WWDC 2014 was a love letter from Apple. Not just to customers, not just to developers, not just to partners or media or any one specific group, but to everyone who makes up the community. It was a love letter not from a "new Apple" but from an Apple as integrated, empowered, and energized as the event itself. All of this was the result of decisions and directions months and years in the making, carefully, exhaustingly brought together this past week at Moscone West in San Francisco, California. Surprising, delighting, and amazingly dense, here's what happened and what it all means.

Roughly a year and a half ago Apple was reorganized into clean, clear, collaborative groups, including Craig Federighi as head of all software engineering, Eddy Cue as head of all internet services, and Jony Ive as head of all design — what I called at the time Tim Cook's Apple. At WWDC 2013 we saw the beginnings of that collaboration with iOS 7. This week we saw its bookend with OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, and a new generation of capabilities and tools that transcend mobile, transcend desktop, and transcend cloud to create something more.

Scuttlebutt leading up to the keynote sounded insane: The biggest developer release since iOS 2 (iPhone OS 2). The biggest feature fill since iOS 4. And none of it had leaked. Given the demands of an OS X redesign, the level of competition, the rumor mills, it was almost impossible to believe. Yet it turned out to be true. Those Apple employees visible before the show were energized in anticipation. Hell, they were almost glowing.

Then the keynote started, Tim Cook took the stage, and from the moment he stepped out and smiled the attitude for the event was set — "we got this."

There was no Phil Schiller and no new hardware. No Eddy Cue and no new iTunes services. No Jony Ive video and no new design manifesto. No Angela Ahrendts and no Apple Retail. There was no need. OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, and the dev news had this.

Tim Cook has come to fully embody Apple's "we believe" mantra. Great products. Accessibility. Environmental responsibility. Listening. 1000 no's for every yes. Perfecting. He not only takes the stage but sets it. And this WWDC, he set it for Craig Federighi.

Flashback 4 years ago and Federighi, new to the keynote, wrestled with a Magic Mouse and struggled to find his rhythm. Flash forward to this week and he was, as Cook called him, Superman.

Federighi covered an incredible breadth and depth of topics — from OS X to iOS to developer tools — in an incredibly short period of time. Sections that could easily have been their own events, slides that could have been their own tentpoles, bullet points that could have been their own sets of slides, sped by at blipvert-like speeds. Yet Federighi's delivery remained funny and near-flawless. He hit both the highlights for the mainstream and the deep details for developers.

When Federighi did make a call-out or handoff, it wasn't always to the people or even types of people we've come to expect from an Apple keynote, the fellow executives and members of the marketing team. Kim Vorath got a moment. So did Darin Adler. Chris Lattner got stage time, not during the developer State of the Union but during the mainstream event. And well that he did, because the Swift programming language Lattner has been spearheading for the last 4 years was the centerpiece for the developer section.

Swift wasn't the only nerdy part of the show. Extensibility was another major feature. Apple has been working on delivering a comprehensive inter-app communication system for years but they wanted to do it in a way that didn't compromise security or usability. That iOS is as insanely popular as it is, as big a target as it is, and has effectively no malware is a miracle of modern system design. Haphazardly punching holes in that security is a non-starter, as is creating remote views that can't subsist if the system jettisons their memory-hogging parent apps. Having widgets and interactive notifications that don't leverage the same technology is also less than desirable in modern, mobile world. So, like copy and paste took until 2009, Extensibility took until 2014, and despite many of us hoping it would have been sooner, I can't imagine anyone thinking, given how its been architected, it could have been better.

Same with Continuity and its ability to detect other devices — iPhone, iPad, or Mac — on the same Apple ID, within Bluetooth LE proximity, and pass content points and actions seamlessly from one to the other. It doesn't require opening a web browser, logging into a web site, and all the traditional overhead of cloud-centric systems. It makes the internet transparent. It puts the person and what they want to do front-and-center where they belong.

The amount of technology that had to all come to together, all at the same time, to deliver OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, the new dev tools, and features like Swift, Extensibility, and Continuity is stupefying. It's literally years in the planning, coordinating, and engineering. It's a foundation that will let Apple and developers deliver even more and better apps and features for years to come.

If there was a theme for Apple and WWDC this year it was integration. If there was a feeling it was energized. If there was a message it was empowerment. If there was a differentiator it was security-first, privacy-first — people-first. Apple didn't race to get features out before they were secure or services before they were private. They didn't center their strategy on thin clients or standardized interfaces. They centered it on us and our stuff.

