There's a collection of small details in iOS 7 that users will be able to discover and share this Fall. But one easter egg in particular stands above the rest: a pair of glasses with round frame for Apple's "Add to Reading List" feature.
The round glasses look remarkably similar to those belonging to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, due to complications from pancreatic cancer. The glasses had become an icon of the enigmatic entrepreneur during his life and after his death.
The round glasses replaced the previous pair of glasses with a sharp, boxy frame found on the "Add to Reading List" button. Of course, Mahatma Gandhi and John Lennon wore similar round glasses and so do the Dalai Lama. However, we have a good reason to believe that Jony Ive, the chief designer of iOS 7, has intentionally used the new icon. You see, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive were very good friends and spent long hours discussing Apple's vision and future. The new button design could be an intentional, subtle homage to Jobs by Ive.
Steve Jobs' death from cancer in 2011, while expected, had sent a shockwave through Silicon Valley's tech community. Startups and established firms alike offered small tributes to the late Apple founder with makeshift memorials both online at Apple, and offline at Cupertino, Calif.
More recently, Pixar, which Jobs also once headed, renamed its main studio building The Steve Jobs Building, which, according to 9to5Mac, Jobs himself helped to design before his death. That building opened in 2012.
But not everyone is happy with Ive's design of iOS 7's ecosystem, saying the colors used are too bright and varied, launching at least one Tumblr blog entitled "Jony Ive Redesigns Things."
Regardless of aesthetic tastes, iOS 7 does have some hidden treats which weren't on display at WWDC 2013.
According to TechCrunch, which previewed iOS 7, the new operating system also features a few highly sought-after tweaks, such as the ability to put Newsstand into a folder and sorting applications based on how much cellular data they use.
Other tweaks include a "trending" Twitter Music station integrated with iTunes Radio, integrated Tencent Weibo (a popular Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter), call and message blocking, a QR code scanner built into Passbook and a level being built into the compass application.
Of course, these easter eggs and hidden tweaks could be changed or modified by the time iOS 7 hits shelves this fall. But we're willing to bet that the circular pair of glasses on the Reading List icon will remain.
