Event Coverage

WWDC 2013: What You Need to Know about iOS 7

By Sidney Wong - 11 Jun 2013

Photos, AirDrop, Camera & Safari

Photos

Photos help you organize your photos for a better viewing experience.

Feeling frustrated scrolling through archives of photos without having any memory of where and when they were taken? Fret not as Photos in iOS 7 aim to make it easier for you to organize your photos via Collections, Moments and Years.

A Collection contains photos which are organized into Moments according to specific dates and locations, while Years compile all the shots and Collections for a particular year. You can zoom in or out of Years, or even scroll images one by one to see an enlarged version. Sharing is another key function in Photos, where you can Airdrop (more on this in the next section), iCloud, tweet or Facebook the photos.

The Years view enables you to tap and view each photo individually in a slightly enlarged window.

 

AirDrop

Apple challenges NFC on Android devices with AirDrop in iOS 7.

We all know Android devices can transfer data via near-field communication (NFC) , but Apple takes it a step further on iOS 7 with AirDrop. Using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, AirDrop lets you share photos, videos, contacts and anything else from any app with one or more people. Compared to NFC, AirDrop does not require you to "wander around, bumping your phone" to transfer data. In addition, transfers are encrypted and secure.

Unfortunately, AirDrop does not work with iPhone 4/4S and the older generations of iPads.

 

Camera

 

The camera interface has always been an important aspect of iOS and Apple did not neglect it in iOS 7. The Camera app is given a facelift where all the shooting modes - still, video, panorama and square - are easily accessible at the bottom of the screen. To switch between the different modes, you only need to swipe. 

Filters are also added to still and square photos. You can preview the effect of each filter before taking a photo. Even when a filter is applied to a photo after it is taken, you have the option to remove it. 

Filters in Camera are available on iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation). Filters in Photos are available on iPhone 4 or later, iPad (3rd generation or later), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).

Apple brings a little of Instagram into its Camera app with Filters.

 

Safari

 iOS 7 makes browsing better and more beautiful in Safari.

Apple's default web browser, Safari received several refinements such as a unified smart search field, a new tab view, shared links and reading list

The unified smart search field not only hides itself to allow you to see more content on the display, it also allows you to type a URL or search term and let Safari automatically suggest the closest match. 

With the new tab view in Safari, you can see your open web pages as tabs which you can scroll through easily. Similar to how you quit an app in multitasking, you close a page by swiping it offscreen.

You are no longer limited to just 8 tabs.

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