The past and present of iOS 13 (present version): what has the Apple system experienced in the past 12 years

Hi everyone, I am Geek.

In the last issue, we reviewed the history of iOS from the first generation to iOS 6. Today we will continue with this topic and take a look at the later changes of iOS!

If the sales of the early iPhone were not enough to dominate the smartphone market, then since the iPhone 5s, the iPhone has officially entered its peak period, making great strides every year.

From 2013 to its peak in 2015, from 150 million to 230 million, the iPhone officially became the dominant force in the mobile phone market.

To put that in context, sales in 2010 and 2011 were just 40 million and 72 million units respectively, so the Cupertino company is growing at an incredible pace.

Therefore, we can basically draw the conclusion that the iOS since iOS 7 should be the iOS that the public is more familiar with, and the vast majority of iOS users today come from this period.

Although the iPhone 5s with iOS 7 is not the first iPhone to enter the Chinese market, in the iPhone 4 era it was only available as a China Unicom contract phone and was also priced high.

Considering the domestic income level at that time, the iPhone was still a relatively high-end product, although the sales of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s in China were extremely hot.

But in fact, the iPhone at that time did not occupy much market share in the country.

Judging from the annual sales volume of less than 40 million, the domestic sales volume of iPhone 4 and 4s is probably in the millions.

Since the release of iPhone 5s, as people's living standards have improved, the attention and popularity of the iPhone has continued to rise.

It was probably since 2014 that the iPhone really entered the homes of ordinary people and became a street machine that can be found everywhere in the streets and alleys. Therefore, the iOS since iOS 7 is the iOS that most domestic users actually use.

Below I will also introduce iOS during this period in more detail, hoping to resonate with more people.

iOS modern style is established, iOS 7

The first thing we need to mention is iOS 7. In the previous article, we mentioned the poor map navigation of iOS 6. In fact, due to the poor performance of Apple Maps, the director in charge of iOS was dismissed.

In iOS 7, the designer changed from Scott Forstall to Jonathan Ive. Those who are familiar with Apple should have heard of this name. He is responsible for most Apple products including iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

This time, the visual design of iOS 7 was also completed by him, bringing a brand new style.

To put it bluntly, the previous iOS still had the skeuomorphic design that you now think is old-fashioned. The above is a comparison picture between iOS 6 and iOS 7.

It can be clearly seen that the design style of iOS 7 has undergone a radical change, from simulation that imitates real objects to a simple, flat style that emphasizes lines and has a hint of frosted glass effect.

In addition, the fonts are thinner and more delicate, the transitions are smoother and more fluid, and the edges of the icons are clearer and sharper.

Control Center, another design that Apple borrowed from Google.

Now, iOS users can also quickly turn on WiFi, Bluetooth, camera, and adjust brightness by swiping up.

In addition, multi-tasking capabilities have been further enhanced, and two new APIs have been added. The first is background refresh, which enables the application to refresh data using the network in the background.

The second is remote notification, Apple's push server can directly remind the application to push messages.

Of course, we cannot ignore another feature of iOS 7, which is that it is a 64-bit system with higher execution efficiency and is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

The iPhone's Big Screen Era

The launch of iPhone 6 announced that the iPhone had entered the large-screen era. Its larger screen and new slim design brought Apple the highest single product sales in history.

However, iOS 8 is far less dazzling than mobile phones, and the updated content is unremarkable.

Time-lapse photography debuted on the iPhone, allowing users to shoot slow-motion video, and a panorama mode was added to the iPad.

In the preview box, users can manually drag the small sun in the box to adjust the exposure value and long press to lock it.

iCloud finally supports the simultaneous uploading of photos, and the editing function of the gallery is more powerful. Now we can rotate photos and adjust the brightness, hue, filters, etc.

We can search for the photos you want by time, place or album name. In addition, we can also hide photos.

The Health APP was added to iOS for the first time to record users' footprints, oxygen content, sleep status and other data related to physical health. The coprocessor launched by Apple has a preliminary application scenario.

For some jailbreak users, the opening of third-party input methods gives them one less reason to jailbreak.

