Apple By Russell Holly Jun. 2, 2014 2:40 pm
It wouldn’t be WWDC without a big flashy preview for the next version of iOS, and that’s exactly what happened today. The next version of iOS, so cleverly named iOS 8, is now officially on its way.
After a huge visual update to Apple’s mobile OS, it should surprise no one that iOS 8 is all about refining that experience. There’s some subtle visual changes to things like Notification Center, but most of the big changes are going to be more function than form.
Notifications for specific apps are now interactive, which means you can swipe down to respond to calendar invites, or swipe down to respond in the Notification panel for things like SMS messages. They will also work on the lock screen, which looks really slick in the demos.
For the iPad, apps like Mail and Safari are more tablet focused, so your space can be used for sidebars or better multitasking inside of the Mail app. Just like OS X, Spotlight has gotten an update with smarter suggestions as well.
There’s plenty of individual apps being updated, starting with the most commonly used app on your phone and tablet. Predictive typing has gotten a huge overhaul on this new keyboard, and it takes some clear cues from how you type to suggest words based on what you are doing. It supports a bunch of different languages, and seems to work a lot more like some of Apple’s competition in terms of predictive typing.
Continuity across iOS means you can access iPhone features on your iPad, and while this new typing feature is per-device it looks like these two combined will make for a great experience. Messages has gotten a big update, supporting things like noise controls for multi-user conversations, but also a big microphone button for attaching audio to messages before they are sent. There’s a nice gesture to make this happen with a single hand, but it doesn’t appear to play nice with speech to text.
These messages will self destruct so they don’t take up unnecessary space on your phone. Photos has gotten a nice update as well, with the promise of a more complete solution with iCloud integration later this year on iOS and next year on OS X. The new app lets you edit photos and have them available on all of your Apple devices.
Apple has also launched a new health app and health services for developers. This apps is designed to pull from third party apps and hardware, alongside help from The Mayo Clinic, to give you a more complete look at what your total health picture is. This is cool if you have separate apps for blood pressure, pedometer, bike riding, and anything else you make have as a health monitor. To be able to offer them together into a single app to help you see everything is a cool maneuver, and when you add in the network of medical care providers that Apple is working with to share information you have the closest thing to a complete picture so far.
The biggest announcement by far is Family Sharing. Apple has created a service that lets you put up to six people under a single umbrella that shares a space for posting photos, and allows a parent/child relationship with purchases and downloads on iTunes. Children will be able to use their phone or tablet without issue, and when they try to purchase something there will be a notification asking users to ask the parent account. At the same time, the parent account will get a notification with information about the activity, so the purchases can be approved remotely. This isn’t the multi-account system to many have clamored for in the past, but it is easily the next best thing.
As is almost always the case, iOS 8 will be available this Fall with the launch of the next iPhone. The developer preview will be available alongside the new SDK for all kinds of new goodies to make apps more powerful. We’ll be going hands on as soon as possible so stay tuned.
More...
After a huge visual update to Apple’s mobile OS, it should surprise no one that iOS 8 is all about refining that experience. There’s some subtle visual changes to things like Notification Center, but most of the big changes are going to be more function than form.
Notifications for specific apps are now interactive, which means you can swipe down to respond to calendar invites, or swipe down to respond in the Notification panel for things like SMS messages. They will also work on the lock screen, which looks really slick in the demos.
For the iPad, apps like Mail and Safari are more tablet focused, so your space can be used for sidebars or better multitasking inside of the Mail app. Just like OS X, Spotlight has gotten an update with smarter suggestions as well.
There’s plenty of individual apps being updated, starting with the most commonly used app on your phone and tablet. Predictive typing has gotten a huge overhaul on this new keyboard, and it takes some clear cues from how you type to suggest words based on what you are doing. It supports a bunch of different languages, and seems to work a lot more like some of Apple’s competition in terms of predictive typing.
Continuity across iOS means you can access iPhone features on your iPad, and while this new typing feature is per-device it looks like these two combined will make for a great experience. Messages has gotten a big update, supporting things like noise controls for multi-user conversations, but also a big microphone button for attaching audio to messages before they are sent. There’s a nice gesture to make this happen with a single hand, but it doesn’t appear to play nice with speech to text.
These messages will self destruct so they don’t take up unnecessary space on your phone. Photos has gotten a nice update as well, with the promise of a more complete solution with iCloud integration later this year on iOS and next year on OS X. The new app lets you edit photos and have them available on all of your Apple devices.
Apple has also launched a new health app and health services for developers. This apps is designed to pull from third party apps and hardware, alongside help from The Mayo Clinic, to give you a more complete look at what your total health picture is. This is cool if you have separate apps for blood pressure, pedometer, bike riding, and anything else you make have as a health monitor. To be able to offer them together into a single app to help you see everything is a cool maneuver, and when you add in the network of medical care providers that Apple is working with to share information you have the closest thing to a complete picture so far.
The biggest announcement by far is Family Sharing. Apple has created a service that lets you put up to six people under a single umbrella that shares a space for posting photos, and allows a parent/child relationship with purchases and downloads on iTunes. Children will be able to use their phone or tablet without issue, and when they try to purchase something there will be a notification asking users to ask the parent account. At the same time, the parent account will get a notification with information about the activity, so the purchases can be approved remotely. This isn’t the multi-account system to many have clamored for in the past, but it is easily the next best thing.
As is almost always the case, iOS 8 will be available this Fall with the launch of the next iPhone. The developer preview will be available alongside the new SDK for all kinds of new goodies to make apps more powerful. We’ll be going hands on as soon as possible so stay tuned.
More...
