There is much to love about iOS 7. However, Apple’s new operating system isn’t perfect. We've uncovered three features and/or design choices that would be best forgotten. Do you agree?
Note: This list is based on what iOS 7 looks like through the second beta. It doesn't necessarily reflect features and/or design choices in the final iOS 7 release.
Too much open space in Newsstand
Designs that look perfectly fine on the iPhone don’t always translate nearly as well on the iPad. Case in point is iOS 7’s slightly revised Newsstand app.
Magazines in iOS 7 no longer sit on wood shelves. Instead, they look as though they've been stuck to a transparent wall, whose look changes ever so slightly, depending on the background image.
Like in iOS 6, magazines are arranged four titles per line. This makes room for 16 magazine covers before a new line is created.
This doesn’t make sense.
The average user probably doesn’t subscribe to four magazine titles, let alone 16 or more. Therefore, as in iOS 6, there is a lot of wasted space in Newsstand.
A better approach would be to do away with the 4-by-4 design, and blow up the size of each magazine cover. This way, a user could scroll through their magazine covers on just one line.
This would look too much like the Kindle Fire's carousel feature, of course.
At the minimum, Apple should change the size of magazine covers, according to how many are present. The more titles, the smaller the cover, and vice versa. This way, there would be less wasted space.
Freebie Wish List
While Apple receives kudos for finally adding a wish list feature in the App Store, it doesn’t go far enough. Free apps can’t be added to this list.
Most people will probably use the Wish List to add apps they can’t purchase right now due to financial constraints. However, file size could also be a factor.
Some of today’s most popular apps are over 1GB in size, and many of these are free. Apple should remove the restrictions, and allow users to add any app to the Wish List.
Weather and Stock apps on iPad
It continues to flabbergast many that Apple doesn’t add its native Weather and Stocks apps to the iPad. This continues to be a head scratcher in iOS 7 since both apps on the iPhone have been beautifully redesigned.
Why not bring these to iPad, Apple?
That's it for now. We'll highlight other iOS 7 features or designs that we don't especially like in the coming weeks and months.
See also:
The AppAdvice iOS 7 Quick Pick: World Clock Goes Digital, While Sharing Becomes Easier, and
Robin's iOS 7 Favorites: Audio Calls From Your iPad And New Siri Voices.