From Family Sharing to Handoff to TestFlight, Apple IDs are now the glue that connects us to each other and to all of our content. Whether we want to pool our purchases, translocate our activities, or share our works in progress, we're no longer bound by devices. We're bound to people.

Beyond the technology, from the increased sessions for designers to the multitude of student scholarships to Swift Playgrounds to accessibility labs to women developer meet-ups, getting more — and more diverse types — of people involved in the community was strong and recurring theme this year and a critically important one. The future is limited only by the scope of our collective vision. The greater our diversity the wider our scope and the better our future.

Not everything was perfect at WWDC 2014, of course. The Yosemite grand tour could have been shorter. The call to Dr. Dre tighter (and he could have answered faster!). The hair bit backstage could have been less slapstick. The cracks at Windows and Android could have been left on the writers' table. But minor quibbles aside, this was Apple at the top of their game. Forget foot on the gas or pedal to the metal, this was Apple hitting the turbo boost.

There's a lot left to discuss, to digest, and to explain. In a year when what would have previously been tent-pole features barely got a slide and a moment, how could there not be? We're going to be spending the next few months doing just that.

Sure, if you squint and turn your head sideways just enough, you can probably see how headless apps, Metal, scalable story boards, and all the other technologies announced at the show could one day power wearables and consoles, bigger phones and phablets, more powerful tablets and longer-lasting portables, and who knows what else. But right now they're focused on empowering us.

For now, for today, Apple, its evangelists, engineers, designers, communicators, editors, and support teams have delivered a fantastic event. An ode to integration. A moment of surprise and delight. A love letter to us all.

I thank them for that, and I thank all of you for joining in on our coverage. We're in for one incredible 2014!

• iMore show 405: WWDC 2014 highlights
• Debug 38: WWDC 2014 developer roundtable
• Vector 43: WWDC 2014 vs. Android

Debug is a casual, conversational interview show featuring the best developers in the business about the amazing apps they make and why and how they make them. On this episode Matt Drance of Bookhouse Software, Ryan Nielsen of Tumult, Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater, and Jason Snell of Macworld join Guy and Rene to talk about Apple's WWDC 2014 keynote — the Swift programming language, Extensibility, Cloud Kit, Metal, and more.

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Show notes

• Apple WWDC 2014 portal
• Macworld WWDC 2014 coverage
• iMore WWDC 2014 coverage

Panel

• Matt Drance of Bookhouse Software
• Ryan Nielsen of Tumult
• Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software
• Jason Snell of Macworld
• Guy English of Kicking Bear
• Rene Ritchie of Mobile Nations

Feedback

Question, comment, recommendation, or something you want us to follow up on for the next show?

Email us at debug@mobilenations.com or leave a comment below.

Beta testing apps has long been a pain point for iOS developers. So it's no surprise that the announcement of TestFlight as part of iOS 8 was met with much fanfare at WWDC 2014. Since Apple's acquisition of Burstly (makers of TestFlight), there has been a lot of speculation and hope that Apple could finally release a more friendly solution for handling the distribution of beta apps. TestFlight marks a significant advancement for Apple in that area, and a welcome change for developers.

TestFlight vs. ad hoc distribution

Most people only ever install apps on their devices by way of the App Store. For people in the business of making apps, another method is frequently used: Ad Hoc distribution. Each iOS device has a unique device identifier (UDID). This UDID can be added to a developer account in order to provision the device for ad hoc distribution. This allows developers to distribute their apps for testing without making it publicly available for anybody to download. Managing ad hoc distribution requires developers to create and maintain provisioning profiles that specify what devices can run a particular app. This process is easy to screw up, can frequently lead to confusing errors, and most developers are limited to only 100 devices on their account. TestFlight seeks to change this.

The first significant change is TestFlight will not require developers or testers to deal with UDIDs or provisioning profiles. Currently, in order to add a new device, the flow goes like this: 1. Developer asks tester for UDID (and has to provide instructions on how to retrieve it if the tester doesn't know how) 2. Tester uses an application to retrieve the UDID 3. Tester sends UDID to developer 4. Developer logs into Apple's Developer Portal 5. Developer adds the tester's device to the account 6. Developer adds the new device to the appropriate provisioning profile 7. Developer updates app with new profile 8. Developer distributes app to tester

The exact flow may differ depending on what tools a developer is using, but that's more or less how it works. TestFlight's flow looks like it's going to be more like this: 1. Tester tells developer their Apple ID 2. Developer logs in to iTunes Connect 3. Developer sends email invitation to tester 4. Tester accepts invitation 5. Tester installs app via TestFlight app

If TestFlight can deliver on its promises, many of the frustrations of dealing with UDIDs and provisioning profiles could be a thing of the past.

