Leaks: iOS 8 Will Come with New Apps and Simplification of Some Functions

A screenshot claiming represent iOS 8 homescreen contains new Healthbook, Preview, TextEdit and Tips icons was posted to a China's Weibo account spotted by 9To5Mac. The source of the screenshot cannot be verified, but 9to5Mac stated that these shots are legitimate, relying to their several sources.

Healthbook is Apple's rumored fitness and health app for iOS 8, its icon is made up of three colored strips, each one indicative of the capabilities of the app. The red strip with a droplet refers to blood pressure levels, the orange strip with a fire icon refers to calories burned and the green strip with a heart refers to heart rate.

TextEdit and Preview, two very frequently used applications on the Mac, have supported iCloud syncing since quite some time. Apple may be expanding these services in iOS 8 by releasing iOS versions of Preview and TextEdit. It also is developing tools that will make it easier for developers to create iCloud-based applications. These improvements are expected to arrive later this year, as previously reported 9to5Mac.

Apple is developing versions of the Mac operating system’s Preview and TextEdit applications that are optimized for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The applications are said to not be designed to actually edit PDFs, images, or text documents. Instead, the apps are built to serve as tools to view Preview and TextEdit files stored in iCloud by OS X. Apple added iCloud synchronization for Preview and TextEdit with OS X Mountain Lion, but has not yet released iOS counterparts to actually view the synchronized content.

Preview and TextEdit icons mirror those of their OS X counterparts, which is unusual as Apple uses different icons for its OS X and iOS apps. This suggests the icons are placeholders and may change before the apps are released. The Tips app could possibly give users tips to better use their iPhone (iPod, iPad), but it’s exact purpose isn’t known yet.

Newer report from 9To5Mac added beside to new Healthbook, TextEdit and Preview apps, Apple may also change existing pre-bundled applications and features in iOS 8. The apps and system functions slated for improvement include Notification Center, Voice Memos, Messages, Game Center and CarPlay.

Apple may be simplifying existing functions like Notification Center, normaly Notification Center in iOS 7 includes three tabs, Today, All and Missed. The new Notification Center will contain just "Today" and "Notifications" views, making it easier for users to keep track of items that are immediately important. Voice Memos also will see a redesign with controls that distinguish between recording and playback functions.

Messaging may be tweaked with an optional auto-delete function that will remove older messages after a certain amount of time. Currently, message threads stay on the device forever and the attached photos, videos occupy a lot of storage.

Apple also may remove Game Center as a standalone app from both iOS and OS X, opting instead to embed the functionality into games that support the social gaming service.

Instead of having the (little-used) Game Center app, the functionality will solely be found inside in games that have integrated the social gaming service.

The company is also considering adding inter-app communication abilities in iOS 8, a feature that has long been requested by the iOS developer community to better facilitate sharing of information between apps.

For example, a future photo editing application could have the ability to push the edited content for upload via the Instagram or Facebook apps. The debut of the API has been in development for the past couple of years, and it had been removed from the launch version of iOS 7 last year for unspecified reasons. With that in mind, it is plausible that Apple could, again, choose to hold back the functionality.

As hinted by Volvo, CarPlay may be updated to support WiFi connections instead of relying on the lightning cable to link an iOS device to the car's in-dash system. Also the performance of iOS 8 expected to be more than iOS 7.

In addition to the in-app tweaks, Apple has been working to speed up iOS 8 in comparison to iOS 7. Applications are said to launch more quickly, close more quickly, and overall system navigation is said to feel much smoother and more stable. Apple sped up animations and improved stability in the recent release of iOS 7.1, but the enhancements in iOS 8 are said to go a bit further.

Apple appears to focusing on the overall iOS experience by improving key apps and functions like Maps, Siri and Notification Center and speeding up performance of the operating system. In addition to health and fitness features that will integrate with Apple's iWatch wearable device. Apple is expected to unveil iOS 8 later this year at WWDC 2014 and release it publicly sometime this fall.

• Read also: Gorgeous iOS 8 Concept Merging Multitasking with Control Center (Video)

Data source: 9To5Mac via MacRumors