The web has been atwitter with rumours of what Apple would bring us at WWDC for months, and it all finally became clear at yesterday’s keynote. We develop for iOS, and we’re really excited or the new features iOS 7 brings us.

iOS 7 rewrites the book for Apple’s mobile OS, taking the design and features in a new direction. Here’s just a few of the things shown yesterday, but you can watch the whole keynote over at apple.com

For the Users

Notification Center

Apple’s Notification center has been welcomed by many, allowing them to quickly see all their notifications in one place. Apple just gave it a kick, allowing users to do even more. Individual notifications are bigger than before, meaning they can hold more information. Swipe away the ones you don’t like, or tap and the app opens having already updated to show you the information. You can even open it on the lock screen.

Control Center

Easily access some of the regularly used controls on your iOS device. Quickly play and pause your music, turn features on and off (including a new flashlight feature), beam media using AirPlay, or share with your friends using AirDrop, all in one place.

AirDrop

iOS’s lack of Bluetooth file transfer has annoyed some people since it’s inception in 2007. Apple have brought their WiFi based AirDrop sharing to iOS, allowing you to quickly and easily share almost anything with your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch wielding friends. There’s no pairing, just a quick ‘Do you want this file?’ dialogue, and then you’re sharing over WiFi, so it’s bloomin’ quick.

Photos

It’s no secret that people love taking photos on their iPhones, and iOS 7 improves that, with multiple types of photo and filter, straight from the camera. And quickly and easily organise your photos by where and when they were taken.

For the Makers

A whole new design

iOS 7 looks completely different. Gone is the green felt, stitched leather and wood of yesterversion. To stay is a flatter design, using layers to build up the OS as needed. Cues from the real world replaced with bold colours. iOS is now all about what you’re doing with the device, with the OS getting out of the way.

True Multitasking

iOS 7 enabled multitasking for all applications, smartly doing what it needs when it needs to. Apps automatically refresh in the background, meaning they get the information they need, when they need. It learns when and what people use, and is ready for them.

AirDrop

Anywhere you can open a share panel on iOS, you can access AirDrop. Imagine what you can now do when it’s super easy to share things over WiFi with other iOS devices. No more bumping, or sending URLs, etc. Just send the file you need to send over a super fast connection. Sharing anything just became a no-brainer.

The App Store

The App Store has been updated as well. Users can now see Apps relevant to where they are. At the Louvre? See apps that are popular there. At a football match? See what everyone else is downloading. You get the gist. It’s easier to get your app noticed when you’re focussed.

Apps now autoupdate, meaning your users always have the latest version of your App. No more worrying about who has what features, or what percentage of your users are using the latest version. Fewer people moaning about bugs you’ve already fixed. It’s great, and a long time coming.

This is just a quick look at some of the stuff shown at WWDC. It’s an exciting time, and a lot more may be revealed as we move towards the Autumn 2013 release date. We’ve got the beta downloading, let us know if you’re looking to develop or test on iOS 7.