Has Apple Managed To Get It Just Right With The Latest iOS 8?
Apple has always firmly believed that it exactly knew what its customers or fans wanted. But with the excessively populated and intensely competitive world of smartphones and their respective Operating Systems (OS), there were multiple nuances within the one meant for Apple Smartphone; the iPhone.
The iOS has undoubtedly been one of the most successful mobile OSes. Moreover, Apple has been releasing incremental updates to the iOS. Though the Cupertino based company doesn’t offer updates as quickly nor as incrementally as Google does for its Android OS, Apple’s iOS comes in wholesome numbers. The latest update to the iOS is marked as iOS 8 and perhaps for the first time, users have deeply acknowledged the company to have keenly listened to their expectations.
As reported by The Inquisitr, choosing the hugely anticipated WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) as the occasion, Apple released iOS 8 for general users. Though it will be difficult to mention all the improvements, here are some of the most notable changes that will surely be appreciated for a long time.
Apple welcomes third-party keyboards: Apple has always asked (read forced) its iPhone users to use the default keyboard. Whereas Android users had long back been granted the freedom to use whichever third-party virtual keyboard they pleased. Makers of immensely popular Swype and SwiftKey have now been welcomed into the App Store to sell their heavily customizable and intelligent keyboards.
General users to get a taste of beta apps: The iOS App Store will now let developers select users for participation in beta programs, reports NDTV. Though not immediately clear how this will work, the allowance for beta testing could be very similar to the Google community beta tester system. Titled TestFlight, the program appears to be a staggered system for introduction of apps to users based on the parameters that developers deem fit.
iPhone get true widgets: Apple’s definition of widgets was pretty weird. Only a specific set of instructions and notifications were allowed to pass through via the ‘widget area’. Basically, it was a list of pertinent items linked to apps or functions in iOS that display information and allow the user to interact with that information in a select number of ways.
But now iOS 8 users will have more dynamic control from within the widget, a capability that Android possessed a long time ago. To showcase the improved widget functionality, Craig Federighi demonstrated an eBay widget which not only showed items he had bid on and items he was watching, but also allowed him to increase a bid on an item he was outbid on directly from the notification widget. The same goes true for the ‘Notifications’, which now sport interactivity. No more opening up the app from the notification in order to take some trivial action.
Welcome Healthkit and Homekit: Taking a big leap in home automation and wearable technology, Apple has introduced two revolutionary software features in iOS 8. Healthkit opens up the possibility to connect third-party wearable electronics and monitors and have them interface with the iPhone. Homekit will link home automation equipment with iPhone via Apple’s virtual assistant Siri.
iMessage gets super secretive: With this revision, users can send self-destructing audio and video in the new iMessage, whereas group chat has been significantly improved with the ability to put up a DND (Do Not Disturb) sign for any chosen chat-group.
With these additions and revisions, Apple has proven that it can and will listen to its customers. Though iOS 8 is certainly a breath of fresh air from this unusually secretive company, will Apple continue this user-inspired innovation?
[Image Credit | TyphoonPC, Android Police]
