WWDC 2014 keynote: iOS 8

June 13, 2014
by Riccardo Mori
Software

iOS 8

As a general introductory observation, with regard to iOS, the amount of new things showcased at the keynote has left me positively thrilled. I’ve read a lot of articles discussing iOS 8 in the past week, and the overall vibe seems to be: I had more than a few complaints about iOS 7 and iOS in general, but Apple appears to have addressed most — if not all — of them, and that’s great.

Honestly, I didn’t have many complaints about iOS 7. It’s funny how certain things, that are major peeves for others, don’t really bother me that much. I guess it all depends on the way we use our devices and the features we’re most dependent on. But still, I’m glad iOS 8 introduces so many improvements and fixes. I particularly like the fact that most of the innovation is implemented in a rather subtle way. Visually, iOS 8 doesn’t appear much different than iOS 7, it’s what Snow Leopard was to Leopard on the Mac. But once you wrap your head around what iOS 8 will add to your devices, you realise just how powerful a release it’s going to be. (It’s a huge release, Cook said emphatically, and he’s right.)

A better Notification Centre

The first area of the UI to be addressed is Notification Centre. Now we have interactive notifications: for example, you get the notification that a new SMS has arrived; you pull down, and you can reply to the message right there where you are, without even entering the Messages app. It works for all kinds of apps, and it works on the lockscreen: you swipe and you can act on a notification. When you see a notification you don’t want to deal with at the moment, you just flick it away.

Gestures and shortcuts

Many little interface improvements seem to revolve around the idea of accomplishing more by moving around less. For instance, now in the Multitasking interface you can also have access to the people you communicate with most frequently. I must say that, while I like this feature on principle, the device’s screen looks a bit crowded now.

In Mail, now there are more actions that can be accomplished with a single gesture, like marking a message as unread, flagging or deleting it. And when you’re composing a new email, now you can pull down the message to access the rest of your email.

Safari on the iPad gets a similar Tab view as Safari in OS X Yosemite. And Spotlight gives you suggestions like in OS X Yosemite, both when you’re using Spotlight alone or within Safari. Again, the idea is to ‘get there faster.’

QuickType

In iOS 8, QuickType supports predictive typing suggestions. So, as you type, you get suggestions for the next words you might want to type. It’s smart and context-sensitive. It learns how you type to different people in different apps. Apple isn’t forgetting the user’s privacy, either: all that learning happens locally on the device and none of your keystrokes leaves the device.

Here’s one feature who got a huge sigh of relief from many users and developers who were annoyed by iOS’s limitations when compared to Android. I’m pleased, of course, that Apple has introduced more versatility for the virtual keyboard. But I must say, I didn’t have many complaints about iOS’s keyboard. Since I use three different international keyboards to communicate (English, Italian, Spanish), I’m curious to see the efficacy of QuickType under these conditions. I’m a slow typist on the iPhone, I can’t fast-type using two thumbs like many people do, so these predictive typing suggestions for me are simply a ‘nice to have’ addition. If they end up speeding my typing a little, fine; otherwise it’s not the end of the world. What I hope, though, is that QuickType doesn’t end up getting in the way like Autocorrect does every now and then.

Messages

Lots of new touches for the Messages app and experience. If you usually do a lot of group messaging, now you can name a thread; add and remove people; activate the Do Not Disturb feature on a per-thread level, and leave a thread whenever you want. You can share your location with people in a conversation (and you can choose if you want to share it For one hour, Until end of day, or Indefinitely). You can have a nice overview of all the pictures and attachments shared in a thread.

I use Messages rarely, and I’ve never done any group messaging, so again I understand these new features will be a welcome addition for other people, but won’t change my experience much. Something that will, though, is the new Tap to Talk feature: now you can hold your finger down on the Microphone button, and then you can just swipe up when you’re done talking and send what you said. Even better: you can actually listen to audio messages and reply to them from the lockscreen simply by raising the iPhone to your ear. You lower the iPhone, and your audio message in reply is sent. This is a very cool touch, and a great example of Apple design and usability.

Finally, audio and video messages are set to automatically expire after a few minutes (you can choose to keep them if you want). A snapchat-like feature that has the added benefit of saving storage space, considering the bigger size of audio and video files.

iCloud Drive

I’ve already discussed iCloud Drive in the Mac OS X part of this recap, but I really like how it can be a great way to work across apps on iOS as well. As Federighi explains, you can bring up your iCloud Drive panel and open documents directly from other apps (e.g. in Sketchbook you can open a compatible document that is located inside of GoodReader). And when you edit that document, changes are automatically saved back to their original locations. I like how transparent this all feels, interface-wise.