1000 Apple IDs vs. 100 device IDs

The second big change addresses a long time complain of many developers — the 100 device limit. Developers will now be able to add the Apple IDs for up to 1,000 beta testers to their app. Though this comes with a caveat. TestFlight will require apps to go through a review by Apple. We don't know what guidelines apps will have to meet in order to be approved, and once an app has been approved, minor updates to the beta that don't significantly change the app won't need to be reviewed, but this is a new hoop for developers to have to jump through.

In addition to the 1,000 beta testers, developers will also be allowed to have up to 25 internal testers. Internal testers can't just be invited via email, they'll need to have an account created for them in the developer's iTunes Connect account. The advantage for internal testers is they won't have to wait for betas to be approved; they'll have access as soon as the developer uploads a new build.

After a build has been uploaded (and possibly approved), it will be valid for 30 days. If a developer goes more than 30 days without uploading a new build, testers won't be able to run the app until the developer uploads a new one. In addition to the binary upload itself, developers will also be required to enter metadata for the app. This includes an app description, as well as information about what testers should test.

Testers will be able to manage and install betas they've been invited to using the TestFlight app. TestFlight will only be available for iOS 8 when it's released, so developers still supporting (what will be) old iOS versions or Android won't be able to rely on TestFlight for those. The TestFlight app will allow users to view app descriptions, as well as testing notes. Testing notes will give developers a way to give their testers information about what needs to be looked at. Testers will also have the ability to submit feedback to developers from the TestFlight app (via email).

Latest version only

Another item worth noting here is it looks like all testers, whether beta or internal, will only be able to install the latest version of a beta available. In Apple's demonstration during their The New iTunes Connect session, the video shows all builds except for the latest being marked as "Inactive". When a new build goes up, the previously available build goes from having a checkmark to showing "Inactive" as well. Of course maybe developers will have the ability to control if testers get access to old builds, we can't say for sure until Apple documents it or we get access to the new iTunes Connect this fall, but this could be a deal breaker for many.

Crash reporting... later next year

One final big feature for TestFlight worth covering is crash reporting. When an app crashes on your device, a crash log is generated. iTunesConnect has long offered the ability to view those crash logs, but with limited success. One of the big missing pieces of functionality has always been lack of symbolication. Basically this means instead of a crash report telling a developer the name of the piece of code it crashed in, it would show the infinitely less useful hex address of that piece of code. Instead of something like "[OMGASIHTTPRequest reportFinished]", they'd see something like "0x9b000 + 23698". 3rd party services like HockeyApp have offered crash log symbolication for some time, and now iTunes Connect will finally have it. Unfortunately this feature will be coming "later next year", so developers interested in useful crash reporting in the mean time will need to stick with something else.

TestFlight in iOS 8: The bottom line

Ultimately TestFlight in iOS 8 means more options for developers and testers when it comes to beta testing. Developers will have the ability to distribute apps to more users outside of the App Store than they were able to before, and testers will get a sanctioned, native app for install 3rd party apps outside of the App Store for testing. And hopefully this expanded testing results in fewer bugs shipping to the App Store, and more polished apps getting into the hands of end users.

If you're a developer let me know — what do you think of the all new, all-Apple, currently all-iOS test Flight?

• Read more about TestFlight and what developers need to know

More of iOS 8: Explained

• Handoff in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Making and receiving phone calls on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Sending and receiving SMS/MMS on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• AirDrop and Instant Hotspot in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• QuickType keyboard in iOS 8: Explained
• Interactive notifications in iOS 8: Explained
• SceneKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Metal in iOS 8: Explained
• Widgets in iOS 8: Explained
• Share extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Action extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Inter-app photo and video editing in iOS 8: Explained
• Custom keyboards in iOS 8: Explained
• Family Sharing on iOS 8: Explained
• iCloud Drive and Document Picker for iOS 8: Explained
• Document provider extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• TestFlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Apple Maps in iOS 8: Explained
• iMessage in iOS 8: Explained
• Photos in iOS 8: Explained
• Spotlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Health in iOS 8: Explained
• Touch ID in iOS 8: Explained
• HomeKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Adaptive UI in iOS 8: Explained
• Manual camera controls in iOS 8: Explained

After WWDC 2014's keynote I went to sleep feeling quite optimistic about AAPL's future. The stock market didn't seem to share my enthusiasm, but as an investor I could hardly care about the short term opinions of Wall Street. I think that to successfully invest in a stock like Apple you need to adopt the same long term thinking that the management team does. You can't get stuck worrying about this quarter's results or the next particular hardware release.

