We’ve covered an absurd amount of weather apps on UltraLinx but I never personally seem to get bored of them – someone always finds a way to make the weather more beautiful and interesting on our phones. Three is a beautifully minimal weather app which tells you what to wear. Using beautiful gradients the colour will change depending on the time of day and temperature. It will give you a list of three items of clothing which would be suitable for the current weather. Swiping to the left will reveal another screen showing what you should wear later. It’s a pretty interesting way to put it.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Three – A Weather App Which Tells You What To Wear
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If you’re an iOS app designer you’ve probably been using some sort of template over the years which aids your design direction. It helps you figure out the spacing required, the default iOS design, whether you should use the design style and much more.

iOS 7 is a huge change so app designers will definitely need to update their designs to fit in with the new OS. Teehan+Lax, a company very well known for its very well put together iOS templates has kindly updated its PSD kits to add iOS 7. The kit is based on BETA 1 of iOS 7 so things may change when it comes to final release but they have promised to update the PSD if things do.

The iOS 7 PSD kit includes everything you’ll need to help you design and fit your apps into the new OS. Everything is very nearly organised into folders and it includes various sample screens to help you get an idea of Apple’s design direction.

Download

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - iOS 7 GUI PSD Template
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In this post, I will break down the new OS showing various screens from iOS 6 and how the changed in iOS 7. I have labeled them, but just to be clear iOS 6 is on the left and iOS 7 is on the right. Basically this is a showcase of iOS 6 Apps vs iOS 7 Apps, for the sake of clarity.

Lock Screen

The first noticable change is the lock screen. It is now much simpler and involves a thinner font. It also does not have bars to slide, simply slide from the left to unlock.

Notifications

Next up is the notifications screen. Very different from before it does not appear to have twitter and facebook post buttons. The emphasis is on the calendar much more now.

Siri

All-in-all siri is very similar to before. Now, however, when you speak that line moves in audio waves. It is the same basic design with less shine and a simpler interface.

Mail

The mail screen is very very different. Aside from the obvious minimal icons and thin fonts it is also very light. However like the other designs it has the same idea, just a more flattened version so to speak.

Multitasking

Multitasking has changed significantly. Now it shows whole screenshots of the apps that are open and also is much bigger. It is less subtle and more noticable. From a usability perspective it seems much more complicated now.

Messages

Messages have changed a lot. They are now very very minimal, and the keyboard has changed as well. The top seems a little cluttered.It seems a bit more squished in iOS 7.

Weather

Weather is very minimal now. It also changes with cool animations to display the current weather which is pretty cool. However it seems a little light, depending on the weather, and may be hard to read.

Camera

The camera screen became much much uglier if you ask me. It looks so odd with that big red button. Aside from that the top is relatively similar. The biggest change is probably the bottom with the slide to change capability.

Photos

Photo albums are still pretty similar. The are simply more minimal and switched around a little. They also show a little more information about each photo which may be helpful.

New Features

A few new features include airdrop which makes image sharing super easy, and iTunes Radio which is somewhat like Pandora or Spotify. It allows you to buy music directly from it which is quite nice.

The final new feature is control center. This is a comprehensive dropdown menu to control music, brightness, flashlight, camera, calculator, and the watch apps. It is quite amazing and seems to be one of the most sought after features to come with iOS 7.

All in all the new designs are relatively new, however most accomplish the same tasks. It will be interesting to see how Apple refines and works on these apps while pushing through the beta stages. I feel like a fair amount of changes are necessary before the final launch.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - iOS 6 Apps vs iOS 7 Apps
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Some people like the new iOS 7 and some people don’t – I am one of those people who absolutely hate the new iOS 7 icons.

I’ve seen so many tech blog posts say how flat these icons are when really they don’t have a clue about what flat is. Flat isn’t about removing all borders, shadows and detail from icons, then adding hideous gradients which have the lighting all wrong. It’s actually pretty hard to explain what ‘flat design’ really is, the best way to explain it is by looking at examples such as our flat icons post.

