap the torch button, there you have light. Tap again to switch it off.
Pull it up anytime
The best part about the Control Center is that you can pull it up not only from your home screen and from within apps, you can pull it up even from the lock screen without unlocking the device.
So now finding your seat in the theater gets a lot easier, just pull out your iPhone, hit the home button, swipe up and tap the torch button. Give the usher a break.
You no longer have to dig into your phone to find the calculator to calculate the price of a gadget worth ₹5499 on sale for discount of 13% at the mall. It's just a matter of 2 taps and a swipe.
You do not even have to bother about your iPhone contents being fiddled with after you have asked someone to click your pictures. The Control Center gives full access to the camera app sans access to the pictures clicked earlier. When you exit the camera it returns to the lock screen.
PS: The features discussed here are specific for iPhone 4s. These features may work differently on other iDevices and/or may have additional features.
