The iOS 8 features Apple didn’t mention at WWDC
Tim Cook took to the stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference yesterday, to announce iOS 8, the next iteration of the company’s mobile operating system. As expected, the forthcoming release builds on the foundations laid down by its predecessor, refining elements and introducing some new features.
Craig Federighi, SVP of Software Engineering, ran through a lot of the changes yesterday, including interactive notifications, HealthKit, Family Sharing, Spotlight Suggestions, iCloud Drive, Continuity, Photos with iCloud, and context sensitive predictive text. But there were loads of features that Federighi didn’t mention.
These appeared on a slide in the background (some, like 'Hey, Siri' were touched upon, but I’ve included them here anyway):
- Braille Keyboard for direct 6-dot braille input
- Alex voice for accessibility
- Private browsing per tab in Safari
- Instant burst mode
- Wi-Fi calling
- Vector maps in China
- Hey, Siri
- iBooks built into iOS
- New definition dictionaries for Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Thai, and Turkish Hindi localization
- Flyover city tours
- Auto night mode in iBooks
- Separate focus and exposure in Camera
- Panoramic photos on iPad
- RSS feeds in Shared Links
- DuckDuckGo support in Safari
- Improved zoom for accessibility
- Battery usage by app
- In Case of Emergency card
- Travel time notifications
- Purchase iTunes content with Siri
- 24 new dictation languages
- Rich text editing in Notes
- See your books as a series in iBooks
- Touch ID to exit from Guided Access
- Multi-device support for MFi hearing aids
- Camera timer
- Indian, Tagalog, Irish Gaelic, and Slovenian keyboards
- Tips app
- Navigation for China
- Speak screen
- Shazam with Siri
- FaceTime call waiting
- Lunar calendar support
- Time limits and countdown timer for Guided Access
- Place cards in other apps
Some are self-explanatory, others are easy enough to guess at. There are probably more new features too that weren’t deemed worthy of inclusion, and it’s likely Apple may introduce further functions and options prior to iOS 8's official release.
I’m disappointed (but not surprised) that certain features, like NFC support and the rumored split-screen multitasking, didn’t make it into iOS 8, but there’s certainly a lot of tweaks and new features to explore when the operating system arrives in the fall.