What Do We Know About iOS 8?

25 Mar What Do We Know About iOS 8?

We generally don’t like to delve into the world of gossip, but the rumour mill surrounding the upcoming release of iOS 8 is too exciting to ignore.

Unfortunately, not one of the speculations travelling across the internet can be officially confirmed, we don’t even know if the new operating system will be called iOS 8. But that hasn’t stopped the excitement over the ‘leaked’ features and details of the new operating system.

The screenshots we’ve seen from the leaked demo version show that iOS 8 has no real aesthetic change from iOS 7.  Rather most of the changes and improvements are in regards to the system’s native apps.

Most of the gossip seems to be about the possibility of a new health and fitness app called Healthbook.

Healthbook is supposedly modelled on iOS 7’s Passbook.  But unlike Passbook which helps you keep track of boarding passes, cinema tickets, retail coupons and loyalty cards, Healthbook is designed to help monitor and provide insights into your health and fitness.

9to5mac has published several recreated screenshots that detail the functionality of Healthbook. At the present, it appears that Healthbook will have the capability to monitor heart rate, hydration, nutrition, blood sugar, oxygen saturation, sleep and even blood analysis and tests.

With health and fitness as issues on the forefront of the public conscience, Apple seems to be tapping into this market by creating an all-in-one app designed to make looking after your health easier than ever.

Things like weight and nutrition will have to be manually input and tracked but an article on 9to5mac suggests that the Healthbook application will be able to automatically track and tell you your blood sugar levels and oxygen saturation.

This automatic tracking suggests that Apple’s long rumoured iWatch could compliment the Healthbook app by offering a way to measure these indicators of health.

There are also rumours that Siri will become more intelligent.  Siri is expected to be integrated seamlessly with a number of different iPhone applications.  An article on the International Business Times has compared the Siri improvements to Google Now.

It has also been suggested that iOS 8 will have an improved maps app.  The original Apple Maps application never managed to rival the ubiquity or popularity of its main competitor, Google Maps.  We can only speculate that the improvements to the Apple Maps app will be Apple’s second attempt at pulling fans from team Google.

Other rumoured features and improvements include an auto-delete option for text message conversations over a month old, iTunes Radio as a standalone application, removal of the Game Center app, a simplified Notification Center and improvements to performance and speed.

iOS 8 is expected to be available in tandem with the new iPhone which will almost certainly be released in October or November of 2014.