Bournemouth — Sep 16th 2014
With annual updates to the iPhone now routine, iOS updates naturally are following the same pattern. Furthermore, as the iOS and MacOS are becoming more tightly integrated, Apple have now adopted an annual update cycle on the MacOS too.
Before going on to the new features of the impending releases, Tony explained the basic role of the Operating System in providing essential services, such as handling hardware, networking and the filing system, to the various applications that we the users work with. In Apple's case, it is customary for each release of the operating system to be accompanied by certain applications such as Mail, Safari, Messages etc., as well as the Finder and its much less visible counterpart on iOS known as Springboard.
Yosemite and iOS8 are said to provide more than 4000 new APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for App developers to use so, as well as the new features in Apple's own apps, there is lots of scope for developers to add new features to their apps to exploit these new services.
After an overview of the changes in appearance of the new OS releases (thankfully less radical than some previous revisions), Tony went on to review the main new features relevant both to Mac and iOS devices, including:
1) Continuity - a new term to encompass a number of aspects of tighter Mac/iOS integration, allowing the Mac to handle SMS messages and phone calls, and documents which were started on one platform to be continued on another.
2) Improvements to Spotlight - searches will now turn up data from Wikipedia and other sources.
3) iCloud drive - Apple's answer to Dropbox (and for some of us, the long awaited return of some of the functionality lost with the demise of the iDisk!)
4) Enhancements to the Photos app - initially on iOS but the App is also said to be coming to the Mac to in 2015. As Photos grows in capability on both platforms, this probably signals the end of the line for Aperture and iPhoto.
5) Mail - a mark-up capability and a facility called Mail drop to handle large attachments to overcome size restrictions of mail servers.
Tony went on to describe a number of other changes specific to iOS8 as well as new features such as Family Sharing and enhancements to the Notification centre and Safari.
Both updates are free, iOS8 being released the day after the meeting and Yosemite expected shortly. They run on most devices capable of running Mavericks or iOS7 (check on Apple's website for more details) but some new features, such as Continuity do need more recent hardware.
After thanking Tony for an excellent and well researched presentation, a coffee break was followed by the customary Q&A, which addressed how to delete multiple tabs in Safari on the iPad, recording of BBC TV programmes and several issues related to photo management, which was generally felt to be an increasingly confusing area.
The meeting was brought to an end when the long-suffering Solutions staff at last had to remind us that they did need to lock up at some stage!
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