I've been using the iOS 7 beta since it was released, downloading each new version as it's released and giving it a shot. As is usual, the first beta worked pretty well, and was actually stable enough. Apps worked (save for just a few on my device), and the experience was overall pretty solid. That all came crashing down with each subsequent release, though. Again, that's par for the course. Nothing new there.

I had to remove the third beta from my phone, though. It just wouldn't work with Spotify. The lock screen would make music stop, and when I'd go back into the app to get it started again, the whole dang thing would crash. Each and every time. So, I removed the beta and went back to iOS 6.

And it was so, so very hard.

With this latest release, which puts us officially on beta 4, I obviously had to give it a shot. I've had it on my phone since it launched, and I haven't looked back since. And that's because I can't. I just can't switch back.

It's in part because I love the new features inside iOS 7, like Control Center, or even the new Notification Center for that matter, but it's a lot simpler than that: I grew tired of iOS 6 long before iOS 6 launched, and now that I've got something new and different, I just refuse to go back.

Spotify doesn't work one hundred percent. The app is still a bit wonky here and there, especially while using Bluetooth, but I can't go back. Games like Bejeweled Blitz, which I use quite a bit to kill some small bursts of time, don't work at all -- and haven't since the first beta launched, but I've just deleted the app altogether. It doesn't matter anymore. I just won't switch back to iOS 6.

That actually tells me that somehow, completely out of the blue, Apple managed to get me to like iOS 7. Why? It isn't the laundry list of features that Apple (didn't) include in the updated mobile operating system, and I'm not going to tell you that there are features in iOS 7 that aren't similar to other platforms.

The reason I like iOS 7 is because it's different from iOS 6 in all the ways that it needs to be. It's similar to iOS, in the way that it functions and the way that apps works, in all the right ways. But, the kicker is simple: it's different. And that's all I needed. I desperately wanted iOS to get a facelift, and that's what it did. Finally.

Finally.

Yes, iOS still needs some additional features. I wish it was easier to share between apps, for one. But right now, at face value, iOS 7 is what I needed out of the next version of Apple's software. So, I can't switch back. I just don't like iOS 6 anymore. So, my fingers are crossed that all the apps I'm using right now in the beta continue to work.

Have you been using iOS 7 at all since the betas have been released? Do you like it more than iOS 6? Or, do you just not care about iOS to the point where the betas, and iOS 7, not matter to you? Let me know!