Oh, and we shouldn’t forget Apple Pay, even though it wasn’t immediately supported in mainland China.

Touch ID also opens up third-party interfaces, and we can start using fingerprints to make Alipay payments.

2D to 3D

The iPhone 6s did not ignite the enthusiasm of Apple fans in terms of appearance, but it was more about expanding functions, and the same is true for iOS 9.

Thanks to the addition of 3D Touch, iOS operations have evolved from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. Now you can call out the secondary menu by pressing hard, and you can also press hard in the game to trigger certain operations.

Although the overall UI style is still based on iOS 8, or more precisely, iOS 7, there are also some fine-tuning.

For example, the default Chinese display font has become Ping Fangti, and the English font has been replaced by San Francisco.

Metal was originally a game interface, but now it is applied to the system, making more efficient use of the CPU and GPU and bringing smoother animation effects.

Nightshift can automatically adjust the color temperature and reduce the blue light of the screen, but it only supports iPhone 5s and above.

Apple introduced the concept of machine learning in iOS 9, and Siri seems to be smarter.

Nuisance call blocking

iPhone 5 has become the oldest iPhone that supports iOS 10, but the classics of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s are enough to go down in history.

As Apple opened its API to third-party apps, Siri has evolved again, and now we can command it to send WeChat messages.

For Chinese users who are in prison and are hard-hit by harassing calls and spam text messages, the iOS 10 update has certain practical significance.

The addition of the harassment blocking interface gives us stronger third-party protection, although there is no official support yet.

Lifting the phone to light up the screen is probably a rare user-friendly operation in iOS. We can check notifications or call the camera on the lock screen more quickly.

The only complaint is that it's too sensitive, more sensitive than any Android phone I've ever used, and faster.

The worst iOS ever

In 2013, Apple launched the first 64-bit mobile system, iOS 7, but it maintained compatibility with older 32-bit devices.

And now, iOS 11 is finally going to kill them all, and 32-bit devices will forever stop at iOS 10.3.3.

In the eyes of the vast majority of old users, iOS 11 is probably the worst generation of iOS in their eyes.

It brings so many bugs that basically every model has different problems.

Despite huge skepticism, it brought a ton of new features and the biggest visual overhaul in years.

The redesigned APP Store has more categories and tags for APPs.

The background of the notification center becomes completely transparent, retains the time information of the lock screen interface, and cancels the design of the quick search box.

The control center adopts a customizable design, users can customize the functions they need, and with 3D Touch, the components can also expand the secondary menu.

iOS 12 turns the tide

iOS 12 is probably the iOS with the best reputation in recent years. Its good support for older models and improved fluency have left us with a deep impression.

The newly added screen time will provide users with device usage in the past 24 hours or the last 7 days, and parents can limit application time by creating quotas.

iOS 12 also brings a ruler, a measurement app that uses AR technology to measure the length of real objects.

Now, iPhone X and above models support the creation of Memoji, a new type of Animoji.

Create your own avatar by selecting skin, hairstyle, head shape, eyes, eyebrows and other features, then use it in Messages or FaceTime.

iOS 12 also adds a new Shortcuts app, which allows you to create or customize commands so that Siri can perform multiple steps at a time, and the steps can span multiple apps, but the actual setup is a bit complicated.

In general, iOS 12 does not have many functional updates, but the upgrade in fluency is very obvious compared with its predecessor.

In summary, iOS went through a wild early period and had to cross the river by feeling the stones. By iOS 7 and iOS 8, its functions have basically been perfected, although the overall style has not changed much in recent years.

Since then, iOS has been constantly checking for deficiencies and filling in the gaps, and has also tried to further open up more permissions to give users more freedom.

Although its openness and feature-richness are not as good as the Android system, its closedness also brings its own benefits, as Apple can more strictly control APP developers.

After all, the system is just a platform and the program is the experience. With more dedicated optimization, iOS can have a more lasting fluency, which is indeed beyond the reach of the Android system.

Do you like Android or iOS? What new features do you hope iOS will have in the future? Feel free to leave a message below to tell me!