In an effort to make its mobile OS as seamless as possible, Apple is set to bring contextual, location-based shortcuts to the lock screen with iOS 8. This means if, for example, you're whimsically wandering around near a shopping mall and just so happen to be looking at your phone, iOS 8 may throw up an icon relating to the nearest Starbucks or Apple Retail Store, as well as other outlets of interest that aren't so closely affiliated with Apple.
The wait is finally over! iOS 8 beta 1 download links are now live on Apple’s Dev Center. Earlier today in the opening keynote at WWDC, Apple unveiled iOS 8 to the world for the first time.
Those hoping to see some exciting new hardware revelations at WWDC were left sorely disappointed as Cook, Federighi and co. waxed poetic about the new software features of iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite. But just because nothing was unveiled at the conference's keynote, this isn't to say that some of the touted products aren't on their way, and having delved the new beta of Xcode 6, one Apple enthusiast has already spotted signs that newer, larger iPhones and iPads could be on their way.
You may remember that I'm the guy that spent the entire iOS 7 beta program running the thing on my main iPhone. Starting with beta 1 and running all the way until the final shipping version went live on Apple's servers. I came here to share my findings, essentially creating a diary of sorts that, every couple of weeks, was updated with what was new, what had changed and how I felt about iOS 7 as a whole. With iOS 8 now here in its first beta form, I'm here to start the process anew.
Apple likes to tout its iOS range as advocates of productivity as well as simply entertainment, and with new indication of the company offering peer-to-peer AirPlay with iOS 8 and Apple TV, that claim may soon hold even more legitimacy. Apparently, the new infrastructure will allow owners of iOS 8 devices to stream and broadcast to a host's Apple TV without being connected to the same network, which deals with a common issue related to complicated enterprise networks in which the host often doesn't play ball.
There may not have been any hardware announcements, but Apple surely made up for any disappointment with the volume and quality of the software it showed off. It's been a big day in the world of iOS and OS X, so we thought it is best to have a quick rundown of what's been announced and give you a chance to relive the whole keynote by linking to the official live stream of the WWDC 2014 event. We'll be covering some of this in more depth, but if you want a quick glance at what all the fuss is about, this is where to get it.
iOS 8 beta is out, up and running on one of our iPhones, and we have wasted no time in comparing it with iOS 7.x, to give our precious readers an idea of the visual changes and features they should expect when iOS 8 final is available to everyone this fall.
Even though, with several other great announcements in the offing today, the revelation of a new keyboard is huge! And it ought not be played down how significant the introduction of QuickType is for the long-suffering army of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. Moreover, Apple has also rolled out third-party keyboard support, meaning we could soon see the likes of Swpye, SwiftKey et al joining the party on iOS.
Apple has been in the cloud computing game for quite a while now, but while iCloud has allowed iOS and OS X users to keep their devices and files in perfect sync with one another, it certainly hasn't competed, feature-wise, with some of the more versatile offerings like Dropbox. This looks set to change after today's announcement of iCloud Drive, with cloud-syncing app support that spans iOS, OS X and even offers support for Windows.
After a fairly intense build-up, Apple has finally taken the wraps off iOS 8, and as those on newer iOS devices can begin looking ahead to some exciting new features, only one iOS device will be invariably left behind. After the jump, you’ll find an official chart of devices by Apple which will be supported by iOS 8.
