Here’s what’s new in iOS 7 beta 3

BY Jason

Published 8 Jul 2013

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Apple has just seeded iOS 7 beta 3 to developers of its iOS Developer program.

Here’s what’s new in iOS 7 beta 3:

  • Beta 3 includes development versions of new male and female Siri voices for U.S. English and French, and a male voice for German. 
  • The Calendar app finally tells you which days you have events in the monthly view with the dots. Thanks Stan and Duston.

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  • The font seems to be thicker in the Notification Center and the stock apps. 
  • Slightly larger status bar icons in the Lock screen compared to the Home screen.

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  • In the lock screen, when music is playing, you can toggle between the music controls and the Clock by pressing the Home button. That’s neat. Thanks Joseph! Update: Apparently it was available in the previous betas as well.

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  • There is a new animation when you’re installing an app as you can see in the screenshot below. Look at the animation on the app at the bottom row (just above the dock). Thanks Sako!

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  • You can now pinch to zoom while you’re in landscape mode in the Music app. Thanks Junior C.
  • On the iPad, when the side switch is set to Orientation lock, the button in ControlCenter changes to a mute button. Thanks Kalo.
  • Folders appear to be more transparent. Thanks Alan.
  • The clock app in Control Center has been tweaked.
  • The AirPlay button in Control Center now shows the current status such as iPhone speaker.

ios7-beta3-airplay

  • New Reading list icon in the search bar in Safari. Thanks Alan and Danniboi.

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  • The system font in iOS 7 Beta 3 is now Helvetica Neue Regular instead of the Helvetica Neue Ultra Light (via @antichrista). Gif via @Cabel.

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  • You can now set Favorites in Safari, which can be accessed via the Bookmarks icon. Thanks Matthew. Update: Apparently this was available in beta 2.
  • Slight change in animation when you access Spotlight on the Home screen.
  • New settings under Accessibility to reduce the motion of the user interface, including the parallax effect of icons and alerts. Thanks Alan and Matthew.

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  • The icons in the Music app have been updated. Thanks Alan.

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  • The dictionary feature seems to be working now. Thanks Alan.

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  • The subject line is now show when the Notification arrives on the Lock screen. Thanks ML.
  • 9to5Mac has posted this video of some of the UI changes in iOS 7 beta 3:

  • In the Messages app, when you tap on the Contact option, it displays the icons for call, FaceTime and Info. If you tap on the call button, it gives you an option for Voice call or FaceTime call. Thanks Josh!

ios7-beta3-messages-contact

  • We’re hearing reports that Siri’s voice is even more realistic. And here’s what Siri has to say about it (via @rajavijayaraman).

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  • The .com button has been replaced with a simple period button in Safari. You can still access .com and other domain extensions by holding down on the button.
  • When you run an iPhone app on the iPad, iOS 7 no longer displays 2x mode. Thanks Gonçalo!

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  • Reader Peter reports that the javascript performance has also been improving based on the Sunspider javascript benchmarks seen below (lower score is better):

914.7 ms – iPhone 5 iOS 6
839.1 ms – iPhone 5 iOS 7 beta 1
724.0 ms – iPhone 5 iOS 7 beta 3

Let us know if you’ve found any other changes in iOS 7 beta 3 in the comments or send an email to [email protected]. Thanks everyone for the tips so far.