Apple gave the world a preview of their upcoming new iOS 8 at this week?s Worldwide Developer?s Conference. As has become their practice, Apple rolled out all the new features that will debut with the new operating system this fall.
Here?s a nice recap of what Apple announced at the WWDC. Among the highlights: a more powerful messaging app, a new Continuity feature to allow seamless sharing of tasks between mobile devices and Macs, and a more customizable notifications center.
But, along with seeing what Apple has in store for its users, we were interested in seeing how many of these functions are already available to users of other mobile platforms.
As it happens, many of these features will seem familiar to Android 4.4 users. Cnet?s review of iOS 8 focused on the fact that Android users can already do many of the things that will appear for the first time in iOS later this fall. Among the things that Cnet highlighted were Apple?s iCloud Drive and the updated iCloud Photo Library, features which have been key parts of the Google ecosystem for some time.
Other observers had more nuanced views. According to Mashable, while many of these functions are already available to droid users, they aren?t all integrated into the Android operating system. Many of the functions are achieved through 3rd party apps. That?s always been the difference between the two competing giants: Apple may be later, but their integration tends to be tighter; Google, on the other hand, tends to be both earlier and more open to 3rd-party solutions.
So now we know what the new iOS will add to Apple mobile users. The next question is what the next generation of devices will do. A new iPhone ? probably with a noticeably larger screen ? is expected to be rolled out just in time to take full advantage of the new IOS 8 features.
– Pat Welsh