If there was a common theme for WWDC 2014, Tim Cook articulated it at the end. He said what's great about Apple products is that their operating system, devices, and services work together in harmony, creating a seamless experience for users. And that seamless experience was expanded in dramatic fashion today, with the announcement of new technologies such as HomeKit, HealthKit, iCloud Drive, and Continuity. Apple also announced a ton of new features for built-in apps in iOS 8 such as Mail, Messages, Photos, and Safari.

Photos— The chief new feature is all your photos will now live in the cloud. You'll have new ways to organize them, search them, and keep them in sync. If you edit a photo on one device, those edits will be registered in the cloud and carry over to your other devices. The idea is that since you have many more photos than can fit on your device, this will allow you to rely on the cloud for their storage. And along with that, Apple announced some new pricing plans for iCloud storage.

Siri— Siri received new features, such that you can now get its attention simply by saying, "Hey Siri." This hands-free operation will be especially useful when you're driving. Plus, new integration with Shazam means that if you like some music that you're hearing, you can simply ask Siri what it is, and she'll tell you.

Touch ID— Two WWDC announcements introduced greater integration with third-party apps, both of which were frequently requested features. With iOS 8, Touch ID will be accessible via other apps. For example, if you use a banking app, you'll be able to log into your account simply by touching your Home button.

Third-party keyboards— In addition, another feature that had been frequently requested was the use of third-party keyboards. That will now be possible in iOS 8.

Messages— One of the most requested features for Messages will now be available in iOS 8: the ability to respond to text messages from the lock screen or from within other apps. You no longer need to go to the Messages app. Plus, Messages will have other great new features such as audio and video messages.

Mail— The Mail app adopts a number of features of a popular third-party app. You can now make greater use of gestures, such as simply swiping to delete a message. If you're writing an email and want to look up something in another email in your inbox, you can simply swipe down on the draft email and it disappears. When you want to continue writing, you swipe up from the bottom to make it reappear.

Spotlight— The iOS search utility has greatly expanded function in iOS 8. In addition to searching for content and launching apps, a search will now also show you information from a wide range of sources, such as Wikipedia, restaurant information, news, songs, and movie info.

Family sharing— One interesting new offering will be family sharing. This lets you share your purchases of books, songs, videos, and apps with up to six family members, as long as they've been purchased on the same credit card. And if a child makes a purchase, her parents will automatically receive a text message asking if he or she approves.

Let's now take a look at the news today related to the seamless harmony among services, operating system, and devices that Apple is famous for.

HomeKit— The rumors were right: Apple announced a new platform for a smart home. Called HomeKit, it's much like the rumors have described: an ecosystem that works with third-party devices and offers ease of use and ease of setup. You'll be able to use HomeKit to control facets of a smart home such as locks, lights, cameras, doors, thermostats, plugs, and switches. It works with Siri so that you can conveniently control these devices. You can not only use HomeKit to control individual devices, but you can group them into "scenes." So for example, you could create a scene with common settings for your thermostat, locks, and security cameras and invoke that with a touch.

HealthKit— Apple announced their new HealthKit platform and Health app. The main idea is that HealthKit is a single comprehensive repository for all your health and fitness information. The announced platform goes far beyond the rumors. For example, the app can not only receive information about your blood pressure from other apps, but then, because Apple is partnering with hospitals nationwide, can automatically alert your doctor of situations needing attention. (You can, of course, control privacy.) The platform doesn't simply integrate health and fitness information from a variety of apps and devices, but seamlessly connects with your healthcare providers.

iCloud Drive— In the past, Apple's iCloud was limited to storing documents created by Apple's apps, but now you'll be able to use it to store any document. It will work across platforms and keep your edits in sync.

Continuity— This demo was one of the most remarkable of the WWDC keynote. In the past, you could use iCloud to keep email and contacts and calendar and other features in sync. But Continuity now takes that a step further. It actually dynamically recognizes when two devices are close together and lets you continue your work on a second device that you'd just been doing on another device. Let's say you're editing a document on your iPad. Then when you sit down at your Mac, the document you were editing pops up on your screen and lets you continue where you left off. Or if you're on a call on your iPhone, when you sit down at your Mac you have the option of continuing the call via your Mac. Or if you're sitting at your Mac and your iPhone is in another room, you can actually place a call via your Mac. Another example is that you can receive a call on your iPhone and then continue it on your iPad.

It was an overwhelming amount of information, both in the amount presented but also conceptually in the case of the new HomeKit and HealthKit platforms. Even more was presented than I'm able to summarize here, including a host of major new tools for developers, such as a new, easy-to-use programming language called Swift.

Apple's stock actually dropped today. But in my mind, their stock went up. Once more they showed their extraordinary vision. I think in some cases it will take months or even years for these new ecosystems to develop. And when they do, as is always the case, everyone else will be scrambling to catch up with Apple.

Imagine you’re arriving home after work, and before you can fumble around for your keys, the door simply senses your presence and unlocks, the lights turn on, music from your favorite album begins to play from your speaker system, the air inside is cooled to your ideal temperature.

What you’re envisioning is actually already possible. All of the technology exists—with products from companies such as Belkin, Insteon, Vera, and Nest—but it hasn’t been leveraged into an integrated system that’s accessible to the everyday person.

