For some reason the blur effect is gone from my app on iOS 7.1. I\'m running the same code on a device with iOS 7.0.x and on another with 7.1. Here\'s what I see:
By the way, it's worth noting that the image that you describe as having no blurring/translucency actually does. If you take that snapshot and pump up the contrast, you can see that there actually is something going on in the background. Here is your original "no blurring/translucency image", which I bumped up contrast in Photoshop:
It's barely visible to the naked eye unless you manipulate the image, but the blurring/translucency is actually there.