Apple has finished their WWDC 2014 keynote conference and while we didn’t get even a peak at the iWatch or any other hardware, we did get a lot of news about OS X Yosemite and iOS8, the two new software platforms Apple will be pushing out in 2014.
Starting with OS X Yosemite, Apple revealed a new user experience designed around iOS7. Spotlight was the first feature shown off in OS X Yosemite, now offering Internet search results.
iCloud Drive was next, Apple is definitely pushing cloud storage and the new drive allows users to save files and folders. It works with iOS and Windows too and will be available soon.
Mail has been worked on quite extensively, Markup now allows users to sign PDFs easily and a new function allows users to send video and other content and override the email systems recommended storage amount.
Continuity was the biggest announcement for OS X Yosemite and definitely a killer feature for Mac and iOS users. It allows users to switch between OS X and iOS at will and takes the advantages of both systems, including using the Mac to call, text and use Internet from the iPhone.
Switching to iOS8, Apple kicked off by announcing new functions on Group Messages, Notification Center now has third party widgets and Apple added QuickType, a new predictive text service that uses contextual information.
Family Sharing was announced for families to share apps and content, as well as make sure parents had controls to monitor kids spending. A new Photos app was also announced, offering extensive editing unlike anything on iOS before.
The big news on iOS8 was the developer news, Apple has revealed a new mobile OS named Swift, based off Objective-C without all the headaches that come from using a programming language not fully created for iOS devices.
Swift comes alongside thousands of new APIs for applications and services, Apple is really branching out to the developer community and offering unparalleled control of the OS for the first time since its inception. This includes third party keyboards, access to TouchID API and new APIs for HomeKit, CloudKit and HealthKit.
Starting with HomeKit, Apple announced a new API for smart home devices, to all be interconnected to the iPhone, the hub. HealthKit works in a similar fashion, Apple controls the information and it is shared to different apps and devices, furthering the amount of information a third party app can take in.
CloudKit is a nice cherry for app developers who cannot afford to run their own servers. Apple will offer the cloud storage service for free in a scaling model, basically if app developers want to have more room they have to paid extra and wait for more users to download the app.
This is definitely the biggest developer push by Apple and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a ton of content added that takes advantage, considering Apple’s iOS platform is still far and away the most successful in terms of revenue per user.