That's what many of us have been waiting for Apple to do. In the days leading up to today’s keynote at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), we heard a lot of rumors of an Apple Smart Home, which we believed would offer one all-powerful app with which to control the growing ecosystem of Internet-enabled devices. After all, what company could be better equipped to deliver an integrated, intuitive user experience?

So it was a bit disappointing when Apple’s senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi glossed over its announcement of HomeKit, which will be a feature of the new software developers kit (SDK), not a standalone app. We didn’t get many details about the application programming interface (API) feature, except that it will have an updated common protocol for smart gadgets to connect more easily and securely to iOS devices.

Federighi said Siri will be fully integrated with HomeKit and you’ll have the ability to either group your smart gadgets into “scenes” or control them individually. He said you'll be able to teach Siri commands like “bedtime,” and it will be able to turn off the lights, lock the doors, adjust the thermostat, and turn off any music playing.

How HomeKit Will Work

Apple listed its HomeKit partners during the announcement, among them brands such as Haier, Honeywell, and Texas Instruments. The Nest Learning Thermostat, one of the most popular smart appliances on the market, wasn’t on the list, since Google purchased the company several months ago.

Chinese manufacturer Haier has given us clues as to how the HomeKit program could work for program participants. At the beginning of the year, Haier launched the first smart appliance under the "made for iPhone" (MFi) label— called the Tianzun smart air conditioner—and plans to certify more of its products this year.

The Tianzun gained MFi certification due to its easy setup, which requires only Wi-Fi and no registration or password. The MFi certification program vouches for the design, quality, and iOS compatibility of devices, and requires chips in products be certified.

“We thought we could bring rationality into the home automation space,” said Federighi.

The tools necessary for mainstream home automation have been around for some time. Computer chips have become so cheap that it’s feasible for most home appliances to be Internet-enabled devices. But up until now, no one has leveraged this potential. I think Apple’s foray into home automation holds a lot of promise. But at this point, an Apple smart home is too nebulous of an idea for people to get really excited about. While Apple didn’t fully commit to unifying the fragmented smart appliance market today, it could be setting the stage for a bigger move in the future. 

When Tim Cook opened up by saying that iOS 8 accompanies the biggest release of the Apple SDK since the launch of the App Store, I thought it might just be hyperbole. It wasn't. There are tremendous changes in store for iOS app developers that will drastically change the way you create apps. I'll start with the biggest change first.

1. The Swift Programming Language

One of the biggest complaints you hear from developers moving to the iOS development platform is that they have to use Objective-C—a programming language that is over 30 years old.

In answer to some very valid complaints, Apple has introduced a brand new programming language called Swift. Apple uses the adjectives fast, modern, safe, and interactive to describe Swift.

A slide was shown briefly that listed the following features of Swift:

• Functional patterns
• Concise syntax
• Native collections
• Operator overloading
• Namespaces
• Tuples
• Clear mutability syntax
• Interactive playground
• Closures
• Protocols and extensions on structs
• Generics
• Multiple return types
• Pattern matching
• Fast iteration
• Optional types
• Object orientation
• Type inference
• Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL)
• Compile to native code

If you are familiar with other modern C-based language such as Java and C#, you will know that Apple is looking to match and supersede the capabilities of these languages.

Personally, I've been programming long enough to be around for the introduction of many new languages and it always produces both anxiety and excitement in the developer base. Ultimately, once you master the new language and feel comfortable using it (probably about three months worth of full time development in a language will do this for you) you welcome the ease with which you can create your apps. A great feature of more modern languages is that they prevent you from making errors common to programmers (who hasn't forgot to put a break statement in their switch?) so the compiler ends up catching more of your errors.

The good news is that since Swift is built with the same compiler, ARC management and runtime as Objective-C, your Swift code can run alongside your Objective-C code.

One of the more interesting features demonstrated is Xcode's new Playgrounds. This new feature provides a visual representation of your code. In Playgrounds, Xcode runs your code in a sidebar as you type it.

The new Xcode Playgrounds

To learn about the Swift programming language, you can download The Swift Programming Language book available in the iBooks Store at this link.

2. App Store Enhancements

Apple is making some very welcome changes to the App Store that will improve users ability to find your app, and for you to market it. This is especially important due to the fact that there are over 1.2 million apps in the App Store.

Apple is adding an Explore tab to the App Store that helps users find the apps they're searching for. It will allow them to search by categories, subcategories along with top-trending searches and related searches. 

Another great new feature allows developers to create an App Bundle so users can purchase multiple apps at a discounted price with a single tap. Personally, I'm hoping this feature also finds its way to the iBooks Store!

One of the best new App Store features allows developers to create short video previews of their app. This allows developers to show off their apps capabilities and allows users to determine if this is the app that meets their needs. 

Finally, Apple is introducing the ability to provide wide-scale beta testing of their iOS apps by means of the TestFlight platform they acquired earlier this year. Previously, developers could only roll out their app to a few hundred devices. Now iOS developers can get the same large-scale testing abilities that have been available on the Android platform.

