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SALT LAKE CITY — Apple released its latest operating system Wednesday and while it has many of the same features as the previous versions, there are some new functions you should know about before you make the change.
1. Biggest Functional Change: Use of swipes instead of taps to access certain features.
If your phone is locked, you can access the camera no matter what by swiping from bottom right of the screen. Now you can swipe up to access the Control Center, which will contain your most used settings and apps. It will be available to you whether or not your phone is locked.
"Swipe down from the center of any home screen for a search box," writes Anick Jesdanun from the Associated Press in a review of iOS 7. "From many apps, you can swipe from the left or the right instead of tapping the left and right buttons.
2. Most Useful Improvement: Control Center.
It contains Wi-fi, access to Bluetooth, and Airplane Mode. It also gives access to the Do Not Disturb feature that lets you silence incoming messages and calls, but you can make exceptions for certain numbers. The Control Center also lets you access the music player and brightness settings.
3. Best Camera Changes: The camera now offers eight filters that you can use in live mode to see before you take your picture. You can make your pictures Instagram-ready by taking them in a square frame or use the wide-frame function. Photos will automatically be grouped by trip or similar attributes so they will be easier to find and store.
4. Most Helpful Change: Edit voice commands.
Did Siri get it wrong again? Now if Siri hears you incorrectly, you can hit the 'tap to edit' button and change what you need to.
5. New Music Player and iTunes Radio: The music player got a big upgrade with iTunes Radio. Just like Pandora, you can now create your own stations on iTunes Radio by artist or song. You can 'tune' the new station by telling it to find similar songs or keep to songs and artists you know. Jesdanun says without the iTunes Match service at $25/year, you will have about four ads per hour.
6. Using Messages: The biggest change in messages is that you can now see a timestamp for every message sent and received. In iOS 6, there was a timestamp every few messages. When you're in a message conversation window, swipe left to see a timestamp for all the messages in the convo.
It's also easier to call someone from a message. Just tap the Contact button at the top of every message to call or FaceTime with the person.
7. Block unwanted calls and messages: You can now block calls, FaceTime calls, and messages from anyone. To block a number, go to the contact list, click on the contact and there is now an option to block someone on the contact card, says Roberto Baldwin from Wired.
And while the new iOS 7 may take some getting used to, Jesdanun says that deep-down, the system is basically the same as iOS 6.
And are you worried how it will work on the iPhone 4 or 4S? Apple says that some functions won't work on the older models but you shouldn't have too many problems. While you don't necessarily need a new iPhone, the latest operating system will work better on the newer models. But bottom line, the upgrade gets a thumbs-up from most reviewers.
"These are all nice touches that make upgrading well worth it, especially for something free," Jesdanun wrote.
