Postby T3CHSMASH » June 3rd, 2014, 4:35 pm
Hey everyone. It would be really cool if we can all share our knowledge and discuss whatever we like concerning technology here.
I'll start off by the new features in iOS 8 (I am in no way an Android OR Apple fanboy, I just love technology and want to get to know other people who do too)
MESSAGING
iOS 8 brings some new functionality in its messaging, allowing you to create and rename threads for group messages, control who is in the thread, and also allow for a very convenient “Do Not Disturb” button for those who don’t like getting a bunch of notifications from a group thread.
Much like the voice message we see on Whatsapp that “just works”, we get this same feature on iOS 8, along with a video option on the other side of the message box.
WIDGET SUPPORT (In the Notification Center) [Somewhat borrowed from our good friend Android]
iOS 8 now allows developers to create widgets for their respective apps, that users can add to their Notification Tray. Of course this isn’t useful as Android’s widgets but we’re getting there!
INTERACTIVE NOTIFICATIONS [Definitely borrowed from our good friend Android]
So, you know how in Android you can interact with an app from its notification? (like twitter)…Well, iOS 8′s notifications are now a lot smarter and not JUST notifications anymore. You can now swipe down on a notification, and depending on the app that serves that notification, there will be different functions. For example, Facebook notifications will give you the option to Comment or Like, while Messages notifications will give you the option to reply from right there in the notification.
MAC OS X AND iOS INTEGRATION (Or as Apple stated, “continuity”)
This was definitely the most impressive announcement for me. When both devices are in proximity, you can now see your signal and battery levels on your Mac, as well as make calls and send messages without ever picking up your iPhone.
Calls that come in, route straight to the Mac and you can answer and use your Mac as a loudspeaker, or decline and this is all done seamlessly without any difficulty.
The part that really impressed me was the continuity. If you are browsing the web, or sending an email on your Mac, you can quickly swipe up from the bottom left of your iOS device’s lockscreen and get the exact same webpage or email you were viewing on the Mac. From there you can continue to browse or continue the email from where you left off on the Mac.
FAMILY SHARING
The Family Sharing feature, let’s you share purchased content with up to six members of your family. In addition, if a kid wants to purchase an app, a popup box comes up saying he has to aks for permission. After clicking “ask”, his parent will now get a popup notification saying that his/her child would like permission to buy an app, after which they can choose to give or deny permission.
SIRI IMPROVEMENTS (Hey Siri…sounds familiar?)
When Siri was first released on the iPhone 4S, it was a revolutionary feature and differentiated Apple from the rest of the competition. Currently, we see other voice assistants such as Cortana on Windows Phone and Google Now on Android bypass Siri’s features and capabilities.
Now Apple has to catch up to the competition and they do so by adding the “Hey Siri” feature among others. “Hey Siri” now allows you to activate Siri while driving. In addition to this, Siri can now recognize and display music (thanks to Apple’s partnership with Shazam) and also recognize 22 different languages.
TOUCH ID IMPROVEMENTS
iOS 8 will allow for the use of Touch ID with third party apps such as Facebook, Twitter etc. This is a welcomed feature for Touch ID and will make logging in or making transactions a whole lot easier.
APPLE HOMEKIT
Apple HomeKit is a framework for connecting your smartphone with smart home products. This will allow you to open/close your garage door, turn on/off lights and much more with simple voice commands with out ever having to get up. Knowing how lazy we are since we loved this Lazy Way to Transfer Android Files, this should come in handy!
KEYBOARD ENHANCEMENTS/THIRD PARTY KEYBOARDS [DEFINITELY borrowed from our good friend Android]
The new keyboard in iOS 8 provides some smart predictions by reading the message you are currently looking at, and predicting which words you might want to use next. So for example if someone asks if you want to go to a movie or dinner, the keyboard might suggest “A movie” or “A dinner”.
Remember all those Android fanboys who hit Apple hard about customization? Well Apple somewhat added a bit more customizability in iOS 8 by allowing third party keyboards! I never thought I’d see this day come, but we can now get our famous Swype and other custom keyboards on our iOS Devices.
OTHER FEATURES
In addition to all these major enhancements, we get simple but useful features such as Time-Lapse and Self-Timer built right into the stock camera, enhanced photo editor, as well as access to all photos taken on all devices to all devices. Touch sentence to process but to explain simply, if you take a photo on your iPhone, it will show up on all your iDevices as well as your Mac. If that image is edited, the edit is also updated to all devices.
We also see an enhanced Spotlight Search, which displays search results from iTunes for apps you haven’t installed on your device yet, as well as some more small upgrades.
Which feature do you like best and which do you think was “borrowed” from our good friend Android?
