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Apple Releases iOS 7.1 Beta 5 to Developers With Siri Language Improvements

Tuesday February 4, 2014 9:00 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released the fifth beta of iOS 7.1 to registered developers for testing purposes, following the release of the fourth iOS 7.1 beta on January 20. The update has a build number of 11D5145e and is available via an over-the-air update and through Apple's developer center website.

ios71beta5According to the release notes, iOS 7.1 beta 5 includes new natural-sounding Siri voices for English (Australia), English (United Kingdom), Japanese, and Chinese (Mandarin - China). It also notes that a compact version of Siri is bundled with the release for the new languages, but can be expanded to the more natural voice after install.
The iOS device initially uses a compact voice for Siri. After you have configured a Wi-Fi network and have the device connected to a power source, iOS will automatically download and install a higher quality version.
Earlier betas of iOS 7.1 have introduced a number of features, including "Button Shapes" in Accessibility, more prominence for Touch ID and Passcode options, a new look for several aspects of the Phone dialer and shutdown screen, a new animation for "Slide to Unlock" and a slightly revamped color for the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages app icons.

Details on features in past beta releases can be found in our previous beta posts: Beta 1, Beta 2, Beta 3, Beta 4.

Today's update also includes Xcode 5.1 Developer Preview 5 and a new version of the Apple TV beta software.

Update: iOS 7.1 beta 5 includes redesigned shift and caps lock keys on the keyboard.

keyboardchanges
Shift enabled to the left, shift disabled in middle, caps lock enabled to the right

Wallpaper options have also been tweaked slightly and the button to disable parallax is now called "Perspective Zoom" instead of "Motion."
[ 174 comments ]


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Primejimbo
57 months ago

New Caps Lock Key:

Image (http://i.imgur.com/CUZSMHM.png?1)

Image (http://i.imgur.com/6ElEfzw.png?1)


Why can't they just make it that all the letters on the keybaord are lower case and when you click on the shift key they all show capitalized?
Rating: 7 Votes
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aziatiklover
57 months ago
Still no quick reply! OSX mavericks got it already what are you waiting for :apple: :rolleyes:
Rating: 6 Votes
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Patriot24
57 months ago
New Caps Lock Key:



Rating: 6 Votes
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Goldfrapp
57 months ago

Why can't they just make it that all the letters on the keybaord are lower case and when you click on the shift key they all show capitalized?

+1

Common sense!
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
StyxMaker
57 months ago

Why can't they just make it that all the letters on the keybaord are lower case and when you click on the shift key they all show capitalized?



Because it won't look like a 'real' keyboard unless the letters are always upper case.
Rating: 5 Votes
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Patriot24
57 months ago

Because it won't look like a 'real' keyboard unless the letters are always upper case.


Which would be a valid argument had they not gone out of their way to decry skeuomorphism and its value when unveiling iOS 7.

In this case, there is a great deal of utility in breaking with tradition and orientation to physical objects.
Rating: 5 Votes
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Aluminum213
57 months ago
is the iPad safari crashing a thing of the past? along with all the lagging animations on the iPad Air?
Rating: 4 Votes
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keysofanxiety
57 months ago
Has anybody tried this beta on an iPhone 4? I know the performance is abhorrent on the 4 but I'm wondering if this update makes it tolerable ...
Rating: 4 Votes
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bankshot
57 months ago

THANK YOU.
They fixed the caps/shift key. It was impossible to determine, even after using for an extended chunk of time, which was which when autocaps was enabled and you fudged up a capitalized word.


Caps lock is definitely improved, but shift/no-shift is still confusing because everything is grey or black & white. With shift on, the key is now black on white - it's just like all the letter keys, so it's still not obvious whether that means on or off. When it's off, it's white on grey - different from most of the other keys, so does different mean on? Or off? At a glance, it's not clear, so it forces the user to stop and think and which colors mean what. Bad UI as usual!

At least in iOS 6 there was a white "halo" effect to make it clear that the key was on. Off was clearer too because the arrow was just a white outline on otherwise all grey.

Would it kill Apple to bring back some of the blue to make things much, much clearer? Or make the actual letters lowercase or uppercase depending on state of the shift key (oh wait, can't do that since Android does it!). They seem to be hell-bent on keeping the look as minimalist as possible, much to the detriment of the user experience. So much for that reputation for good user interfaces... :roll eyes:


For those of you hoping for great things in 7.1 (or just fixes for 7.0 blunders), don't. As far as I can tell, these betas have simply tweaked visual components here and there without any substantive changes. Every complaint I have about 7.0 (and none of them have to do with the new "flat" look except where usability is concerned - as above) is still there in 7.1 beta 5. Since Apple refuses to communicate real release notes, we have no idea what has changed other than a few graphic tweaks.

Seems pretty clear that their "A" team is rushing to get 8.0 ready for next summer, while the "B" team screws around and makes insignificant updates to 7. So ultimately, none of the real issues get fixed. :(
Rating: 4 Votes
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mdelvecchio
57 months ago

Caps lock is definitely improved, but shift/no-shift is still confusing because everything is grey or black & white. With shift on, the key is now black on white - it's just like all the letter keys, so it's still not obvious whether that means on or off. When it's off, it's white on grey - different from most of the other keys, so does different mean on? Or off? At a glance, it's not clear, so it forces the user to stop and think and which colors mean what.


agreed -- it still requires way too much cognitive analysis to understand whether its on or off. something that was so simple and easy in iOS 6. amazing.

color serves a purpose. wish they'd use it here. the old bright blue for ON was perfect.
Rating: 4 Votes

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