iOS 7 eye strain

I respectfully disagree. One of the reasons I upgraded to the iPhone 5S from my iPhone 4S was the larger screen and the better legibility options in iOS 7. It's not a tremendous improvement (like larger icon text size), but it visually is crisper than iOS 6.

I'll also add that I tested, prior to this purchase, the HTC One which has the highest rated screen on the Android side, just for the sake of better viewing. However, even there, the increase of icon text size and built-in app content (settings, help, menu options) were not able to enlarge significantly if at all. So much so that I returned the unit because the trade-off for iTunes and iCloud was too great.

So I'm not certain if this is simply an inherent issue with smartphone devices overall.

pairof9s,

I upgraded to a 5 from a 4s for essentially the same reasons you stated, despite the added cost to me.

I moved to the iPhone 4s from a Samsung Note, which was very legible simply due to it's size, due to the visual sophistication and elegance of iOS--it made the Samsung seem, well, cartoony.

I now have a cartoon on obnoxiously bright day-glo steroids with my iPhone 5.

I must admit I do wonder about your comment regarding text size on the HTC One--I had several HTC phones as well and, like the Note, there was a remarkable degree of flexibility in changing both fonts and font sizes, as I recall. Not on icons, but on everything else--one could increase basic font size by a factor of 3 or so. My wife has a Galaxy III and she has a nice large font that displays on texts and emails--she increases the size when her eyes are tired and goes smaller when her contacts aren't caked in pollen...

There is much I do like about iOS 7 in terms of it's added functionality, but the visuals make the phone unusable for me.

tuba-paul,

No, you're correct. I could enlarge the type size of texts, emails, web pages on the HTC One; but I can do that on the iPhone as well (Accessibility settings). Where I did not see an ability to increase size significantly was within apps such as Facebook or Evernote, whether it be content or menu items/settings. The larger HTC screen did increase it some, proportional to its size increase vs iPhone 5, but not enough to fully help or justify the trade-offs as I stated.

Bottom line is I probably need to accept the fact that I'll need permanent glasses soon. But that point made, I thus prefer the iPhone 5/iOS overall. I'm quite fine with the visuals of iOS 7...to each his/her own, I guess.

I am in my mid 50s, both near- and far-sighted. In the first 3 days after the switch, I felt the same. However, now I just love the way my iPhone 4S looks. I sometimes just turn it on so that I can look at it. Why? Some of that can be explained in this NY Times article about how long it takes for humans to adjust to a new look and a new way of doing things.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/tips-for-making-the-change-to-ios-7/

You could start out with an all black background if you like to increase contrast and you can make the fonts bold and overall look more contrasy as suggested by others by going to "Settings." Furthermore, since most of the background in the app is now white, you need to turn down the screen brightness to adjust. This will also save your battery power. I will never go back to iOS6!

For those of you like, me, who really do not like iOS7 at all, and want to rollback, I can only add a description of why you can't downgrade any longer. Could you have? Yes, on Thursday or Friday, however Apple removed their "signature" on the iOS6.1.3 files late Friday night or early Saturday morning which prevented you, or rather blocked you, from legitimately downgrading.

If you had downloaded your SHSH-blob file (a secure signature file created between your device and Apple for your software version), you could still legitimately downgrade. If in fact, if you had all of your blobs for previous versions, you could go up and down all you want. That is however, only if you knew that these existed before you upgraded, and made a copy of it. Otherwise, you have to validsate online against Apple's server to "check" for a legitimate signature for th version you are trying to load... which in the case of the iPad2, 3 and 4, is now only iOS7. Sad...

In my case, I had successfully rolled my iPhone4 back, but it was late and it took me a few hours to learn how to do it, so I put off doing the iPad2 until the morning... my mistake there, and found that the signature was gone and I couldn't downgrade my iPad2.... and I didn't know about the blobs, yet...

Is there any way back? Well, legitimately not unless we can coerse Apple into opening the signature for iOS6.1.3 again. Personally part of what like about my Apple products are that they are legitimate, secured and locked against things like viruses, hackers, and etc... and 'cracking' isn;t really what I want to do to my once-beautiful iPad.