So this morning I woke up and read a comment from a smart investor friend of mine. He was frustrated at Apple referring to new icons and transparent sidebars as "magical", which is fine. I get that. It's Apple's somewhat hyperbolic style and it turns some people off. But more to the point, he didn't see how anything Apple announced would increment their market position.

That's the point of view that, if shared by Wall Street, has me excited about being a shareholder. Why? Because I believe the comment is wrong and that shareholder value will be enhanced in the years to come as the iOS 8 and OSX Yosemite features unlock more profit potential.

Airdrop between iOS and OSX seems like a no brainer, but it's the kind of feature that will further enhance the stickiness of the platform. The same argument applies to much of the iCloud integration that Apple announced yesterday. Heck, even if you are not a Mac user the iCloud stuff will likely keep you hooked on Apple. But if you are a Mac user you're (hopefully happy to be) stuck with them. You'll be hopelessly addicted to getting SMS on your Mac and using many of the other continuity features such as taking over an email draft on your Mac when you walk into your office, or using the Mac as a speakerphone.

I've been testing out Android for several months, and I'm also a Chromebook user. I have to say that there isn't anything compelling me to stick with Android at this point. All of the Google features I love are available on iOS and none of the awesome OSX integration is available on Android.

Feature-wise, I think Apple did a great job of showing the world why they should continue to be willing to pay a premium for their brand. As Rene said yesterday, "iOS was secure and Android was flexible. Now iOS is secure and flexible." Apple very much appears to be willing to open the doors to new flexibility features like widgets, actionable notification and third party keyboards. Apple just killed a whole bunch of reasons that some Android lovers might not want to use their products.

But beyond features, Apple also launched a whole new programming language (Swift) that can seamlessly work alongside old code (Objective C) and they implemented a new graphics rendering technology called Metal. These two initiatives promise to make it easier and faster to program for iOS while also letting console-class games run on the Apple's mobile platform.

Last week at the Code Conference (put on by re/code) Mary Meeker unleashed her "Internet Trends" report for 2014 and one key point she made was about how mobile platforms are heavily monetized by apps. Apple just dropped a ton of new stuff on developers to that will probably have many of them continuing to code for iOS first. Ultimately, this is good for shareholders.

Beyond apps, I also have to wonder when or if Apple will start to monetize mobile search. They're already disintermediating Google with Siri, and the new Spotlight search suggestions tell me that Apple is pushing deeper into offering up alternatives the old fashioned Google search. Could Apple sell ads directly here? Or monetize search in some other way? Of course they can. Will they? And what form will it take? I don't know. I'm curious.

As a shareholder I was very pleased by Apple's keynote announcements. As a customer I'm anxious to get my hands on iOS 8 and OSX Yosemite. I feel like my time as an Android user has gone on long enough.

Apple on Monday afternoon announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards (ADAs), applications for iOS and OS X that "raise the bar in design, technology and innovation." The awards were given out at WWDC 2014. This year's group of ADA winners includes popular games Threes and Monument Valley, the astronomy app Night Sky, journal app Day One and others. In total, twelve apps were inducted into the ADAs, including two student winners.

Apple developers themselves can nominate apps they think are worthy, but Apple makes the decision on what makes the cut. All the entrants need to be available for download from the App Store or Mac App Store to be considered. Without further ado, this year's winners:

iOS

Blek

Blek is a puzzle game with a minimalist design. You have to hit colored dots while avoiding black dots by drawing a pattern on the screen that repeats, clearing any dots it hits.

• $2.99 - Download now

Device 6

More a work of interactive fiction than a game, Device 6 combines narrative, illustration, puzzles, and more into a compelling world with a unique design sensibility and aesthetic.

• $3.99 - Download now

Leo's Fortune

A platform adventure game in which you hunt down the thief who stole your gold. Features meticulously detailed scenes and a truly beautiful design style. Supports iCloud game saves and also works with MFi game controllers.

• $4.99 - Download now

Monument Valley

Guide a silent princess through impossible architecture that cleverly twists and folds as you move it. Inspired by MC Escher's images of impossible geometry and optical illusions.

