On June 2 2014, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple Inc. announced the iOS 8, the latest update to their operating system for their mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. The company also revealed major changes intended to streamline and help developers with application development and publishing.
Several new features have made their way onto the iOS. For example, you can now add voice messaging to your text conversations using recording software packaged with the OS. Another thing that is new is the inclusion of family sharing. Now up to six people can share purchases and merge iTunes accounts on an account, provided they use the same credit card. In addition, it offers new options to parents to protect the safety of their kids, by locking their kids from using their credit cards without permission. It also allows parents to keep track of their kids with iPhones through real-time GPS tracking, which may ruffle a few feathers of privacy advocates.
Another new feature is quicktyping. iOS 8 will predict the words you type to ensure make texting and surfing the net faster, easier, and more convenient. Of course, Android devices and others have had this feature for months now, but it’s a good sign that Apple finally caught up.
Apple has also taken steps to improve health for the iOS 8. There are many health apps already on the store to help you keep track of your exercise and nutrition, but all their information is stored in individual apps. Apple’s new health app will synchronize all health data from all your apps. In addition, you can now embed an emergency card into your unlock screen in case you get into a medical emergency.
There were also minor improvements made for integration with Mac OS devices, as well as to Siri and to the photography portions of the iPhone. Overall, with the exception of the family sharing feature, the iOS 8 does not feel like a huge improvement over the iOS 7, but it has made small steps in many directions to improve the overall iOS experience.
On the developer side of things, Apple announced some big changes. The biggest change was the introduction of Swift, Apple’s new programming language for apps. Prior to Swift, apps were coded in Objective-C. Swift is designed to make it faster and easier for developers to create apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac by stripping away some of the more complicated features of Objective-C that were unnecessary for creating apps.
Swift also comes with Playgrounds, a feature which will allow programmers to receive instant feedback on changes they make to their code; with traditional languages, programmers needed to compile their code before they can run it, which could potentially be time consuming. For those who like to program in Objective-C though, there’s no need to worry. Swift and Objective-C will use the same compiler, so you can still program like you used to. It is possible for an app to have source code comprised of bits of both languages, and if your app needs to do something that Swift cannot handle, you can switch over to Objective-C to handle it. Swift seems to be a welcome change and upgrade for iOS app developers over the outdated Objective-C.
Overall, Apple’s big announcement at WWDC was a mixed bag. There were a few small improvements for consumers over the existing system, but, aside from family sharing, nothing huge or breathtaking. However, there is reason to be excited if you’re a developer, as Apple’s Swift language promises to make coding apps easier, faster, and more flexible than ever.
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