Here's hoping that either someone in Apple with a heart, that remembers Steve Job's words all those years ago, about "...giving users options" and the focus on the user-experience (remember the MAC-OS/Internet Explorer announcement... or the Conference where he took on a complainer who challenged him), and which has always been the Apple-mantle; will step back and be human, perhaps a bit understanding and caring, and unlock and allow the iOS6.1.3 signature for those of us who really REALLY do not like iOS7, despite the efforts of those who do like it to try and force us to accept it, because as the users who are loyal and LOVE our Apple products it's simply the right thing to do. Right?

It's either that, or give us a glimmer of hope, accept the mistake, and add some of the features from iOS "classic" for us in iOS7.1?

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My issue isn't the lock screen and home screen background, which can be changed, it's with the application background on texts, on emails, on safari, on settings screens and the astrobright green with white text on the status bar--the stark white background used with poor contrast colors such as light grey make for eyestrain, and turning down the brightness doesn't help the contrast issue, it just results in a grey screen.

I have already bolded the fonts and selected the "increase contrase" setting, and I usually have my brightness down quite low to reduce eyestrain unless I am outside in full sunlight.

The reverse colors option would be perfect if it only changed apple application screen backgrounds and not the entire screen--it makes for strange icons, and it reverses apps and pictures as well.

I actually like the transparency effect when using a background image of a cloudy sunset on the ocean, but have taken photographs of antrhacite and blue pearl granite and use those now instead, just to get the darker screen. And the 3D effect is something that both HTC and Samsung have been toying with for years in various ways--Apple's parallax seems pretty minor in comparison. When did Apple stop being an innovator and start being a follower, though? I don't like that my iPhone no longer looks like an Apple product but instead looks like an Android/Microsoft Windows Phone rip-off, but with reduced functionality (I can change skins in Android--not just colors, but icons, too, and WP has for years offered a light scheme nearly identical to iOS7 and a dark scheme that would be most welcome--please copy that as well, Apple!).

Thank you for posting the article, by the way--it is interesting, but my issue is not with the functional changes--I agree they are an improvement--I just think the removal of skeuomorphic cues reduces the intuitiveness of the OS, the removal of textures changes the look from visually elegant to cartoonish, and the selected color scheme seems to have been selected to minimize legibility while increasing eye strain. My eyes hurt, and 7 days of brain training will not change the contrast issues that are leading to my eye strain.

Apple really screwed up with this IOS 7. The GUI and changes to access features and options are horrible! I called Apple and spoke to tech support. They're all drinking the "Cool aide".

Apple has to provide some sort of blackout option. They just made such a dramatic change to the whole IPhone that I want my money back!! This is not what I bought and wouldn't have spent a dime on this. I absolutely LOVED the previous version(s) but this iOS 7 just made me want to throw the phone away and switch to something else.

I feel like someone just switched phones on me in the sneak. Never will I buy another apple product. And unfortunately I have 2 iPhones and 2 iPads. Both iPhones have this ios7 crap now for 2 days. I'm not upgrading the iPads.

Totally agree. I Ben using iPads and iPhone for several years, and was a huge supporter with friends and family. This IOS7 is a JOKE to say the least. Real garbage. We're seeing the demise of an excellent product.

Hey APPLE - how about a choice to revert out of IOS7???

what a load of crap! A lousy product is a lousy product. Apple was always user friendly and intuitive right out of the box. If your trying to say that you just need to get used to this new IOS 7 to like it tells you something right there about how lousy it is. You can get used to missing half your body after a while, does that mean its a better body??

I have the same problem!! I have astigmatism and new iOS 7 hurts my eyes and makes me sick.. I really disappointed as I loved my iPhone 5, and now I will probably switch to different phone if they would not solve this problem!!

This new OS7 actually hurts my eyes as well and makes it more difficult to read. As a longtime Apple user for 25 years one of their strengths of Apple has always been graphics ( why so many graphics artists have used their products) This was a major step back in the look and graphics. To those who pipe up about all the improvements the bottom line is this is what you have to stare at on the screen everyday.

Only fanboys love iOS7 and they would frankly love anything Apple gave them. I get eyestrain from certain areas of iOS7, especially the SMS app and calendar.

Do you guys get eye strain reading books or newspapers? After all they're normally printed on white paper.

Agree totally hard on the eyes and ugly ! Steve Jobs would be rolling in his grave if he saw this. I have sent my comments to the Apple feedback to voice my concern and disappointment and others should do the same so they get the message .

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Looking at paper print and reading on a screen is a totally different experence and yes it is much easier to read on a printed page and has much less eye strain than on a lcd screen.