The unveiling of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 reveal new shared functionality and design.
Apple’s Craig Federighi was on stage long before we even glimpsed iOS 8 at this year’s WWDC in San Francisco, but his showcase of the new version of Mac OS X Yosemite demonstrated the power such a popular mobile OS can have.
OS X Yosemite and iOS 8: Design
It would appear that Jony Ive did such a good job in redesigning the last version of iOS that the OS X design team stitched some of that frosted glass and those minimalist app interfaces into the company’s desktop operating system too.
We also saw better interplay between iOS devices and Mac OS computers, with apps like Safari on both desktop and mobile now receiving group tabbed views for multiple pages from the same site.
OS X Yosemite and iOS 8: Handoff
iOS users will also greatly appreciate the new Handoff functionality; the ability to throw documents, emails, websites or anything you’re currently working on to your phone or tablet, simply by your device being in the vicinity of your computer.
We also learnt that automated hotspot functionality, SMS and phone calls have made it to Mac OS, so you never have to leave you computer for iMessages (as before), text messages or even phone calls in an ability Apple unofficially dubbed ‘Continuity.’
To show off this feature, Federighi gave new Apple employee Dr Dre an awkward phonecall from his Mac, but that’s as much as Beats really featured in the keynote.
OS X Yosemite and iOS 8: 3rd-party widgets
Since notifications were implemented in iOS, people drew comparisons to Android and how Apple’s approach lacked the support that Google’s devices boasted. Aside from native apps like Weather and Stocks, the widgets area of notifications was pretty-much redundant on iOS, but no longer.
Today’s keynote showed that third-party applications on both OS X and iOS and now have the ability to feature widgets of their own, such as ESPN’s SportsCenter. It’s another thing to cross off the ‘playing catch-up’ list that those cautious to move from Android to iOS lord over those already embracing Apple’s smartphones and tablets.
OS X Yosemite and iOS 8: iCloud Drive
The desktop version of iCloud grew up in today’s presentation; with iCloud Drive users can manage independent files and folders as well as app-specific files with fine-grain control.
The same level of file access also extends to iOS 8 so users can access and edit documents on their iOS device with those changes reflected on their OS X-powered computer.
Find out about all the new features coming to iOS 8 right here.
Image source: Apple.com
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