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Apple Announces iOS 8 with Touch ID for Apps, QuickType, Third-Party Keyboards and More
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It's actually good to see Apple come out with features that have existed in Android devices for a while. Regardless of who copied who, this is a good thing. And for those entrenched in their ecosystem, the features are surely welcome.
That said, I see nothing that'll bring me back to iOS:
1) Apple still refuses to play well with others; I cannot reach iCloud through my Android phone (!!!) using a standard web browser. However, the reverse is true. I hate that they're trying to force me to have an iPhone to have basic integration.
2) Family Sharing is not enough; I need independent accounts that can share content like Home Sharing does in iTunes on the Mac. There is just no reason why this doesn't work the same way in iOS. I prefer a centralized setup for purchases (I'm the head of household); if the wife/kids choose to leave, then they have to start from scratch (as well they should--they didn't pay for anything, I did). The "personal device" rationale is BS, period. Again, a way to force you to buy more devices.
3) iCloud drive; Again, can I use my Android tablet or phone to access it? Probably not. I find this an artificial (and annoying) barrier that Google chooses to not impose.
4) Swift; Ballsy move, but a proprietary coding language may backfire, given Android's market-share. Developers are split on this right now, so it beckons me to wait and see where it goes.
The features my phone has (bigger screen, IR receiver, customization options, etc.)coupled with what Apple has introduced here trump everything else, at least for me. I love Apple's more polished experience, but I can wait until they de-feminize their OS a bit and implement the features I want.
That said, I see nothing that'll bring me back to iOS:
1) Apple still refuses to play well with others; I cannot reach iCloud through my Android phone (!!!) using a standard web browser. However, the reverse is true. I hate that they're trying to force me to have an iPhone to have basic integration.
2) Family Sharing is not enough; I need independent accounts that can share content like Home Sharing does in iTunes on the Mac. There is just no reason why this doesn't work the same way in iOS. I prefer a centralized setup for purchases (I'm the head of household); if the wife/kids choose to leave, then they have to start from scratch (as well they should--they didn't pay for anything, I did). The "personal device" rationale is BS, period. Again, a way to force you to buy more devices.
3) iCloud drive; Again, can I use my Android tablet or phone to access it? Probably not. I find this an artificial (and annoying) barrier that Google chooses to not impose.
4) Swift; Ballsy move, but a proprietary coding language may backfire, given Android's market-share. Developers are split on this right now, so it beckons me to wait and see where it goes.
The features my phone has (bigger screen, IR receiver, customization options, etc.)coupled with what Apple has introduced here trump everything else, at least for me. I love Apple's more polished experience, but I can wait until they de-feminize their OS a bit and implement the features I want.
OK improvements with ios8. However I could can do all that and more with my gs4. I'm going to be getting an iphone 6 anyway in September. Now the only question is, is it going to be my primary or secondary phone. these ios updates are really becoming lackluster. I'm really disappointed in apple playing catch up now.
It is 2014 and they are now just getting widgets. My waste of money nokia n900 in 2010 had freaking widgets! Third party keyboard is a nice edition but I always liked the stock apple keyboard. It is better than stock Android keyboard.
It is 2014 and they are now just getting widgets. My waste of money nokia n900 in 2010 had freaking widgets! Third party keyboard is a nice edition but I always liked the stock apple keyboard. It is better than stock Android keyboard.
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What did you say? Sorry, wasn't paying attention. You're really boring me.
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WOW! Unbelievable amounts of stupid here.
1.) Apple has never been afraid to tout the fact that they control the hardware and software. Deal with it.
2.) How would they know your children have left? Quit being cheap and just buy the content, Apple giving you 6 family members to share content with is more than generous... Don't buy anymore devices from Apple, trust me Apple will be OK.
3.) See point 1.
4.) Actually reserving judgment... Ballsy.
That bit about "de-feminize[ing] their OS" is rather misogynistic, and that very last bit is rather self-centered. Newsflash, world doesn't revolve around you.
Great keynote. In my opinion half of these things should have been implemented last year, but at least they're coming. I do think Apple has caught back up to some of the advanced things that Android does, but presents them in a way that is easy for anyone to use with a much cleaner design aesthetic. Just matching features with better design and better UX alone would be enough to win, but I think they took it a step further. The handoff feature will be great for power users like me. I don't know how many times I've wished my mac and iPhone and iPad just worked together across this many levels. I'm not sure if Google could ever achieve this cohesive of an ecosystem. Furthermore, QuickType seems to be much better than the android version with predictive responses. Metal has the potential to really set iOS apart from Android when it comes to high-end gaming. HomeKit with its scenes sounds almost like SciFi. Health will be awesome when the iWatch launches, and immediately help save lives. And Swift will make it easier than ever for developersespecially new ones like meto get our apps onto the store. I'm more of a designer, but have been interested in learning how to code the apps as well. I know my way around PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML and CSS (LESS AND SCSS), among some older languages like Basic and Pascal. I've read the intro to the Swift book (it's 500 printed pages lol) and I'm excited to jump in and learn it alongside thousands of other developers this summer! Maybe we should start a Swift section on the forums where we can help each other out?
Overall very excited. I can't wait to get a WeatherUnderground widget in my notification center (oooh, radar!), along with ESPN and Twitter.. Oh and don't forget iCloud Drive! I hope it's better than iDisk, which was very slow. For $3.99/mo for 200GB it's less than half the price of Dropbox with twice the space. I'm definitely going to get something in the 200-500GB range. Right now I sync my photo album to Dropbox and since it doesn't run in the background my videos always stall out. And did they mention if you can share files from your iCloud Drive by using a secure link?
