Monday, June 2, 2014

Software : WWDC 2014: Apple continues innovating with continuity between devices

Software : WWDC 2014: Apple continues innovating with continuity between devices

WWDC 2014: Apple continues innovating with continuity between devices

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WWDC 2014: Apple continues innovating with continuity between devices

Apple began its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference with the announcement of Mac OS X Yosemite and continued on to talk about ... continuity.

"It starts with AirDrop - it now works between iOS and the Mac," Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple explained.

AirDrop makes transitions between iOS and Mac seamless while Handoff helps your devices see each other; you can to swipe up from a Mac or iPad and see the info from one device and "hand it off" to another.

The new lock screen icon on the lower left allows you to swipe up and keep working on your iPad in real-time to do things like compose emails on a Mac and finish it off on an iPad, or complete the last bits of a Keynote presentation on an iPhone and hand it over to the Mac for a presentation.

Using your Mac as a phone?

The Mac can now accept calls, show messages and even use the Mac as a speakerphone. This works when the phone is in another part of the house too - and you can even dial phones too.

The Mac is basically now very, very aware of what you're doing on the phone and uses its capabilities too.

iMessages gets upgraded too

Federighi also noted that "the next thing we wanted to handle was SMS." Or more specifically, how

More to follow ...

WWDC 2014: Apple challenges Dropbox and Google Drive with new Mail and iCloud features

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WWDC 2014: Apple challenges Dropbox and Google Drive with new Mail and iCloud features

Apple kicked off its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference with a confusing video in which app developers wondered what they looked like, followed by the announcement of Mac OS X Yosemite.

Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi then took the stage from Apple CEO Tim Cook to describe some of the new additions in the OS X update, including important new Mail and iCloud features.

These features are known as iCloud Drive and Mail Drop, and they're Apple's answers to services like Dropbox and Google Drive.

iCloud breaks down barriers

"We all know that documents in the cloud provide a really convenient way for working with an app that works across all platforms," Federighi said.

But iCloud has some limitations in that area, right? Not anymore, it seems.

With iCloud Drive users can work right in Finder with files and documents from OS X, iOS apps and even Windows.

Users can organize files in iCloud Drive using folders and tags that will be synchronized across all their devices.

Drop it like it's Mail

Federighi said Apple "focused on the basics" for the Yosemite Mail app, including "reliable syncing, fast switching between mailboxes, [and] quick fetches of your new mail."

But they also "wanted to address a fundamental problem with email;" that is, limits on attachment size.

So Mail Drop lets users choose to send large attachments through iCloud instead of through their recipients' email servers.

The feature apparently strips the attachment from the message and sends it through iCloud, while the message goes through the email servers as usual, and they're joined up again as they hit the recipient's inbox.

Developing…

Google to open up Android voice search for an eyes-free driving experience

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Google to open up Android voice search for an eyes-free driving experience

Google is reportedly working on expanding its Android voice search functionality with an eyes-free interface, allowing drivers to focus on the road while interacting with their phones.

The initiative, apparently codenamed KITT after the artificially intelligent talking car from Knight Rider, would allow users to utter 'OK Google' to search for the weather, for news, or for directions.

The feature would be an expansion of the feature offered by the Google-made Moto X, offering results in spoken form so as not to distract the user from the task at hand.

According to AndroidPolice, the site that uncovered the plans, users would 'take turns' with the phone as it walked them through tasks like searching the web, making calls, sending texts and more.

Safety first

When Google isn't unable to provide the information in a way the does not require the user to look at the screen, it will save the information until users can pull over and read it safely, the report claimed.

The idea, naturally, is to make Android safer to use behind the wheel, with users able to access the 'OK Google' voice search feature from anywhere within the phone.

With Google I/O just a few weeks away, what price we'll see this feature unveiled at Google's annual expo?
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