Have you heard of GooPhone? (The name is odd I know but that’s what it is called). It is one of China’s leading handset manufacturer. But why name another Chinese company? Because this company trademarked a design in China and dared (with Apple listening) “anybody found infringing the copyright will be prosecuted legally”. Check this GooPhone model here.
Why on earth am I discussing an obscure Chinese handset manufactuer when the topic at hand is new iOS7 from iPhone? Well, if you have clicked on the link above, you can guess. But then, you might argue, GooPhone is Android and iPhone has iOS7. But compare a set of pictures below and tell me of the differences.
iOS7 vs Jelly Bean
The differences are in the features, the staunch Apple lover maintains. So be it, let’s check, my eternal cynical self replied and together we ran a quick check of the ‘new’ features of iOS7.
Control Centre: Few things should be a swipe away, Apple said. Google and Samsung ‘did’ it even for my old Samsung Galaxy I can swipe to turn off Bluetooth or go to Flight mode.
Notification Centre: Hmm, dont you get those updates (especially if you have Android 4 and above) on the top bar? Drag it down and you know every single details of what has happened recently, including the missed call from a very angry wife and your status in the MMORPG you play using your phone.
Multitasking: Long press the Home key (might be physical or on screen, depends on your handset) and you can get the list of all the ongoing processes in the device right now. Apple did innovate, here you need to tap the Home button twice.
Safari: The name suffices, do you need me to say more on this?
iOS Maps and Driving Assistance: LOL
Lets not even waste time talking of App Store, Find My iPhone (even the name sounds like the popular app Where is my Droid!). Siri is not new (and Danny Sullivan think Google Now does a lot better job than Siri) and so on.
But then, there are few things to look positively to.
1. iTunes iRadio which is a promising candidate and one of the few positive sides is available in the USA only. Creating own radio station is a cool feature which attracted my fancy.
2. AirDrop: With Samsung and others still trying to make NFC as effective as it can be, Apple’s Airdrop looks like a very handy function. Why use text, emails or WhatsApp to send something to your colleague sitting next to you? Using Avialble WiFi and BlueTooth AirDrop has made sharing very simple.
3. Photo Library: A very attractive feature. Android doesnt do this by default and without being a photography fan, I can still say, the photo library and management has been done superbly. If you are a click happy trotter and have thousands of photos, you still can find any particular photo very easily.
Now, why I was talking about GooPhone? Hmm, as you might have found out by now, GooPhone is a company which manufactures handsets which are blatant copies of iPhone, and skins the the Android in such a way that it looks completely like iOS (& its a cheap phone with a moderately high AnTuTu score). Now when iOS itself looks like Android, I can think of two things
1. GooPhone needs lesser efforts to keep producing those phones (with almost no skinning and tweaking needed)
2. Tim Cook was actually using a GooPhone and got impressed.
Which one do you think is correct? Do let me know in the comments.