The Best and Worst Things About The iOS 7.1 Update

Apple’s latest mobile operating system upgrade has been recently released, and it brought several interesting improvements, fixes, and new features. Apple fans are delighted once more to experience faster speed and useful fixes to common issues in the previous OS.

However, while many Apple users loved the increased performance, a lot of users have also complained about how the new OS quickly drains their battery and several other issues.

Here’s a round-up of the best features of the newest iOS version as well as its worst flaws.

Much Better Performance

Out of all the acclaimed features of iOS 7.1, most users agree that the considerably faster speed is its best improvement. Many are surprised and overwhelmed with the fast speed, especially in iPhone 5. Compared to iOS 7 which wasn’t sluggish but not faster either, iOS 7.1 is lightning quick.

Apple’s mobile devices are known for the incredibly smooth and seamless user interface navigation. With the much improved performance of iOS 7.1, users experience speedy transition animations, fast opening and closing of apps, more responsive phone, and fast recognition of light taps even before the zooming transition animations are finished. The software update’s pumped-up speed is the major highlight of iOS 7.1.

More Responsive Siri

Siri can be a fantastic virtual personal assistant, but as most of us are well aware, it’s far from perfect. With the new update, users can now make Siri more reactive and personal. Here are a few tips from Cnet:

• Response — Siri often misunderstands when you end a request, question, or command. It misinterprets the brief pause as the end of a question. Apple fixed this in iOS 7.1 by allowing users to hold down the Home button until a request or command is completed. Siri will only give you a corresponding response once you release the button.
• Voice and accent — Albeit Siri can use a variety of accents, the British accent was just not up to par. It sounded off and phony. The new OS offers accents that sound more authentic compared to the old Siri. If you’d like to try out this improvement, go to Settings > General > Siri > Language, and then choose your desired language. After that, tap the Back Link, and select Voice Gender to choose Siri’s gender.
• Head Gesture Option — This is a cool feature that allows you to command tasks simply by moving your head left to right or vice versa. To enjoy this feature, go to Setting > General > Accessibility > Physical and Motor > Switch Control > Switches > Add New Switch. Press Camera > Left Head Movement, and then scroll down to tap on Siri > Back Link. On the Switch control screen, tap on Switch Control to activate head gesture.

No More Annoying Parallax Wallpaper Effect

Apple finally gives users the option to disable the parallax wallpaper effect (motion on wallpaper images) while keeping the wonderful zooming transition animations when you open and close apps.

This is how you can do it: first, check if Reduce Motion is toggled off by going to Settings > General > Accessibility. Next, go to Wallpapers and Brightness, and press your lock screen wallpaper. Turn off the Perspective Zoom and press set. You can do the same for your home screen wallpaper.

Button Shapes Option

Many users complained about the confusing tap targets in the minimalist iOS 7. The new version fixed this problem, and now you can add button shapes to the mobile software’s text-only tap targets. To do this, tap Settings > General > Accessibility, and toggle Button Shapes on.

HDR Auto Feature

iOS 7 had a major bug that frequently forced devices to disable HDR whenever the camera app was closed. Apple took note of this problem and introduced the “HDR Auto” setting on iPhone 5s. The new feature monitors surrounding lighting conditions and intuitively enables or disables HDR automatically.

Activate this feature by tapping “HDR On” at the top of your screen while your camera is open. Press “HDR Auto,” and you’ll never worry about disabled HDR again.

 New Visibility Options

Apple offers the best accessibility options for the disabled. iOS 7.1 comes with new fine-tuned options to increase the contrast on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad’s screen. Users with minor vision problems will find this useful.

To set the contrast, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase Contrast.

You’ll see three different options:

• Reduce Transparency — This removes the transparency effects in the folder backgrounds, home screen dock, Notification Center, and Control Center.
• Darken Colors — As the name implies, the colors on the screen will be darkened to make them clearer.
• Reduce White Point — The whites on your screen will appear less bright in order to improve visibility.

 Most Noticeable Issue in iOS 7.1: Poor Battery Life 

Photo courtesy of BGR

If you haven’t updated to the latest iOS version yet, you may want to consider waiting for a couple of reasons.

The main problem with the new version is that it quickly drains the battery. iPhone and iPad owners alike have been complaining about reduced battery life performance after updating to iOS 7.1. However, this differs from case to case. Some users mentioned that they didn’t notice any drastic changes in the battery life, while others commented that their battery life actually improved a little.

There have also been issues regarding broken applications, specifically Facebook. Some users complained that several apps were acting up after the update. Another user woe is difficulty in creating a match for fingerprint authorisation using Touch ID sensor.

If you’re planning to travel or jailbreak your device, updating to the latest version may not be in your best interest. On the other hand, if you want to boost the speed and performance of your device and take advantage of the new improvements, then iOS 7.1 will be worth the upgrade.