• $3.99 - Download now

Sky Guide

The star and constellation guide features a view of the night sky that changes as you hold up and pivot your iOS device around. Provides detailed information on constellations and stellar objects, including their position in the sky, information on satellites you can track and much more.

• $1.99 - Download now

Storehouse: Visual Storytelling

Storehouse lets you combine text, photos and videos into stories that you can share with friends and followers via e-mail and social networks.

• Free - Download now

Threes!

The popular puzzle game from the makers of Puzzlejuice requires you to slide together matching numbered tiles in multiples of three. See how high you can stack them before the game field becomes filled with tiles and you can't move them anymore. Maddeningly addictive and ridiculously simple, yet compellingly challenging.

• $1.99 - Download now

Yahoo! News Digest

Yahoo News Summary digests are delivered twice a day, with top stories of the day summarized and presented with key info and links to supporting sources. A gamified interface helps you keep track of what you've read and what you're yet to read.

• Free - Download now

OS X

Cinemagraph Pro

Cinemagraph Pro creates flixels - moving photo images created from short videos, masked, edited with fine adjustments and turned into loops, then outputted in HD and 4K.

• $24.95 - Download now

Day One

A distraction-free journaling app that enables you to combine text and photos, automatically populating with contextual data like temperature, location, time, date, activity data and more.

• $9.99 - Download now

Student Awards

Addimal Adventure

Teaches kids single-digit addition by helping the Addimals win back golden blocks from Professor Possum and his evil robot.

• Free - Download now

PanoPerfect

Find, follow and create panoramic photos that you can share with friends; comment and like the ones you find that are outstanding.

• Free - Download now

Apple's WWDC 2014 keynote has ended, taking the lid off of iOS 8. These are the big announcements from the two-hour event, collected here for your convenience.

The eighth major release of Apple's mobile operations system comes with a host of new features for both customers and developers.

AirDrop now works between iOS devices and Macs, letting you send items back and forth between the two platforms. Handoff lets you pick up on one device where you left off on another, like beginning an email on iOS and finishing it on OS X.

As part of Handoff, your phone calls and non-iMessage text messages can come through your Mac running OS X Yosemite.

Notifications now give you the ability to quick reply and take action, from the lockscree, from notifications themselves, and inside Notification Center. Notificaation Center also adds support for widgets from third-party apps.

Spotlight search is getting a major upgrade in iOS 8. Much like Siri Spotlight will now recommend restaurants, movie theaters, Wikipedia results, and web searches. You can also find items on the iTunes Music and App Stores.

iOS 8 is bringing a number of enhancements to the keyboard, most notably predictive word suggestions based on the context of your conversation. The new QuickType row will appear above the keyboard with its suggested words, letting you tap to place the word in your message. QuickType will support fourteen regions at launch.

Messages will receive several enhancements. Swipe can now generate specific actions, individual message threads can be set to Do Not Distrub, and photos can be viewed at a glance on a special page. There's now also support for voice messages.

There are a number of new enterprise features coming to iOS this fall. These include per-message S/MIME support, VIP email threads with their own notifications, and the ability to mark themselves as "Free" or "Busy".

Family Share lets up to six users easily share calendars, reminders, media, and apps. Find My iPhone can be used with anyone in this group, great for family members that have a habit of losing their devices.

iCloud is getting simplified, bigger, and more affordable storage levels. The first 5GB of storage will remain free, just as it is now. However, Apple is making the 20GB tier available for $0.99 per month, or about $12 per year, down from the previous price of $40. There is also a 200GB for $3.99 per month, and Apple also says that tier will be available up to 1TB of storage.

Siri got it's rumored Shazam functionality, along with some useful other features. You can also now activate Siri hands-free when your device is plugged in.

HealthKit will provide a single place for all of your connected health and fitness devices like a activity tracker or heart monitor. Items using HealthKit will share their data from devices to apps, all at the discretion of the user. Apple is working with Nike and the Mayo Clinic on some HealthKit applications.

Photo tools in iOS 8 are getting major improvements. Your photos will be instantly synced across you iOS devices via iCloud. This syncing includes editing, and you can use new smart controls to edit light, color, and the straightness of a photo. Brightness, contrast, exposure, and shadows will all change together intelligently.

Apple is making some upgrades to the App Store, including improved search, and app bundles, and more. Trending searches will show users apps that are very popular, a new Explore tab will give you a starting point for app discovery, and developers can now bundle multiple apps together to offer them at a discount with one tap.

