Apple Introduces CloudKit, An ‘Effectively Free’ Toolkit For Making Cloud Apps (Kyle Russell/TechCrunch)

When Mary Meeker, perhaps technology's leading prophet, looks to the future she sees the mobile internet growing ever faster and that means changes for businesses, programmers, and users. Read More »

If you ever thought that the future creeps up on you slowly â€" and then all at once â€" behold Touch ID for all apps. Announced today as a side feature of iOS 8, the Touch ID recognition you’ve come to know and love in the 5s will now extend beyond helping you more quickly unlock your iPhone and download apps from iTunes to helping you more quickly log into apps like Mint (the demo). The Touch ID API will be available in beta today, so that developers who want to use the iPhone’s fingerprint sensor in order to authenticate users â€" or add an extra layer of security like in the Mint example â€" can start building on it. The science fiction thinking on this is that you’ll eventually use Touch ID to open your door (with Apple’s Homekit ) or buy stuff on Amazon. Apple’s senior vice president of software Craig Federighi insisted that with the Touch ID API, the fingerprint data would remain stored on your iPhone, not relayed to third-party developers. For all Apple’s posturing, this is actually one of its minute design details that does have the potential to change everything. Last night a friend of mine lost her phone, and when she went to the “Lost and Found” to pick it up, the person at the counter started asking her a series of questions to prove the phone was hers. In response, she said, “Touch ID” and proceeded to unlock the phone with the tip of her finger. Read More »

SAN FRANCISCO―June 2, 2014―Apple® today released its iOS 8 SDK, the biggest developer release ever with more than 4,000 new APIs, giving developers the ability to create amazing new apps like never before. iOS 8 allows developers to further customize the user experience with major extensibility features like Notification Center widgets and third-party keyboards; and introduces robust frameworks such as HealthKit and HomeKit. iOS 8 also includes Metal, a new graphics technology that maximizes the performance of the A7 chip and Swift, a powerful new programming language. “With more than 800 million iOS devices sold worldwide, the opportunity for developers is huge,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “This is the biggest iOS release since the launch of the App Store. The iOS 8 SDK delivers more than 4,000 new APIs including amazing new frameworks, greater extensibility and a revolutionary new programming lang uage.” iOS 8 offers developers robust frameworks including HealthKit APIs that provide the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other. With your permission, each app can use specific information from other apps to provide a more comprehensive way to manage your health and fitness. For example, your blood pressure app could share its data with a physician app, such as the Mayo Clinic app, so your doctor can provide high-quality guidance and care.  “We believe Apple’s HealthKit will revolutionize how the health industry interacts with people,” said John Noseworthy, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO. “We are proud to be at the forefront of this innovative technology with the Mayo Clinic app.” As HealthKit combines health data to help you take better care of your health, HomeKit lets your home accessories connect seamlessly to better manage your home. HomeKit delivers a common protocol, secure pairing and the ability to easily control indiv idual or groups of devices throughout the house including integration with Siri®. Read More »

source: killerapps.tv