A team headed by Daniel Payne, Compsoft’s Head of Service Delivery, recently travelled to San Francisco for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).
Compsoft prides itself on being at the cutting edge of mobile app development. An important part of this is keeping abreast of the latest advancements in mobile technology from companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Exciting announcements at this year’s conference included:
- iOS8/OSX Yosemite – Apple’s forthcoming operating system release for mobile and desktop will introduce a more joined up experience between devices, allowing users to start a task on their Mac and finish it on their iPhone or iPad. Other iOS8 highlights include new messaging features, enhanced notifications, an updated keyboard and family sharing.
- Swift – while we love Objective C, it’s getting old and can be cumbersome. Apple have addressed this with Swift; at first glance it's a simple scripting language but, after attending the advanced sessions, our minds were blown with its power and potential. Our developers are already getting their hands dirty understanding how Swift can help us develop powerful apps more efficiently.
- Enhancements made to the Device Enrolment Program mean that enterprises can supply employees with boxed and wrapped devices, with the Mobile Device Management (MDM) controls applied when users register their device. No more manually provisioning devices before handing them to staff!
- CloudKit – Apple have introduced CloudKit so developers can write apps with data storage in iCloud. This is a huge benefit to those customers who need data stored and shared via a server but do not have the budget to get a back-end system developed and hosted.
- HealthKit – Apple have provided a central repository for all of a user’s health data. Combined with the new core motion framework which can record the user’s activity (walking, cycling, driving etc.) and the in-built pedometer in the iPhone 5s, a range of apps can now contribute to a single dashboard of health information.
- SceneKit and SpriteKit - these two kits provide some powerful tools for the game developer, or indeed any developer wanting to use cool 3D effects. We can’t wait for our first opportunity to use these tools in a customer app!
- HomeKit – HomeKit allows developers to write apps which control features in the modern home, such as lighting, alarms, heating and electronic doors. While we probably won’t see this get much traction for a year or so, the potential is exciting. Watch this space…
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Compsoft is a remote working company except for Thursdays when we work together from the Alton Maltings in Alton, Hampshire (UK). Our registered address is detailed below. We'd be delighted to have either a virtual chat with you or to make arrangements to meet in person.