[puma1]

I find this funny. IOS 7 is the same as IOS 6 except for a few re-arrangements of features and a new look. I feel like Mugato from Zoolander.. Am I taking crazy pills? Their all the same! Ios 6, 7.. iphone c.. s.. it's really the same thing with tiny changes. And everyone is reviewing them like they are new phones or new OS.

[potatolicious]

> "I find this funny. IOS 7 is the same as IOS 6 except for a few re-arrangements of features and a new look."

As someone who's spent the last 2 months porting code from iOS6 to iOS7, I disagree. The API changes (documented or otherwise...) are large enough that this really was more of a port than it was a simple update.

It may look like simple rearrangement (I disagree with that assessment, but whatever), but under the hood a great deal has changed.

[kalleboo]

Interesting, we had very few issues with API changes moving to iOS 7 (mainly dealing with the status bar, especially double-height, which in some places still needs an OS-specific check). All our work has been in getting the iOS 7-style UI looking right and working well. And we have code in our app dating back to iOS 3.

[puma1]

If so that's great. But to the user who is looking at this OS, what do they know about this?

[poolpool]

iOS 7 changes the backgrounding model, which has been a giant point of contention since the app store was introduced, and also has a brand new facelift. It was also one of the main differentiators aside from data sharing between apps between iOS and android. It is not a trivial update technologically or a small update from a marketing and direction standpoint.

It is also the first major OS update under Ive and Cook's direction.

The phones are a minor update, as to be expected like every S release.

[dragonwriter]

> The phones are a minor update, as to be expected like every S release.

There have been two S releases prior to the 5S/5C release. The 3G->3GS was a bigger change to the phone than the iPhone->3G update. And the 4->4S update was a bigger change to the phone internals than the 3GS->4 update, though the display stayed the same.

Really, all the S releases have been major phone updates, and of the non-S releases only the 4S->5 update was.

[puma1]

poolpool. I get what your saying, but exactly what are you saying? Data sharing between apps between IOS and Android? Ive and Cook are just riding on concept from Jobs, there is nothing new here. If any other hardware vendor put out phones with this level of "same old" they would be burned for it. In the future people will look back at this Apple craze and laugh. Apple put out the iphone 5, with a new case and blogs are reviewing it! Are you kidding me? IOS 7 is the same damn OS as 6! Airdrop is nothing new feature wise. Almost every other feature has been out on other OSes for a long time. Apple struck gold in 2007.. and they been re-regurgitating since. Scared to wipe the slate because there will never be another Steve and they will never hit another winner like the initial iphone. But it's tired now. IOS 7 was supposed to be something different, and bottom line it's the same OS that consumes more battery and more resources. Whatever additional battery life they added to the iphone 5s hardware is cancelled out by the new requirements.

[rimantas]

Tiny changes like going to 64 bits, UIKit Dynamics, Text Kit…

[alayne]

"Let's see where Microsoft is vs where Apple is in 3 years. Apple has 0 innovation going on. OS X and IOS are stale as anything. They are riding on earlier success and eventually will fizzle out."

-puma1

[puma1]

bump. Again not a fanboy, just stating the blatant obvious. At least Microsoft tries and puts out something completely new.

[clauretano]

iPhones have existed for more than six years with largely the same UI style. While it may be mostly a reskin, iOS 7 is a dramatic departure from the circa-2007 style.

Ars is known to every major release of iOS and OS X in this fashion, just as Anandtech reviews the new hardware in great detail.