Do you feel iOS is (looking) dated?

[FiestaST]

I am been reading this line a fair number of times for the past few days wrt the i6 & i6+ reviews.

I (personally) completely disagree; the major iOS7+ updated is only out for like 13/months & it give the; dated-OS at that stage; the update it needed.

Without sounding biased I still think the iOS UI looks fresh while the TouchWiz UI on Sammy's looks dated though that could be the fact they pump out rehashed variants on an hourly basis.

Sony's take on Android is better imo than Sammy's; less functionality yes but from an aesthetics point of view looks better.

What are your guys view on iOS being "dated"?!

 

[cerebus]

I'm never quite sure what they mean by dated. There's only one other competitive mobile OS to compare it against, so really I guess what they're saying is, they prefer the Android look. Or they don't like the rows of icons look, and feel that having widgets and customisability is better. But those aren't new things. iOS will probably always have rows of icons, and Android will always have widgets and customisation. Stock Android is actually quite a dull experience; my current homescreen which is stock LG because I couldn't be bothered to do more customising after it crashed is I think much uglier and more inconsistent than iOS. So what actually is it that's dated?

 

[Dolby]

For me, it's definitely the widgets.

I know the most Apple guys (say) they don't like it (at this point), but I think it's a large part of the 'dated' comments and user experience. Nothing like having a single screen that I can put what I find relevant to me pinned to it and can be seen at once glance.

Yes - some guys go overboard, but I have only 3 pages : calendar on one page, and the other page data use, alarm, shares etc I don't have launches or 10 million things, but the basic are great. For me those basic make iOS dated.

I mean they didn't have notifications until recently, which was a ball ache compared to Android

 

[Crowley]

 

[cerebus]

For me, it's definitely the widgets.

I know the most Apple guys (say) they don't like it (at this point), but I think it's a large part of the 'dated' comments and user experience. Nothing like having a single screen that I can put what I find relevant to me pinned to it and can be seen at once glance.

Yes - some guys go overboard, but I have only 3 pages : calendar on one page, and the other page data use, alarm, shares etc I don't have launches or 10 million things, but the basic are great. For me those basic make iOS dated.

What I'm finding lately is it's quite a pain to have 2 levels of app drawers. The front page has a bunch of most-used apps, and the 'real' app drawer becomes this ghetto where I end up navigating back and forth between two levels of app drawer to find where I put a certain less used app. However, it's quite convenient for me just to have the music control widget on the front screen. I never really use the Google one but it just sits there.

I mean they didn't have notifications until recently, which was a ball ache compared to Android

Notifications have been around since iOS 3.0.. so, 5 years. And I prefer the way they actually show you what they're notifying, where in Android you have to open the device to see the message. However, Android is muuuch better at the organisation of the notifications and giving you control over them from the notification centre.

 

[bwana]

I mean they didn't have notifications until recently, which was a ball ache compared to Android

By recently you mean iOS 5 notification centre introduced in 2011 or Apple's Push Notification Service introduced back in 2009 with iOS 3?

FWIW we're on iOS 8 now.

 

[Sepeng]

Yeah I'd go with the dated comment, but also I'm not sure what I'd expect in order for it to be fresh.
The image Crowley pasted sums it up for me. Not saying it's bad in any way, but still, it is pretty much the same.

I think it's an accusation you could level at most manufacturers.

disclaimer: Had an iPhone, currently Samsung, thinking about trying Windows or iPhone again.

 

[Dolby]

Notifications have been around since iOS 3.0

By recently you mean iOS 5 notification centre

What did they introduce with iOS7, regarding notifications?
Or was it only enhanced?

 

[nhanekom]

If it aint broke, don't fix it. I love iOS. Find it very easy to use and everything is set out very logical. You could give an iPhone to a 80 year old and he'd probably figure it out fairly quick. It just works.
Android, on the other hand, is a mess in my opinion.

 

[cerebus]

What did they introduce with iOS7, regarding notifications?
Or was it only enhanced?

I'm not even sure it was really changed in iOS7. iOS8 has improved management of notifications quite a bit but I suspect Android L will have an edge over it when it releases. The homescreen of Android L looks really slick.

 

[Maverick Jester]

Dated- no.
Very different in functionality and presentation- yes.

iOS's strength, by virtue of the walled-garden approach, is that if looked at as an "app launcher", the entire layout and structure makes perfect sense. iOS is not meant to encumber you, and allow you to use apps as smoothly and easily as possible, hence the overly simplistic (when compared to Android) UX (that cursed Settings menu aside).

Android, on the other hand, is the exact opposite, and I think this is deeply influenced by the fact that Google, first and foremost, are a webservices company. Their goal, in the end, would be for apps to not be native, but web-based. The unity displayed within their overall product UX due to the shake up that is Material Design, will further facilitate this. Because of the factors of scalability, information presentation and wider feature sets to accommodate for, it will always be more customisable and more complex than iOS.

Again, filtering down these differences shows why iOS generally has better quality apps than Android in the more niche areas, but I expect this gap to further narrow now that Google has its entire ecosystem reading from the same book.

 

[Dolby]

If it aint broke, don't fix it. I love iOS .. give an iPhone to a 80 year old

That's the problem right there.

If they don't change anything, they'll only be appealing to the 80 year olds! Luckily though, they are taking ideas from every Android version which is keeping it a little more fresh. I think the best feature from iOS 7 and 8 are actually from Android.

 

[CoatiMundi15]

View attachment 162031

All of them look great!

 

[DominionZA]

^^ 80

 

[cerebus]

/shrug.

 

[mercurial]

/shrug.

The difference is that we can customize our phones, so now two phones can look the same. Can you do the same with your iPhone?

 

[DominionZA]

The difference is that we can customize our phones, so now two phones can look the same. Can you do the same with your iPhone?

You can have the apps in any order you want. So suppose they do look different from that perspective?

 

[nhanekom]

The difference is that we can customize our phones, so now two phones can look the same. Can you do the same with your iPhone?

Last time I checked the iphone had hundreds of options and settings and millions of apps to choose from, so yes.

 

[DA-LION-619]

/shrug.

Actually widgets was removed so now it's only apps. I think from 4.4 onwards.

Widgets still exist just that you add them from your homescreen.

 

[cerebus]

The difference is that we can customize our phones, so now two phones can look the same. Can you do the same with your iPhone?

The point is that static screenshots aren't going to convey the deeper changes from version to version of any OS. On one hand you have the customisability of Android and on the other hand you have the smoothness and beautifully animated transitions and small design and UX touches in iOS. If you want to compare both you need to get under the surface.