Today has been a big tech day.  While Microsoft was providing more details on the Xbox One at E3 Apple was showing off newest version of iOS at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference.  That’s right, with the release of iOS 7 Apple is doing their first major change to iOS since the iPhone was originally released in 2007.

I’ve had an iPhone since the iPhone 3G and generally have been pretty happy with it.  But, I was jealous of my friends that had Android phones.  The Samsung Galaxy S4 was an incredible machine and I really enjoyed playing around with a demo unit.  In fact, I was kicking around switching my iPhone 4S for the S4.  But before I took the leap I decided to wait and see what Apple would unveil for iOS 7 at WWDC.  I have to say, I’m glad I waited as the new version of iOS looks really interesting to me.  The fairly stale look and feel of iOS has been replaced with what feels like a hybrid look made up from recent versions of Windows Phone 8 and Android.  So lets take a look at some of the high points of the iOS 7 presentation.

The New Look: We had heard that Jony Ive had taken over the design of iOS 7 and it was rumored that he was going to rid the OS of the skeuomorphic design and boy did he.  The new iOS has a much flatter look with contrasting colors.  Its pretty sharp looking.  Now iOS will have layers, for instance a calendar entry will open over top of the home screen and then slide back once an update has been created.  The new look is pretty cool and definitely an upgrade over what has been the look of iOS since 2007.

True Multitasking: Apple has given us a half baked version of multitasking for a few years now.  But, in reality the only apps that truly ran in the background were those created by Apple.  iOS 7 will allow 3rd party apps to run in the background and allow for quick application switching.  Apple has said that multitasking will not reduce battery life either.  I’m curious to see how well it works.

Control Center:  The control center is the answer to something I have been hoping to see for ages in iOS. Android has a simple dropdown menu for turning WiFi off or on and the same with Bluetooth.  To disable either feature in iOS you have to go through a group of menus.  Its time consuming and frankly a pain, but as someone who has to disable both WiFi and Bluetooth on a regular basis I

had no choice but to click through multiple menu options.

Now in iOS a user simply has to swipe their finger up from the bottom of the screen to see the control center.  In the control center they can enable or disable things like airplane mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, a flashlight, and even adjust screen brightness.  Its an improvement we have needed for a long time and Android has had for what almost seems like forever.

iTunes Radio: Apple has finally shown off their oft-rumored competitor to sites like Pandora and Spotify.  iTunes radio will allow iPhone owners to stream music on their iOS devices.  The music can be tailored based off of the genres a user likes.  iTunes Match users who pay their $25 a year will not receive any advertisements, but for all other user this is a free streaming service that will be supported by ads.  The major draw for the music companies seems to be that they will receive a share of the ad dollars and Apple has made it very easy for users to buy music tracks in iTunes.  Everywhere you look there are buy in iTunes buttons.

Updated Notifications: Notification menus can now be pulled down from the lock screen and the main screens.  Notifications can be viewed for events occurring that day, events missed, or all events.  Its a much cleaner look and an improvement over the current setup.

These are just some of the new features in iOS 7.  If you’re lucky enough to be a developer you can download the developer SDK and beta right now for iPhone.  The iPad version is due to drop in a few weeks.  Apple did tell us that iOS 7 will be released in the Fall.  The devices supported will be the iPad 2 and up, iPad mini, iPod Touch 5, and iPhone 4 and up.  That being said the older devices might not receive all of the iOS 7 updates.  We’ll have to wait and see what each device gets.

Allow me to make a theory here, iOS 7 will release around the same time as the next iPhone.  Based on what I have seen of iOS 7, I’ll be sticking with the iPhone for the foreseeable future and will update my iPhone 4S to the next iPhone.  iOS 7 is going to be a big deal for Apple as many current owners who may have been considering switching to Android will now reconsider based on this refresh of iOS.  Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on this next version.  Let us know in the comments if the refresh of iOS has you as intrigued as me.