Going Social
Integration with Facebook, much as they did with Twitter in iOS 5. , Its now easier to share photos, update statuses or other postings on Facebook. You will now be able to share photos and safari links on Facebook within the respective apps using the share button. The friends profile information has been integrated directly into the contact list and calendar, and also updated automatically.
Photo Streams allows you to create groups that are automatically notified when pictures are added, and these photos are automatically delivered to their iOS Devices. If you have an AppleTV, your pictures can even be transmitted to one that has access to your Photo Stream, so your Apple TV screen saver will always display the latest pictures, automatically.
For Developers:
The Social. Framework provides a simple interface for accessing the user’s social media accounts, This framework supplements the twitter framework that was introduced in iOS5 and adds support for Facebook and Sina’s Weibo service.
App can use this framework to post status updates and images to user’s account. .It works with account framework to provide single sign on functionality. UIKit framework also provides a new UIActivityViewController class for displaying the action that user performed like post content to social sites like Facebook or Twitter.
What are Jelly Bean and Windows8 doing?
Windows 8 doesn’t just feature Facebook and LinkedIn contacts in its People contact book, it lets you anchor people on your Start screen, see status updates and share across multiple social networks from all over the OS. When it comes to photos, Microsoft has integrated Facebook and Flickr at the core, letting you see images stored on your accounts, other peoples’ accounts, and up on your own SkyDrive cloud storage account.
Android always had a great Facebook sharing feature. Users can share and upload from pretty much anywhere in OS, or from most Android apps. Users can pull Facebook data for their contacts already stored on the devices or pull all Facebook friend into contacts. With Jelly Bean OS, Android beam apps now supports NFC-based picture and video sharing with other NFC-enabled devices as well as NFC-based connectivity with Bluetooth devices.
Guided Access — A kiosk mode
Guided Access is a new feature found in iOS 6, which allows you to enable a “kiosk mode” on your iOS devices. This can be handy for users who use the iPad or iPhones as retail assistance in stores, in restaurants, as menus, as examination paper in schools, or in an entrance exam.
You also have the ability to restrict access to certain portion of the screen, the whole screen, and/or disable the motion control with application
Passbook — a New eWallet
Passbook feature is an eCommerce solution, Its nothing but the barcode collection for boarding passes, store cards, coupon, movie tickets etc. The user just needs to scan the smart devices to check in for a flight or can have alert when coupons or vouchers are about to expire. Passbooks also sync to iCloud.
For Developers:
PassKit.framework is new framework that uses web services and a new file format to implement downloadable passes. Passes are created by company’s web service and delivered to the user’s devices via email or custom app .The file format identifies relevant information about the services being offered so that the user knows what it is for.
A better Phone app, FaceTime Safari browser, Mailand Game Center.
In iOS 6, users can reply to incoming calls with messages (present or custom) or save reminder — timed or geo fenced. It also provides “Do Not Disturb” messages which toggles with fine -grain phone call exceptions, schedules or repeat calls.
FaceTime is now available over cellular network, Apple ID unified with phone number, enabling FaceTime or iMessage answering on iPad or Mac. Safari will now provide an offline reading list, photo uploads, full screen Video in landscape mode. iCloud tabs for safari on other iOS devices and macs which sync the browser data and make it up to date.
Mail application is now available with Flagged mailbox, VIPs- designated contacts cause notification, email flagged with stars in separate inbox. User can attach photos in-line, open password-protected office docs, per account signatures. Game center allows cross-platform turn-based and realtime gaming between iOS and Mac, also provides features to find friends from Facebook. It also syncs with OS X.
For Developers:
Other Framework enhancement by Apple in iOS 6.
The EventKit framework now includes interfaces for creating and accessing reminders on the user’s device. The reminders you create show up in the reminders app along with ones created by the user. Reminders can include proximity or time-based alarms.
The StoreKit framework now support the purchasing of iTunes content inside your app and provides support for having downloadable content hosted on Apple servers.
State preservation makes it easier for apps to restore their user interface to the state it was in when the user last used it. Prior to iOS 6, apps were encouraged to write out information about their current interface state in the event that the app was terminated. Implementing state preservation still requires effort on your part to identify what parts of your interface you need to save
You use the Cocoa Auto Layout system to define layout constraints for user interface elements.Constraints represent relationships between user interface elements such as “these views line up head to tail,” or “this button should move with this split view subview.” When laying out the user interface, a constraint satisfaction system arranges the elements in a way that most closely meets the constraints.
In Addition to location data, the system now ask the user’s permission before allowing third-party apps to access certain user data which includes Contacts, Calendar,Reminders and Photo Library.
The iAd framework supports a new medium rectangle banner size for ads on iPad devices.
The ExternalAccessory.framework includes new interfaces for managing connections to Bluetooth devices. Apps can now post an alert panel that lists the Bluetooth devices available for pairing.
What are Jelly Bean and Windows8 Doing:
Microsoft’s goal is quite clear: instead of having a list of individual apps for payments, everything should be integrated into a single place that replaces your wallet and also offers live updates on your accounts and access to nearby deals. Just as the name suggests: your credit cards, loyalty cards, and others. Specific companies and programs that showed up in the demo were PayPal, Chase, Fandango, and Delta, but you could also save your library card and more to the hub. The hub also integrates with the new Nokia Maps.
With similar functionality, Google wallet is a huge question mark for Google, Sprint is the only official Google mobile wallet partner. Google announced new NFC-based features unrelated to payments, but the challenges in-front of them is number of android devices available with NFC.
iOS adds more features, but keeps the same screen size and user interface that has not been changed since iOS launched .Android’s Jelly Bean improves performance and adds Google Now, connecting different services into persistent available location assistant. Windows Phone 8 now runs on the Windows NT kernel, the same kernel Windows 8 runs on. This means that user gets support for multi-core chips and also gets faster porting of apps and easier overall development across platforms. This will strengthen Microsoft’s ecosystem. Windows phone 8 upgraded to entirely new hardware, but the usability of OS is very tightly bound to the availability of the hardware and upcoming support with Windows 8.
The big challenge in front of Google is only 7% of Android customers who are up to date and running Android 4.0 as compare to 80% of iOS user running latest iOS 5 on their smart phones and tablet. This also tells us something about how the OS’s are being marketed.
