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iOS 7.1 Beta 4 Tidbits: New Slide to Unlock/Power Off Animation, Dialer Updates

Monday January 20, 2014 1:34 pm PST by Juli Clover
Earlier today, Apple released the fourth beta of iOS 7.1 to developers, which included both bug fixes and a few new changes to the operating system. While iOS 7.1 beta 3 introduced several visual changes, iOS 7.1 beta 4 focused more heavily on behind-the-scenes improvements. There were, however, a few tweaks to further streamline the look of iOS 7, which are detailed below.

Slide to Unlock/Power Off: Most notably, the Slide to Unlock bar at the bottom of the phone is now more prominent, with a brighter, slower animation. The same brighter animation can be seen in the Slide to Power off bar when turning off the phone.

Revamped Slide to Unlock/Slide to Power off animation (Courtesy of @Elias96)

Contacts in Dialer: The option to add a contact when entering a phone number has been altered slightly and is now executed by tapping the + sign next to the phone number. Previously, there was a line that said "Add to Contacts."

contacts
Old version on left, iOS 7.1 beta 4 on right. (Image courtesy of iDownloadBlog)
Messages Scrolling: When scrolling through the Messages app in beta 4, it seems there is slightly more "bounce." This is in line with previous changes to Control Center, which introduced a bounce animation.

Siri: In the U.K., there is a new Siri voice on the iPad.

To check out previous changes introduced in iOS 7.1, make sure to take a look at our previous tidbits post on iOS 7.1 beta 3, which detailed a number of visual changes to the operating system.

It is unclear when Apple plans to release iOS 7.1 to the general public, but a report from December suggested it could see a lengthy beta testing period with a March launch. It is likely that Apple will continue making subtle changes to look and feel of iOS 7 in coming betas, which could result in a refined and polished version of the operating system when it is finally made available to the public.
[ 226 comments ]


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booyahbooyah
58 months ago
How nice to see Jony Ive using his access to 500 million i-Devices as an opportunity to teach himself UI design !!!!!
Rating: 39 Votes
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jonyive4
58 months ago
i wanna see this next:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZyoCA6fHAk
Rating: 23 Votes
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Rogifan
58 months ago

How nice to see Jony Ive using his access to 500 million i-Devices as an opportunity to teach himself UI design !!!!!


I know. If only we could have this back. This is proper UI design.

Rating: 20 Votes
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byke
58 months ago
Still prefer IOS 6
Rating: 19 Votes
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AngerDanger
58 months ago

The complaining in this thread makes me want to vomit.


Hmm, that doesn't seem normal. Perhaps you're in the early stages of pregnancy. :p
Rating: 17 Votes
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158275
58 months ago
Honestly, the "Add to Contacts" text seems more in line with iOS 7's guidelines on "clarity". I know we all didn't like the amount of text-links instead of buttons, but now that we've all gotten used to it, going back to a simple "+" feels... not as good.
Rating: 15 Votes
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Krazy Bill
58 months ago
Some of you people sure do put a lot of stock in stupid, silly-assed animations Just give me some solid app performance. I can close my eyes and ignore the hideous side of iOS if I have to.
Rating: 15 Votes
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cmChimera
58 months ago
The complaining in this thread makes me want to vomit.
Rating: 14 Votes
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TheRainKing
58 months ago

I know. If only we could have this back. This is proper UI design.

Image (http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Podcasts-app-before.jpg)


:rolleyes: Right.. because all skeuomorphic designs are that ugly.

How about the original iBooks app? It looks a lot better than the crap they replaced it with in iOS 7.

Rating: 13 Votes
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jayducharme
58 months ago
One change I would like to see in the dialer: the backspace button should be moved back down to the keypad. That tiny "X" up to the right of the readout is counter-intuitive and clunky to use.
Rating: 12 Votes

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