It’s hard to figure out when you have the key ON or OFF

Mar 14, 2014 09:18 GMT  ·  By

iOS 7 brought a new minimalistic design characterized by flat graphics and washed out colors, something not everyone is a fan of. But the latest update, iOS 7.1, messes up the visual experience even more.

You need to know when you're in gear,

just like with cars

People who use their phones to type text messages, emails, notes, reminders, etc. have discovered with great frustration that iOS 7.1 makes a terrible change to the way the Shift key is displayed when pressed.

When Shift isn’t pressed, the button is grey, whilst the rest of the keyboard is white. When Shift is pressed, it becomes white like the rest of the keyboard. In this respect, you’d assume that all other keys are also pressed. Naturally, they’re not.

It’s something you can get used to, but you should have to. Also, it makes one reminisce about iOS 6 and how intuitive and easy on the eyes it was. I couldn’t be less disappointed with Apple at this point in time. UI-wise, they really need to get their act together, if they want to keep calling iOS “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.”

iOS 6 was spot on, change wasn't necessary

Let me remind you how things were in iOS 6. The comparison image below shows the current iOS 7.1 keyboard style on the left, and the iOS 6 virtual keyboard on the right.

The screenshot on the right is an image from an old guide on how to use Caps Lock on iPhone. The Shift key became blue when double-tapped, signaling that it was held down for constant caps-lock writing.

On the left, you have Apple’s current way of telling people that Shift is being held down. If I have to tell you what to look for, then this story has already served its purpose. Hopefully Apple understands this too and makes the proper adjustments in a future software update.

Comparison between iOS 7.1 keyboard and iOS 6 keyboard
Comparison between iOS 7.1 keyboard and iOS 6 keyboard
Timesofindia.com has compiled a few tweets from avid iOS users complaining about the issue. It’s pretty clear that people are confused by the change and Apple, as usual, is mum.

iOS 7.1.1 can't come fast enough

There are several other issues with iOS 7.1 that Apple might need to look into, such as a new battery drainage issue, new problems with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and perhaps other things that are yet to be covered in the media.

Ars Technica reportedly discovered “a statistically significant drop in battery life” after applying iOS 7.1 to one of their test units, while iLounge’s Jeremy Horwitz is also among the people hit by the battery drain epidemic.

“Bad news: after five months of testing, iOS 7.1 has an iPhone battery-killing bug. Good news: iOS 8 is only 6 short months away. Maybe 7,” the sarcastic Horwitz writes on Twitter.

Personally, I haven’t noticed any significant changes in battery life on my iPhone 5 with iOS 7.1 installed. Battery drainage usually affects particular configurations (i.e. some peculiar WiFi settings, a certain type of app constantly running in the background, etc.), but it's clear that iOS updates have their own contribution when Apple's forums get flooded with hundreds of identical complaints.

All in all, Apple should already be working on iOS 7.1.1, or iOS 7.2. Whatever they plan on putting in there in terms of new features and enhancements, I urge the Cupertino giant to consider looking to iOS 6 for inspiration on how a virtual keyboard should work. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke is what I always say.

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Apple shift key blunder
Comparison between iOS 7.1 keyboard and iOS 6 keyboard
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