Above is a screenshot of the iOS 7 homescreens with all the stock icons. Straight away you can tell that there is no consistency whatsoever. They’re literally a gradient or solid colour with some icons slapped on top. These sorts of icons any Photoshop user can create within seconds.

What is going on with the mail and safari icons? For some odd reason the lighting is coming from below on the mail app, then it’s coming from on top on the safari app. The same goes for the phone and music app. You’d at least get the lighting coming from one way right, surely.

That Game Center icon, I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on there. How are multi coloured bubbles supposed to represent gaming?

The shadows and borders for the icons have been removed too. So if you have a black background, the Compass icon would look like it’s blending in, it’ll end up disappearing.

A Dribbble user by the name of Leo Drapeau took the original design and redesigned it a little. Above is his work, on the left is his redesign and on the right are the default designs. Straight away you can see more consistency. All icons now have a more subtle gradient with the lighting coming from above. More spacing has been applied for most icons so it looks like they actually fit and aren’t being crammed into a small space. It’s these little things that make such a huge difference. I would much rather prefer the redesign by Leo.

But I still never liked iOS icons from the beginning, even before iOS 7. I’ve always found them too garish. I myself am jailbreaking fan which allows me to apply icon kits to my device and my favourite icon kits are MIUI and Jaku.

MIUI is easily one of the best examples out there for flat icon design. It uses an absolutely beautiful array of colours for its icons that match very well. The icons represent the apps very well with just the right amount of detail. And the consistency is just fabulous.

Jaku is another absolutely stunning theme which blows away any other theme when it comes to detail. The amount of detail in each icon is just phenomenal. The theme itself may not be flat but it’s great example of how detail can have an impact on app representation.

It’s a shame Apple, the company who bring us beautiful products like the iPhone and iPad, the company which prides themselves on detail and quality could overlook something like this. The word going round is that they let their marketing team design these icons, a team which most likely doesn’t have a clue about icon design. Those icons are the representation of iOS 7 – it’s the first thing any user will see, why would they overlook something like that?

I’m not going to give my opinion on iOS 7 itself and the new apps. It’s still in BETA and far from ready for the public so it’d be unfair to give it review now.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - This Is What The iOS 7 Icons Should Have Looked Like
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Photo editing apps seem to be never ending on the iOS platform, so many of the top apps are picture-based apps. And now there is another photo editing app that is making the rounds.

Mextures is a photo editing app which doesn’t just have filters that transform the look of your pic, but it also has textures, these textures can add a very different feel to the pictures you take.

Mextures has over 70 original textures and filters that can be applied to your images. You can choose how much of an impact the filter has on your picture so you can get the effect just right. But it doesn’t stop there, you can also choose many different blending modes, just like you can Photoshop. And the best part of it all is the ability to have multiple filters stacked on top of each other – something which I’ve yet to see in any other popular image editing app.

When you find the perfect formula you don’t have to remember how it was done, you can directly save that formula for future use – making it a lot easier to get that unique effect you applied on a previous picture.

Mextures also doesn’t have a silly amount of in-app purchases which seem to be taking over most apps these days. You simply buy the app once from the App Store and you have everything available to you from the get go.

Mextures for iPhone

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Mextures for iPhone
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The iOS homescreen still follows the same style as the first ever iOS, in fact it wasn’t even known iOS back then with the first iPhone. The grid style of icons still exist and even today where other mobile OS’ like Android and Windows Phone have widgets and love icons, Apple has chosen to just keep the same old grid style.

