Monday was a huge day in the tech industry. From the WWDC to E3, there’s plenty to talk about surrounding the new announcements. Spyder Trap has its share of Apple Fans. Together we spent our Monday lunch glued to the live stream of the Apple Keynote in the way others might watch (and celebrate) the Super Bowl.

During the keynote, Apple revealed some significant changes to iOS. As soon as the developer center servers came back online, I installed the beta on my iPhone 4S. So far my reactions have been similar to a sour candy. Sweet, then sour to the point I almost spit it out, followed by slow transition back to a lasting sweet.

Design changes, seen from a developer

While design is the biggest change in iOS 7, I’m not a designer. My observations are through the eyes of a developer. The new fonts and removal of UI elements make for a much cleaner lock screen. The 3d parallax effect on the home screen at first feels gimmicky, but it does reinforce the layered metaphor they’re trying to introduce through all the transparencies in the new designs.
To that point, iOS 7 uses a lot of transparency. Unless an app specifically overrides it, the keyboard background is a blurred transparency of the content underneath. Even some applications, like the phone app, have a hint of the home screen underneath them. Certain nested tables have the previous page underneath them. Transparency is everywhere.

The new font choice, and crisper icons in the top bar, leaves the clear impression this OS was designed for retina. Many non-essential UI elements are a fraction of the size they used to be. For example, the progress for a sending text message is just a pixel or two tall. The data activity spinner is noticeably thinner as well.

I’m not sold on the new icons. While I’m not a designer, I feel like the old icons could have been flattened and fit the new UI just fine. It feels like a petty move Jonny Ive made just to make sure every UI element of the OS was changed under his watch.

In addition, there’s a lot of borrowing happening. The weather app is a near clone of the Yahoo Weather app. At least they were kind enough to give them an Apple Design Award. Most system apps and menus borrow liberally from recent trends seen in Android and Windows Mobile. I’m sure they’ll cry fowl at some point, and their claim has merit, but I’ll leave that to the lawyers.

Control Center

By far, my favorite new feature is the Control Center, a quick access to music, airplane mode, do not disturb, flashlight, camera, alarms, and air play all in one convenient place. It has quickly become a feature I commonly use more than any individual app.

I’m also a fan of the new multitasking menu. I would regularly have to tell people how to switch between apps and force quit development software we are working on. It wasn’t intuitive. The icon, along with a view of the app itself, can be dragged off the screen and the app quits and disappears from RAM.

Upgraded Task Manager

Speaking of RAM, my 4S has just barely enough to provide a quality user experience. Many animations take longer, which at first lead me to believe the resources of my poor little 4S were being pushed to the limit. Since there’s no jerking, or “catching up” though, I believe these slower animations are on purpose, and I’m starting to appreciate them.

It’s a good thing they made the new task manager more user friendly though. If I get really carried away switching between apps, I can notice a small slow down. Usually there’s a bit of a speed up by the time a beta gets to the general release version, but I’m worried about what the experience will be like for regular iPhone 4 users.

That said, I hope Apple tweaks some of their UI before the general release. If you don’t have great crisp photos, the way transparencies are blurred can get annoying. Some UI changes feel like internal petty, ego-driven choices. The prevalence of white in the UI made my black iPhone seem out of place. The new UI makes me realize how much of the phone face is not screen. I find myself hoping the next iPhone is entirely screen on the front.

Bugs, as to be expected

There are still bugs. It’s beta software. While not as bad as the iOS 5 beta, I did have to reformat to get all of my previously installed apps to transfer over from my iCloud backup ok. As many apps start, the top bar looks funny. Siri, while better, is still not the personal assistant Apple tries to bill it as.

While I’m comfortable with the new design, I’m not sure other less digital-savvy users will. I’m already planning on a trip out to grandma’s this fall to help her relearn how to user her iPad. I haven’t been able to try the AirDrop functionality yet (not enabled on the 4s…), and I haven’t yet gotten around to trying the iTunes Radio, but those are really the only new “features.”
iOS 7′s success or demise depends on if you like the new design. As I was considering switching to Android just for a change of scenery, iOS 7 has me ready to stick with Apple a while longer. That’s it though. The new features are minor and will not be enough to win you over one way or the other. This one’s all looks.