Enterprise

I’m guilty of paying less attention to features that don’t affect me directly. Enterprise features are among these. The Device Enrollment Program seems cool. Federighi: “You can get your iPhone/iPad new, and when you open it up it’ll immediately configure itself for your enterprise, setting up mail, getting your messages, setting up calendars, and automatically downloading your enterprise apps.” Take a look at the other Enterprise features coming in iOS 8 on Apple’s website.

Health

Federighi: HealthKit provides a single place that applications can contribute to a composite profile of your activity and health. It comes with a corresponding app, Health. With it, you can monitor all of your metrics that you’re most interested in your activity. You can use third-party apps and you can decide which of those apps have access to your healthcare information.

You can read more about Health and HealthKit on Apple’s Health page. There’s a lot to like about this. I’m sorry for not providing more insightful observations, but I’m really not into this recent ‘quantified self’ trend. One thing I’ll say, though: some see Health and HealthKit as the unmistakable proof that some sort of ‘iWatch’ is coming — but I don’t know. Perhaps I’m reading the whole thing wrong, but to me, at this stage, Apple seems more interested in providing a good ‘connective tissue,’ a reliable platform (much in the same vein as HomeKit — see below) where different health-tracking devices can exchange data between one another, and where all the data collected end up in the iPhone’s Health app.

Sure, Apple could also release a smartwatch / smartband / smart-something to do the same thing, but wouldn’t that be just redundant? And if it doesn’t do the same thing (where by ‘same thing’ I mean collecting health-related data and metrics), it would be interesting to see which features this smart-something is going to have to make it appealing a) to those who already have an iPhone, and b) to those who could potentially be interested in entering Apple’s ecosystem via such a device. It’s the same old iWatch debate.

Family Sharing

This is another nice feature. Federighi: Once you set up your family as a family unit in iOS, you can share photos with the Shared Photo Stream, share calendars, reminders, configure Find My Friends, find your kid’s devices, etc. With Family Sharing you can get not just your purchases, but the purchases of all the members of your family — up to 6 family members who all share the same credit card. Kids can make purchases with your credit card, but when they try to make a purchase, they get prompted to ask you for your permission — and you get messaged on your device about what’s happening.

In my household in particular, I guess the most used feature will be the shared calendar.

Photos

Federighi: We’re bringing together Photos + iCloud, so that every photo you take is available to you on all of your devices. We’re not only preserving the common organisation edits you do to all of your photos for your consistent iCloud photo library, but your device actually has access to more photos in the cloud that it can physically store locally, so you can get them all, wherever you are.

As I noted in the Mac OS X part of this recap, this is iCloud done right and put to good use. What I like most in the new Photos app is Smart editing: now there are smart controls for Light and Colour, and also for things like auto-straightening and cropping. Both the Light and Colour smart meters are nice because they give you an instant preview of how the whole photo will look like. And you can also fine-tune the single parameters if you like.

Also nice: Search suggestions to find photos (locations, time, and also on albums you set up).

Federighi: What about the Mac? We are working on a new grounds-up photo solution for the Mac built with iCloud in mind. It’s going to be shipping early next year.

It appears that the app is called simply “Photos” and at the moment it looks more like a reimagined/redesigned iPhoto rather than a mix of Aperture and iPhoto (it appears it lacks Aperture’s pro features). Some say that the new Photos app for OS X will replace both iPhoto and Aperture. I think it makes more sense to keep both apps and keep targeting the different audience of beginners and professional photographers. Personally, I’d love to see a separate, revamped Aperture that could be a more up-to-date competitor to Adobe’s Lightroom. But who knows, maybe Apple will be able to provide a single photo app with a smart interface that stays simple for beginners and enthusiasts, but that can also reveal powerful and versatile pro controls for power users who know what they’re doing.

iCloud storage new pricing plan

  • First 5 GB free
  • 20 GB for $0.99/month
  • 200 GB for $3.99/month
  • Tiers available for up to 1 TB

 

While I think Apple could have easily offered 10 GB free, the new plans are actually very affordable, especially the 20 GB option (it’s like buying a $0.99 app each month). On the whole, though, I agree with Nick Heer when he writes:

Upgrading to substantially more storage is now very reasonable, but the free tier just feels so stingy to me, and the $0.99/month price for 20 GB of storage also feels a little nickel-and-dimey. I understand that there are loads of people that will pony up a buck a month for increased storage,1 and that Apple generates revenue by asking people to exchange money for goods and services, instead of exchanging their searches for “green wart on pinky toe” for ad money. I appreciate that. But 5 GB of storage just feels so weak in 2014.

