iOS 8, a year later

We are a few days of the first anniversary of iOS 8, so taking advantage of IOS 9 is just around the corner it's time to sit down and take stock.

Journalism and communication live almost exclusively in the last hours (if not being told to Twitter), and the world of the latest technology is almost reduced to minutes. This not only means a huge amount of news, if not many of them are based on "promises" to make marks on their presentations and few in the reality of everyday life. Of course we have the analysis and reports, but most are released within a few days when the focus of attention is still focused on that product.

So today, a few hours after the keynote where Apple is expected to present the iPhone 6s and iPhpne 6s Plus, the new Apple TV, watch iOS2 and iOS 9 will sit look back to see if iOS 8 and its consequent updates have fulfilled the promises made when it was introduced and incidentally see what impact they have had.

Extensions

How could it be otherwise, the first of the characteristics that have to keep an eye on are the extensions. And that themselves have brought a revolution in the App Store and expectations of what can and can not do on an iPhone or iPad. And it is that although many extensions only serve to share (the known "Share Extensions"), the reality is that its functions are much more varied.

In his presentation they promised to improve communication and interaction between apps without this would involve breaking the "silo" that keeps each application data safe. A year later I can say with confidence that they have complied fully, since it has not only facilitated tasks involving several apps but it has also made completely obsolete the previous method of communication: the famous URL-Scheme.

The only but you can put them is that, even assuming such a major change, many users remain unaware of its existence to be so hidden. It is therefore not surprised me that ios 8 was the first version of the system that had an app called "Tips".

Action extensions and Share

Of all the extensions that are included in ios 8 this is perhaps the most used by users and the more developers have implemented. Its operation is simple: share content with the app to which they belong. This is the case of the extensions of social networking apps, to read later services like Instapaper or Pocket, Evernote and apps like Drafts and even as task managers Things, OmniFocus or Todoist.

But they are not only able to capture content, are also able to perform actions on the before storing. For example, in the case of Workflow extension can execute a workflow on the content we have shared. The same applies in the case of clips, where you can choose how you are going to save the content we have captured.

In the case of the "Action Extensions" they have the problem that are often mistaken for the above but its function is quite different. And in time to share content (even modify it) what they do is perform an action on the content in the app itself. In this category we find that for me is my favorite extension, 1Password, as well as other Stacks (to convert currencies within the website itself in Safari) or View Source (to view the source code of a web). Generally they have been met, but are poorly besieged and future versions would be nice that they were somewhere else or could be triggered from the menu to copy / paste. They would avoid confusion and step would be much more useful apps where text is the protagonist.

Document and File providers

All extensions is likely to be the most interesting and at the same time the most unknown by the general public. All because of what is hidden and the small number of apps that have included. To access them we must first have an app that can open documents from iCloud, such as Ulysses iPad, then click on "Locations" and enable extensions of apps that provide content before you can use it. And it's a real shame, because with this type of extension you.

The "Document Providers" are the most interesting extension while the unknown

can use an app to store our documents (like a Finder) and others for editing and when you press save the changes are saved to the place of origin.

For iCloud Drive feature to store files and edit them in any app comes standard, but third-party applications the outlook is bleak. In the case of Dropbox, but supports this type of extension, implementation is only halfway to allow open a document and not edit / save changes. For Transmit, or Working Copy Documents support for "content provider" is total.

It's a shame that the extension iOS able to provide a perfect substitute to the Finder has been so in the background, although it seems that Apple is not going to pay. In fact IOS September this extension to add attachments to an email in the Mail app will be used.

Editing photos

In the case of; extensions to photos they have fared better than the "document providers" despite living hidden in a menu screen photo editing. It is thanks to this technology to edit a photo we no longer import and export of the app of the day, if we can do that directly from the Photos app. The vast majority of developers my photo editing (like Pixelmator or Afterlight) have been launched to add this type of extension, except VSCO that although it appeared in the Keynote iOS 8 as an example still unaccounted this feature .

Widgets

If the extensions have been the feature that most promises fulfilled, the widgets have been by far the most controversy generated. Raised as a way to show relevant data in the part of "Today" Notification Center, developers were quick to see the potential and raise widgets that Apple had not anticipated. Calculators, application launchers and my notes began arriving in the App Store in the form of widgets until Apple finally remove them from sale. The controversy was served, since not only meant that many people had just months work pulling it away if not many people are left without support or updates an app that had been paid.