Does anyone know if Mail Drop works on iOS? I always want to send large videos of my new baby to my set of grandparents who don't have an Apple device and it's always a hassle. I use Droplr but the file size is still limited to I think 1GB even on my paid version.
Overall very excited. I can't wait to get a WeatherUnderground widget in my notification center (oooh, radar!), along with ESPN and Twitter.. Oh and don't forget iCloud Drive! I hope it's better than iDisk, which was very slow. For $3.99/mo for 200GB it's less than half the price of Dropbox with twice the space. I'm definitely going to get something in the 200-500GB range. Right now I sync my photo album to Dropbox and since it doesn't run in the background my videos always stall out. And did they mention if you can share files from your iCloud Drive by using a secure link?
Does anyone know if Mail Drop works on iOS? I always want to send large videos of my new baby to my set of grandparents who don't have an Apple device and it's always a hassle. I use Droplr but the file size is still limited to I think 1GB even on my paid version.
I would love to see the 1Password integrate the Touch ID so that you can log into the app and access your logins with the use of Touch ID instead of having to type in your Master Password each time. Obviously as an option and not standard.
As for Family Sharing, that should have been the ability for an iPad to have multiple user accounts with various users having home screens, mail, etc., only for their use. Let me set it up for me, let my wife for her, and let me set it up for my kids separately. Imagine if it would then know the user account based on the finger print unlocking a Touch ID enabled iPad? That's what I would call fast user switching.
As for Family Sharing, that should have been the ability for an iPad to have multiple user accounts with various users having home screens, mail, etc., only for their use. Let me set it up for me, let my wife for her, and let me set it up for my kids separately. Imagine if it would then know the user account based on the finger print unlocking a Touch ID enabled iPad? That's what I would call fast user switching.
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Yeah handoff isn't really necessary for what you describe. I do this all the time with gmail. The head designer of Android has described the future of mobile devices as evolving to being one screen of many that you use to access your content.
I think everyone is missing the point. What handoff allows is for any app (including third party apps) to specify such behavior (of course third party apps have to be update to support it). Imagine you're playing a game on your macbook. You pause, and take your iPhone to lunch. You turn on your iPhone and on the lock screen is the icon for the game. Swipe up and continue the game exactly where you left off.
You're editing a word document on your iPad while at a meeting. You get back to the office and click a dock icon on your mac and you're in the word doc, exactly up to date, with the cursor exactly where you left it.
You're editing a drawing in photoshop on your mac. You reach over to your iPad and can continue to edit it in photoshop touch.
No searching for the app, launching it, loading the document, etc.
Yes, under the hood is "synch," but it's not just synching data - it's synching your state. It allows you to continue working with no friction, effortlessly, on any Apple device without having to think about it, make sure you save to the cloud, etc.
The widgets will be in Today tab and notifications in another. I used to have an android phone, and I can tell you that the way Apple is implementing this makes more sense than putting them on the home screen. Why would you wanna glance at a weather widget or a game score widget every time you unlock your phone? I think it's better this way
Android devices have one thing going for them, big screen size. And I am using one of them and it is 5.1" display. It have what is supposed to be a beast processor and 2GB of Ram. The only problem is, it's sluggish and on the very first month of using it I have run in problems that I never had on iPhone. Reminds me why I love iOS and iOS devices. When a larger screen iPhone comes out I don't think it will be no much left for Android.
So if you're writing an email on Gmail, you can, with one click, continue it on a different device? I highly doubt that you're able to skip launching an application, navigating to your email or document, and then clicking on it to open it.
This is a new layer to syncing. Hand-off handles the part where you switch devices and want to quickly continue working on it. We know syncing has been possible for ages. I don't think any of us are so unaware of what has been going on in email or the rest of technology for the last decade that we think the concept of synchronization is new.
Pretty much yeah it's like a 1 second process. I get what apple is doing a little bit more magical but outside of saving game states I don't see it being very useful (to me). I'm sure others will find it life changing.
There was a guy here (forum member) who did tweak the photo icon and suggested it to Apple. Then after every freaking iOS 7 beta release he was complain in here that Apple still have not changed the photo icon to the one he made. To the point that it sort of became a joke.
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Oh man. Why do we always get these guys like you telling us what they can do on their Android device?? Yes, I do get many of these on my GS5! To be quite honest not all, so you are wrong there! Trouble though is, no matter what specs S5 have, still is sluggish as hell compared to iPhone. Some people around here do value stability.
The restriction to the same credit card would be a major pain, though.
I don't want my wife to charge my card!
It does seem a bit petty, but if you just remove the family member/friend from the sharing account, I imagine their shared content will go away.
This does raise an interesting question: I wonder whether you can have overlapping "circles" - that would let each user set up their own version of "home sharing" (without all needing to use the same credit card).
I share my content with my wife and kids
The children share their content with their friends
My wife shares with me and her friends
What is the IR receiver used for???
I'm seriously asking, not trying to be a jerk, I guess I'm just out of date regarding latest things on smartphones... I remember having an IR receiver in my Nokia phone in 2001, used it once to play multiplayer snake or something with a friend and that's about it. But what is it good for today that you list it as such a big advantage?
They're so enamoured with their Android devices they need to come onto 'Apple Forums' and spend their time justifying just how good their Android devices are.
I'm happy with my Apple devices and have never felt the urge or need to visit an Android forum to discuss how good my iPhone is or to try and justify why my device is so much better than theirs....bizarre little people.
There is only one reason people do that and that is because they need to defend their purchase, as far as I'm concerned there is no other reason.