From one perspective, it’s just a dollar a month to quadruple your storage. But from another, it’s “Really? You’re going to charge a dollar a month for enough storage to back up only up to a 16 GB iPhone?”.

While Federighi is recapping iOS 8, behind him there’s a slide with a dense list of iOS 8 features. I only managed to catch a few of them, which I find intriguing: DuckDuckGo support in Safari (yes!); Battery usage per app; Panoramic photos on iPad; Separate focus and exposure in camera; iBooks built into iOS; See your books as series in iBooks; Braille keyboard …

New Siri-related features

  • “Hey Siri” to invoke Siri without touching the device (useful in the car).
  • Shazam song recognition
  • Purchase iTunes content
  • Streaming voice recognition (As you talk you can see what Siri is recognising.)
  • 22 new dictation languages

 

iOS 8 for developers

New App Store features

  • Explore Tab to further help users find the app they’re looking for.
  • Top trending searches.
  • Continuous scrolling list to help you search faster.
  • Related searches.
  • New Editors’ Choice logo.
  • Giving developers the ability to form App bundles so users can buy multiple apps at a discounted price with just one tap.
  • App previews: developers can add short videos to the app’s screenshots. This is an excellent addition, and I think it’s going to be a nice deterrent against fake apps and various app scams. (Sure, some shady ‘developers’ will probably go as far as uploading fake videos next to the already fake screenshots, but I don’t know if it’s worth the trouble, generally speaking.)
  • TestFlight: New beta test service. Developers can invite users to beta-test their app and get the results right in TestFlight, and it’s all free.

 

Extensibility

Federighi: Apps from the App Store will be able to extend the system and offer services to other apps. Now, in iOS’s security model, apps are isolated inside of sandboxes where they can access their own data, but can’t get at your personal information or mess with other apps without your permission.

Extensibility builds on the same sandboxing model: extensions live inside an app’s own sandbox with access to its own data, but other apps can reach out by way of iOS’s security mechanisms, and talk to that extension; and that extension can even project UI right back into the originating app.

This enables nice things:

  • Sharing — In addition to the system’s built-in sharing options, an app like Pinterest can offer its own share sheet to Safari.
  • Actions — An app like Bing could offer translation right inside of Safari, accessing the webpage’s content right there.
  • Photo filters — Third-party photo filters inside the Photos app. (See below)
  • Documents — Apple will enable third parties to define their own document providers that work within the iCloud Drive-enabled application.
  • Widgets — Finally, Apple is enabling third-party apps to define widgets that can now go in Notification Centre.

 

In the related Demo, we see Craig Federighi edit a photo in Photos. In addition to the options at the bottom of the screen, there is an Extension button at the top left. He taps the button and the available extensions are displayed — from the Waterlogue and VSCO Cam apps in this case. After selecting Waterlogue, we can see that the extension is able to run in the context of Photos to directly manipulate the image in Photos, but through Waterlogue’s UI. After all changes are applied, you’re back to Photos’ UI.

For a photo app addict as myself, this is fantastic, and again it’s part of Apple’s plan to focus on shortcuts in iOS 8 more than ever, making users accomplish more without having to jump in and out of different apps all the time. It’s the same principle behind widgets and extensions: we can see existing widgets in Today’s View in Notification Centre, and adding a widget is very easy. On the iPad, Federighi shows how he can easily place a bid using the interactive eBay widget right from within Notification Centre. Similarly, in Safari, Federighi illustrates an example of a translation performed directly in a webpage via Bing’s translation extension.

Then there’s another kind of extension: the ability to install system-wide third-party keyboards, though within a very strict sandbox with no network access so as to protect your privacy. You can, of course, grant permission to such extensions if you want to be able to use all the features provided by a third-party keyboard. Again, many users and developers are rejoicing because they’ll be able to take advantage of third-party solutions such as Fleksy and SwiftKey. I admit that after trying such input methods (on my wife’s Android phone and in Wordbox for iOS, a text editor that integrates the Fleksy keyboard), I haven’t been able to get accustomed to either of them. My typing speed and accuracy decreased while using them, and I was happy to return to the traditional iOS keyboard. However I’m eager to try something like Minuum on the iPhone. Go to this post on Minuum’s blog if you want to sign up to be among the first to try Minuum on iOS.

