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.
God knows I suffer from that. The beginning of something new is always awesome but as time progresses and the "new" feeling vanishes I find it harder and harder to keep working on it.
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.
Same with taking traffic into account, especially in Japanese systems which have done that since like 2004.
If Google finally got around to adding those features that's great but hardly worthy of "brilliant" praise for something that's been around for years.
Traffic for freeways, on the other hand, is amazing.
This likely has to do with the quality of traffic data provided by the municipality. But Apple Maps doesn’t have the same problem. Their side-street traffic data is reliable around here – very surprising.
Because it pisses off carriers (big telcos), and Android vendors (unlike Apple) really need carriers.
People that pay more for a similar product are not just buying the product, they are also buying style and the ability to set themselves apart from their peers.
Hah!
Turning on the iOS hotspot from OS X 10.10 even works exactly like tethering via Bluetooth used to work, from the menu bar.
And then, Instagram happened. Seemed novel at the time - something I made 3 hours before hittin' the road.
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.
before 8 I always disabled it because I litterally had no use for it...
I am not sure if you are serious or not.
Google doesn't make third party developers second class citizens: it makes apps using the same tools and apis as available to everyone, and distributes them the same way that everyone else distributes their apps.
This is a step forward for Apple, but for example: Safari will remain the only browser available on iOS, and Apple's version of Safari will remain versions ahead of UIWebView meaning that any non-Safari browser will remain inferior by intentional design. True competition is prevented by design, and it takes 5 years to open up something as basic as the keyboard. How many more years until browser is opened up? 5 more?
It's an interesting move as far as platforms go, but I know that it's no where near what I want from a platform. It's still locked down, under featured and heavily controlled. For a non-tech user or someone who wants a dead simple phone, it seems great. But for those of us who love our devices, love customizing them in and out, and love trying to create the best experiences, Apple still is not a choice: we can't compete with Apple apps, we can't use their in-house APIs, and they still offer us inferior versions of the software/APIs that they use inhouse.
What I meant to ask was, what do you mean by "enough"? Does this mean that:
1. iphone/ios/Apple suddenly provides better extendibility?
2. Would you be able to, say, open a link to any browser of your choice in iphone?
If any of the above answers is "no", then, yes, I am not sure if you were serious or not. Hence my comment.
(Edited for clarity)
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.
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.
Re. Health: it can fly in the US, and if it does, then they've got the momentum to port the stuff to other mobile OSes. Health itself is such a big industry that they might not want/need to use it just as a promoter for their devices.
Yes Apple will have an iWatch but they would be more than happy having hundreds of dirt cheap equivalents that integrate seamlessly with the iPhone.
A cheap Android device could be used to help monitor the health of an elderly relative, however do you really perceive people leaving the latest iPhone with their dementia stricken parent?
Are expectant mothers going to be happy with having wireless transmissions constantly next to their unborn child (regardless of safety records)?
Are nurses going to have sterilised iPads for for the ward, where fluids are abound?
Health monitors haven't taken off because people do not care enough to want constant monitoring.
Edit: spelling
When (not if) this happens with HealthKit/Health, it'll be slightly disappointing to see these kinds of integrations from behind a glass window. At least some aspects of HealthKit are already being integrated with major fitness companies (namely, Nike), so not everyone will miss the boat entirely.
Hopefully HealthKit will integrate well enough with third party hardware that you can do a lot of the stuff yourself and then bring the data to your doctor when you need to.
tort reform freudian slip?
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.
I believe this is primarily because the development environment is really simple for this class of software. Platforms such as .NET, COM, MFC and VB have been around a long time and it's easy to find programmers. It also doesn't hurt that the desktops running Windows are incredibly inexpensive and easy to procure and run Microsoft Windows.
But targeting the end users of healthcare (e.g. patients)... that's something else entirely which only recently has started to have any traction.
That said, what Apple announced was patient data collection support in the client OS. App developers take care of shipping it to physicians and hospitals. Apple isn't taking the patient's information the last mile to physicians themselves.
Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of a startup dedicated to improving mobile patient and physician communication (Care Thread, http://www.carethread.com). We already integrate with hospital and doctor's office workflows, and we've been looking forward to the introduction of this feature in order to collect relevant patient data.
I let him use mine, and when he logs in, I want him to see a few educational apps... and that's it.
When we're at functions, we see parents let their kids use their iPads all the time, and they are always checking in to see if they've opened their email, or certain games, etc.
Maybe just a "Kids" login. It has NOTHING but a few apps of choice show up. Doesn't have to be a full user-account system, just a pseudo login that hides almost everything.
YT: "What do you want to watch? Some blood-drinking metal band from eastern Europe? Some fine ladies playing beach volleyball? Richard Hammond racing ice-cream trucks on fire? Or Bob the Builder?"
It seems to work well enough, but it could really do with more OS integration e.g. prevent access to the notification drawer and multitasking.
However, given the number of people I know who bought an additional iPad specifically for their kid, Apple probably doesn't need to encourage device sharing!
That said, my 3 and 4 year olds cause no problems with my iPad so I'm not sure how big a deal it is.
(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).
Have a button somewhere that lets you switch to a different user. When you switch, you enter that other user's PIN or password. Then you see their apps, have their data, etc. When you switch back, you see your apps, have your data, etc.
It doesn't have to be very complicated. Even on a Mac, the "cruft" amounts to my name sitting in the menu bar, and having to choose who to log in as before I put in my password.
Of course, with the new family features, they want you to have a device each rather than share. Wasteful but drives up their earnings.
Perhaps a guest mode would be better, access to all the apps already there, but wipes when they log out.
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!
If you're hit by a car and your phone is smashed...
"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.
Here is a small primer on the psychology of slogans: http://www.adslogans.co.uk/ww/prvwis11.html
More importantly when OP said the slogans were annoying/disgusting, it was a statement of OP's personal opinion. OP never said in general the public finds these slogans disgusting/annoying.
You have to admit there is a little bit of irony in this.
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.
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.
There's a reason that there was a massive developer outcry at the "sweet solution" of HTML5 apps, causing Apple to release a native SDK instead.
A third-party editorial review is much more useful to me than a marketting brochure.
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.
-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
What it doesn't have, is the context-aware switching. That is something really neat about the new keyboard. Switching context from a meeting being "postponed" to "boring" is great.
"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?
i do like the ideas for extensions apple presented, but they all seem to specific. the android intents i use day to day are way past this.
Look eg here to get an idea of what it means for webapp: http://www.photonstorm.com/html5/a-first-look-at-what-ios8-m...
Let me get my US-centric conversion calculator out... Fall > Autumn, carry the one, add 2, and oh look it's "coming this Spring".
This is a bit scary... This means that Apple not only knows who I talk to but now actually maintain an index on how I talk with everyone. 1984 is getting closer and closer.