Apple ended the end recoiling and changed its policy regarding the widgets, which made apps like Launcher PCalc or could return to the App Store. And although a couple of months later there were a few gasps of the old politics, today we can enjoy widgets as amazing as the Workflow, which is able to execute workflows within the notification center, or the clips. Not to mention more informative widgets such as Fantastical 2 Things or OmniFocus.

Keyboards

Of all the new ios 8 this is perhaps the worst result has been, but not the developers have failed to take advantage, if not for the poor implementation by Apple. And it is that however much in the App Store is as good as that of Clips, which allows the keyboard to dump the pieces have copied text, Sunrise Meet, that lets you create calendar appointments and invite the person Ideas we spoke with, or TextExpander 3, which allows us to expand abbreviations in any type of text, change keyboard while still so slow and has so many bugs we face a characteristic half-finished.

Nor have they helped him on security issues (especially with Keyloggers infamous) who have flown these apps since its release. And although the keyboard can choose not to contact anyone or connect to the network, the most interesting features (such as the three apps I mentioned above) are only available if we allow "total access". And it is the message that we activating the "full access" which has finished raising further doubts about the safety due to alarming text.

The reality is that despite the alarming text is in the hands of each developer who decide to do with that "full access". For Sunrise clips or only used to communicate keyboard and app so that we can access the content copied or schedule an appointment. In cases where if it used this access to see what you wrote the user, there were companies that followed different paths: Smile, creators of TextExpander 3 made it clear that although the app sought between the written text to find abbreviations such Data is stored in a cache that erased whenever space is pulsed and never left the app. Others, others as Swiftkey, did not believe it was so important and even ended up publishing reports with the data they had collected. Anyway, I have to remember that when writing sensitive data such as passwords iOS always requires us to use the original Apple keyboard, which is impossible to have any kind of security problem.

Continuity

Although the day of the presentation almost unnoticed because of the bombing of the extensions, keyboards and widgets Continuity has been one of the most important technologies for Apple's Watch. Their goal was quite simple, improve communication and exchange between devices. Thus if you're writing an email on the iPhone we can continue where we left our iPad or Mac when we got home (Handoff), or receive a phone call (or SMS) and have our iPhone in another room we can answer from the Macbook. The same applies to internet sharing, since iOS 8 can be controlled directly from the iPad or the Mac you want to access the network (without touching the iPhone).

At the time it seemed one of those features that do not end up taking much prominence, however, only had to wait until the presentation of Apple Watch to see the relevance it would have. And it is thanks to the clock Continuity "along so well" with the iPhone, without the integration would not be at the same level it is today. Although such "communication" between devices also has its drawbacks, as the walls tremble every time someone calls me that have been ringing my Mac, iPad and iPhone at the same time to warn me.

Pictures

Although the new photo app with its new editing tools and extensions, came the first day to iCloud synchronization we had to wait until April 2015 (almost a year). And as usual every time Apple releases a cloud service, he did usual doubts and controversy about their performance. It is very likely according to whom you ask me finish talking good or bad service, but in my case its operation fits advertised.

Overcome the "traumatic" first ascent (that is you have to have more than 150 GB in photos), everything worked perfectly me. All my devices have the latest photos and videos within a few seconds (or minutes if I spend giving the trigger) and have not suffered any loss of data. Hence I do not mind paying more to have iCloud storage (compared to plans that offer Google or Dropbox) if this way all you have to worry about me of my pictures is remove them as best you can.

Nevertheless, a breakthrough

"Not everyone has finished working just fine, but that does not mean that iOS 8 has been a major update"

When Craig Federighi climbed onstage for a year and three months to present iOS 8 None imagined we'd end up watching. Neither the rumors was easy to believe that everything we were seeing was real, as was a 180 degree turn in Apple's policy about what could or could not do third-party applications. At that time it was unthinkable that technologies like extensions (especially: "Content Providers" and "Sharing extensions"), the widgets in Notification Center or third-party keyboards and today are now essential for many users.

It is true that not all of them have ended up working just fine, or that there has been controversy about who you can or can not do, or that some people remain unaware of their existence despite the efforts of Apple with the app "Tips" but that does not mean that iOS 8 has been one of the biggest changes in the operating system of the iPhone and iPad from the arrival of the App Store in iPhone OS 2. Although the best part is that this trend more features for users advanced will be consolidated with the arrival of iOS 9 in the coming days.

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