“It has definitely been a busy few months in the Apple world. September delivered the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, along with iOS 8, and a preview of the still mysterious Apple Watch. This month we got the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3, the iMac with Retina 5K display, iOS 8.1, Apple Pay, and OS X Yosemite. Those last three points are some of the most interesting, and they all happen to be part of Apple’s software ecosystem,” Brandon Chester writes for AnandTech. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence. We’re reaching a point where it’s becoming more and more difficult to differentiate your products based on hardware alone. Great software driving a great experience is where the focus needs to be moving forward.”
“Overall, I’m happy with the work that Apple has done with iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite. It’s clear that a lot of this has been in the works for some time now, and integrating products and services to this degree requires a lot of planning to position your hardware and software so that it will be capable of working together in the ways you want them to,” Chester writes. “The Yosemite redesign has also gone quite well, and there aren’t as many jarring inconsistencies as there were with iOS 7 at launch despite OS X being a more expansive operating system. Apple has definitely learned from their experiences with the iOS redesign. That being said, there is still a lot of work to do. Apple Pay needs to expand rapidly, and iCloud Photo Library isn’t as far developed as I had expected it to be.”
Tons more in the full article here.