SAN FRANCISCO: Apple is throwing out most of the real-world graphical cues from its iPhone and iPad software, like the casino-green “felt” of its Game Center app, in what it calls the biggest update since the iPhone’s launch in 2007.
The new operating system, called iOS 7, strives for a clean, simple, translucent look. Apple is redesigning all its applications and icons to conform to the new look, driven by long-time hardware design chief Jony Ive.
Apple demonstrated the new software at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday. The new design direction was widely expected and will show up on iPhones, iPad and iPod Touches this fall, the company said.
The software strives for a multi-layered look, with translucent panels. On the main screen, the background image moves subtly with the movement of the phone, creating an illusion of depth. Other screens are padded out with plenty of white space.
The software has “a whole new structure that is coherent and is applied across the entire system,” Ive said in a recorded presentation. “The design recedes, and in doing so, elevates your content.”
While design modifications could help Apple distinguish its devices from rival phones and tablets, they risk alienating longtime users. Microsoft’s radical makeover of the Windows operating system in October was meant to give the company a stronger presence on tablet computers, but it ended up confusing many people who had become accustomed to using the old operating system on traditional desktops and laptops.
Research firm IDC blamed Windows 8 for accelerating a decline in PC sales. Among other changes, Apple’s new iOS system will update apps automatically. It will store Web passwords online in Apple’s syncing service, iCloud, making them available across devices. The AirDrop feature will allow sharing of big files with Apple-equipped people in the same room.AP