Touch ID API

Now third-party apps can take advantage of Touch ID as well. Touch ID:

  • Protects logins and user data
  • Unlocks keychain items
  • Identifies successful matches
  • Protects fingerprint data

 

Federighi: Touch ID always keeps the fingerprint data itself completely protected inside of the Secure Enclave in the A7 processor. The fingerprint information is never exposed to third-party apps, or to the rest of the system for that matter.

I’ve seen Touch ID in action at my local Apple Store when the iPhone 5s was introduced, and I was struck by its speed, responsiveness and general accuracy. Opening the technology to third-party apps is smart, and there are so many use cases where Touch ID could make things both easier and secure for the user. I’m thinking security apps that rely on master passwords, or apps like TimeLock that pretend to be a simple alarm clock but can actually store photos and files you want to keep hidden and secure in case someone else handles your device. With all the passwords we have to create and memorise today, having a reliable fingerprint sensor and a technology like Touch ID can really improve matters. (Case in point: after not using TimeLock for a while, I had forgotten the unlock code to access my files. Thankfully I recalled it after a few attempts, but what if I couldn’t? Having Touch ID as a failsafe would be nice under similar circumstances.)

Camera APIs

Federighi: For manual control of exposure, white balance and focus, we’ve enhanced the PhotoKit API with faster performance, the ability to read & write to the library (the photo library that’s now your cloud photo library) and perform non-destructive edits.

Little by little, the iPhone’s camera is becoming a serious photography tool: the hardware and optics get better at every iPhone release, and the software is getting so powerful and flexible that the amount of in-camera editing is simply impressive. I still like shooting with compact cameras because they have better ergonomics and they’re easier and more stable to handle, but it’s easy to see how their category is getting increasingly less important.

HomeKit

The current situation with home automation devices is that each one has its app. Lights, door locks, webcams, thermostats, garage door, etc. — and each one ends up defining its own network, its own security mechanisms. Federighi: We thought we could bring some rationality to the space. We started working with the leaders in home automation devices and we came up with HomeKit, with a common network protocol.

  • Locks, lights, cameras, doors, thermostats, plugs, switches
  • Secure pairing (only your iPhone can open your garage door or unlock your door).
  • Control individual devices
  • Group devices into scenes
  • Siri integration (You can say “Get ready for bed” and make sure that your garage door is closed, your door is locked, the thermostat is lower and lights are dimmed.)

 

I find HealthKit and HomeKit’s approaches to be similar. In both cases, Apple wants to provide a platform where different apps controlling different things can coexist and communicate. And again, the iPhone seems to take a prominent central position in this digital hub. At this point, to those who think that HealthKit is a ‘clear indicator’ that an Apple smartwatch is coming, I’d like to ask whether the same can be said for HomeKit. Will Apple launch some sort of home automation wearable remote? Will there be a new line of Apple wearables with different designs and functions, a bit like the iPod family of products? Will there be just one jack-of-all-trades wearable that interfaces with HealthKit and HomeKit? Or will HealthKit and HomeKit remain software platforms, conduits, and everything will revolve around the iPhone?

In my opinion, any of these outcomes is possible. If you asked me which of these scenarios I like the most, I would say the ‘no wearable device’ one. It’s a playing-safe kind of innovation: Apple would still innovate by providing a strong, coherent infrastructure built on HealthKit and HomeKit, and would avoid the risk of launching a new device that might interest fewer people than expected. But then again, what do I know? Maybe everything is already planned at the hardware and design level, and all will be revealed this autumn.

CloudKit

As Federighi explains, currently a developer has to take care of both the client side and server side of an app:

Client side Server side
App client code App logic, Authentication, Asset storage, Database storage, Search, Push notifications…

 

CloudKit takes over the cloud part and provides the developer with a client-side programming model that lets the developer access iCloud authentication, storage, search, and more.

