Still Holding Off on iOS7
There was some back and forth at Glenn Reynolds site about delaying iOS 7 upgrades. The day before the iOS 7 rollout I emailed all my family and told them not to install it until some time had passed and Apple had a chance to do revisions. This is my general policy with all major OS upgrades (and many program upgrades) but all the more so with Apple software because they never allow download of older versions of things like iOS or iTunes and thus make it impossible to roll back problematic releases. Now that we see issues about battery life and slow performance with iOS 7 on certain iPhone versions, I am glad we are waiting. Feature-wise this is a very incremental release (masked to some extent by a totally new visual look) so I can certainly wait.
(The other software that is very much in this category is Quickbooks. Their history of buggy software is terrible, and because upgrades tend to modify the database in ways that cannot be rolled back, it is another example of software where one needs to be very, very careful before upgrading. Let others be the bleeding edge).
Arthur Felter:
Good call on iOS7. I absolutely hate it.
(I also find it very funny that a lot of styling is starting to mimic Windows.)
September 30, 2013, 11:03 amMorven:
I installed it and I'm completely happy with it on an iPhone 4S, for a counterpoint.
There are a lot of improvements in iOS 7 but it's certainly far from essential at this point. Within about 6 months you will probably start not being able to use new apps, because there are a lot of improvements in it from the programmer's point of view that they'll be itching to use, and iOS developers aren't likely to worry too much about keeping older version compatibility. But in 6 months they'll have ironed out any issues.
If you have a iPhone 4, I've heard a lot of bad things about how it runs on those.
September 30, 2013, 11:16 amS:
My personal rule is that for any minor patch or security update, give it 24-48 hours and then check the tech blogs and google to see if any of the reported problems will impact you. For a major OS version (iOS 6 to 7, OS X 10.7 to 10.8), wait until they've pushed the first round of patches out, then read up on the tech blogs and google to see if you really want to upgrade.
September 30, 2013, 11:17 amScott:
I've encouraged at least a dozen people to upgrade to iOS 7, and not a single person has had any problems. One had an iPhone 4, though, and reports that it appears to have slowed down a bit. The software is a significant upgrade, in my view, if only for Activation Lock prevents your stolen iPhone from being reactivated without your Apple ID and password. Lots of helpful features, besides.
September 30, 2013, 11:27 amCMJDad:
It's funny. As with all things Apple, people either love it or hate it. Personally, I usually wait, but I took the plunge on iOS 7 the day it launched without any issues on an iPhone 5. It works for me, even with the "pretty" colors.
September 30, 2013, 12:36 pmErikTheRed:
I installed it immediately after release, because I knew my friends and customers would be asking me about it. The new look seems "fresh" - I don't know if it's necessarily better or worse, but I'm not put off by it. This is the first release that no longer supports the "pre-retina display" phones, and they've slimmed up the graphics and fonts to take advantage of this. Some people with marginal vision or who are badly overdue for a prescription update may complain, but I like that aspect. Most of the functional updates are quite welcome. My biggest complaint - having to learn to swipe right-to-left instead of left-to-right to delete e-mail.
As always, speaking as the friend / family member that takes these calls, no matter what the system or device is please make a backup before any major upgrade.
September 30, 2013, 2:06 pmmesaeconoguy:
Just upgraded.
It does look like the new windows design, and it seems to work very well on my 4S.
Closing apps is very easy, but not real obvious (swipe them up/sideways out of the way).
September 30, 2013, 4:07 pm