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iOS 7 has a built-in hammer flattening older apps

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Some third-party apps appear to have different icons between iOS 6 and iOs 7.

Some third-party apps appear to have different icons between iOS 6 and iOs 7.

Apple’s radically new set of default icons is probably the biggest point of contention surrounding iOS 7. Each new icon has been redrawn and features a new color palette that fits to a new design grid. While these new standards are not mandatory, most developers will likely want to rethink the way their icons are presented in a way that makes them coherent to the new user-interface of the operating system.

While looking around in iOS 7 and observing the redesigned user-interface, I expected third-party applications would feature the same familiar icons from iOS 6. This was the case in nearly every instance, aside from a few exceptions with icons that used the default gloss. Previous versions of iOS would automatically add a splash of glare to icons like most of Apple’s own apps, which adds a sense of depth to what otherwise is a two-dimensional plane.

Many apps already opted to manually remove the gloss effect as design trends moved toward the less ornamental look that led to iOS 7. It appears that the software automatically removes the gloss found in certain apps (e.g. Klout, Urban Dictionary), and I wouldn’t be surprised if the remainder of the gloss is removed by the time iOS 7 leaves beta later this fall. But what is most curious is a select few apps with entirely different icons between iOS 6 and iOS 7.
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