3. Extensibility

The extensibility features offered to developers in iOS 8 are phenomenal. It's common knowledge that Apple has not been known for their openness and extensibility. This time around, there are a number of features of iOS that have now been opened up:

• The iOS Share sheet - Developers can now add their own custom apps to the Share sheet (Pinterest was shown as an example)
• The Action sheet - Developers can add their custom apps to the Action sheet (Bing Translate was given as an example)
• Safari extensions - Bing translate was demonstrated translating a web page
• Photo filters
• Third-party document providers
• Widgets for Notification Center
• System-wide third-party keyboards
• Touch ID can now be accessed from third-party apps. Look for apps coming your way that allow you to sign in via the popular Touch ID (the fingerprint information is never opened up to custom apps).
• Camera APIs for manual control of exposure, white balance, and focus
• Photo Kit API has faster performance and allows you to read and write to the Photo Library

4. Home Kit

Apple introduced a brand new framework called HomeKit. Currently, there are a number of apps on the market that allow you to control devices in your home with their own network and security protocols. HomeKit provides a common network protocol that allows more centralized control of apps in this genre. You can group devices together and control them from Siri. For example, you can tell Siri "Get ready for bed", and it can close your garage door, lock the doors of your house, and lower the temperature on your thermostat and dim your lights.

5. Cloud Kit

In this blog I've written recently about hosting the web portion of your app with Google App Engine, and Amazon Web Services. Apple has upped the ante by providing server-side authentication, data storage, asset storage, search, and notifications for what it calls "effectively free." Here's what you get:

• 1 PB of assets
• 10TB database
• 5TB/day asset transfer
• 50GB/day database transfer

Once more details become public, I'll dedicate a blog post to these new Cloud Kit features.

6. 3D Graphic Enhancements

Apple introduced a new graphics technology that they call Metal. Until now, Open/GL was the primary technology used to create games, but it can tend to be resource-hungry. Metal is an alternative to Open/GL that can provide up to 10 times the speed. This is great news for game developers who can now provide an incredible animation experience based on these new possibilities.

7. Sprite Kit and Scene Kit

In iOS 8, Apple has made a few enhancements to Sprite Kit, which allows you to create "casual" games on the iOS platform. These include support for:

• Enhanced light sources
• Field forces
• Per-pixel physics
• Inverse kinematics

The big news is Apple's support for Scene Kit on the iOS platform (previously available on the OS X platform). Scene Kit is a scene renderer that has been enhanced to work with casual games. 

Conclusion

As an app developer working on all the major platforms, I speak from experience when I say that these exciting new developments continue to make iOS the best platform for app development, bar none.

Today during the keynote at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Apple announced some exciting new products and upgrades. Much of what we predicted was right on, while a few things barely got a mention or were left out altogether. Here’s a rundown of the announcements that got us the most excited.

Apps

Finding cool new apps on the App Store just got so much easier. Now with the Editor’s Choice logo placed on certain apps, as well as the improved app reviews, it’s easy for users to download the best apps out there. Apple has also announced some exciting news apps for developers, including TestFlight, which developers can use to invite users to test their apps for free!

New SDK

Apple heavily emphasized its brand new developer’s kit during today’s announcement, which CEO Tim Cook called “the biggest release since the launch of the App Store.” It includes more than 4,000 new APIs. One example is Extensibility, which lets apps share services with other apps.

Swift: Swift is a new programming language developed by Apple which is supposed be a big improvement from the previous Objective-C. Swift is supposed to be faster, easier to understand, and much more effective, allowing developers to view a preview of their program as they’re working on it. As Craig Federighi puts it, “It totally rules.”

HomeKit

Apple made its foray into home automation official today by announcing HomeKit, which will let you control smart gadgets from stereos to security systems to lights with your iOS device. The platform will standardize these accessories so they connect easily and securely to iOS devices. While it’s a bit foggy as to how Apple plans to rollout this new program, it listed several participating companies, including Haier, Honeywell, and Texas Instruments. HomeKit will feature full Siri integration and the ability to group devices into scenes, so you can tell Siri it’s bedtime, and it will hit the lights and lock the door, automatically.

OS X Yosemite

This announcement hardly came as a surprise to us. We predicted that Apple would create greater connectivity between the desktop and the mobile operating systems, and we weren’t disappointed!

The iOS 8 and OS X included many of the same features, which isn’t surprising as Apple cross-device connectivity allowing users to work between their iPhones, iPads, laptops, and desktop computers seamlessly.  

iOS 8

As expected, the company introduced us to all of iOS 8’s new and improved developer and user features. Here are just a few of the features we can look forward to seeing in the fall:

Interactive Notifications: Users will have the ability to pull down and respond to texts while surfing the web, or even respond from the lock screen.

Safari: Users will be able to flag, delete, or highlight emails in Safari with a swipe of their finger.

Spotlight Search: Apple has built new search technology into Spotlight Search, with enhancements allowing users to search for apps, songs, and articles that aren’t stored on their devices.

QuickType: QuickType is an especially exciting new feature of iOS 8. With QuickType, not only will it predict your typing based on context, but the smart learning engine allows for personalization based on who you’re speaking to.

Improved Continuity Features: Now your iDevices will be more integrated than ever, allowing users to pick up on their iPhones where they left off on their Macs.

Improved Messaging: Now not only can users name their threads, tap to talk, and share their location via message, but users can send audio messages and reply to a message by simply raising the phone to their ear. Pretty cool! The most exciting feature of all, however, is the new ability to leave group threads at any time. This was definitely a long-awaited improvement, as the incessant group notifications were frustrating for many users.

Apple added the ability quickly access Favorites in your contacts by double tapping the Home button. Apple has also included the ability to text from the notification pane, a feature that we predicted in our magazine.

