Usually I am more cautious, and I wait a few days to read user reactions before installing iOS updates. For example, I never installed iOS6 on my iPhone (when I had one) because I wanted Google maps to be the standard app for my phone.
I should have waited before changing the iOS on my iPad yesterday. If I had waited, I would have seen this from Forbes [ht Jack], outlining some of the basic problems with iOS7.
I use my iPad for reading ebooks and scripts, for playing a few games when I'm bored, and for checking my email and Facebook at times. I am not a heavy user. In fact I mostly use it at night when I'm not on my computer. I gather others use their iPads this way, too.
My complaints about iOS7 are similar to those in the Forbes piece:
- What is with limiting the number of apps shown on the first page of a folder to just 9? Did nobody complain about this when iOS7 was in beta? I used to have 16 apps per folder, and they all appeared on the screen at once I had them all arranged in ways I liked, and now it has all been changed. Hey, Apple, the iPad screen is pretty good sized. Those folders (even on an iPhone) can show 16 apps on the screen. It's nice to be able to put more apps in a folder than just 16, but why limit us to only 9 on the first page of each folder? This is just plain stupid, an example of Apple's silliness and attempts to control the units in ways that only irritate the customers.
- Those backgrounds for the screen and folders are annoying. I know Apple hired some hot-shot Brit designer to help with the screen designs, but the folders (and other things) are harder to read and harder to use now that they blend in with the wallpaper. And since the wallpaper I like is light-coloured, the thin white letters do not really show up all that well on it. Sheesh. Two days of beta testing should have revealed these two problems. Ugh.
- I don't play multi-person interactive games. I don't want that friggn game control centre to show up all the time.
- What will happen to Stanza, now that iOS7 has taken over the swipe up and swipe down functions? I loved being able to swipe up or swipe down in Stanza's e-reader to adjust the brightness of the screen. Once again, Apple does it to Stanza (and to those of us who prefer it as an e-reader).
Regular readers of EclectEcon know I am not enamoured of Android, and the bizarre inability to turn off only some of the notifications on my Note2 really irritates me often. I have been eagrely awaiting the day that Apple would see the light and bring out a larger iPhone.
With iOS7, I'm less eagre.
Update: Yassir wrote in a comment on Facebook:
His suggestion works well for me."If you have trouble reading the fonts in iOS 7, go to Settings > General > Accessibility, then touch the switch for Bold Text and also the Increase Contrast switch right below it. It will require a restart of your iPhone/iPad, but now reading should be a lot easier"