New iOS 8 features that Apple did not detail on stage

“Just like with previous iOS versions before it, Apple was able to demo only some of the main features of its upcoming iOS 8 update during this year’s WWDC keynote, but buried inside iOS 8 there will be plenty of other cool features Apple did not mention during the event,” Chris Smith reports for BGR. “However, Apple listed some of the upcoming iOS 8 features it didn’t have time to discuss at length on a slide that popped up briefly at the very end of its presentation.”

They include:
• Braille Keyboard for direct 6 dot braille input
• Instant burst camera mode
• Wi-Fi calling support
• ‘Hey, Siri’ hotword
• Separate focus and exposure in Camera
• Panoramic photos on iPad
• DuckDuckGo support in Safari

More new features listed in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

26 Comments

  1. “Braille Keyboard for direct 6 dot braille input”

    Does this mean that haptic feedback is coming to an iPhone or iPad in the next generation? Haptic feedback was one of the hot “it’s going to be in the next iDevice” topics a while back. Could it be happening soon?

    (Just idle speculation and gross extrapolation.)

  2. I love that Apple is supporting DuckDuckGo out of the box. Cut Google off at the knees. Enhance Search to provide the most likely landing spot without Google, and offer people a reasonable alternative to the blood-sucking Do Know Evil empire. Google will rue the day!

        1. Does anybody know what’s to prevent a site from submitting searches to Google’s search engine programmatically and taking the results and re-displaying them without the ads and other BS? Just curious.

        2. Nothing at all. Google turns a blind eye.

          Bing does it, as is now well known.
          MetaCrawler was the first to do it.
          Dogpile (son of MetaCrawler) does it.
          . . .

          DuckDuckGo has depended on Google results, specifically for images and videos. That is changing at this very moment (with some prodding from the likes of me among others).

    1. I like DDG too. Been using it for 10 days since learning — thanks to a tip from this website — how to set it up as default using the Safari Extension app. It returns clean search results with no paid placements and also has a visually-attractive results screen. I like it much better than Bing or Google, and the extra security it provides is a big bonus. DDG sort of reminds me of the old Apple Sherlock, if anyone remembers that and misses it. Anyway, I have been suggesting DDG to family and friends to try.

  3. No need to wait… there is a DuckDuckGo Safari extension that I’ve been using for several months. It’s great. However, there should be an option to make it quack.

  4. Rich text in Notes. I like it – too bad iOS 8 probably won’t run on my iPad 2. Maybe it’s time to upgrade. It’s short of memory at times running iOS 7.

      1. A couple iPhone 4 advocates.
        At least this way games can be released for iOS 8 only and not get 1 star negative reviews left by someone complaining it crashes on a device it says it doesn’t support in the *unread* description.

    1. Would have been more funny if Apple had invoked Siri with the phrase “Anything but Google”. Probably less intuitive than “Hey, Siri” but kind of funny.

    2. Except that Apple has had a similar speech recognition feature since the advent of PlainTalk circa 1993. Therefore, once again Google has…

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlainTalk

      It can be configured to listen for commands when a hot key is pressed, after being addressed with an activation phrase such as “Computer”, or “Macintosh”, or without prompt.

      These days, you can get to the setting here:
       Menu/System Preferences…/Speech/Speech Recognition/Listening Method:/Listen continuously with keyword/Keyword:

      The default is “Hey”. But you can make it ‘OK Google’ if you so choose. 😉

  5. I’m gonna walk into an Apple store and yell “Hey Siri” and see what happens 🙂 Maybe follow that with “Call home” and see if everyone’s phone starting dialing from pockets and purses. Good for a laugh no ?

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