HealthKit

HealthKit is a new platform, which works together with the Health app to enable users to monitor their health and create one profile that integrates all other fitness apps. We learned that Apple is teaming up with both Nike and Mayo Clinic in order to be at the forefront of health technology. This is a promising idea that is bound to see a lot of growth in the near future.

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing, users can set up a profile to fit up to six individuals using one credit card. This is likely meant to cater to families who would all be sharing a single account. When a child buys a new app, everyone is notified, and a request of approval is sent to the adult in charge of the account. Family sharing also lets you sync movies and media across iOS devices.

New Camera Features

Now you can search photos based on album location, as well as when and where the photo was taken. Most exciting of all is the incorporation of the new built-in editing controls. With these tools, users have the ability to automatically straighten and crop their photos, as well favorite images and adjust light level and color.

Siri

Siri will now include Shazam song recognition, and users can now purchase music on iTunes directly from Siri.

Touch ID

One of the most highly requested features of the iPhone was the ability to use Touch ID on third-party apps. Rather than the feature being used strictly for opening your phone, now Touch ID can be used to open other apps as a means of logging in. 

WWDC's keynote with Tim Cook and company has come and gone, and what is striking is not what was announced, but what was not announced. A new version of Mac OS and iOS is always to be expected at WWDC. WWDC is when and where developers go to learn direct from the source. I've attended a few times and it's been a great way to learn about new frameworks and tools. It's a no brainer that Apple would use that venue to reveal the next generation of their mobile and computer-based operating systems. But Apple usually has one or two hardware announcements at WWDC. With a captive audience of 5,000-plus Apple computer owners, plus countless more watching the live stream, it's a great opportunity to sell hardware. Maybe not a new phone but usually there is a refreshed or all new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, or the Mac Pro or Mac mini.  Last year it was the dramatically redesigned cylindrical Mac Pro. Before that it was the MacBook Pro Retina. After all, in a crowded room, it's likely that someone is celebrating a birthday that week. So, with such a broad product line from Apple, there is always some device ready to be updated.

But not this time. Even as Apple is expected to enter new markets, like wearables, smart home control, and ideally a more robust solution for TV, they did not release, discuss, or preview new hardware. Apple doesn't offer a smartwatch, though it might be in their interest to preempt Pebble, Moto 360, and Samsung Gear sales; but then again, they don't need to give Motorola, Google, or Samsung any ideas. If an Apple watch were to be released soon, it would be important for developers to know how to write to the small screen, assuming third-party apps are to be supported at release. Perhaps that's an indicator that such a device won't have many apps at all, or certainly at first. Apple can line up a handful of app developers to work on watch apps and not reveal their hand prematurely. Nike dropped their wearable solution, as it is believed they are working with Apple and Apple surely doesn't want them offering a competing product. Apple learned their lesson, after allowing Eric Schmidt and Google in on the original iPhone, when they wanted Google's help with Maps and Search.

A new larger iPhone is expected, as leaked photos have hit the web, but it is likely on a September release schedule. That's when iPhones have been rolling out typically, and given the two-year contract most users have, it makes sense to release it when early adopters can purchase a subsidized phone. The iPad Air and iPad mini could have benefited from Touch ID, especially since that feature is getting more attention in iOS 8. Of course, iOS 8 won't be available to the public until the fall, so maybe that would be the best timing, right before the holiday season.

The MacBook Air did get a refresh about a month ago, so that was an indicator not to expect a lot of news on the laptop front. There were rumors of replacing the 11-inch and 13-inch models with a 12-inch in-between model, which makes sense as the number of choices can be overwhelming, but it didn't happen yesterday. The Mac Pro recently started shipping with decent lead times, so I didn't expect an update there. The Mac mini, however, seems stale, especially compared to the Mac Pro. It would be nice to see a miniature version of the Mac Pro, perhaps a small black cylinder the same foot print as the Pro but twice the height of the Mac mini.

Finally, Apple TV is one of those products that is always due for an upgrade. The acquisition of Beats by Dr. Dre comes with Jimmy Iovine, and his entertainment industry rolodex. Apple TV needs support from the content and cable providers, and perhaps Iovine was just what the doctor ordered!

As a developer, I was very excited about the iOS and Mac OS news, and the tools like Swift. As a consumer of Apple gear, I know I need to be patient. Given Tim Cook's comments about many new products and even "new categories" to be introduced "this year", we shouldn't have to wait much longer!

So the word is out. iOS 8, Xcode 6 and the new Swift programming language are headed your way. What should you do? Should you continue to learn iOS 7 and Objective-C or should you make the switch to iOS 8 and Swift programming? I've already had several emails and tweets asking about this as iOS developers ponder this important question.

Opportunity Knocks

Right now, at this moment, there are 9 million Objective-C iOS developers and there are zero Swift programmers. 

I recommend that you see this as a huge opportunity. Talk about a level playing field!

Some developers will spend the upcoming weeks and months wringing their hands in dismay at all of the big changes—especially the new Swift programming language (these are the same developers you see pontificating on the forums, refusing to use newer Objective-C language features because the original features are somehow "better".)

However, I recommend that you spend this time with your nose to the grindstone learning Xcode 6 and Swift. You will end up with a set of very marketable skills (if you're looking to be a hired gun) as well as the ability to create apps that take full advantage of all the new features available in iOS 8.