Many will say that not much innovation has happened over the years but then look what at what has happened with iOS 7 and its icons – many absolutely hate the new look. Now I’m not saying having new icons is ‘innovation’ but when people want change and it comes, they hate it – companies lose either way.

via

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - How Much Or So Little The iOS Homescreen Has Changed
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If you didn’t know already, iOS 7 has a new live backgrounds feature where a wallpaper moves depending on how you move your phone, it looks as though you can look behind icons. It was thought that these live backgrounds will be limited to normal images and the default ones that come with iOS 7. However it looks like you can also set panoramic images as your background as Vine user Denys demonstrates.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - iOS 7 Allows You To Have Panoramic Images As Live Backgrounds
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Apple announced the all new iOS 7 yesterday, which has an all new design led by Jony Ive – the designer who designs most of the Apple products.

The new iOS 7 has a new flat design, new typography, new icons and some other great new features. The design has caused a lot of controversy because it’s such a drastic change from the previous versions – some people hate it, some people love it but design has always been down to taste and preference.

Some great new features include the control center, new multi-tasking panel and some great newly designed apps.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Official iOS 7 Demo & Promo Video
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As expected, Apple has announced the all new version of of their mobile, iOS 7. This new version has an all new design, completely different from the previous generation – though it does still follow the same grid style.

All the icons and the whole UI has been changed, everything is much flatter and a lot more colourful. The system as a whole has been changed too, including the notification center, multitasking, iTunes, photos and much more.

There is a new feature called Control Center which now allows you to carry out system tasks such as turning on/off WiFi quicker than before.

From a designer’s point of view though, this is really ugly. I’m really disappointed the designers at Apple could even approve of this and dare think it was good looking. Who knows what they were thinking. Hopefully it’s a lot better in use.

iOS 7

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Apple Announce iOS 7 With All New Flat Design
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Rumours of and Apple Radio Service have been looming for a little while now. Well today at WWDC, those rumors came true. iTunes Radio, similar to that of pandora or rdio, displays a beautiful radio and music streaming service that takes into account your own, personal taste in music. With features like, “never play again”, you decide what music is played, and what genres best cater your interests.

A few other features include instant purchase of songs through iTunes, supported track skipping, and a whole slew of other features.

The all new iTunes Radio is set to be released sometime this fall for only US users initially. It is set to spread across the world at a later date.

Developing…

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Apple Announces iTunes Radio, Competitor to Spotify and Rdio
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Kingdom Rush, easily my most favourite game on the iPad has just got a sequel – Kingdom Rush Frontiers. This new version is a whole new app in its own and is available on iPad and iPhone.

Kingdom Rush is a highly addictive tower defence game. The graphics are simply stunning and remind me of the days of Pokemon on Gameboy. There are 18 different towers to fight off 40 different enemies. You get a whole host of other features which enhance your gameplay and make it a truly great game. For those who have played the game before you’ll be very familiar with it as it is very much the same as the original version.

I recommend going for the HD version on the iPad, with the larger screen it’s great fun.

The Android version will be coming but there is no set date yet. You can still get the original Kingdom Rush on Android though.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers for iPhone | HD for iPad

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Kingdom Rush Frontiers for iPad & iPhone
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VSCO Cam has been a massively popular photography app for the iPhone. But they’ve just released a massive update, completely redesigning the app and including a whole new array of features and functionality.

There’s so much you can do with VSCO Cam that sometimes it’s hard working out what to do. The photo app has a wealth of editing tools to completely transform your iPhone pictures. There is an array of preset filters which can be used, but something you can do with the filters is customise them to perfectly fit your pictures.

The app also has the sites blog built-in so you check out highlighting content from other VSCO users. It also provides inspiration, tutorials and interviews.

If you’re a photography fanatic, this is a brilliant app.

VSCO Cam

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - VSCO Cam for iPhone
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Realmac Software, the people behind the ridiculously popular ‘Clear’ to-do list app have come out with an all new camera app for the iPhone. Usually you hear of great software companies being mainly based in the US, but Realmac Software is actually pretty close to where I live myself. So it’s great to know an independent company with just a few people can build some awesome products.

