Advertisement

Article

Five new things you can do with iOS 7

Five new things you can do with iOS 7
Kurtis Seid

Kurtis Seid

  • Updated:

iOS 7 not only looks different than iOS 6, but it also contains many new features that the previous iteration didn’t do. We’ve picked out five great new features in iOS 7, which will be released September 18th, for you to check out!

Block phone numbers

Everyone has a list of numbers they never want to pick up. It might contain annoying relatives, ex-lovers, or random spam. Being able to block people is convenient and indispensable, allowing you to forget that those people ever existed.

To add a blocked number to the list, simply go to “Phone Settings” and select “Blocked”. Then,  just add the numbers you want to remain hidden.

If you have a change of heart, you can always remove blocked numbers from the list. Just hit the “Unblock” button to receive calls from those numbers.

New flashlight

Apple has added an official flashlight button right to the Control Center. In iOS 6 and earlier versions, you would have to use a third party app to do the same. With one simple tap of the icon in the lower left hand corner, you can illuminate dark locations.  The flashlight will remain on until the button is pressed again to turn it off.

Balancing act

The iPhone accelerometer is a neat feature you could previously use to operate your device (such as shaking your device to undo previous actions) and to see if a surface is level.

In iOS 7, there is a new visual indicator. Just swipe left and see two white circles against a black background. The number in the center will indicate your device’s degree of inclination.

When the two circles overlap completely, it means that the surface is completely flat. The circles will then turn green and the number will be a perfect zero.

Save password to all Apple devices

Most everyone has tons of passwords, making it hard to remember them all (if you can really remember them all, it could also be that you have too few passwords that are too short and simple).

With iOS 7 you can make use of iCloud Keychain. Activate this feature by entering Safari, selecting “Passwords and Autofill” and selecting “Always Allow”.

Once this feature is running, all passwords will be stored and encrypted into iCloud. The nice thing is that iCloud will allow you to use the pass on your other Apple devices such as Mac, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Further, the “Suggest Password” function will allow your device to generate a safe and secure password for those times when you can’t think of one secure enough. Now you won’t have to remember all of those complex passwords!

Update: Apple decided to postpone the iCloud Keychain feature, so it won’t be available in the final version of iOS 7.

AirDrop: exchange everything

Now you no longer have to rely on emails to share photos and other documents. You can now quickly share files between devices via AirDrop. The people you send files to need to be within range, but it’s still a great way to send something hilarious or useful.

All you need to do is make yourself visible to share documents. What’s great is that you can decide if you’re visible to all your contacts, or just a select few friends. You can use AirDrop to quickly send lots of files to many people simultaneously. There is also no clutter, as everything gets saved to the correct location: addresses to the address book, photos into the camera roll, and so on.

If you enjoyed these features, check out the rest of iOs 7’s features in our Complete guide to iOS 7.

Kurtis Seid

Kurtis Seid

Latest from Kurtis Seid

Editorial Guidelines