The Eighty-Nine Percent

According to statistics announced by Apple in the WWDC 2014 keynote, 89 percent of iOS devices are running iOS 7. What does this tell you? It's a strong statement that your users are interested in having the latest technology and features on their devices. This means that to be a successful app developer you need to keep up with the latest changes in the SDK, languages, and tools in order to integrate these new technologies in your apps.

Moving Projects to iOS 8 and Swift

There's nothing like working on a real project to teach you new technologies. I recommend that you select one of your smaller projects first and move it forward to Xcode 6 and Swift. This allows you to learn the new languages and tools in the context of the real world which is far more meaningful than just reading through a book or documentation.

Getting Set up for iOS 8 and Xcode 6 and Swift 

Fortunately, Xcode 5 and the Xcode 6 beta coexist peacefully so you can install them on the same development machine. To install the Xcode 6 Beta on your Mac, you first need to install OS X version 10.9.3, which Apple released last month (May 2014). You can download the Xcode 6 beta as well as the iOS 8 beta from the iOS Dev Center. Before you can download these betas from the Dev Center, you will be prompted to sign a new iOS Developer Program License Agreement.

To install the iOS 8 beta on an iOS device, follow these steps:

1. Choose a device other than your primary iOS device on which to install the beta. These early betas are notoriously buggy and it can be extremely frustrating to rely on them to perform properly when you need them.

2. You can determine the proper download for your iPhone here, or your iPad here.

3. Download the appropriate iOS 8 beta file from the iOS Dev Center

4. Connect the iOS device on which you are installing iOS 8 to your Mac.

5. If iTunes doesn't automatically launch, then launch it manually.

6. Back up your iOS device!

7. In iTunes, click on your device in the top-right corner.

8. Hold down the Option key and click Check for update.

9. Locate the iOS 8 beta file you downloaded in step 3. By default it will be in your Downloads folder inside a subfolder that begins with iOS 8 beta. Select the .ipsw file that's in this folder.

10. Next, you'll see a dialog that tells you that iTunes will update your device to iOS 8. Click the Update button and the installation will begin!

You can download Apple's free 858-page iBook, The Swift Programming Language from the iBooks Store. 

Stay Tuned to Learn More About Swift!

Normally, I have to wait three months to talk about the new iOS technologies because of Apple's non-disclosure agreements. However, this time around, the cat is out of the bag, or in the case of Swift, the bird has flown the coop. Apple has already published a book about Swift, so I can discuss it freely in this column. So stay tuned as we dive into Swift and learn how to build powerful apps with this new language.

Thanks to everyone who entered the May 19th iPhone Life Biweekly Giveaway! Every other week we give away three amazing prizes, so if you didn't win this time, make sure you enter the June 2nd giveaway and tell your friends to enter too!

And the winners are... (drum roll please):

Gilbert  Rendon, Madison Wachholz, and Antony Parada. 

If you see your name but didn't receive an email, please check your spam folder.

Didn't Win This Week? No worries! Visit iphonelife.com/giveaways for the chance to win in the next giveaway round.

This weeks featured items are:

1. Stereo App for iPhone & Mac + Forager App for iPhone & Mac: Retail Price $3.98

Stereo: The graphical iPod.

Forager: The Internet browser for the curious.

2. Xtorm Mobile Solar Panel: Retail Price - $121.22

Powerful 11-Watt solar panel, equipped with high efficiency Sunpower solarcells to charge by sunlight. You can connect this solar panel directly to your mobile devices, like a smartphone or tablet. It’s even possible to charge two mobile devices at the same time, i.e. a smartphone and a tablet, two smartphones or a smartphone and an Xtorm product. Because of the useful design the SolarBooster is easy to attach to your backpack, tent, or bike etc. If you don’t use the solar panel, you can fold it easily and tuck it away in your bag.

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Military-grade drop protection, Sound wave redirection to the front of the case, and lanyard/necklace strap are just a few of the features of the Colorant Link Pro Case.

Questions or comments? Email Brian@iphonelife.com. Good luck and remember to visit iphonelife.com/giveaways to enter! Also check out our other contests at iphonelife.com/contests. The next contest drawing is June 16th!

Epic Games'Tim Sweeney took the stage at WWDC as once again his company's technology was prominently featured at the Apple media event. This time however, instead of swinging swords as Infinity Blade's tragic hero Siris, the team behind the best selling Infinity Blade series was there to show off the capabilities of iOS 8's new level of gaming software called Metal.

With the introduction of new graphics technologies like Metal and SceneKit, Apple demonstrates that they do indeed know one of the primary reasons that so many of us are using our iDevices: awesome games! While both Metal and SceneKit will benefit gamers, Metal in particular seeks to raise the bar on what's possible in mobile handing by essentially bridging the A7 chip's capabilities and the process of writing code in a way that will take advantage of all that the A7 system has to offer.

Epic Games ' Lead Engineer Josh Adams, demonstrating Zen Garden at WWDC 2014.

With Metal, we see a dramatic 10 times improvement in draw call speed and a major increase in CPU rendering efficiency. It enables leading game developers to truly tap into the A7's potential and for the first time in mobile gaming, allows developers to bring console-calibur 3D games to iOS. SceneKit helps out all developers of more casual iOS games, making it easy (relatively speaking) to create fun and entertaining 3D games. iOS 8 also brings significant enhancements to Apple's already existing SpriteKit framework, including field forces, per pixel physics, and inverse kinematics.

