Every September, Apple releases new iPods, iPhones, iPads and operating systems. This year is no exception. After the release of the revolutionary iPhone 5s and 5c, a new iPhone operating system was made available on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Students at DHS and other iPhone users worldwide finally had the opportunity to download and experience the new operating system, called ios 7.

During fifth hour on Wednesday, students anxiously watched the update screen on their iPhones for the release of ios 7 at 1:00 in the afternoon. The school internet server was about to see much more activity than usual, as large numbers of students were minutes away from downloading a software that needs wireless internet connection and at least 3.1 gigabytes of space. When a mass amount of these downloads are happening at the same time, the school server can experience some major setbacks and crashes.

“I had some major problems with my students trying to connect to files on the group share and in talking to tech support was told that they feel a lot of the slowness of the server is coming from students trying to download the new ios 7,” english and journalism teacher Cammie Hall said.

The majority of students attempting to download ios 7 on the release date on the school server experienced their own problems while downloading the system. Many students faced the disappointment of reading the words: three hours remaining. The ios 7 operating system typically takes only about half an hour. This goes to show how students downloading the system on their phones during class time caused the server to slow down dramatically.

Although numerous students attempted to download the system on their iPhones last week, many of them failed to do so. They were forced to wait until arriving home and use their personal wireless networks to download ios 7. The school server was therefore slowed down, without even benefiting ios 7 downloaders.

“I get the excitement over something new, the desire to want to have it,” Hall said. “The problem is that it is affecting what is going on in my classroom and so that is frustrating. I hate to limit students’ availability to items but I think downloads like this where it is not a necessity, those are things that you have to learn as a student that this isn’t the appropriate venue to be using that and that it can wait until you are at home.”

The slowing down of the school server is not something new to DHS. Every March, there is an increase in the wireless network activity due to the March Madness college basketball tournament app. The app allows you to watch every game, which students often do during the school day. The server has the ability to block certain apps and websites, and has already done so with Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media. However, with large downloads such as ios 7, whether the server gets slowed down or not is in the hands of the students.

Despite the school’s server set back, DHS students have managed to download ios 7 and many are now using it on their phones every day. The new look and features of the iPhone has caused a variety of opinions to arise.

“I don’t really like the design of it, I think it looks like a six year old girl designed it,” junior Skyler Contardi said. “The functions are pretty cool though.”

Contardi’s opinion was shared by a number of male DHS students using ios 7. Many argue that the new look is too girly and different. However, a trend within the female students at DHS shows that the new design is appealing to them.

“I like the design of the new home screen, I like the new app icons and colors, but I think iMessage needs more colors because it looks too plain,” junior Audrey Moolenaar said.

There are many opinions similar to that of Moolenaar’s around DHS, which shows that different students like and dislike different parts of the new operating system. However there are also certain students and staff around DHS that are sticking with the ios 6 operating system for now. Their reasoning behind doing so vary from waiting until they receive the newly released iPhones, or simply being attached to the ios 6 operating system.

“My philosophy is this: it’s kind of like a new restaurant, you really don’t want to go opening night, you want to give them about a week to work on any of those bugs that might be happening and then I’ll go ahead and maybe take a look at it,” Hall said. “It looks cool and I probably would be happy with it but until I see a few more people using it and working with it I’ll hold off.”

Apple claims that ios 7 is simpler, more useful and enjoyable and that it is the start of a new chapter for ios. Weather the system really is what Apple claims it to be is up to the users, and as for the new chapter of ios, DHS students and staff are eagerly awaiting new releases in the years to come.