Tech Talk: Casualties of the system

THE last time Apple released an “upgrade” to its mobile operating system, it managed at a stroke to make its millions of devices less functional than they had been a few minutes before. Out went YouTube and Google Maps; in came an in-house mapping system that was about as reliable as asking your mother-in-law for directions.

This year, Apple has acted early to manage expectations of its next release by releasing previews of what it calls a “whole new perspective” on its range of phones and tablets. Its new system, iOS7, does away with the traditional black-and-grey colour scheme in favour of a white, semi-transparent look. It sports a new “control centre” and updated versions of the Safari web browser and other components.

It will be available around September and, as usual with Apple, the upgrade will be free – so long as your iPhone or iPad is one of the more recent ones. First-generation iPads and iPhones before version four won’t be eligible. The autumn is also expected to see a slew of new Apples running iOS7, including an iPhone 5S, a lower-cost iPhone, and an iPad Mini with an improved screen.

The name of the game here is to keep Apple’s range of devices relevant and fresh-looking in the face of increased competition from Google’s Android system, which is more flexible and tweak-able than iOS but also less user-friendly.

The launch of a new operating system generates a great deal of excitement among the gadget cognoscenti, yet it’s really no more than window dressing. The system contains few actual apps; just the platform on which the more useful ones operate. This was never more apparent than last year when Microsoft announced a new version of Windows which broke all the rules by making life more difficult. The learning curve involved in Windows 8 – which didn’t even have the benefit of being free – has now prompted Microsoft to shift the whole project into reverse.

The superficiality of iOS7, too, is demonstrated by the fact that it does nothing to change the icons-only home screen. The interactive, functional widgets of Android phones are nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there’s improved support for Apple’s latest money-spinner, iTunes Radio, which streams music to suit your tastes. This is a service which never figured highly on most people’s wish lists – but then, what Apple likes today, the rest of us will love tomorrow.