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Apple will finally support third-party keyboards in iOS 8
After years of waiting, Apple has finally brought support for third-party keyboards to iOS. Inside iOS 8, keyboards like Swiftkey and Swype, which have enjoyed huge usage on Android, will have system-wide access to all apps and services on your iPhone and iPad. Swiftkey has confirmed it's on board, but if you don't fancy that, you'll still able to enjoy Apple's new QuickType keyboard. The company says the improved keyboard learns from the way you type and text, offering a pick of suggestions for your next word based on the content of your message or the person you're conversing with. Planning a meal with your friend or loved one? The keyboard will auto-populate words like "dinner" or "eat" as you type. At launch, QuickType will support 14 regions including the US, UK, Canada, Australian English, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (that includes Hong Kong and Taiwan), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai.
Apple's iOS 8 supports widgets in Notification Center
It's been a long time coming, but Apple is finally adding support for widgets to iOS. On stage at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company's Senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, revealed that devs can now start building widgets within the Notification Center on iOS 8. Unlike Google's take on widgets with Android, Apple's equivalent won't have them living on the home screen of your smartphone or tablet. Instead, iOS widgets will share the drop-down hub with app notifications. Still, there's a lot of potential here, as it's going to let those of you with an iOS device have more interactivity and quick access to your favorite applications. iOS 8 will be available this fall.
Apple's Health app for iOS 8 collects your vitals from Nike and more (update)
Apple's iPhone is going from part-time health stat monitor to full-time mobile monitoring unit. HealthKit is a new service coming to the iPhone that tracks, records and analyzes your fitness level across a variety of metrics (sleep, movement, etc.). The way you use it on iOS 8 is through a new app called, simply, "Health." The initiative works with companies like Nike to bring all your health information into one place, under the Health app in the next update to iOS. It looks a lot like Passbook, using cards to identify various stats. Thusly, it enables customization of the stats you want tracked and how you want it presented.
OS X Yosemite will let you answer calls to your iPhone from your Mac
As part of OS X Yosemite's focus on creating a more seamless experience between your Mac and iOS devices, Apple's updating iMessage to keep conversations going. Now, it's not just instant messages from other Apple devices that show up on the desktop app, but also texts and multimedia that've been sent from other platforms (texts from your friends' Android devices, for example). Oh, and you can now make and take regular phone calls from your Mac when your iPhone is in range. As part of the new "Handoff" feature that means your computer and iDevice know exactly what the other is doing, a call to your phone will trigger a pop-up asking if you want to answer right from your computer. It works the other way around, as well, so you can make calls without touching your phone. And, what better way to show off the new feature than to call Dr. Dre live on stage? Show-offs.
Apple reveals iOS 8 at WWDC, available for free this fall
We all knew it was coming, and now it's here. Apple CEO Tim Cook just put months of breathless speculation to rest by pulling back the curtain on iOS 8 during the company's WWDC 2014 keynote address in San Francisco. It doesn't look like the sort of quantum leap that iOS 7 was, but Apple's head honcho assures us that it interacts in some fantastic ways with the new version of OS X and that it pairs great end user features with great developer features. Well, we'll be the judges of that. The big keynote just wrapped up -- here's what we know and what it means for you. First things first. There's a lot to dig into, but you'll get iOS 8 as a free update sometime this fall for the iPhone 4s and newer, the fifth-gen iPod touch and the iPad 2 and newer. If you're a developer though, you'll be able to access the iOS 8 beta and SDK today.
What's on tap for Apple at WWDC 2014
It's that time again, folks -- geeks from around the globe (us included) are getting ready to descend on San Francisco's Moscone Center for WWDC 2014. Once those doors open and the keynote starts, we'll get to peek at the future of computing the folks in Cupertino have cooked up... though what exactly we'll see remains veiled in secrecy. You can bet the show will be heavy on the software (like new versions of iOS and OS X), but if we're lucky, a few hardware announcements should keep us all on our toes. Here's a quick look at what we think Apple will (and might!) show off during its June 2nd address.
Bloomberg: Apple wants to plug Shazam directly into iOS
It's easy to track down iPhone apps that name catchy tunes, but it now looks like Apple wants to spare you from having to search in the first place. Bloomberg sources claim that a future version of iOS will incorporate Shazam's song recognition in the same way that the existing mobile platform integrates Facebook and Twitter. While built-in music detection wouldn't be a new idea (just ask Windows Phone users), you could ask Siri to tell you what's playing rather than hit a button. There aren't any clues as to when the feature would reach iOS. However, Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference begins in early June -- if the rumor is accurate, there's a good chance we'll get the full scoop in a matter of weeks.
Weekly Roundup: Apple releases iOS 7.1, Amazon raises the price of Prime and more!
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Daily Roundup: Garmin Vivofit review, Amazon raises the price of Prime, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Report: This is what iOS 8 looks like, at least right now
Apple's next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 8, looks an awful lot like the iOS you've already got on your iDevice. At least that's according to screens leaked on Chinese microblog site Weibo and lent credence by veritable Apple site 9to5Mac, which show what is supposedly iOS 8 in action. Yes, square icons with rounded edges are back, but that design is wrapped around some new entrants in the app world: TextEdit, Preview and Tips. It's easy to guess what the first one might be (a potential replacement for the Notes app), but Preview? Given the icon's distinct resemblance to the application of the same name in OS X, we're guessing this serves a similar function: viewing documents and PDFs. As for Tips? Well, that's probably just a solution for introducing new users.
Weekly Roundup: Pebble Steel review, Google Glass prescription frames and more!
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
