Apple Introduces iOS 8

[untog]

Call/SMS integration is great. It's worth noting that Google had absolutely everything they needed to do this years ago, and just... didn't. Hangouts is still inferior to iMessage today. It's a real shame.

Edit: this extensibility stuff might be enough to tempt me back to Apple from Android, at last. Third party keyboards, too (I've gotten quite attached to the Android swiping stuff). Honestly, at this point, I'm not sure what keeps me on Android. I confidently predict that iOS Active Notification usage will be far higher than on Android, even though Android has had it for years.

[bane]

Google's ability to "release and stagnate" is one of the hallmarks of the company's rather prolific product output. I honestly don't know how products are run at Google, but from the outside it seems that most of them are built and then just kicked off the back of a truck into a waiting crowd. If you hear any news later about a product it seems like it's news about a shutdown.

[georgemcbay]

"It's worth noting that Google had absolutely everything they needed to do this years ago, and just... didn't."

This is so true and so sad. Google Voice, why are you so almost great and so neglected?

I have to say though that my disappointment in Google Voice is quickly being matched by my disappointment in Google Maps which actually was great but continually gets less so with each release.

[mirsadm]

At this point both devices do the core functionality just as well as each other (email, browsing and maps). Android still has better "Google" integration which is important for me. Also I have gotten use to paying $350 for a Nexus device + $18/mo for my plan. I have no intention of ever buying another $800+ device or spending upwards of $100/mo for something which is about the same experience as I have now.

[justinator]

I used to be able to do this with my first color screen'd Sony/Erickson phone and OS X like, 10 years ago via Bluetooth. It was great to work with my Addressbook on the Mac, pick a contact and SMS/Call them. I could also use the phone as a remote control for iTunes, as well.

[donniezazen]

You are right. Google has completely fractured message on Android. You have to install 10 different messengers to be able to talk to different factions of people. Also since they want to push Google Hangouts' online feature their messaging app is quite confusing.

I stick to Anroid for innovations like LastPass's 'fill into applications', link browser, Pocket, etc. They are so tightly integrated with Android that it is very pleasurable to use.

[gotschi]

I love Notification Center with its extensions! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umZCjMduuUY

before 8 I always disabled it because I litterally had no use for it...

[dirkgently]

> this extensibility stuff might be enough to tempt me back to Apple from Android, at last.

I am not sure if you are serious or not.

[sz4kerto]

There are two big things here:

Health: it's stepping on the toes of many partners, but might be groundbreaking. It's extremely hard to crack healtcare, it's very closed, defensive system of people and bureaucracy, Apple might just have the power to do it.

Extensibility: intents are basically _the_ reason Android can work so much better in many cases than iOS. I hope MS will bring it to WP very soon.

[daigoba66]

Per Microsoft: "App contracts and extensions" have existed since day one: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh46490...

Per Healthcare: that is a really exciting new feature and there is a LOT of potential here. But I wonder how successful it can actually be in the grand scheme of things. I.e. not everyone can have or wants an iPhone.

Edit, expanding a bit:

On the flip side, I am huge advocate for personal health records (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_health_record), but no one really knows about them and no really uses them because they don't work with your doctor. I don't think Apple has even remotely come close to solving the overall problem of integration and usefulness, but maybe it will get more people interested and thinking about the concept of a personal health record.

[k-mcgrady]

Yeh, I loved the health demo they did showing the Mayo Clinic app. Problem is that unless my local doctor integrates with it I'm never going to get to use most of this stuff. I think it's particularly going to be a problem outside the US where there are public systems. We might start missing out on these kinds of innovations and it's the sort of thing that would tempt me to go private (not the entire system, just personally).

Edit: spelling

[arrrg]

Love that I will be able to hook my Withings scale up. Best tool to aid weight loss. But their app sucks. (They showed some other Withings products during the Keynote, so I assume they are in.)

[chimeracoder]

> It's extremely hard to crack healtcare, it's very closed, defensive system of people and bureaucracy, Apple might just have the power to do it.

Care delivery is also an industry in which Apple has virtually zero market share - it's Microsoft through and through. Inpatient and outpatient EHRs all target Windows, hospital IT all runs Windows Server, and some of the more "forward-thinking" hospitals are even eyeing Windows tablets (I kid you not).

Potentially huge upside for them (which is obviously why they want to do it), but it's very difficult to penetrate, and they have almost no foothold there so far.

[eertami]

I don't have an iPhone, but I just can't understand why the keyboard cannot be lowercase when you're writing in lowercase. I just don't understand the motivation.

[gecko]

The original reason for that was simply because they hadn't thought of that. The ongoing nominal reason was that it was a continuing nod to skeuomorphism. But given Jobs' passing, and the otherwise massive ditching of skeuomorphism since then, I do not begin to understand myself why that's the still the case. I'll hope that iOS 8 might introduce that mode as we get closer to shipping.

[Geee]

Well, now it supports third-party keyboards so it can have anything.

[omnibrain]

And I don't understand why they can't cram the punctation marks (at least full stop and comma) on it. And I have an iPhone...

[snowwrestler]

I'm glad it doesn't. WebOS does this, and I find it jarring to have the entire keyboard twitch every time I hit the shift key. I much prefer Apple's approach.

[dpcan]

Still no user accounts on iPad. The only thing I want, and 8 versions in, it's still not there. Why I can't create a login for my kids on my iPad that hides my mail, calendar, certain games, etc? I don't understand why this isn't possible.

[wan23]

They announced new family features today that imply that they think each family member should have his/her own device.

[duncan_bayne]

Because iOS devices are single-user by design. Think of the amount of cruft you could cut from your average desktop OS if you didn't have to support multiple users.

