iOS 8 – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

WWDC event – a magical show with full of surprises, held by Apple every year. This time in

WWDC14, Apple again succeeds to make a wow moment for users and developers by

announcing iOS 8, Yosemite (new Mac OS), and Swift (new programming language).

I have been using Apple products since last 4 years, and what my feeling is, Apple took care of

the developer community well this time along with the users. Sharing my observations for

iOS 8:

The Good:

Smart Keyboard (QuickType)

Suggestive typing is not new, then what is smart in “Smart Keyboard”? It identifies to whom

you are typing to, is it a mail or message. Suggestions based on these parameters make the

typing heuristic.

App Extensions

Finally Apple realized the value of Widgets. With App Extensions, developers can create

Widgets of their apps. Logical extension of the Widget can make IAC (inter apps

communication) possible. This is certainly opening a new door for app synergies rather than

building everything from scratch. Also, you can have an app, which acts as a platform, a big

move for sure.

Also, you don’t need to worry about using the extension with your devices, as there are lots

of security layers so it’s always in the user’s control and your details are totally in safe hands.

Family Sharing

This is one of the most innovative feature in iOS 8. When your kid wants to buy a game, you

receive a notification on your iPhone and you can make the purchase. Wow! You can extend

this to 6 of your family members!

Simpling app purchase is going to boost the sales, no doubt about it.

And cherry on the pie is, if you purchase the app/music/book, all the members in group gets it

free. Cherry it is!

Handoff

Handoff is Pickup-from-where-you-left, means while doing any work (Web browsing, file

editing, etc.) into device, if you switch to another device, you can continue an ongoing activity

seamlessly. It means you can work on any file, anywhere.

Did you observed anything from this! Apple always considers Mac as a content creator, and

iPhone as a content presenter. But this time it’s following Windows method, where device

and machine both act as content creator & presenter.

Some of the applications of Apple like Keynote, Safari, Maps, Contacts and Mail will use this

functionality with iOS 8 and Yosemite.

Actionable Notification

iOS 8 providing convenient new way to reply to notifications. You don’t require to open the

application, you can directly reply from notification itself. Cool, isn’t it?

The Bad:Apple Maps

When Apple discontinued google map contract in iOS6 launch, we expected that they will

come up matching at least. 2 years and still waiting. Navigation is now considered a primary

phone requirement, but Apple is still far away.

Live Wallpaper

Dynamic wallpapers are still restricted to preloaded 7 wallpapers. This defines theoverall

personality of the user, and so popular in Android, but Apple does not want to open it yet.

Multi Tasking

It’s time for iPad to adopt multitasking, especially when users are spending more and more

time on tables compared to laptops. Would have expected multitasking in iOS 8.

Payment Option

If no NFC support why still Touch ID or iBeacons are not used for payment transitions. The

market is waiting this big time.

The Ugly

New iMessages

iMessages comes with voice, video and location and you are happy, but too late to be termed

as new/original/innovative. Implementation looks like Copy-WhatsApp-best-features.

Health & HomeKit

With HealthKit & HomeKit, Apple wants to control your pulse and power, but isn’t it too

much for your iPhone? And its not that simple like doing a photo sharing or doing Siri

commands, its about issuing a whip to all OEMs to follow Apple’s protocol, which they just

came up wherein OEMs are in markets since ages. Not that easy for sure.

Surely, iOS 8 has come-up to counter growing Android and to setup a base of long runs.

Now, its time to review Swift!!

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