Analog Camera is Realmac Software’s shot at the camera app scene, which we already know is very saturated. But somehow the app is already the 11th most popular paid app on the App Store (for the UK app store that is) and it was only released two days ago.

After using the app I can see why it’s become so popular. The first thing you’ll notice is how quickly it loads, it’s just as fast as the stock camera app. When launched you’re given the screen you see in the picture above. The frame is in a square format, which unfortunately may be a killer for some. Above is a quick glance at your camera roll, giving you really quick access to your recently taken pictures – faster than any other camera app I’ve come across.

The app has the very useful ability to set different focus and exposure points. The iPhone camera doesn’t have great dynamic range which is to be expected from such a small camera. By setting two different points you can get the exposure just right for your picture. There’s also a horizon line to help you align the picture perfectly – no more wonky images.

Once you’ve chosen or taken your picture, you’re shown the effects screen. In the middle will be your original image, surrounding that is the eight different effects you have at your disposal. Something unique and simply marvellous is when you swipe your finger over the different effects it’ll quickly show you a larger thumbnail – it’s pretty nifty.

Below the thumbnail grid you’ll see the options to save your image, email it, share it to different apps and the ability to share it directly to Facebook or Twitter.

Instead of having to go to the Twitter or Facebook app, Analog Camera lets you post the image directly from within the app. You can add a caption and then publish it. It’s literally as quick as that.

Analog Camera’s main goal is to make picture taking and sharing as quick as possible without any of the extras that other apps may offer. If you want more options you can of course choose other apps. Analog isn’t trying give you all the options in the world, it just wants to make the process a quick affair.

Analog Camera for iPhone – £0.69 ($0.99)

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Analog Camera for iPhone
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Mailbox, the very popular email app for iPhone which was bought by Dropbox shortly after their success, has at last come to the iPad. And as you’d expect, it’s pretty awesome.

As you’d expect with, the iPad version is just as good, if not better than the iPhone version. With the larger screen, there is more information being showed at once. You get the awesome dual-pane view, on the left is your email list and on the right is the email.

Everything is pretty much the same from the iPhone app. Although I’m still not a huge fan of the UI and the font – but the main thing is that it works brilliantly. Mailbox has been designed to make your email list like a to-do list, helping you sift through emails super quick.

All we’re waiting for now is a desktop and Android version.

Mailbox for iOS

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Mailbox Now Available for iPad
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Wacom are known for their very popular graphic tablets which aid designers when it comes to creating stuff. But now they’re expanding and releasing apps.

Bamboo Loop is a new app from Wacom. It’s a brand new messaging app – a market everyone seems to be fighting for. But this messaging app is very different from many others, this has more of an arty touch. It allows you to play around with pictures to add your own style.

Wacom are going for the “pictures are worth a thousand words” tactic here. They want people to send unique to each other instead of text. It’s an interesting tactic. Who knows if the app will be successful because others have tried doing this but not got very far.

The app is beautifully designed. In true Wacom style, it has a gorgeous UI which is a joy to use.

Bamboo Loop

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Bamboo Loop – A Messaging App by Wacom
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If you’ve been a user of Google’s products, you’ll probably know of all the chat services they had. They had so many it was so hard to keep track and it was a mess. Google have now sorted out this issue by releasing Google+ Hangouts.

Hangouts now unifies everything, putting everything under one umbrella. It allows you to have one-on-one or group conversations involving photos, emoji, videos and calls – all for free.

Hangouts is completely cross platform, it works on Android, iOS and the web. Messages stay in sync between all devices, so if you read a message on one device, it’ll show as being read on another.

This is Google’s attack on services like Apple’s iMessage and WhatsApp. But Google beat iMessage by being multi-platform and it beats WhatsApp by being free so Hangouts is probably the best free messaging and calling service available right now. All you need is an internet connection.

