Apple and Microsoft have got some serious updates in the pipeline for 2014. Here we look at the best bits of Windows Phone 8.1 and iOS 8
Both Apple and Microsoft have big mobile operating system releases coming up in the next several months. Apple’s iOS 8 beta was unveiled at this week’s WWDC while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 has been in beta for several months. Both operating systems have a host of new features. We look at the best aspects of each to see how the two compare on the innovation front.
A comparison is especially apt this year as both mobile OS updates aren’t total revamps of the respective operating systems (like iOS 6 to iOS 7 was). Windows Phone 8.1 is a nice evolution of Windows Phone 8 and iOS 8 is a further evolution of iOS 7. And though neither OS builds itself up from scratch, it’s these refinements that make them the best they can be.
Best Windows Phone 8.1 Features
Without a doubt the biggest new feature of Windows Phone 8.1 is Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant intended to take on Google Now and Apple’s Siri. Cortana is named after the AI construct from the Halo video game series.
Cortana can currently do most of the things any virtual assistant should be capable of, including placing phone calls, sending text messages, adding calendar appointments, setting reminders and alarms, creating notes, and performing searches.
One clever thing Microsoft built into Cortana is its “Notebook” feature. This is the personal digital assistant’s notebook that contains notes about you; what you like to do; your family; your favorite places to eat – yadda, yadda, yadda. Cortana then uses this information to give you more accurate results. But though it’s Cortana’s notebook, you’re the one who can curate it. So if you don’t want Cortana knowing something about you, you can simply delete that information from her Notebook.
Cortana’s Notebook feature is something I wish Apple would “borrow” for Siri.
After Cortana, the biggest new feature of Windows Phone 8.1 is probably Action Center. This is comparable to iOS’s Control Center combined with its Notification Center. The awkwardly named Action Center allows you quick access to some of your most frequently used settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Rotation lock, and Airplane mode. You access Action Center by swiping down from the top of any screen.
In addition to quick access to settings, the Action Center also shows you your notifications, such as emails received, texts, and other push notifications. I like that Microsoft decided to combine the features of iOS’s Notification Center and Control Center into one, but Microsoft still needs to work on its design as Action Center looks quite plain right now.
Another great feature of Windows Phone 8.1 is its Word Flow keyboard. Word Flow is the equivalent of the popular Swype keyboard on Android. It allows users to leave their fingers on the screen and just drag the tip of their digit from one letter to the next. Windows Phone’s Word Flow keyboard can guess the word you are typing by the short pause and change in direction as you drag your finger from one letter on the keyboard to the next. Until this week I would have said Word Flow is much better than the keyboard on iOS, but since Apple has now enabled third-party keyboard support (more on that in a bit) users on iOS can now use virtually any type of keyboard they want.
Besides the above features, Windows Phone 8.1 sports several other refinements like skin-able Live Tiles, so you can set a picture was the wallpaper that falls across all the Live Tiles on your home screen, and improved multitasking so you simply drag an app down on the multitasking screen to close it.
It’s also got some new apps like Battery Saver and Storage Sense that make it easier than ever to manage files on your phone and get the best battery life possible.
Best iOS 8 Features
The star of this year’s WWDC was no doubt OS X and Apple’s developer tools (namely its new programming language, Swift). But iOS 8 still saw several massive feature improvements that are sure to delight fans everywhere, as well as make some Android users jump ship since a lot of the features were clearly “borrowed” from Android.
Perhaps the best new feature is Extensibility. This one was ripped right from the pages of Android. Extensibility allows third-party apps to talk to one another and share data instead of being sandboxed off from one another as in previous iOS releases.
For example, a pedometer app could share your calories burned with a food tracking app you also use, or as demoed on stage at WWDC, a third-party photo app could make its filters available to the Photos app in iOS (or other photos apps) so users can use that app’s filters anywhere.
Extensibility derives its name from “extensions” which we are all familiar with in our desktop web browsers. In that regard Extensibility will also allow for third-party apps to install extensions in iOS’s Safari so you could, for example, see a Bing Translate button in Safari’s share sheet which will allow you to instantly translate a web page.
Another major new feature is the Health app and HealthKit API. “HealthKit” and is a developer API that allows health app developers to pipe a user’s health data through to a single app called “Health” in iOS that shows a user all his or her health stats, meaning users can now launch one app and see all their health data in one place, while still using third-party apps to collect that data.
You know how I mentioned the new Word Flow keyboard in Windows Phone 8.1? We’ll Apple has one-upped Microsoft by adding support for custom keyboards throughout iOS. Now apps can have their own custom keyboards and if a user likes that keyboard enough he can chose to propagate it out to the entire system, making it the default keyboard in iOS.
Custom keyboards have been a mainstay on Android for eons, so this is a feature that will have broad appeal. Swype and other keyboard makers are already porting their wares for iOS 8. And Apple’s default keyboard in iOS 8 now supports predictive text that suggests the next words based on the context of your sentence.
Besides these big features, iOS 8 features hundreds of little ones. For example Touch ID has now been opened up to third-party developers so their apps can now use your fingerprint to unlock or secure them. Apple has also fixed the whole iCloud mess by creating iCloud Drive, which is basically a Dropbox clone. Another thing Apple took from Android is third party widgets, which can now be installed by apps and displayed in the Notification Center.
So Which OS is Best?
Before iOS 8 I would have said Apple was losing out in the innovation department to Windows Phone, but after iOS 8 it is clear that Apple still has something of a jump on Windows Phone – for now.
Apple took several huge leaps forward by releasing truly innovative features like HealthKit, third-party Touch ID support, and more. It also made the platform more open and Android-like by borrowing its best features like open communication between apps, custom keyboards, and iCloud Drive.
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