By Georgi DeMartino | Opinion Editorial Editor-
While many iPhone users have a 4S or a 5, I just have a 4. What does that mean? I don’t have Siri, and I have a minimal amount of storage (8GB). Considering I did not have enough room on my phone to download the iOS 7 update, I was frustrated and skeptical. Everyone else was parading around, posting screenshots of the new update on Instagram and Twitter, and I was stuck with the “iOS 7 needs 2.9 GB in order to install” message. When I tried to use iTunes on my computer, like everyone else who didn’t have room, the software update crashed my Internet; not once, not twice, but three times.
I was feeling hopeless, until one night I plugged my phone in and dared to try it again. I left my phone plugged into the computer for hours, leaving it at one point to go to a friend’s house. When I returned, iOS 7 had finally installed. I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself. Everyone had already gotten over the exhilaration about a week ago, but not me.
To be honest, I love the iOS 7 update for my iPhone 4. I think it is something fresh and different that Apple users have never seen before. While there are some concerns, the iOS 7 has proven to be very functional and gives a unique new look to Apple products. Besides the new design, the new features are incredible too.
The newest add-on is the scroll up menu, which appears when someone scrolls his or her finger upward from the bottom of the screen. This gives easy access to a variety of settings that are frequently used, such as screen brightness, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, screen orientation lock, airplane mode, music control, as well as a calculator and timer. It is no longer necessary to go into Settings to change these. The iOS 7 update also offers a flashlight option in this scroll up menu, which is a useful and completely new addition to the software.
Before the update, the Photo Gallery was simple. The pictures could be separated into albums at the users discretion, or put on a photomap if the phone’s location services were enabled, but that was the extent of the photo filtering.
Now, when the user opens the photo gallery, they have the option to select albums or photos. By selecting photos, the phone can put the pictures into “collections,” which filter the pictures by dates, places, and years. This makes searching for old photos faster and easier than before.
Yahoo! News featured an article showing some of people’s biggest issues with the update. One of these problems was the new 3D desktop screen. While some people are feeling “motion sickness,” I do not think it is noticeable enough to make me nauseous. I figured out that as long as the picture does not take up the entire screen, the 3D feature doesn’t really work.
Many people have expressed opinions that the style of text and iMessages is “too cartoony,” but I like it a lot. The way the text bubbles bounce when you scroll to the top of the messages, the way the sending “status” bar takes up the width of the screen, I think it is all very creative and fun.
Another concern that I have heard repeated numerous times is the issue of a quickly dying battery. Many iPhone users have complained that the new software drains the battery quicker than the old software did, but I disagree. I have not seen any changes in the battery life of my phone since the update was installed.
There are many opinions about the iOS 7 update, and truthfully, I just think a lot of people don’t like change in general. However, in the world we live in today, change is inevitable. In my opinion it is smarter to be open-minded and more embracing of the changes we face, especially the ones we cannot change. I really like the update and I think that as time goes by, it will grow on people much more.