Apple announced that third-party developers will be able to extend their apps functionality to other apps. Extensibilty runs completely through iOS, keeping apps sandboxed. Extensions will also be available in Apple's own apps, like Safari.

iOS 8 will allow developers to create, and users to install, third-party keyboards system-wide. When installed, these keyboards will be sandboxed, and things like network access will only be unlocked when the user has given their explicit permission.

Apple will be rolling out the TestFlight beta testing service to developers soon. Apple acquired TestFlight back in February, and has apparently wasted no time in integrating the service into iOS.

Developers will now be able to integrate Touch ID into their apps for authentication.

Apple is stepping into home automation, introducing HomeKit to connect to equiptment from a number of manufacturers. HomeKit creates a unified interface to control different smart appliances.

Developers will be able to access an iOS device's camera at a deeper level with iOS 8. Apps can now handle manual control of exposure, white balance, and more.

Metal will give developers "near bare-to-the-metal" access to Apple's A7 processor. Metal boasts 10x faster cell draw rates, GPU computation, and efficient multithreading.

Swift is an effort by Apple to create a language with the power of Objective-C without all of the complexities of the language itself. Swift still supports old Objective-C code, and developers can still create apps in Objective-C right alongside Swift.

Developers can go to the iOS Develpers Center now and download the beta of iOS 8. The full consumer release will be available later this year. The iOS 8 beta supports iPhones as old as the iPhone 4s, iPads going back to the iPad 2, and the 5th generation iPod touch.

What do you think of the new features in iOS 8? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to stay tuned for all the latest news on iOS 8.

The embers still are warm from the WWDC 2014 keynote, but that hasn't stopped Apple from posting the entire keynote for your rewatching pleasure. It streamed live, yes, but now the complete two-hour event is available for streaming again. Unlike the live stream, however, this one doesn't require you be using Safari to make it work. So who is up for some iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

Check it out at the source link below.

Source: Apple

Another tidbit out of WWDC is SceneKit, an extension of the SpriteKit developer framework introduced for casual game developers last year. SceneKit promises to offer similar automated physics to casual games, only for 3D settings. It has its own physics engine, particle system, and supports scripted actions. As before, there are per-pixel physics employed, inverse kinematics, and a new framework called CloudKit to help developers work with server data in an easier way.

CloudKit is free up to 1 PB of of assets, 10 TB database, 5 TB/day for transferring assets, and 50 GB/day for database transfer and scales data allocated based on how many users are on the app. CloudKit can handle iCloud Authentication, asset storage, database storage, search, and notifications for developers. Of course, CloudKit will be able to be used for other apps outside of games, but it's easy to see these tools being used there first.

Be sure to catch up on all of the news out of WWDC 2014 over here!

Those WWDC 2014 banners keep going up and the latest looks a lot like El Capitan in Yosemite. Does that mean we'll be seeing OS X 10.10 Yosemite come Monday? With Apple nothing is certain until it's certain, but it's certainly a California landmark and a fitting choice of name for the next generation in Mac operating systems.

Last year was the first of the new naming convention, which replaced the big cats and OS X Mountain Lion with California locations and OS X Mavericks. OS X 10.10, currently codenamed Syrah, is supposed to be getting a lot of attention this year, including a redesign and perhaps some major work on developer-facing APIs. Yosemite is certainly a big name for a big change.

We'll find out for sure Monday starting at 10am PDT and iMore will be at the keynote live. In the meantime, let me know what you think!

Source: The Verge

The WWDC 2014 opening keynote is only a few short days away and that means, if Apple sticks to pattern, we should see the first preview of iOS 8. Since the big redesign was already done last year, that should mean polish and rounding out the feature set is what we get this year. Granted, getting OS X 10.10's big update out the door might mean some iOS 8 features become iOS 8.1 or even iOS 9 features. That can always happen. However, outside the walls of Cupertino we here have the luxury of just wishing for stuff. Just wanting it. And that's what this is — a list of some of the things, big, small, and in-between we'd love to see in iOS 8.

Free iCloud backup storage for each and every iOS device

The whole point of iCloud backups is to be easy enough for anyone and everyone to use them. They're supposed to just work. However, Apple only provides 5GB of storage space for free. Granted, Apple doesn't count some things, like apps, iTunes media, and Photo Stream against that storage allotment, but 5GB is still far below most peoples' needs, and far less than what Apple's competitors have recently been offering. What's worse, even if you're willing to pay extra the highest you can go is $100 for 50GB. That's despite Apple selling devices that hold 16, 32, 64, and even 128GB of data. You literally cannot even pay to get enough storage to back up a single device much less multiple devices.

