iOS 7 and iOS 8 What all Developers and Users should Know

Posted By : Savita Thakran | 25-Jun-2014

 

iPhone lets you do so many things so easily and quickly accompanied with its amazing Camera , the Retina Display and longer Battery life that no wonder iPhone users truly love their iPhone.  

iPhone is so easy to use, Innovative features like Siri and FaceTime plus built-in apps make iPhone not just useful for everyone but also fun to explore and operate. iOS updates download right on your iPhone, so the latest iOS version is only just a tap away. Also iOS features are designed to work perfectly with iPhone features like the Retina display, gyroscope , and accelerometer.

 

iOS is also the platform for over 900,000 apps that let your favourite iPhone do even more. With the availability of its seventh update, iOS 7 is now ticking inside over 300 million devices worldwide.


iOS 7 gives you more features to make the things you do everyday even more better. Its free and easy to upgrade wirelessly on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Since there are about 500 million iGadgets, those running on iOS 7 account for 60% of the entire flock .

                                                                                                                                 

After the release of iOS 7 in June 10th 2013, the iPhone market grew at a very rapid pace providing some amazing features and facilitation to the developers for developing apps. iOS 7 adoption climbed to 87% in the months prior to iOS 8 Release.  iOS 7 comes with a new user interface with flatter and simpler style and is visually different from usual iOS versions .

 

Some amazing Features of iOS 7 are just a click away -

  • Multitasking -  iOS 7 includes an updated task manager to show the app preview before hand. It includes intelligent scheduling to periodically update the app based on how frequently the app is used.

  • Safari  -  Enhanced safari allows to show a preview of the webpage as user is switching between them. It also includes new bookmarks menu that contains shared links from people you follow on social media.

  • Camera  -  It contains photo filters and a redesigned photo app that organizes photos automatically into moments with respect to date and location .

  • Improved Siri  -  The Siri was improved to include the ability to make reservations in restaurants, launch apps, dictate Facebook or Twitter updates and retrieve movie reviews. This feature was added in iOS 6. With iOS 7 update siri can now have more access to Wikipedia , Twitter and Bing Search engines.

  • AirDrop  -  With this feature you can share data and pictures with nearby people . It supports share sheet and is available on recent devices like iPad Mini, IPhone 5 and iPod Touch.

  • ITunes Radio  -  Its a streaming music service quite similar to Pandora , it features radio stations based on an genre. It enables browsing Radio history and buying music directly from the app and adding to your iTunes wish list.

  • The folders now support saving multiple pages in a single folder.  All  purchased videos and audios  shows  up even if they are not on your device.

The Apple iOS 7 has brought big changes to the mobile platform including scores of enhanced functionalities and features . This update has provided mobile developers with over 1500 new APIs  to work with .

 

Pros of iOS 7 include -

  • This update brought with it major changes targeting especially mobile developers in order to ease out or simplify the entire process of Mobile app development.  It helps developers to become more creative and productive with their apps .

  • The look and feel of UI has undergone a massive change making it look more modern and contemporary. The new version uses transparency , layering and blur to add illusion of depth. Now app designers can experiment more with textures and colors making better elegant icons compared to previous versions .

  • It offers several toolkits to designers to build more powerful apps even faster than before which will also prove to be beneficial to end users.

  • iOS 7 comes with a powerful multi tasking abilities with its processor performance making the apps more efficient as they can still function in background even when inactive without effecting the system performance.

  • It offers better iCloud facilities with Airdrop and improvised control of GUI handling and much powerful rendering of graphics with enhanced OpenGL functionality.

  • The upgrade includes support to all major social platforms which is a boon to end users , app developers , mobile marketers and businesses as a whole . It also includes peer to peer SDK  to wirelessly exchange data via an exclusive framework.


 

But as there is two sides to a coin, even iOS 7 Suffers from few drawbacks and challenges which demands equal attention :

  • Making a Transition was never easy though. The biggest challenge for developers  is to make the iOS 7 app backward compatible to older iOS versions. Not all users feel the excitement and same urge to make a transition immediately , so developers have to design apps in such a way that it retains their existing customer base while also keeping a step with the latest moves in mobile evolution.

  • Several APIs are yet in process of being documented with many notable changes in between releases creating complications and much of a challenge to developers.

  • The UI kit included in iOS 7 SDK is much different from its previous versions which can result in some UI elements looking worse or not rendering well enough on the device. Buggy apps that crashes frequently is also a downside as it discourages users from using them .

  • iOS 7 apps though compatible with iphone 4 runs slowly on those devices and older iphones and ipods users are generally unwilling to upgrade themselves to latest models , so if developers develop targeted apps for updated versions they may end up losing their existing customer base.

 

Apple has recently taken the wraps off its 8th and latest version iOS 8 of Mobile Operating System in June 2014 in San Francisco .

This new operating system is not the complete overhaul as with iOS 7 rather it builds on iOS 7 . It comprises newer features like health monitoring technology, new family sharing functions for iTunes , video messaging and much more.

 

Let’s highlight some notable features of iOS 8 :-

  • Its the 8th major release of iOS mobile operating system designed by Apple on June 2 2014 .

  • Messaging in iOS 8 is more fun, there are many surprising features that comes with it. It enables sending audio and video messages by holding the record button.

  • New photo app and new iCloud Photo Library.

  • UI designs are same as that of iOS 7 with few changes like more transparency and faster animations .

  • Multitasking is  even more improved to show favourite contacts and recently added lists.

  • For the first time since the first iphone, keyboard has witnessed the biggest change as third party keyboards will now be available and you can even tap to choose perfect suggestions for the next word.

  • Family sharing is a commendable change that comes up with this version. Now up to six people in your family can share purchases from iBooks, iTunes and App store without sharing accounts.

  • Now you can store all your data i.e spreadsheets, presentations, images and PDF’s in iCloud and can access them anytime anywhere from your iPhone, iPad, Mac ,iPod Touch etc.

  • HealthKit a new tool for developers allows health and fitness apps to work together and provide a dashboard for your health-fitness data .

  • Another notable feature includes sharing e-mails and websites through Wi-Fi , it also allows replying to text and calls from their iphone on their Mac or ipad.

  • Spotlight : It provides suggestions and ideas from Wikipedia entries of trending news and nearby places after recognizing the location.

  • Touch ID :  Now no need to enter password for using third party apps . You can use touch Id i.e your fingerprints to access your data.


 

With this trending market of iphones and iOS 8 , there are extensive features that iphone developers should get accustomed with before developing their apps.  iOS 8 with its advanced features provides assistance to developers while making mobile apps for iphone and ipad.


 To discuss how we can help you in your projects, please contact with our team at [email protected]  , skype : oodles.tech or Visit : http://www.oodlestechnologies.com

 

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Savita Thakran

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