What Features Does iOS 7 Need?

Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple's iOS 7, which is heavily rumored to make its debut at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, will almost certainly feature a totally redesigned interface. According to recent rumors (including a few key postings on the Apple-centric blog 9 to 5 Mac), the OS will stand as a shining example of "flat" design, which eliminates "real world" elements such as texture and shading in favor of stripped-down, basic shapes. That means certain iOS environments such as Game Center (with its casino-like green felt) and Newsstand (with its wooden shelving) could soon look completely different. But what about iOS 7's actual features? What could Apple change that would improve the operating system's chances against the increasingly sophisticated Google Android, not to mention the new-and-improved BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8? What would you do to iOS with Apple's full resources at your disposal?"

iOS==Metro??

[Anonymous Coward]

So, iOS will look like Metro?

the OS will stand as a shining example of "flat" design, which eliminates "real world" elements such as texture and shading in favor of stripped-down, basic shapes

Glad you asked!

[Anonymous Coward]

OS:
- real push notifications (no connection) a la BB
- real bluetooth support
- sound multiplexing
- multi-user support a la Nexus 7

Shell:
- themes
- screensaver
- background download/upload without 'location services':o
- exif info in gallery
- realtime-thumbs task manager

Politics:
- JS JIT in apps
- support for other browsers

Settings for default applications...

[AmazinglySmooth]

I want to be able to select which app opens things by default. If I want a new mail app, then I want all mail links to open in it. If I want a new browser, then I want all hyperlinks to open in it. If I want to change the default maps app to Google, then I want all directions opened in that. Etc.

Re:NSA Prism compatible

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Notice the timeline for Prism access to Apple?

Jobs had to croak, before the company betrayed it's service users, and handed them wholesale for illegal data-rape by an invasive, secret-police venture.

Add Ogg Vorbis support for native apps

[xQuarkDS9x]

Ogg vorbis support is needed to be supported a lot better then it is now. Currently if you want to play Vorbis music files you have to transfer the files manually to your iDevice and use a different music player that supports the format. However, I doubt the chances of this happening may unfortunately be slim to none. Ogg vorbis IMHO is a much better format then AAC but god forbid Apple supporting it on the devices and in iTunes.

Re:themes.

[AmiMoJo]

Last year's phones had 720p (1280x720) screens and this year's all have 1080p (1920x1080) screens. The iPhone 5 isn't even HD at a mere 1136x640.

The problem for Apple is to bump up the iPhone resolution to HD (the current one is still SD) by doubling they will end up with 2270x1280. That's going to be expensive, and 1080p content will be scaled awkwardly. The alternative is to pick a new resolution and make developers re-work their apps to support it yet again.

As for Windows I guess you haven't tried it. It works fine 99% of the time with exact 2x scaling and pretty well with arbitrary scaling. Apps which don't support scaling natively are just zoomed at the pixel level, exactly the same as Mac OS. Interestingly the most high profile app that doesn't scale well is the Adobe CS suite, which didn't scale properly on Mac OS when the first retina displays were released either.