Just Announced…iOS 8

ByMike Moffit

So WWDC happened.

With WWDC comes the opening keynote that most Apple nerds (and even non-Apple nerds) get all excited about because this is when they announce their new software and hardware. The two-hour keynote today consisted mostly of software announcements: Yosemite and iOS 8, baby!

While Kali will cover all the juicy details of Yosemite in a bit, I’m here to give you a quick coverage of highlights from iOS 8. While it’s keeping the same flat design of iOS 7, it has been updated with features that will make your experience [even] easier.

iOS 8’s tagline reads, “Huge for Developers. Massive for everyone else.” Apple provided developers with deeper access and more tools. Such things like keyboard options and more ways to share content are just some of the things they can get their hands on.

Here are some of the other improvements we’ll see when iOS 8 is released this fall:

  • Photos: Now every photo you take and edit will live in your iCloud Photo Library. This makes them available across all your devices without having to do anything. There are also even more tools included in the app to edit your photos with. Take a dark photo and lighten it up, crop, straighten and add a filter right in the Photos app.
  • Messages: You can now add your voice to your messages by touching and holding the little microphone to record a message. If you receive a new voice message all you have to do is lift your phone to your ear and it will begin playing — super cool!

Another new feature of messages that I think everyone has been waiting for is the option to leave a group message or turn on Do Not Disturb so you can go back and read through the conversation when you’re not in the middle of work.

Other features include the ability to share your location in the middle of a conversation, tapping to see every attachment from a conversation and sending multiple photos and videos at once.

  • Keyboard: With iOS 8 it now suggests contextually appropriate words to complete the sentence you’re typing — making typing faster than ever!
  • Family Sharing: You can now share data from your phone among six people in your family. Share the new Coldplay album with your sister without having to share an Apple ID and password. As long as purchases are paid for with the same credit card, you’ll be good to go.
  • iCloud Drive: Work on your files anywhere, anytime. Just store your presentations, spreadsheets and other files in iCloud and you can access them from your iOS devices, Mac or PC!
  • Health: A new iApp (the ones you can’t ever delete from your phone or iPad) provides you with all sorts of health information — so you can make you a healthy one! The Health app collects all of your health and fitness information from your other apps and displays them all in one place.
  • iPhone, iPad and Mac are now all connected: If you’re like any of us over here at Small Dog, you just might have more than one Apple device. Now all of those devices are connected in such a way that if you start an email on your iPhone, you can finish it on your Mac at a later time. And the coolest part? If you get an incoming call on your iPhone you can answer it on your Mac — even if your phone is in the other room.
  • Spotlight: …you know, the feature you get when you swipe down on your icons on your phone (iOS 7). You can now use Spotlight to search for just about…anything. It’s basically like Googling something — providing you with all sorts of helpful information. It will give you suggestions from Wikipedia, trending news and offers you answers that are in the context of where you’re located.

We’re sad we have to wait until Fall to check this out (well, at least I do, since I’m not a Developer). And if there’s any trend we are seeing from Apple these days it’s that they are making it easier than ever to own multiple Apple products.

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