Performance
iOS 7.1 doesn't improve benchmark scores relative to iOS 7, but it still introduces a small but significant change that will make all iOS devices feel much faster. The animation durations that we complained about in the original release have all been significantly shortened, and that by itself is enough to relieve much of iOS 7's sluggishness. Some of the slower iOS devices used these animations to mask application load times, but on faster hardware, the animations almost always took longer to complete than the app took to start up.
iOS 7.0.3 was a first step toward fixing this issue for people who knew which settings to tweak. Going into the Accessibility Options and toggling "reduce motion" originally just disabled the parallax effect used on the home screen and throughout the operating system, but version 7.0.3 also disabled the sweeping animations used to transition from app to app. In its place was a crossfade effect that was less flashy but demonstrably faster.
Battery life
In the move from iOS 6.1 to iOS 7.0, we observed a statistically significant drop in battery life—the iPhone 5 was the biggest loser, while everything else was down just a little bit. The move from iOS 7.0 to 7.1 doesn't make as much of a difference. Our Wi-Fi browsing test measured both small gains and small losses, but most of these scores are different by just two or three percent, which we'd consider to be within the margin of error.
The first-generation iPad mini is the only one to lose a significant amount of runtime in our test—it gets about 10 percent less life out of a single charge. We'll be running the test again to verify this particular data and will update this article if we see different results. In the meantime, it's probably safe to say that unless something is wrong with your hardware, you'll get about the same battery life out of iOS 7.1 that you got from 7.0.
Stability improvements
Apple's release notes say that iOS 7.1 fixes crashing problems for iPhone 5S users, the same crashes that the company commented on way back in January. It's rare for Apple to acknowledge these kinds of problems beforehand or to promise fixes ahead of time, so the company must be confident that the problem has been fixed.
What Apple doesn't mention is that similar crashes have also affected both the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini. The common factor here is the new 64-bit A7 chip, which on these three devices runs a 64-bit build of iOS and 64-bit versions of all of Apple's built-in apps (and a small-but-growing number of third-party ones). These 64-bit apps can be expected to consume around 20 or 30 percent more memory than their 32-bit counterparts, but the iPhone 5S and both 64-bit iPads both ship with the same 1GB of RAM that their predecessors did.
The results were predictable: crashes on both the iPhone 5S and the 64-bit iPads are almost always associated with low memory errors. Pulling the logs from any given 64-bit iOS 7.0 device reveals at least a few of these crashes—below is the error list from Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson's iPhone 5S and a Retina iPad mini on loan from Apple. Both are running iOS 7.0.6.
Keyboard and fonts
One of the first things you'll notice about iOS 7.1 is the onscreen keyboard. The text on the keys has been made bolder, changing from what looks like Helvetica Neue Thin to Helvetica Neue Light. The gray background and the gray keys have gotten a shade or two darker, which together with the thicker fonts make for a keyboard that's more contrasty and readable.
Sliders and buttons
And here's what one looks like in iOS 7 and iOS 7.1 above.
The iOS 7.0 slider is a pretty straightforward flattening of the iOS 6.1 design, and it's one place where the skeuomorphic design of Ye Olde iOS was actually helpful to users. In iOS 6 you had an actual "button" to slide, making it more obvious what you were supposed to do to engage with it. In iOS 7, the right arrow that replaces the button is difficult to distinguish from the "slide to power off" text.
The new slider better translates the intent behind the iOS 6 design—iOS 7.1 loses the skeuomorphic look while retaining a distinct and obvious button. Other small touches make the shutdown dialog more readable. The screen behind the dialog is now heavily blurred so that shapes behind the slider don't obscure the "slide to power off" text, and the text stands out more from the lighter background. Throughout iOS 7.1, the rectangular buttons imported from iOS 6 have been replaced with circular ones that match up better with the buttons on the new lock screen and phone dialer. None of these are huge changes and none of them will alter the way you interact with your iPhone or iPad, but they all make iOS 7.1 feel more cohesive and intentional than iOS 7.0 did.
iOS 7.1 revs up CarPlay
Apple is putting iOS in the Car, even though its infotainment ecosystem doesn't go by that more direct name anymore.
CarPlay is enabled through iOS 7.1 on any iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C or iPhone 5 as long as it's paired with a compatible vehicle.
So far that includes the Volvo XC90 SUV, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and the Ferrari FF with more car models and manufacturers to come.
The release notes indicate that CarPlay brings phone, music, maps, messages and third-party audio apps to the hands-free infotainment center.
Users can also control everything through Siri or via the car's touchscreen, knobs and buttons.
Siri and Touch ID
Siri is easier to operate in iOS 7.1. Before, Apple's personal assistant would often cut you off mid-sentence, complicating it as a hands-free solution.
Now, holding down the home button manually controls Siri so that you can drone on and on without having her interrupting your bloviating commands.
Apple's release notes indicate that its Touch ID fingerprint recognition system has improved with iOS 7.1. Users have previously complained that the scanner forgets their fingerprints.
The Camera and Calendar apps are the final tweaks Apple is highlighting in iOS 7.1. The iPhone 5S automatically enables HDR photos through the Camera app, while Calendar brings the much-needed ability to view events by month.
All of these upgrades aren't significant and few iPhone users can take advantage of CarPlay, but today's minor update is a step in the right direction as we await bigger changes for iOS 8 this fall.
AppleTV channel hiding
The AppleTV's version of iOS is still waiting for an iOS 7-style facelift, but in the meantime its iOS 7.1 update gives users the option to hide channels they don't want. Highlight the channel you'd like to hide and press and hold the "select" button as you would if you were going to move it. When the channel begins jiggling, press the play/pause button on your remote and select "hide this item" to make it disappear from your home screen. As Apple continues to add new AppleTV channels to the interface, the option to get rid of the ones you don't want will help you keep your screen clear.
Conclusion:
The update's design has also made several steps in the right direction, backing down from the light colors and thin lines of the first iOS 7 betas. The thicker fonts, higher contrast, and UI-options-disguised-as-accessibility-settings strike a better compromise between the new design and the old. iOS 7.0 was conceived, coded, and pushed out the door in a short amount of time, and iOS 7.1 looks and feels like a more consistent and coherent version of what we got in September.
iOS 7.1 will probably be iOS 7's last big update before iOS 8 comes out, assuming Apple sticks to its usual fall release schedule. Whatever new features and design tweaks we see when that happens, iOS 7.1 gives the company an excellent foundation to build on.
The good
- Improved performance across the board
- Better stability and fewer crashes, particularly on 64-bit iPhones and iPads
- Refines iOS 7's design to make it more readable and usable, and it restores a handful of useful iOS 6-era features
- Helps to fix the iPhone 4's performance problems
The bad
- No major, consistent battery life improvements
Written by SuperStar
HAPPINESS IS THE MAIN ASPECT OF ANYONE.SO THE BLOG MAINLY CONCENTRATES ON BEST THINGS REALTED TO HEALTH, EDUCATION, INSPIRATION, MOVIES, CARS, AND EVERYTHING WHICH BRINGS HAPPINESS.I WILL PROVIDE DIFFERNET WAYS TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY
