After announcing the biggest revamp to its iOS mobile software for a long time earlier this year at WWDC, Apple has finally confirmed when existing iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad owners can upgrade to iOS 7.
The new software will arrive on September 18th, two days ahead of the new iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S arriving in stores and at networks around the world.
iOS 7 will be available as both an over the air and iTunes update all over the world next week, bringing about huge changes to the way the mobile software looks and performs. It’ll be available on a range of iOS devices but not all, with the full list of eligible models as follows:
iPhone
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5
iPad
- iPad 2
- iPad 3
- iPad 4
- iPad Mini
iPod Touch
- iPod Touch 5th generation
Unfortunately due to many reasons, the software won’t be compatible on older devices. Whilst compatibility goes all the way back to the second iPad, only the very latest iPod Touch will get it. This is in part due to the 3D graphics and other processor intensive features.
Apple claims over 200 new features arrive with iOS 7, including all-new multitasking, a brand new camera app, Control Centre and AirDrop for sharing files between Apple devices locally. Since the original beta version came out earlier this year we’ve been playing around with the new software on an iPhone at Gadget Helpline HQ and we have to say that whilst it takes a lot of getting used to, the software is smooth and very fast.
We’ve no doubt that many will proclaim hatred for iOS 7, mostly due to the nature and sheer size of the change from iOS 6. If you want to see just what Apple’s new software is all about, get stuck in to our hands on review right here.