Client side CloudKit
App client code, App logic iCloud authentication, Asset storage, Database storage, Search, Push notifications…

 

Federighi: CloudKit is free — with limits. CloudKit scales the data allocated to an app and bandwidth based on the number of users using that app. And this goes all the way up to providing a developer with:

  • 1 PB of assets
  • 10TB database
  • 5TB/day asset transfer
  • 50GB/day database transfer

 

 

Note: here begins the part of the keynote where things start getting rather technical. I’m no developer, so I have little to no insight to offer. (It would be presumptuous on my part to offer opinions on things I don’t fully understand, would it not?) I’ll just offer a quick recap of the basic things mentioned by Federighi. Refer to Apple’s website for more detailed information. On a general note, these are all improvements that are making developers happy — at least, that’s what I gather after reading around on the Web. And if developers are happy, we Apple customers are going to be even happier in the end, because we’re going to get even better apps and a richer experience on iOS devices.

 

 

Metal

Federighi: OpenGL is the standards-based way for high-performance 3D graphics on iOS, giving you access to the power of the A7 processor, but often it ends up being a thick layer between what a game wants to accomplish, and the hardware.

Metal dramatically reduces OpenGL’s overhead, giving the game near bare-to-the-metal access to the power of A7. The results are stunning: up to 10x faster Draw call rates.

In addition to these dramatically reduced overheads, developers get access not only to the graphics but to the compute power of the GPU.

Metal supports Precompiled shaders and efficient multithreading.

(I was astounded by the EPIC Games demo of Zen Garden. I was having a bit of a hard time believing that such fluidity and responsiveness of the simulated environment were possible on an iPad.)

SpriteKit and SceneKit

SpriteKit has been enhanced from last year. Added support for:

  • Light sources
  • Field sources
  • Per-pixel physics
  • Inverse kinematics

 

SceneKit is a 3D scene renderer designed for casual games.

  • Physics engine
  • Particle systems
  • Scripted actions

 

Swift

Federighi: What would it be like if we had Objective‑C without the baggage of C? We did more than think about it: we have devised a new programming language called Swift:

  • Fast, Modern, Safe, Interactive
  • Completely native to Cocoa and Cocoa Touch
  • Build with LLVM compiler
  • Optimizer and Autovectorizer
  • ARC memory management
  • Same runtime as Objectve‑C

 

Conclusion

Tim Cook: Perhaps, more importantly, you’ve seen how our operating systems, devices, and services all work together in harmony. Together, they provide an integrated and continuous experience across all of our products. …

Apple engineers platforms, devices, and services together. We do this so we can create a seamless experience for our users that is unparalleled in the industry. This is something only Apple can do.

During the entire keynote, and as new features after new features were introduced, I couldn’t help thinking about Phil Schiller’s famous quip at WWDC 2013 when he was presenting a first peek at the new Mac Pro: Can’t innovate anymore, my ass!

A lot of commenters stressed the importance of this WWDC 2014 keynote because, above all, Apple is conveying a kind of confidence that had yet to be witnessed after the passing of Steve Jobs in 2011. And it’s true. It’s the confidence of a company, of a group of people, who just know they can innovate. And every time, after a keynote, when I read the various reactions on the Web and social networks, I’m always appalled and — kind of amused — at how many people still fail to understand Apple and its methods. And how many people just don’t get the fact that for Apple, when it comes to innovation, the big picture is more important than the single product. Sure, sometimes it begins with a product, but it’s never the product alone.

The success and the impact of the iPod wouldn’t have been so huge without the music ecosystem created around it. The success and the impact of the iPhone weren’t produced in a vacuum. The iPhone, in a certain sense, was a giant upgrade of the whole iPod platform and ecosystem. The product itself did indeed contain innovative technologies and features, but what kept fuelling its sales and diffusion, and what produced the whole innovation was the sum of the product and the possibilities: what it could do, what it could be used for. The applications.

Other times, innovation begins with tools. Not with ‘magical’ products pulled out from a hat, deus ex machina-style. This is, I think, the message (or one of the messages) behind this amazing WWDC 2014 keynote and conference. Tools to build a coherent and cohesive user experience. Tools that stimulate the creativity of Mac and iOS developers, who can come up with ideas and solutions Apple probably hasn’t even thought about at this stage. Solutions that end up building in detail an ecosystem for which Apple is offering general blueprints and inspiration. Together with the confidence of knowing they can innovate, now we’re also seeing an open attitude of humility — as if to say: We know we can innovate, but we and you developers can do so much more by collaborating together. This rings a bit differently from the previous attitude under Jobs’s leadership, which always felt a bit like: We’re Apple, we are charting the course of innovation, and you developers can ride along if you like.

The Author

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