In your estimation, what did iOS "steal" from Android?
For example, a common iOS 7 feature cited as "stolen" is the app switching interface. But that's the same interface Safari has used for switching tabs since the very first iPhone. They simply repurposed their Safari UI for the OS.
I make my living writing iOS apps, but come on - there's plenty here that has been "borrowed". Off the top of my head:
- The insta-airplane-mode-wifi-bluetooth buttons in iOS7. These are a straight lift from Android, and have been hotly demanded by users for a long time.
- Notification Center is an incredibly uncanny look-and-feel-alike of notifications in Android. It's basically an outright clone - though this isn't an iOS7 development.
- The new app switcher is a takeoff from webOS. Swipe to close an app is also implemented almost precisely like it was on webOS. Claims that this came from Android are IMO off the mark. I don't think it's fair to say they repurposed the Safari tab-switcher, considering the gestures bear such an uncanny resemblance to the webOS implementation.
I never need to switch to airplane mode, or bluetooth on/off in a hurry? I wonder who these people are they find setting/slide airplane mode so time consuming.
People who use Bluetooth regularly find themselves having to turn it on and off for the sake of battery life. It's great to be able to do so without diving through multiple menus.
It's also not just airplane mode - do-not-disturb mode is also really useful, and it should be fairly obvious why someone would want to toggle it without menu-diving.
Ditto orientation lock. In iOS6 is tap-tap-swipe-tap-tap, now it's just swipe-tap. This last one is kind of a platform problem though - orientation lock is useful in part because some apps excel at landscape mode, while others suck at it but insist on enabling it.
I'm a bit baffled by this myself. I'm on the iOS 7 beta, and it's far closer to WP7 than Android. (Which is awesome -- I loved WP7, just wished it had apps.)
I think you could argue the control center is borrowed from Android (although the iOS 7 version looks kinda spiffier). The interface for moving between apps is similar. I had to open Safari to see your comparison. The demo I see on the product page for iOS7 reminds me more of Android than Safari. I remember seeing a few other things in the WWDC presentation but I don't remember what they were.
All that said, I hope both sides "steal" good ideas early and often.
For example, a common iOS 7 feature cited as "stolen" is the app switching interface. But that's the same interface Safari has used for switching tabs since the very first iPhone. They simply repurposed their Safari UI for the OS.