IOS 8 And Os X 10.10: What Do We Know

Last week Apple confirmed that WWDC 2014 will kick off on June 2 in San Francisco. The Cupertino-based company has traditionally been unveiling the next iteration of iOS and OS X from past couple of years during the developers’ conference and 9To5Mac has compiled a detailed list of everything known about the forthcoming operating systems.

iOS 8 (codenamed Okemo) will be more of an evolutionary update than a revolutionary update like the iOS 7. It is expected to further improve the performance of the OS, while adding new features and services. Fitness tracking is going to be a big thing on iOS 8, which is another indication that Apple’s rumored smartwatch is not too far off. The ‘Healthbook’ app will keep a track of all fitness-related data like heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and weight among others. With an UI similar to Passbook, this app will collate these data from all fitness related devices and save it for reference. Another health-related app will be the Emergency Card function, wherein one will be able to save vital information like date of birth, blood type and contact information for emergency situations.

It’s no secret that Apple Maps are not best in business, especially when you compare it to the competitors such as Google Maps or Nokia’s HERE Maps. But thanks to all the acquisitions and the time in hand, Apple is expected to overhaul its mapping application to bring it on par with its rivals. The design is largely expected to remain the same, but things at the back end will be massively overhauled.

Apple is expected to make iTunes Radio an independent app. At the moment, the Radio feature is buried under a tab on the music player. The functionality is expected to remain much the same, and the idea behind this change is to make this service more accessible.

Other changes include auto-delete option for Message threads, which will clear old messages after a set time, improved notifications, an overhauled voice memo app, an improved CarPlay feature and removing the Game Center app and instead only make it available inside games.

Apple is also said to be bringing optimized versions of Mac’s Preview and TextEdit apps, which will be used to preview the documents saved on the Cloud. Finally, Apple will be further improving the operating system’s performance, which already saw a boost on iOS 7.1 as well as releasing an API, which will let apps communicate between themselves. In other words, in the near future you will be able to edit an image on an editor and then directly post it on Instagram or Facebook.

The OS X 10.10 (codenamed Syrah), on the other hand, could turn out to be a revolutionary update. Where Mavericks was all about backend boosts, Syrah is said to be all about aesthetics. It is likely to get a major design overhaul and the team, unsurprisingly, is being led by Jony Ive. According to 9To5Mac, the design change will not be as drastic as iOS 7, but will revolve around the flat and minimalistic theme. It is also said to be working on bringing Siri and AirDrop capabilities to the OS, but details are scarce at the moment.