Apple should provide enough free storage to backup every device you buy. If you get a 32GB iPhone 5S, it would come with 32GB of free iCloud storage for backup. If you get a 64GB iPad Air, it would come with another 64GB of storage for backups. Most people wouldn't use the full amount, but they could absolutely use the better experience and peace of mind that would come with it.

• Read all about how Apple could make iCloud backup better in iOS 8

Pervasive inter-app communications

People want to move their photos from Camera+ to Snapseed to VSCO Cam without having to save them to and open them back up from the Camera Roll each and every step of the way. People want to have 1Password or LastPass insert their saved password into Settings, Safari, or Gmail without having to go to one app, search for the right bit of data, copy it, go back to the other app, and paste. People want to have links open in Chrome rather than Safari and locations open in Google Maps rather than Apple Maps. People just want their lives and workflows made easier. Could Apple make this a reality with iOS 8?

• Read all about why inter-app communications would be great in iOS 8

Interactive notifications and push interface

Interactive (what some call actionable) notifications take interface from being pull — I have to go find what I want to do — to push —the system brings what I want to do right to me. Home screens, widgets, apps are all pull interface. I have to go to switch out of what I'm doing in order to go do something else. Interactive notifications are push interface. No matter what I'm doing, they come right to me. Depending on implementation and settings, that can be convenient or annoying, but it's inarguably powerful. Get a text, reply right in the banner. Have an alarm go off, reset it right in the popup. Never leave where you are or what you're doing but always be able to respond or act when and as needed. That's the dream, right?

• Read all about how interactive notifications could work in iOS 8

A smarter, contextually aware Spotlight search

Imagine if, in iOS 8 or some future version of Apple's mobile operating system, Spotlight became a secondary, text-based point of access to Siri, able to parse the same type of natural language queries and commands, and retrieve the same kinds of responses, and perform the same kinds of actions? With Spotlight hooked up to Siri's action engine, "Text Georgia I'm running late" is just one example of the type of text-based quick-action that could be possible. "Tweet Guy Wow, arrow was bananas!" could instantly send your status. "Meeting with Ally at 6pm tomorrow" could add an event to your calendar.

• Read all about the potential for a smarter, contextually aware Spotlight search in iOS 8

Files.app + DocumentPicker, because file handling on iPhone and iPad has hit a brick wall

If I create a plain text file in App One there's no way to access it outside of App One. If I later switch to App Two, I have no way of getting to that file. I have to go back to the old App One, hope to hell there's an Open In... function, or copy and paste the text from the old file in the old app over to a new one in the new app. For a couple files that's annoying. For dozens or hundreds, it's crippling.

Worse, if one day I'm using App Five for my text file editing and suddenly realize I need a document from a few months or years ago, I have to try and remember which app I created it in — App One? Two? Three? Four? — re-download it, and hope my file is still there. And then deal with moving it over.

In a world with Files.app and DocumentPicker I could create that plain text file in any app. I could then go to Files.app and see it in the Text Files section, tap on it, and open it in app other app that supports plain text files. I could also go to any text editing app, tap open, have DocumentPicker slide up, see any text files supported by the app, choose the one I want, and start editing.

• Read all about how Files.app + DocumentPicker could work in iOS 8
• Read all about how better file attachment could be handled in iOS 8

Customizable Control Center

Apple introduced Control Center in iOS 7 as a way to quickly get to the settings, controls, and basic functions most iPhone and iPad users need most of the time. That includes Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and Orientation Lock, Brightness, media scrubber, player controls, and volume, AirDrop and AirPlay, and FlashLight, Timer, Calculator, and Camera. Yet not all of those options, especially the app ones, will be useful for all people, all of the time. So, with iOS 8, it would be great if Apple made them at least partially customizable.

• Read all about how Control Center could be customizable in iOS 8

Unified AirDrop

AirDrop, as it is currently implemented on iPhone and iPad in iOS 7 isn't compatible with the service of the same name as it's currently implemented on the Mac in OS X Mavericks. In other words, you can't AirDrop between iOS devices and Macs, and that's both frustrating and confusing. Apple certainly knows and appreciates that. So, with the upcoming iOS 8 and OS X 10.10, it would be great if Apple could unify their AirDrop services, to keep the power of the old Mac version, keep the simplicity and security of the iPhone and iPad version, but make them work together in harmony.

