One of the perks of being signed up as an iOS dev is the chance to preview the new iOS 7 a few months before the general release. So far, iOS users have been fairly divided on the new UI theme, and some (myself included) haven't decided one way or another about it. I will be focusing on specific features and UI elements instead of the skeuomorphic-to-flat transformation. Keep in mind that this is the first beta, so it is buggy and is subject to change over these next few months.

Springboard (Home Screen)

Icons have lost their default gloss, borders, and drop shadows. Folders have translucent backgrounds that show the wallpaper and paginate when filled with more an 9 apps.

Some of the stock apps that could not be dropped into folders are now droppable. Clock and Calendar have real-time animation.

The most noticeable change is the gyroscope parallax effect that puts the wallpaper (static, panoramic, or dynamic), icons, and badges, on layers that move independently in a pseudo-3D manner.

Task Manager

Previews of active apps show in a horizontal line-up that provides the last state. To bring an app forward, click on its thumbnail or icon; to close the app, swipe it upward.

Safari

Browsing creates history "layers" that mimic the navigation hierarchy of many apps (SDK Community included), letting one swipe away the most recent page to view the previous one. When scrolling the webpage, the chrome hides, and the address bar shrinks, providing almost the entire screen for the content. The most noticeable change is the tab view, which shows like a Rolodex and includes content from other iOS devices and Mac OS devices that share the same account.

Siri

Siri's interface shows bigger text and a line that visualizes the microphone input. There is tighter integration into Twitter, Facebook, Bing, Wikipedia, and iOS itself. Now, its as easy as asking to find "What is [Insert annoying celebrity] saying?"

Photos

For anyone with 1000s of photos, scrolling through them was always a pain. The updated version of this app allows easy drill down through all the photos, starting at the years, then locations, then events, then the photos themselves. When zoomed fully out, it looks similar to the Photo Channel on the Wii. All levels of depth allow easy scrubbing to view thumbnails.

Control Center

Similarly to how Notification Center in iOS 5 and 6 allowed a downward swipe to view details at any time, Control Center does the same with an upward swipe. It allows for quick configuration of many common settings and access to a few utility apps.

Lock Screen

The Lock Screen is very minimalist on the surface, but it gives access to recent notifications and single gestures for Camera, Notification Center, Control Center, and Siri. The parallax effect on the Springboard is also present here.

Weather

This app took the opposite direction of many others in iOS 7, in that it has a more detailed appearance. All cities added show videos of the various weather phenomena present, including "Showers", "Foggy", "Mostly Cloudy", etc. Stormy weather is even detailed enough to show rain falling and lightning illuminating clouds and striking in large bolts. By default, each city shows as its own screen, but a pinch gesture will compress them to fix several stacked on the screen.

Message

Like many of the built-in apps (Stocks, Phone, Calculator, etc.), little changed with Message. Speech bubbles float into place from the text field, and both the keyboard and toolbar are translucent (revealing any content that is scrolled beneath them). Aside from these minor changes, little has really changed visually. The real showcase is some behind-the-scene changes: Autocorrect has been improved in the area of commonly confused words. It looks at context for it's/its, their/they're/there, etc.

Compass

This app is more precise and includes a level dedicated level.

Game Center

The whole appearance of this app has been overhauled, losing the casino felt look and gaining a colored bubble interface on a white background. Another social element, Turns, has been added.