A Brief Summary of Some Awesome Little Details in iOS 7

This won't be a comprehensive list, because there are other people who have already done that sort of thing. As someone who wasn't in on the beta and therefore wasn't early enough to the game to write such a post, I just wanted to give a little rundown of some of the little details in iOS 7 that I've been enjoying since updating:

1) When closing multiple tabs in Safari prior to iOS 7, it would automatically maximize the last tab before you could get rid of it, irritatingly forcing you to reopen the tab manager. Thankfully, the new version allows you to dismiss the last tab along with all the others. It's a much smoother experience.

2) The way the Springboard zooms in and out of apps and folders gives a very clear sense of where you're going and where you're leaving from. There's a real feeling of hierarchy to these animations.

3) The home screen wallpaper zooms in ever so slightly when a folder is opened. Just a nice touch of additional, subtle input to let you know what's going on.

4) Since folders now show only 9 apps per page rather than 12, folder icons on the home screen feel more like accurate representations of their contents than in the past. Before iOS 7, you could see the first nine icons within any given folder from the Springboard, but as soon as a folder was opened and zoomed up, additional apps would appear on the bottom row. It was a bit jarring.

5) I don't think I've ever purchased or downloaded a flashlight app from the App Store, opting instead to just use the iPhone's backlit screen on the rare occasions I needed a light. Now that there's an easily-accessible flashlight in Control Center though, I use it all the time.

6) The new system sounds (including the one that dings when you plug the device into a power source) are a huge improvement over the previous ones. Some are actually quite reminiscent of the lovely Clear Tones ringtone set.

7) Background updating for apps feels like magic...when it works.

8) I love how various UIs (the phone keypad, podcast players, etc) can change colors based on background images or artwork, without seeming garish.

9) The flowing sine wave used to represent Siri is a lot more interesting-looking to me than the old light-up microphone.

10) The hands on the Clock.app home screen icon accurately reflect the current time, and the hand movements are silky smooth.

11) The new placement of Spotlight actually encourages me to use it more often. The only times I ever even opened that screen on iOS 6 and prior versions were by accident.

There are other little details I'm bound to discover as I continue using iOS 7, but these are just some of the ones that have stood out to me. There will always be faults that come with any big OS revision, and iOS 7 is no different, but it's clear that Apple is still paying the same kind of careful attention to little details that has made their products feel so magical and a joy to use over the years.