by James A. Martin

5 Things You Don’t Know About iOS 7

Opinion
Oct 03, 20132 mins
iPhoneMobile Apps

The Passbook "paper shredder" from past versions of Apple's iOS is no more. That's just one of five things you might not be aware of in Apple's two-week-old, iOS 7 mobile OS.

Apple’s new iOS 7 software has been officially available for two weeks. By this time, iOS 7 users have likely formed initial impressions, discovered things to like and dislike, and possibly even experienced motion sickness from all the app-icon zooming. 

Those are the obvious things. Here are five things you might not know about iOS 7.

* The glitches have gone viral—all the way up to POTUS.

Jimmy Kimmel just did a segment on his TV show poking fun at the vertigo-inducing effects of iOS 7. The solution is a faux product called “Stop Looking at Your F***ing Phone Every Five Seconds.” Funny—and a potentially effective solution.

Jimmy Kimmel iOS 7 motion sickness

People from around the world are submitting examples of iOS 7 glitches to a popular Tumblr blog, Sloppy UI.

Even President Obama took note, comparing the Affordable Care Act’s “problematic rollout” (talk about an understatement) to iOS 7’s bumpy debut.

* You might get Rickrolled.

No Internet phenomenon is complete without a Rickroll—when you think you’re going one place on the Internet, only to be taken to a video of Rick Astley’s cult song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Apple is in on the joke, too; just ask Siri “What is today going to be like?”

* Siri has secret powers.

Rickrolls aside, Siri now has access to your call log. She/he can now conjure up your last voicemail (Say: “Listen to voicemail”) or call back the last person who rang you. (Say: “Return my last missed call.”)

* FaceTime doesn’t require face time.

With iOS 7, you can opt to be heard and not seen on FaceTime. When calling someone in your contacts using FaceTime, just click the phone instead of the camera icon. You might even reduce your calling-plan usage, if enough of your peeps have FaceTime.

* The Passbook paper shredder is gone.

In the past, when you deleted a card (such as a used theater ticket) from Apple’s Passbook, the app put the card through a virtual paper shredder. It was a cool effect that has itself been fed into the iOS 7 shredder.

Have you discovered any other secret gems (or glitches) in iOS 7?