(I assume that, being UNIX under the hood, there actually are multiple users on an iOS device, for security. But these would presumably be invisible to the user, and not usable as login accounts).

[prawn]

Especially in an era with Touch ID. My kid should unlock it and see their apps and not go about accidentally deleting mine. I should unlock and have access to mine, private email and so on.

Of course, with the new family features, they want you to have a device each rather than share. Wasteful but drives up their earnings.

[robmcm]

One problem would be disk space, I use 90% of my space so adding another user would be a real issue.

Perhaps a guest mode would be better, access to all the apps already there, but wipes when they log out.

[jwcrux]

I'm personally excited about the possibility of creating an "Emergency Card" (http://www.apple.com/ios/ios8/health/) that's accessible from the lock screen.

Currently, I use a screen-shotted contact screen as my wallpaper for my ICE contact - just in case the worst were to happen. This will let me put more information, and might even let me have a wallpaper again!

[RivieraKid]

"Huge for developers. Massive for everyone else."

"Completely new. Completely Mac."

I find meaningless slogans like these really disgusting and annoying. And it's not just Apple, every second startup does this.

[AndrewKemendo]

The fact that it is so widely used should tell you that it is effective.

Here is a small primer on the psychology of slogans: http://www.adslogans.co.uk/ww/prvwis11.html

[tvon]

I don't like it either, but that kind talk that has been around for as long as people have had something to sell.

[hsod]

annoying I could understand but "really disgusting"? what is it that bothers you so much?

[mikeash]

Slogans and mottos and such have a long history (to the extent that a lot of them are written in Latin because the practice was common when Latin was a living language) and rarely say much concrete.

[slipshod]

Totally on a tangent here, but I find myself disappointed, again.

I'm a long time hobbyist programmer, got my start back in the days of Apple IIe, got my first Mac in 1984...and I'm still not switching back to iPhone until I can write my own software and run it on my own phone without paying Apple for the privilege.

I'm waiting for two simple words: "Unknown sources". Guess I have to wait some more. Not sure how low Apple's market share will have to go before they start allowing it.

Can't say I love programming for Android, Java just doesn't feel right to me, but I'm sticking with it as long as I can write my own software, run it on my phone or tablet, share it with others, even sell it without Google's permission.

[Terretta]

I think you missed that the App Store is an iPhone afterthought -- the original, still supported, intent was to support HTML5 apps installed to your home screen.

You can write your own software, run it on any iOS device, share it with others, even sell it without anyone's permission.

Here is a PacMan style game, for example:

http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/257187093/pie-guy

If that's not "hobbyist" friendly, I don't know what is.

[dang]

We changed the url for this story from http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/02/apple-introduces-ios-8. If we pick the wrong url, happy to change it again, so let us know. The goal is to have one discussion about each significant announcement, and have the best url for each.

[jrochkind1]

I like the techcrunch url better, thanks for including it in the comment at least.

A third-party editorial review is much more useful to me than a marketting brochure.

[Osmium]

So so happy to see the SceneKit API make it to iOS. Even though 'minor' compared to some of the other announcements, it was the number one thing I was looking for in today's keynote, and it was nice to see it featured. Can't wait to start using it.

[ja27]

That's the most useful thing I saw for my current development.

The integration, widgets, etc. will open up a lot of new possibilities too.

I'm not too excited about Swift but it looks like it could speed up the code, compile, load, test cycle.

[moyaRD]

Impress by All the announcements for developer in the WWDC. But taking the perspective of a enduser, there are key features i was hopping to get in iOS 8 that i didn't:

-Spotlight Integration For third Party Apps.

-Multi-User Support Or Guest Mode

-iMessage For Android

-App Trials

-Fixing The Music App ( Artis-Album View is broken)

-Third Party Default Apps

[jevinskie]

Wow, real dynamic linking. Xcode even let me do so when targeting 7.1. Does anyone know if you will be able to submit apps to the AppStore that use dynamic frameworks while still deploying to < iOS 8?

[the_watcher]

HealthKit and HomeKit are both really exciting (probably going to look at smartlocks now in particular). However, I'm easily most excited about being able to leave a group text.

[J-H]

The new texting suggestions in QuickType are awesome (if it works as suggested).

[sigzero]

You can finally leave group MMS! That is awesome.

[RandallBrown]

Can you leave group MMS or just group iMessages?

[jordan0day]

The family sharing looks like a great idea that is way overdue. Hopefully it works as easily as the marketing material indicates.

[samirmenon]

This was interesting:

"Touch ID- For the first time, you’ll have the option of using Touch ID to sign in to third-party apps — there’s no need to enter a password. Your fingerprint data is protected and is never accessed by iOS or other apps."

Will this be used significantly by developers?

[Cthulhu_]

It depends. For secure applications? I doubt it; fingerprints is identification, not authorization. Bank apps and the like won't consider it secure enough.

[clarky07]

yes, i think so. Any app that has a password on it now will likely "upgrade" to this. Prime examples being finance apps.

[rimantas]

Yes.

[bitsoda]

Apple's iOS support for older products has been stellar, though I'm betting iOS 8 will be the last update the iPad mini, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S receive -- they will have had a good run of four years (except for mini) by the time iOS 9 is released.

[nachteilig]

It wasn't made clear in the keynote and the page doesn't mention it--I hope this includes sharing contacts with "Family Sharing". That'll be huge for helping my older family members keep a coherent address book.

[gnopgnip]

The do not disturb sounds great. Does this mean the recipient or the sender sets it?

[FPSDavid]

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the amount of stuff they've packed into iOS 8. Looks like it'll be more than enough to easily rip me away from jailbroken iOS 7.