1. Battery usage indicator
It's probably the most common
complaint about the iPhone: The battery drains too damn fast. This is, of
course, dependent on exactly what you do with it, but how do users know whether
to prioritize dimming the screen, quitting a particular app or turning off
Background App Refresh?
In iOS 8, they'll finally get
some guidance. The iPhone's settings will offer a way to check exactly which apps and functions
are draining your battery. With that guidance, users will be able to
selectively change their settings or uninstall the right apps to maximize their
battery.
Developers will certainly find
the feature useful as well, as it should help make their apps more efficient.
In short, this could be the most welcome new feature in iOS 8.
2. New keyboard(s)
There's
nothing more fundamental to the iPhone than its onscreen keyboard — and in iOS
8, it gets an upgrade via predictive typing, which suggests several options for
the next word as you type. This is a feature that's been on Android for a
while, although Apple says its implementation is superior — since it learns
what you're likely to say to different friends and colleagues.
At the
same time, Apple is letting developers offer their own keyboards. You may have
tried Swype for Android, for example, which uses an algorithm that lets you
swipe around a keyboard rather than tap; the company has already said it will make its keyboard
available for iOS.
3. Continuity
Apple
took the idea of collaboration through the cloud to a new level with a new
feature called Handoff, part of its "Continuity" concept. If you have
an iPhone and a Mac, you'll be able to start a task on one device (say,
composing an email) and finish on the other. Since the devices are aware of
each other, all you have to do is click one button, and it works on iPad, too.
Continuity
also has a couple of bonuses: First, AirDrop will work between Macs and iOS
devices. Second, using your iPhone as a personal hotspot has never been easier.
There's no configuration needed — the iPhone will just know when your Mac needs
the connection.
4. New camera features
The
camera is probably every smartphone's No. 1 app. Apple likes to keep its
interface relatively simple, but in iOS 8, users will get a couple of more
options: a three-second timer and time-lapse capture for video — sort of the opposite
of the slow-motion mode introduced in iOS 7. The camera also gets focus and
exposure controls.
5. iCloud Photo Library
iCloud
currently stores the last 1,000 photos from your iOS devices for free. With iOS
8, users will be able to upgrade to iCloud Photo Library, which will instantly
upload all iPhone/iPad photos and videos to iCloud. Users only get 5GB for
free, though — storage costs $0.99 a month for 20GB, with tiers all the way up
to 1TB. (The Google+ app on iOS, by the way, will back up all your photos up to
Google's 15 GB limit, for free).
6. Family Sharing
With iOS
8, Apple is taking the first step toward merging Apple IDs (a long-requested feature)
by introducing Family Sharing, which lets different Apple users share all
content they've downloaded from iTunes. Up to six people can be designated
family members, and it provides a great solution to the problem of kids
downloading paid apps on their parents' credit cards: With Family Sharing, the
parent gets notified, and then can grant or deny the purchase.
7. Interactive Notifications
Just
need to reply to a message with a single word? Why do you have to launch
Messages for that? In iOS 8, you won't have to — just pull down on the banner
that appears and you can type your reply — then get right back to playing Candy Crush.
Notifications
on the lock screen are interactive, too. Swiping an alert to the left will
reveal Reply/Dismiss buttons, letting you do things faster without unlocking
your phone. And if you're concerned about security implications, you can
disable this feature.
8. Messages upgrade
n iOS 8,
Apple's built-in messaging app has a lot more to offer. Apple added the ability
to send audio and video messages to your friends. With audio, they're
effortless: just open the conversation and raise the phone to your ear to begin
recording. Users can also let these kinds of messages self-destruct after a
certain amount of time — but that's just a memory-management feature, and not,
as has been claimed, an attempt to move in on Snapchat's territory. (After all,
there's nothing to prevent the other people in the conversation from saving
their versions of the video or audio.)
At the
same time, Messages adds a couple of convenient features: You can set Do Not
Disturb on specific threads so you're not constantly getting alerts from big
group messages. You can also now share your location with contacts you're
conversing with, as in the Find My Friends app, viewable through a new
"Details" button on threads.
9. Widgets
Here's
another upgrade that Android has had a lock on for years: widgets, made
possible by iOS 8's "extensibility," which allows apps to share data
and functions with other apps.
Don't
get too excited — widgets will reside in the notification center, not the home
screen. But their arrival on iOS is a big upgrade, and if Android is any
indication, you can expect the floodgates to open for these small,
"glanceable" mini-apps when iOS 8 launches in the fall.
10. Lock screen app suggestions
In iOS
8, users will notice a new icon on the iPhone lock screen that looks like the
App Store. Swipe up and you'll see app suggestions based on your location. For
example, if you're across the street from Starbucks, you might see the
Starbucks app.
The
feature could be a new path to app discoverability (which can be a problem for
apps not in the Top 100), but we'll wait to see how this plays out between
Apple, vendors and developers.
11. TouchID for apps
Apple
took fingerprint reading mainstream with the TouchID sensor in the iPhone 5S.
In iOS 8, it's going to open up that level of convenience to developers, who
can let a user unlock any password stored in their keychain by placing their
finger on the reader. That could potentially be even more convenient than Lastpass app logins on Android.
12. iCloud Drive
f you've
ever tried to save, say, a PDF from an email on your iPhone, you may have been
frustrated by the lack of a native file system for iOS. Soon iCloud Drive will address that problem, while
at the same time offering a cloud-storage service similar to Dropbox, Box or
Google Drive. It's compatible with Windows, too — but not Android.
13. Health
The new
Health app is straightforward: It provides a central place for all the health
and fitness information you're storing on the iPhone. Many apps, such as Nike+
and Fitbit, do this individually, but now those apps will be able to integrate
into one app — presuming developers take advantage of Apple's HealthKit
platform.
Apple is
also partnering with healthcare providers to help bring the iPhone health data
to the doctors and care specialists who can really do something with it. Health
could have a profound effect on preventative medicine, if both developers and
care centers support it.
14. New Siri features
Be
careful what you say — Siri is always listening in iOS 8. Even if the iPhone is
in a dormant state, you can just say "Hey Siri" to wake up the phone
and ask something. The phone has to be plugged into power for this to work,
indicating Apple probably sees it as a hands-free solution for the car.
Siri can
also identify songs with built-in Shazam integration. So instead of launching
an app, all you'll need to do is hold down your iPhone's home button to find
out what music is playing. Think of all the time you'll save at the bar.
15. Contacts on apps screen
Apple
realized it wasn't making use of all the space on the apps screen that appears
when you double-click the home button. Right above the apps running, you'll see
a strip of the most recent contacts along the top. It's another welcome
convenience.
16. More Spotlight result
Searching
on the iPhone in iOS 8 now brings up Wikipedia, App Store and iTunes results for
anything you're searching for.
17. Full-featured Safari
Safari
got a huge upgrade in iOS 7, and although the upgrades in iOS 8 are more
incremental (and already exist in other browsers), they're welcome. There's
more flexibility in Private browsing, letting you keep regular and private tabs
separate. DuckDuckGo — the privacy-preserving alternative to Google — is
supported as a search engine, and users will be able to easily request the desktop version of any site.
18. The Weather Channel
In iOS 7, Apple's weather app got its info from Yahoo.
Starting in iOS 8, that data comes from the Weather
Channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment