Apple announces WWDC 14 (June 2-6)

miralize

symbolic wrote: »

Why is iCloud Drive needed to share files between apps?

For iOS7 & below. The file system that each app was a sort of sandboxed/siloed place where they could only modify their own files that they created.

With iOS8, I think developers have the option of accessing files through a more central file system, one thats accessible by the user, so different apps can be used for different things, according to what files the user wants & what files the developer wants to support.

symbolic

miralize wrote: »

For iOS7 & below. The file system that each app was a sort of sandboxed/siloed place where they could only modify their own files that they created.

With iOS8, I think developers have the option of accessing files through a more central file system, one thats accessible by the user, so different apps can be used for different things, according to what files the user wants & what files the developer wants to support.

And what would be the difference in having a local central file system (or does this exist already?) , why does Sad Professor reckon a cloud based one was the only way? Or maybe I am missing something...

Im not seeing what is so complex about apps being able to access files created by another app. And why a cloud based solution would be the only way to solve this issue?

I think the additions mentioned at keynote and the talk of a larger screened iPhone might tempt me on my next phone upgrade.

Looking forward to my Yosemite upgrade too.

miralize

symbolic wrote: »

And what would be the difference in having a local central file system (or does this exist already?) , why does Sad Professor reckon a cloud based one was the only way? Or maybe I am missing something...

Im not seeing what is so complex about apps being able to access files created by another app. And why a cloud based solution would be the only way to solve this issue?

I think the additions mentioned at keynote and the talk of a larger screened iPhone might tempt me on my next phone upgrade.

Looking forward to my Yosemite upgrade too.

First of all, cloud-based solutions arent this mythical saviour. They simply provide convenience & centralisation for people with files on multiple devices.

Lets say you had a password management application, one that synced across all your devices. You want that app to manage your passwords and be secure, you dont want external applications tampering with that data. That is how it works in iOS7

But lets say you have an image on VSCO Cam that you want to push to Instagram. Right now there are work arounds for that to be possible, but you could make it so that you could tell both apps that you want to use VSCO Cam for the photo taking & Instagram for the photo sharing. All without doing the manual way of saving the photo, going into Instagram, selecting that photo, adding a message & saving.

Basically means you can do more inside your app without being removed from the experience and relying on other apps.

symbolic

miralize wrote: »

First of all, cloud-based solutions arent this mythical saviour. They simply provide convenience & centralisation for people with files on multiple devices.

Lets say you had a password management application, one that synced across all your devices. You want that app to manage your passwords and be secure, you dont want external applications tampering with that data. That is how it works in iOS7

But lets say you have an image on VSCO Cam that you want to push to Instagram. Right now there are work arounds for that to be possible, but you could make it so that you could tell both apps that you want to use VSCO Cam for the photo taking & Instagram for the photo sharing. All without doing the manual way of saving the photo, going into Instagram, selecting that photo, adding a message & saving.

Basically means you can do more inside your app without being removed from the experience and relying on other apps.

I just didn't understand why cloud based storage had to come into a solution to sharing files between apps on the same device.

Frank Lee Midere

symbolic wrote: »

And what would be the difference in having a local central file system (or does this exist already?) , why does Sad Professor reckon a cloud based one was the only way? Or maybe I am missing something...

Im not seeing what is so complex about apps being able to access files created by another app. And why a cloud based solution would be the only way to solve this issue?

I think the additions mentioned at keynote and the talk of a larger screened iPhone might tempt me on my next phone upgrade.

Looking forward to my Yosemite upgrade too.

iCloud Drive isn't the way apps talk to apps, thats a document viewer or a sharing Extensions ( one to show files from an app, the other to share files to it). This preserves sandboxing and opens up files to any app which needs to vend or receive them. Or you could do your own iCloud service etc.

Extensions are new in iOS 8. in iO 7 at the moment when you hit the share button you can tweet, or store in iCloud etc. Now other apps can get in there. The user can also talk to a new document viewer ( which may not be in the beta yet) and it doesn't talk to the file system directly but to any app which vends documents of a certain type.

iCloud drive is how the user - not other apps - see their own files including the files sandboxed by apps in folders representing the synced documents. You can add to the root level of the iDrive, but thats effectively another apps data. That app being the iCloud Drive app on your Mac, Windows machine or iOS device.

It isn't on Android.

Sad Professor

symbolic wrote: »

And what would be the difference in having a local central file system (or does this exist already?) , why does Sad Professor reckon a cloud based one was the only way? Or maybe I am missing something...

I think you misunderstood me. iOS has had built-in cloud storage since iOS 5. But to date it’s been very restricted. iCloud Drive isn’t so much a new feature as an opening up of an existing one. When I was talking about sharing files between apps, I was talking specifically about how in iOS 8 users will have access to all their iCloud documents via the in-app document picker, rather than only having access to documents created by the current app.

Im not seeing what is so complex about apps being able to access files created by another app. And why a cloud based solution would be the only way to solve this issue?

There’s nothing complex about it at all, except Apple don’t want people messing around in a filesystem. They believe it should be hidden away and that users should engage with their documents via their apps. This has been their philosophy for a long time. All the iLife apps on OS X were designed around the same idea.

symbolic

Sad Professor wrote: »

There’s nothing complex about it at all, except Apple don’t want people messing around in a filesystem. They believe it should be hidden away and that users should engage with their documents via their apps. This has been their philosophy for a long time. All the iLife apps on OS X were designed around the same idea.

From what you said I thought you meant it was complex and could only be solved using iCloud Drive. My mistake I guess!

Sad Professor

symbolic wrote: »

From what you said I thought you meant it was complex and could only be solved using iCloud Drive. My mistake I guess!

I meant it was a complexity from a usability perspective - which it is - but as a I said, a necessary one. There’s nothing complex about the implementation. It would appear to be a fairly straight-forward solution to a straight-forward problem, which is why Zcott and others felt Apple were backtracking, having failed to come up with a better solution to sharing files between apps.

However I’m still not really clear about whether the iOS document picker will filter visible documents based on compatibility with the app you are in. Perhaps someone running the beta can clarify this.

Zcott

Sad Professor wrote: »

However I’m still not really clear about whether the iOS document picker will filter visible documents based on compatibility with the app you are in. Perhaps someone running the beta can clarify this.

Apparently apps will broadcast what kind of file they'll support and only those files will be visible to those apps. What would the point be in showing files your app doesn't support?

Blazer

Just in case people are having problems with the touch screen crashing in ios8 below is a workaround for it.

1. Restart iPhone
2. Before launching any apps, the touch screen still works.
3. Ask Siri to Turn off Zoom. She will provide a link that opens the Accessibility options in Settings. Tap on the link Siri provides.
4. Manually disable the toggle to turn OFF Zoom.

This seemed to immediately fix the issue where I was seeing a half working and miscalibrated touch screen. I restarted my iPhone to ensure the fix persisted. At least for me, this got iOS 8 working on my iPhone without having to perform a restore! Hope this helps someone else!

leemaree

I missed the whole lot of the WWDC. Is there anyway of watching the whole lot again? I've been away the last couple of days.

Brian017

leemaree wrote: »

I missed the whole lot of the WWDC. Is there anyway of watching the whole lot again? I've been away the last couple of days.

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/

miralize

The fact that they're making alot of the dev sessions public is fascinating

DubDJ

leemaree wrote: »

I missed the whole lot of the WWDC. Is there anyway of watching the whole lot again? I've been away the last couple of days.

It's on YouTube on the official Apple channel.

The Governor

Just had a gander at the iOS8 features and am delighted to see we can quick reply to a text and that Swype will be coming to iOS, it's the only thing I missed from Android.

Zcott

Yep, this release basically says 'hey, we've just negated all the reasons for you to switch to android'. Good move.

DubDJ

Zcott wrote: »

Yep, this release basically says 'hey, we've just negated all the reasons for you to switch to android'. Good move.

There'll always be a reason, rational or not, why iOS is '****'. At the moment I think both platforms are on level ground when it comes to the important features people want. It's just down to personal preference really.

naasrd

Zcott wrote: »

Yep, this release basically says 'hey, we've just negated all the reasons for you to switch to android'. Good move.

No. You're missing the point. There are people who use Apple products only. The update is for us.

Zcott

naasrd wrote: »

No. You're missing the point. There are people who use Apple products only. The update is for us.

And I'm one of those people. But iOS 8 is a very android inspired release, except done better. And that's Apple negating any need for folks to switch to android.

Have a read at Ihnatko's column about it:

http://voices.suntimes.com/business-2/andy-ihnatko-apple-wwdc-keynote/

FourFourRED

Yeah + plus the bigger iPhone 6 could add to that as well.

The One Who Knocks

The Governor wrote: »

Just had a gander at the iOS8 features and am delighted to see we can quick reply to a text and that Swype will be coming to iOS, it's the only thing I missed from Android.

Same here, can't wait for Swype again!