The time of the year when Apple (AAPL, Financial) comes out with the new iPhone and the iPad for the year is still a few months away, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from rolling. Sometimes Apple peps up its offerings by adding just a few features and sometimes it goes for a complete makeover. Whatever it does, Apple always gets the attention of the crowd.
This time the rumors are brought to us by none other than 9to5 and are about the operating system used in the smart devices – the iOS. The Cupertino-company is working on the iOS 8 which is expected to put in new features, along with a few other changes to the devices. So, let’s take a look at what might Apple have in store for the consumers and what might make it a must have!
The all new OS for the 2014 iPhone & iPad
iOS 7 was all about mass redesign and the iOS 8 is going to be all about speed and efficiency and better app usage and a lot of other things. So, how does Apple plan to make it faster? Well, for starters, the new iOS is going to update the Messaging app with an auto-delete feature that will, as the name suggests, automatically delete conversations which have not been active for a specified time frame, and thus free up the memory resulting in better performance.
Apple is also thinking of doing away with the very little used Game Center app, but the users will still have access to many of its features from within the games. Apart from this, the company is may create an a dedicated app for its iTunes Radio offering, which at present is found within the iOS Music app.
iOS 8 is not likely to feature major changes in the user interface. However, it will have several changes made at the back end of the software. So, what are the new features of the iOS8?
Presently the notification center has three tabs – Today, All and Missed. Apple is expected to remove the Missed tab and just go with the first two in iOS 8. Along with this, the new OS is going to get Google Now like features included in the Today tab that will help the user with useful information such as travel time, reminders, whether information and many more.
From Apps perspective, the iOS 8 is going to feature ssome pretty great apps such as the Healthbook that will focus on the health of the users by providing them valuable inputs. Another two new apps will be available as understood from the leaked screenshots of iOS 8 – Preview, Text Edit. These appps are not new to Apple and have been present in OS X. While the Preview app will help in viewing pictures and editing them, the Text Edit will help to create and edit documents.
Is your device going to make the cut?
Unlike Google (GOOG, Financial) Android that provides just two years of software update for the Android powered devices, Apple provides three years of update. When the iOS 7 came out the iPhones that made the cut were iPhone 5, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. Similarly, when the iOS 8 will be available, the update will be available to iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S. The same rule is applicable for the iPads as well. iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air,and iPad with Retina Display are all going to make the cut for iOS8. So, if you own any of the above devices, you have reasons to rejoice!
Concluding words
Though there are hundreds of rumors surrounding the epic devices, rumors about the announcement date of the iOS 8 is not yet out. However, from past patterns, it’s most likely that Apple will come out with the iOS 8 only after this summer and the OS can be expected to be released only with the launch of the iPhone 6 later this year. So, it seems there is still sometime before we can get any confirmation on the new iOS. Till then let’s just keep a track on the rumors and wait and see how true they turn out to be.
