“Apple’s World Wide Developer conference is supposed to be a place for, you guessed it, developers to hear about the latest developments in Apple’s software and hardware,” Ian Morris writes for Forbes. “In previous years, it’s been about releasing new devices, and that has turned it into a bit of a media circus. Not this year though, because Apple didn’t announce any new hardware at all. There was no iWatch, no new iPhone and no improvements to the iPad.”
“Apple just spoke about two new things. The new version of MacOS and iOS8, the latest iteration of its mobile operating system. On the surface, this sounds a bit disappointing, but in reality Apple has done more to change mobile and desktop computing than anyone else has for some time,” Morris writes. “Most exciting of all though, was Apple’s iOS8. To look at, you wouldn’t think that would be the case. Visually, it’s just a tweak to iOS7, but under the hood things start to get more interesting. Extensions were the first thing that blew my mind. Now iOS apps are able to communicate with each other, and one can give or take data from another. This might sound like a small thing, but with Apple’s eye for security in place, it allows apps to work together in ways they never could have before… This is a significant improvement over current iOS devices, and there is no similar feature on Android either.”
“Apple also opened up its fingerprint scanner via a new API. This means that you’ll be able to authorise app purchases via fingerprint. Rightly, Apple doesn’t allow any of that secure information off the device, it’s all kept locked away, but this is a great, secure way to pay. Fingerprints are not perfect security of course, but they do bring together conveniences and a reasonable level of protection, which is what the public wants.,” Morris writes. “In total, Apple says there are now 4000 new APIs for developers to use in iOS8… What the firm did at this WWDC was make it clear that Android’s reputation for flexibility is being challenged, and Apple thinks it can avoid the problems with malware and viruses that have been something of an issue for Android. This is the first WWDC where I think Apple has got everything right.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dominick P.” for the heads up.]
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