To show off the potential of all that this means, Epic Games crafted a visual and spatial masterpiece. They call it the Zen Garden, and if you've played Infinity Blade II it might even look somewhat familiar to you. I definitely found elements to be similar to the palace of Sayadi, see image below:

Zen Garden isn't a replica by any means, but it is reminiscent, and vastly enhanced and more elaborate. Check out this cool video short below, which shows Zen Garden made with Epic's Unreal Engine 4 running on iOS 8. We're talking about hundreds of koi fish and butterflies, each with their own AI allowing each one to function independently and uniquely, and graphics with the kind of shading, texture and depth this gamer has never seen on iOS (much less mobile) before.

If you can't see the video above, click HERE. You can also watch Epic's unveiling by jumping to the 99:32 mark in Apple's WWDC 2014 Keynote. Zen Garden will be available when iOS 8 comes out and will be a featured free app, exclusively in the App Store.

So I have a news reader app on my iPad called Pulse (free), which has lived there for years. It is among the best news apps I have found (though the recent LinkedIn version is garnering complaints), and I say humph. What more do I need? Enter Reverb and the latest Pearltrees 2.0 (both free). Reverb is not a bourgeois news app that spews AP wire content to elite techno-snobs. It shakes things up by dumping material from a cornucopia of sources into each news topic. Though it can be a bit discomfiting, it's mostly just darn refreshing! While Reverb helps one find interesting content on a particular topic, Pearltrees helps you to collect, and even create your own! These two freebies will take you down many enjoyable or even daring roads on the interwebs, which is the point of the journey, yes?

Reverb

You know the deal; you start using a news reader, and straight away must configure feed sources, import stuff, and monkey around with settings. Tedious. Reverb starts with the Topic Wall: A list of scroll-able terms, where you choose what you like, so the app can start tailoring content views to suit. If you really like something, you can add it to your collection list, store it, and even share your content selections through the app with others. The interface is responsive and slick like many effective news readers, BUT! You knew a BUT was coming I am sure.

Reverb has already garnered some noteworthy praise, being dubbed Best New App in the App Store news category, but for all that, it still needs a few somethings. First, a reader app should have a control to adjust the font size, which the minimalist Reverb lacks. Some better filtering options might be helpful, though the point is to dump anything it can find pertinent to the topic, even posts from your Twitter and Facebook friends. While Reverb serves up an interesting mix of content, some of it is still downright useless (articles that are little more than ads or announcements from personal blogs like Blogger or Wordpress). The app is somewhat untamed, but has mega-potential, and I am now more curious to see what I will find there than in the buttoned-down Pulse. 

Reverb also has a local feature which threw an error when I used it. It displays a map, and potentially would return results from around your local area (if it had worked). Another gripe I have is that embedded video content did not display in content views, but you can switch to a native browser mode to view it. The app also bugs you to create an account and link your social networks (also annoying). These annoyances aside, what I especially like about this news app is its fresh injection of web material, and the intelligent way it finds yet even more related topic items to browse!

Pearltrees 2.0

I have previously reviewed Pearltrees, so I'm not going to go into the really gory details here, except to cover the latest features. Pearltrees provides content organization to millions of users that love to present their interests by linking or uploading them to the Pearltrees cloud (Pearl collections can be images, links, documents, web pages, video, etc.)—up to 1GB of it for free. The name comes from an earlier iteration of the app which provided a mind-map-style interface to view the linked content.

The content itself is referred to as a collection of pearls and the linking the tree part. The latest update might more fittingly be called Tabtrees, because it replaces the mind-map-style with tabbed views of content instead. The total power of Pearltrees is beyond many content discovery engines or simple social networking sites. A new "My Interests" feature in version 2.0 allows you to quickly discover content similar to your own on the Pearl cloud, and the new interface is fully HTML5 compatible, allowing you to drag and drop content into your collections from other pages, your desktop, or even a document. People who are serious about collaborative content organization and discovery will love Pearltrees! The new 2.0 version brings the new streamlined views to all of your devices. 

Here is a live example of how the "My Interests" feature led me to learn about word cloud generators, how they work, and why they could be considered misleading in true journalism (they are not a reliable means of analysis) I must admit I never knew they even existed. The Pearltrees "interests" algorithm led me to a linked word cloud generator in someone's collection Of course I had to tap on it...

I generated a word cloud for our site (see above). Word or tag clouds display a visual representation of a list of words found on a web page, RSS feed (or batch of words you cut/paste into the entry field), and depending on the frequency of the words found, highlight them in eye-catching or unique ways... (kind of like Reverb's Topic Wall) As would be expected, the words Apple and App feature prominently on our site, along with some other key tags we are talking about these days (e.g. WWDC, Dre, and Beats). Tag/word clouds, which are not new by any means, give you (at a glance) a notion of hot topics on a site, and can even link to the content. You can get a taste by going to Wordle. You can also embed them on your own sites... (note to iPhone Life management: there is a Drupal module too). Thanks to Pearltrees, I learned not only what they were, but how to create my own word clouds too!

Summary

Reverb and Pearltrees are both great news discovery and collection applications that can be had for zero pennies on the App store, and both will help you not only discover engaging topics, but may lead to you organizing and sharing your own content collections! The mysteries of the interweb awaits, so what are you waiting for? Grab them at the links above!

