iOS 8 wish-list scorecard: How many came true?

July 12, 2014

Back before WWDC 2014 I wrote a series of posts detailing some of the things I wished very much to see from Apple in iOS 8. Some of them I'd been wishing for for years. Others I'd only just begun to think about. After the keynote I'd meant to go through and see just how many of my wishes had, coincidentally, come true. In all the excitement, however, it slipped my mind. Today, in light of some extra news, several people reminded me about it. So, here it is: Everything I asked for prior to WWDC 2014, what came true, and what I'm still waiting for!

Pervasive inter-app communications: We got Extensibility, which in some ways isn't as all-encompassing but in other ways is even smarter.
Interactive notifications: We got interactive notifications
Spotlight hooked up to Siri: We got an all-new Spotlight that's not natural language or sequential inference, but is far more powerful than ever before.
Files.app and DocumentPicker: We got iCloud Drive and DocumentPicker!
Customizable Control Center: Not yet.
Unified AirDrop: We got not only unified AirDrop, but Continuity.
Privacy Sheets: We got per-app unified Settings, including permissions.
Battery shaming: We got per-app battery usage, including low cell signal!
iTunes for iCloud: Not yet.
Comics mode in iBooks: Not yet.
iTunes Extras for Apple TV: Today!
Print to PDF: Not yet.

So, 8 out of 12 or roughly 66%. While I can't claim any special knowledge or foresight informed my list, I do think a lot of that was medium-hanging fruit and things many people, including those who work at Apple, wanted on their own iPhones and iPads.

Still, I'm delighted to see how much utility is coming to iPhone and iPad with iOS 8, and in a way that sacrifices none of the incredible security and usability we've come to expect.

How many of your iOS 8 wishes came true?