• Read all about the potential for a unified AirDrop in iOS 8

Privacy Sheets to make permissions manageable

Right now if you download and launch a new app the amount of privacy popups that can fire off at you, one after the other, verges on the ridiculous. "[App] would like to use your current location", tap, "[App] would like to access your Twitter account", tap, "[App] would like to send you push notifications", tap, "[App] would like to access your contacts." "[App] would like to access your calendars." "[App] would like to access your reminders." After a while even savvy people get popup fatigue and just start tapping their way through to end the percussive modal pain.

Instead, whenever a newly installed (or re-installed) app is launched for the first time, a Privacy Sheet could automatically come up before anything else is allowed to happen, and provide one, unified place that describes the permissions being requested along with options to grant or deny them on a per-request basis.

• Read all about how privacy sheets could work on iOS 8

Battery shaming

Battery life is one of the most important elements of a modern mobile device. That's why iMore's battery life tips are some of our most popular articles, and why our comments, social feeds, and forums are filled with battery life questions, boasts, and complaints. Apple prioritizes battery life above almost everything else, even making the iPad 3 and Retina iPad mini ever-so-slightly thicker and heavier just to maintain 10 hours of battery life. Yet some apps, especially those that use VoIP like Skype, that use GPS like Google Maps, or those that have rogue processes or other glitches can still chew through power at an alarming rate. That's where battery shaming comes in. Battery shaming was introduced on the Mac with OS X Mavericks and I'd love to see something like it on the iPhone and iPad in iOS 8.

• Read all about how battery shaming could be implemented in iOS 8

iTunes for iCloud: All our media accessible on the web

iWork for iCloud is a a way to share, view, edit, and collaborate on Pages, Keynote, and Numbers documents on the web. It looks great, it works great, and most importantly, it allows Apple — without having to build or maintain separate native apps for each and every alternate platform on the market — to open up their productivity suite beyond iOS and OS X, to make it available to anyone and everyone who has a compatible browser. So, why not do the same thing with iTunes, and with their media suite of music, TV shows, movies, and books?

The idea of logging in from any compatible browser,, seeing all my music, movies, TV shows, and books, and being able to play them, from the beginning or from where ever I last left off, immediately, with a tap or a click, is compelling. As would being able to buy or rent more, right there.

• Read all about the potential for iTunes for iCloud in iOS 8

Comic book reading mode for iBooks

Okay, technically this is an iBooks wish rather than an iOS 8 wish but what better time to ask for something as amazing demonstrable as a comic book reading mode than when Apple's about to kick off their first Keynote of the year? And given the recent sale of comiXology to Amazon and the subsequent removal of IAP from the Comics app, when better for Apple to give their own comic book reading experience some attention?

• Read all about why a comic reading mode would be great in iBooks for iOS 8

iTunes Extras for Apple TV

Back on September 9, 2009, Apple introduced iTunes Extras, an HTML5-based way for studios to include digital versions of director's commentary tracks, behind the scenes videos, and the other kinds of bonus material commonly found on DVD and Blu-Ray. The original OS X 10.4 Tiger-based Apple TV was updated to support iTunes Extras, and it's musical cousin, iTunes LP. Then, on September 1, 2010, Apple announced an all-new, all-streaming, all-iOS second generation Apple TV, and... iTunes Extras didn't survive the transition. Not only that, they didn't get added back with subsequent software updates. On March 7, 2012, Apple announced the third generation, 1080p Apple TV, and still no iTunes Extras. Now, some 4 years later, iTunes Extras on Apple TV are still MIA.

• Read all about why Apple should finally release iTunes Extras for Apple TV with iOS 8

Print to PDF

When Apple introduced AirPrint to iOS, they made it incredibly easy to send files right from your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to any compatible Wi-Fi printer in the vicinity. Unfortunately, what Apple didn't do was bring Print to PDF (Export as PDF) along for the ride. See something, make something, want it wrapped up nicely and neatly? Tap Share, tap Print, tap PDF, store it up on iCloud or Share it by any of the usual methods. That'd be a great bullet point for iOS 8.

• Read all about the potential of print to PDF for iOS 8

What's your biggest iOS 8 wish?

iOS 8 will no doubt have 8-12 "tent-pole" features that get a lot of time and attention lavished on them at the WWDC 2014 keynote. But there will also be that slide with features set in type small and large. The one that says 100 or 200 new features right in the middle.

What do you most want those new features to be, big, small, and tent-pole?