The jury may still be out on iOS 7's radical redesign - for what it's worth we love it, with a few reservations - but there's no denying that it's the friendliest version and most powerful of iOS yet. But there's more to iOS 7 than headline features such as Control Center, Airdrop and iTunes Radio: some of our favourite improvements are little things that make our everyday lives that little bit more pleasant. These are our favourites - let us know yours in the comments.

1. Camera: shoot in burst mode

The redesigned Camera app has a nifty trick up its sleeve: if you want to shoot in burst mode, taking multiple shots in quick succession, just click and hold the volume-up button.

2. Multitasking: quit multiple apps

You probably know that you can quit running apps by double-tapping the Home button and flicking the offending app upwards, but you might not have tried it with multiple fingers to force-quit more than one app at a time. We've made it work with three apps on our iPhone, although doing the same on an iPad means getting your nose involved too.

3. Notifications: begone!

When you receive a new notification, you can still swipe right to open the appropriate app - but if you just want rid of it you can now swipe up to hide it.

4. Lock Screen and Home Screen: use panoramic images

You can use static or dynamic images for your Lock Screen and Home Screen wallpapers, but if you prefer you can use a panoramic image instead, so the image moves as your phone does. The image must be saved in your Panoramas album: normal Camera Roll images won't work. Sadly for iPhone 4 owners, this feature is only available in the iPhone 4S onwards (and if you're using or have upgraded from a recent beta, this feature might not work).

Security

"Jailbreaking" iPhones has increasingly become a minority sport - probably because Apple has plugged many of the holes that used to exist and which let people crack its software. It can't however stop thieves stealing a phone in a run-by or ride-by grab - police get scores of reports of these every day.

Of course you use a passcode lock, and a SIM lock on your phone (of course! Because otherwise thieves can wipe and reactivate the phone, and use your SIM to rack up gigantic phone bills; don't wait to find out). Even so, the phones are still an attractive target.

"Find My iPhone" now adds an extra dimension of post-theft security: you can track it while it's on, and if it's turned off (thieves' favoured method) then powering it up again will present a screen requiring your Apple ID (used to activate the phone) and password. Without those, the phone remains encrypted - and effectively useless to anyone else. It's possible that this will make the post-theft value of iPhones running iOS 7 drop to zero once a few thieves have run into this problem. Will it make the number of thefts fall to zero? Well, here's hoping. /guardian