Rumor has it that Apple's iOS 7 development is delayed
There hasn't been any concrete news that an iOS 7 is even in the works, but that doesn't stop chatter about it being behind schedule and having a brand-new display.
As Apple continues to work on kinks and bugs in iOS 6, rumors are already flying about a possible iOS 7. The latest chatter suggests that Apple is running behind schedule in its development of iOS 7 but that the software will have a whole new display.
According to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, development for the possible operating system is so delayed that Apple has pulled engineers from the Mac OS X 10.9 team to work on it. This rumor suggests that Apple may be readying the operating system for its Worldwide Developer Conference, which is in the beginning of June and is typically where the company releases developer versions of its software.
Besides word of a delay of the possible new iOS, Gruber said he also got his hands on some news about the design of this rumored operating system. Apple's vice president of industrial design, Jony Ive, leads device interface development for the company and is apparently making some changes to iOS, changes Apple doesn't want inadvertently revealed by staffers who have the new build on their iPhones.
"Word on the street is that iOS engineers with carry privileges all have some sort of polarizing filter on their iPhone displays, such that it greatly decreases viewing angles, thus making it difficult for observers to see the apparently rather significant systemwide UI overhaul," Gruber wrote today.
Gruber also said that he heard the same information as iMore's Rene Ritchie, who wrote in a Branch forum that "Ive's work is apparently making many people really happy, but will also apparently make rich-texture-loving designers sad." Ritchie is referring to Ive's supposed dislike of skeuomorphism, or mimicking real-world objects and materials -- a leather-bound datebook, for example -- in software interfaces.
Rumors of an iOS 7 have been floating around since January, when software for the operating system apparently turned up in developer logs. However, it's still unclear if and when a new iOS might launch.
