Apple WWDC Announcements Fail to Impress

Apple WWDC 2014After a busy day, I finally got a chance to catch up on the latest from WWDC and I can easily say that I’m not impressed by the new features/functionality.  This was obviously focused on the software updates coming to iOS and OS X in the fall of this year, so we still haven’t seen what hardware updates Apple will make (but I have a feeling a bigger screen is going to be the “big” surprise feature announcement).  But just looking at the software features that were announced, most were less than innovative or original, for example:

Customizable keyboard – um, yeah, this is a pretty basic customization that lets people find a keyboard that gives them maximum productivity.  And companies have been releasing customized keyboards for a long time, so not to impressed with this.

Widgets – and we’re only talking about widgets in the notification area, so you still can’t have a widget on your home screen showing you pertinent information (basically anything you want) so this isn’t even feature parity, it’s simply an improvement.

Lockscreen actions – again, something fairly trivial when you look at all the customization options you can do with your lock screen on an Android phone.  It does give third-party app developers to implement/add additional functionality, but definitely nothing new.

iCloud – um, yeah, so iCloud has been out for a while, but now they’re finally implementing what every other cloud storage provider has offered… wait for it… cloud storage… super innovative, right?

But don’t get me wrong, I think everything listed above improves the iOS experience.  I just don’t think it’s innovative to bake in features that other systems/apps have had and say that you’re changing the mobile landscape.  At best, you are simply keeping up with the cool kids (yes, I’m calling Android users the cool kids and Apple users the nerds).  So with all that being said, all the features included in iOS 8 look great and will definitely make iOS a feature-rich OS.  But there’s nothing super impressive that makes me want a iPhone yet.  I’m hoping the hardware announcement of the iPhone 6 is more impressive (and not just a bigger screen).

Okay, before I wrap up, I will point out some of the cooler features I saw… Continuity (useful features, but stupid name) features like Handoff, SMS and incoming/outgoing calls from your desktop are all pretty cool features (and things that I already do thanks to Android and Motorola).  So again, nothing making me jump at a new iPhone.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see the iPhone 6.