Gadgetory

iOS 8 is lurking just below the horizon like a big soft West Sun as we wait to bask in its warming glow adventures in tech looks back at iOS is most interesting moments the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone but iOS did define what a mobile operating system should be a wonderful slice of internet on the move that wouldn't work without a jaw-dropping browser app revealed in 2007 with the very first iPhone Safari embodies everything that first blew our mind about iOS which at the time was called iPhone OS the touch interface meant our view wasn't blocked by physical buttons and Apple's pinch-to-zoom made navigating websites bearable for the first time early iOS was some of Apple's finest work the problem was it was only apples work a year later though we got an invites to the coolest kind of party a third party putting apps on a phone was not a new idea that the App Store which arrived in 2008 with iPhone OS 2 changed it from something we could do to something we loved doing suddenly we could Kindle books in fact just about anything our celebrated part of iOS but what makes Apple software easy to use is attention to much smaller details for instance copy and paste is the best of iOS in a nutshell not a new idea but a smart approach to an existing problem it didn't arrive until iPhone OS 3 also proving that Apple's not afraid to keep us waiting years for features that might feel like basic essentials over the years Apple used this patient approach to build iOS into a lean and very usable platform but in the autumn of 2012 something to Rye Apple had always used Google's data for its Maps software but decided to build its own app for iOS 6 enlisting the help of GPS company TomTom and promising beautiful vector maps and glitzy 3d flyovers to release however proved to be the lowest point in iOS history as it transpired that Apple Maps was jam-packed with cartographical calamities when the mines predicted the world would end in 2012 I wonder if they'd been looking at Apple maps the wake of the maps crisis saw an official apology from CEO Tim Cook and design guru Johnny I've put in charge of revamping iOS with its reputation as a software maker damaged Apple was ready for a change iOS 7 stamped out apples long favored pseudo-3d icons pouring neon paint over a new leaf flattened interface and having a frosted glass control center for quick access to settings it was a visual reboot but didn't alter the fundamentals and if you look back over the history of this platform that's not too surprising as its core iOS remains the same software we first glimpsed back in 2007 we can dream of seeing apples take on androids beloved widgets or a phone centric file system but the reality is that Apple has done very little to change the basic look and feel of iOS maybe Apple's afraid of radical change or perhaps it just has a good sense of what works whatever the reason you can bet that iOS 8 won't stray too far from what's gone before which are your favorite iOS moments and what do you want to see in iOS 8 let me know and check back next time for another adventure in tech