If you want to share all the photos of the school play, the graduation party, your adorable puppy, or your anniversary celebration, but don't want to go through to the trouble of selecting individual photos to share, you're in luck. Your iPhone Photo app organizes your photos into "Moments" and you can easily share all the photos in a Moment at once.

In the Photos app go to Moments, scroll to the Moment you want to share and tap the Share button to the right of the Moment.

Choose Share this Moment and select how you want to share.

There will probably be too many photos in your Moment to share via message or email, but you can share via Photostream by selecting iCloud or you can share on Facebook or Flickr.

Top image credit:Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com

Everyone asks me right after (and often during) an Apple keynote "what was the best thing they announced?" Since this event was all about software, and there were so many new features announced, I had to ponder it all and let it sink in. And I thought, "What would my wife care about?"

My wife doesn't like to use her cell phone, out of concerns of radiation. Whether that's a reasonable concern or not, she's not alone. So she uses a wired handset that looks like a traditional retro phone to give her some distance. Now, with Mac OS Yosemite, and iOS 8, she can make and receive calls from a Mac (we have several throughout the house) using the Mac's speakers and microphone as a speakerphone, and leveraging our Wi-Fi connection.  

I love this feature, too, because I often have my iPhone in the charger at the entrance to my house, and if I'm upstairs in my office, I can't get to the phone fast enough. I have a Pebble watch which shows Caller ID and lets me send the call to voice mail, or answer it, but I still need to use the phone to talk. My Martian Watch is a nice alternative, as it acts as a Bluetooth Speakerphone, but I don't wear that as often as the Pebble because of battery life. The Pebble lasts about a week and the Martian about a day.

With all of the new technologies introduced at WWDC, such as the new programming language Swift it may be something as simple as the Mac to iPhone connection that is the biggest takeaway for me. This reinforces the iPhone's "Halo effect" that brings customers to Macs by using the iPhone as a Trojan Horse. Once my wife and I depend on this new feature, it would be hard to switch, and that's just the way Apple wants it!

Holy moly, I forgot how hard math can be! I really feel for our youth who every year have to gear up for entrance, mid-terms, and final exams. If I had not known a math wiz who helped me extensively with my homework, I would not have made it through algebra, geometry, or trig, and I now only have a fuzzy idea of the rules (like the Pythagorean Theorem required to solve the above). I figured by now, one could use Siri to answer math questions, or at least the mega awesome MyScript calculator app (free). NOTE: Please do not try to use Siri or your iPhone/iPad during an exam, unless explicitly told you are allowed to do so by an authorized test administrator. If you are one of the unlucky few who are grinding through trig problems (or verb conjugation) these beautiful spring and early summer days, check out Play2Prep (free). It is designed to make getting ready for your next major exam fun and engaging. Mostly I found it to be quite ridiculously hard...but yeah, in a fun way I guess!

I am quite embarrassed to admit I got shellacked by Play2Prep. On both ACT/SAT five-question exams, repeatedly. Monster fail! My typical average was somewhere in the 40th–50th percentile. Not only did I get smacked down with just plain stupidly wrong answers, I often missed due to the darn time limit running out. I'm usually an overachiever when it comes to word comprehension, but you would have to speed read these questions to finish the sections and still answer correctly by the time the clock hits zero. Sometimes I would sit there and stare at the screen thinking, "Wait, I know this one!" Only to still get it wrong because of not picking the best answer! Ahh, the gamesmanship behind multiple guess tests. I had forgotten...

Play2Prep from an app standpoint is really quite simple, and simply one of the best test prep apps I have seen. The interface presents each question with a dreaded timer at the top—which starts at some ridiculous low number like one minute—and you try to fly through the question, mainly zeroing in on the main concept behind the question. Multiple guess tests (I am starting to recall how evil they can be) usually give away many clues about what the questions are really after in the wording of the answers, and the way the questions are asked. Part of gaming the test is to study with a tool like this, and be ready for those questions instead of freaked out by them. 

Play2Prep has a basic five-question local prep mode for ACT and SAT, or you can take it online and challenge friends. My favorite thing (particularly for the math problems) is the awesome way in which the app explains how to break the problem down and the best strategy to solve it step by step. It also reveals the main concept or topics being tested. I wish there had been a study tool like this back in the stone age, but then again, I guess there was. They were called nerds...

The Verdict

Play2Prep is a seriously great study aid for the ACT and SAT. I give it a huge thumbs up, especially for being totally free, ad-free, and sans in-app purchases. Grab it at the links above and be all Clint Eastwood steely-eyed when you walk into your exam this year!

These days, iPad cases are a dime a dozen. You've got folios that double as stands, shells that provide drop protection, and everything in between. It's tough to stand out in a sea of similar faces, but the Ergo Book from Acme Made is a real game changer. I've had a chance to test out this new case, which has currently passed its funding goal on Kickstarter, and I'm more than impressed.

Design and Functionality

The Ergo Book looks deceptively simple with its matte black, 17mm-thin folio design. A polycarbonate shell inside the case holds your iPad, providing back and corner protection. The front cover can fold into a stand like Apple's own Smart Cover, but with an elastic strap built-in for added grip. What really sets this case apart is its QuickSpin 360 rotation feature. 

While encased in the Ergo Book, you have the option to rotate your iPad into landscape orientation, while still holding the case in its original orientation. That feature, paired with the surprisingly helpful handgrip, make using your iPad much more enjoyable when you aren't fumbling around with the cover of a folio case. In addition to handheld use, you can also rotate your iPad into portait orientation while using the case as a stand. No longer are you limited to landscape viewing with a Smart Cover-style case!

