Expected Features of iOS8
The sequel to Apple’s last year’s revamp of iOS is expected to be out this fall, iOS8. Apple confirms this new OS update will be available for iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 4s, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad Air, and iPad mini. Apple promised it will be more feature rich than design focused, and will offer a better Mac OS integration. While you desperately wait for the final release of iOS8, lets walk through the OS’s latest features.
Health App: Apple’s iOS8 health app gathers all fitness and health data, collected by other apps, in one place. Users will be able to measure and record calories burned, sleep patterns, blood sugar, heart rate, cholesterol, blood type, allergies, and more. Apple hopes this app will help medical professionals to monitor and track down medical information easily.
Third party keyboards: This is one of the most wanted features added to iOS 8. Users can now download and install third party keyboards, such as Swiftkey and Swype. However, Apple has also put in a lot of effort to improve its default keyboard, introducing a new predictive text system that suggests the next word based on your past conversations. This new system is very intelligent; it is able to understand and take into account how you write differently to different people – formal or informal manner.
Design Tweaks: iOS8 does not look significantly different from iOS7, but it has some amazing features. The best one, Interactive notifications; lets users take an action on the notification without actually opening the application, be it a third party app. Other tweaks include intelligent mail app, new swipe gestures, and a new sidebar in Safari.
Connect OSX to iOS8: Users can communicate their iOS 8 and OSX devices in a number of exciting ways. All the user needs to do is sign into the same cloud account from the devices to be allowed continuity to work; users can open a website on their Mac and continue viewing it on their phone, or start writing a mail on their phone and finish it off on their Mac device. This could also mean the Airdrop could finally work between OSX and iOS.
iCloud: Apple offers the first 5 GB of storage on iCloud for free. The iCloud Photo Library and the new Photos app mean users do not have to delete their photos ever, once they enable iCloud on their device, the photo library will store all the raw image files online.
New Messages App: Apple brings a lot of new stuff to its messaging app; quickly send audio or video snippets in one touch, rename or add and drop people from group conversations, mute a conversation and view it anytime later, send multiple videos and photos at once, and more as Apple always over delivers.
Family Sharing: This new features allows up to 6 people to share purchases from the Apple App Store. Parents can pay and approve purchases by children from their own phone/device. Users can collect and share photos of shared albums, track down the location of their family members, and get sharing grants to access movies, music, TV shows, apps, and books.
Recent rumours suggest that the absence of ‘Maps’ update is due to meagre planning and failure to complete the project on time. Another feature that did not get finished on time is the split screen multitasking, but it is expected at a later update of the iOS.
These are, of course, rumours. So we will have to wait and see what iOS8 really has to offer.