Google Hangouts for Android | iOS | Chrome

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Google Hangouts Released for iOS, Android & Web
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Android users will already know of MIUI and it’s popularity on the OS. I was in the Android scene when MIUI launched and it was a huge hit. It brought a lot of style to the then bland Android OS. Thankfully Android has come along way since then.

MIUI has now come over to iOS in the form of a Winterboard theme. And as you’d expect, it looks absolutely stunning. All the default icons for iOS have been changed to now have a minimalistic flat style – it’s brilliant and different from what others have to offer.

It doesn’t just offer icons. It also offers customised versions of the iPod app, the SMS app, phone app and a lot of the general UI, such as the buttons, transitions…etc.

This has got to be one of the most beautiful themes available for iPhone right now, it’s just sublime.

Now you probably want to get this theme on your iPhone, here’s how.

How To Install MIUI Theme on iOS

MIUI is optimised for the iPhone 5. It will run on any other devices which run iOS 6. It does not support iPad.

To get started you’ll need to add another repo to cydia – http://cydia.myrepospace.com/imiui – go into the repo and just install it. Then go to Winterboard and enable the theme.
You can also manually install the theme if you wish – full theme zip.

How To Get MIUI Lockscreen

If you’d like to have the MIUI lockscreen like I have (check out the pics above), you’ll need to do some more tweaking which can be a bit overwhelming to beginners. So please follow this if you’re comfortable with playing around with root files on your device.

1. First you’ll need to download JellyLock (BETA) from Cydia, it’s free.
2. Download the JellyLock customisation file. Unzip it.
3. You’ll need to then access your device root files and navigate to ‘/Library/Application Support/JellyLock/Contents/Resources’.
4. Go back to your unzipped JellyLock zip. Go to ‘themes/default’. Take all the files in there and copy to the folder you just navigated to on your device.
5. Enjoy!

The best thing about MIUI? It’s completely free. Most other major themes that I’ve covered on UltraLinx such as Jaku and Kiwi are paid.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - MIUI Comes to iPhone | Minimal iOS Theme | Cydia
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There are lots of Cydia themes available for iOS but I only like to cover the best – Kiwi is one of them. Kiwi is a brand new Cydia theme which launched just this week.

Kiwi has over 100 custom icons and it covers all the default iOS apps. It has a customised version of the notification centre, lockscreen, music player, messages and phone dialer. If you have Auxo, the icons for that will also be changed.

I’ve published posts on Jaku and Circles before, those themes have a very unique style, drifting away from iOS’ glossy style. If you like the default iOS gloss, Kiwi will be perfect for you. All the icons follow the same glossy style but they’re a lot more detailed and quirky. Though the messages app in this theme has a flat design – but I personally think it’s awesome.

This is another one of my top recommended Cydia themes, including Jaku and Circles.

It’s available on Cydia now for $2.99.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Kiwi iOS Cydia Theme | Download Now
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There’s no denying that cameras in smartphones have completely obliterated the need to carry around a compact camera. The iPhone has become the most popular device for taking pictures in the world, just because of how popular the device is.

Over the years since 2007, the iPhone has had major upgrades to its camera. And this camera test by Camera+ shows just how much. They took the time to go through a detailed analysis on the picture quality of the cameras over the years. Probably the most telling is the image below.

To make it fair, the iPhones were put at the same distance away from the object. The original iPhone and iPhone 3G had a fixed focus, it’s why their pictures are blurry.

Easily the biggest jump was from the 3G to the 3GS. But then the jump from the 4S to the 5 shows how much better the 5 is at colour reproduction and white balance.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - This Is How Much The Camera Quality On The iPhone Has Changed Over The Years
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Rumours about the next version of iOS being redesigned are literally never ending. Everyone has their own vision of what they would like for it to look like and do. Well here is a vision of iOS 7 from SimplyZesty. They’ve created a very quick concept which has completely flattened iOS. It’s actually very well done, but it does follow Windows Phone a lot.

Original Article on UltraLinx Website - Stunning iOS 7 Concept
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