Pros

Acme Made has done so much right with this case. The invisible rotation mechanism just works so well. I don't know why we haven't seen anything like this before, or at least executed this well. Everything is so intuitive with the Ergo Book that I can't imagine using another case without these features.

Cons

Even though you can get your own Ergo Book for a $45 or $50 pledge on Kickstarter (iPad mini or iPad Air, respectively), the MSRP for both will be $70 or more. When closed, the Ergo Book will keep your iPad protected, but not completely. Suffering damage with a $70 case would definitely upset me.

The Verdict

The Ergo Book is the first case that actually enriches how I use my iPad instead of just complementing it. For the special Kickstarter price, I definitely recommend it. 

Now that iOS 8 is in the hands of developers, we'll likely be getting a lot more detail. Apple was able to give only a very cursory overview during the keynote. Macworld has posted an article on 20 features that Apple didn't talk about during the keynote. Some of these are pretty cool, such as time-lapse mode for the camera, private browsing tabs in Safari, battery usage by app, and more. The article covers detail related to features of Camera, iBooks, Siri, Safari, Settings, and Calling. 

In addition, AppleInsider has posted a first-look demo video of the new Health app in iOS 8. Apple's introduction of the HealthKit platform and the Health app was very brief, and the AppleInsider post and video give helpful detail regarding what the app does. Basically, it's a repository for all of your health data. According to the post, Health has four sections: Dashboard, which gives overall metrics using a card-based presentation, MyHealth, into which you can enter your personal data, Medical ID, which will hold information that would be needed in an emergency, and Sources, which is the aspect of the app that collects data from external devices. Companies such as FitBit are partnering with Apple to offer compatible devices. 

Even if you had the opportunity to watch the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote in Monday, you may be interested in watching selected segments again. You can now do that, as Apple has posted the video both on the Apple website and on their official YouTube channel. 

The latter offers the video in high def 720p. The video is also embedded below. The event was remarkable, showing once again that Apple has vision. Announcements such as Continuity, HomeKit, and HealthKit give a good sense for where Apple is headed. 

As an app developer, I was pleasantly surprised by the WWDC announcement of App Bundles. A developer will be able to group together a set of apps and offer them at a special combined price. Think back to the old pre-Office365 days when a consumer might buy Microsoft Office versus buying Word, Excel, and PowerPoint separately, and get a better price by doing so.

There have been third party attempts at bundling, and many have been quite successful.  But those bundles had to be sold outside of the App Store, which meant iOS users couldn't participate, and even Mac OS customers had to explicitly give permission to install an app from a trusted developer, which isn't always a straightforward process.

Now developers can offer such bundles within the Apple ecosystem. Since I already have over 80 apps in the App Store, this is intriguing. I could combine a musical ringtone app with a talking ringtone app and a sound FX app and offer them at a better price than if each were purchased separately.

Ironically, this is the opposite of the music industry scenario that Apple saved us from. If you wanted a song, you had to purchase the whole CD. Steve Jobs convinced the record labels to offer à la carte pricing, and at a standard $0.99 per song, as a way to combat piracy. Now Apple's iTunes is the industry leader in music distribution and they got there by offering individual choice. Still, the bundling of apps is just another option, as users can choose to purchase individual apps instead. And that's ultimately what Apple is offering: choice, for developers and for customers.

A big thank you to everyone who entered our Pay Your iPhone Bill Giveaway! We are super excited because the grand prize winner is one of our print subscribers. We appreciate our readers so much and it feels great to be able to give back! 

And the winner of the Pay Your iPhone Bill Giveaway is...

Roger M.!

Roger first discovered iPhone Life magazine at Barnes and Noble. Since he is legally blind, his favorite iPhone feature is the accessibility settings that allow him to expand the phone's text.

Congratulations! Enjoy your winnings.

And don't worry if you didn't win  this time; we'll be having more giveaways soon!

Apple, notorious for its secrecy, has loosened up its restrictive NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) for the beta versions of iOS 8, OS X, and Xcode 6. In the latest version of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement, they have added the following statement in the Confidentiality section under the topic 10.1 Information Deemed Apple Confidential:

Further, Apple agrees that You will not be bound by the foregoing confidentiality terms with regard to technical information about pre-release Apple Software and services disclosed by Apple at WWDC (Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference), except that You may not post screen shots, write public reviews, or redistribute any pre-release Apple Software or services.

This means I'll be able to discuss new features of iOS 8, OS X Yosemite and the Swift programming language in this blog, although I won't be able to show any screen shots until these products are released in the fall. I'll also be making daily posts about Swift on my Twitter account, so you can also follow me there!

The OS X Beta

Apple made another surprising move at WWDC 2014 by announcing that OS X Yosemite is opened up to the public. You can join the beta program at this link provided by Apple. 

However, if you want to join the beta program, you had best do it quickly. As shown on their signup page, Apple is limiting the beta to the one million people who sign up (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - The beta program is limited to the first one million people who sign up!

You need to be running Mavericks in order to install the OS X Yosemite beta on your Mac. Apple recommends that you install the beta on a secondary machine that you don't rely on (wise advice this early on in the beta cycle).

It's an exciting time of year, and I'm looking forward to diving into all of these new technologies and sharing what I find with you!