**The Evolution of iOS: A Look Back at Apple's Mobile Operating System**

When Apple released iOS 6, it brought some important improvements to the iPhone, but its true significance wasn't clear until Apple released iOS 7. Because it was at that point everyone realized iOS 6 would be the last version to retain the iPhone's classic, skeuomorphic interface. Under the leadership of Jonathan Ive, iOS 7 ushered in the era of flat design, getting rid of reflections, shadows, textures, and app interfaces that resembled real-life objects. This change was actually quite shocking at the time, and many users were turned off by iOS 7's flat, colorful design. But Apple stuck with their decision, and the iOS interface remains flat to this day.

iOS 7 brought more than just a new look. It featured AirDrop, CarPlay support, new Siri voices, parallax wallpapers, FaceTime Audio, and iTunes Radio. So iOS 7 was a big leap forward for the iPhone, but it needed some refinements and optimizations. And Apple delivered exactly that in September 2014 with iOS 8. It allowed the iPhone to integrate even more seamlessly with the Mac through features called Hand Off and Continuity. Which allowed tasks like writing an email to be started on one device and seamlessly picked up on another. This also meant you could answer phone calls and send MMS messages from your Mac.

One of the biggest performance optimizations included in iOS 8 was Metal, which allowed developers to use the iPhone's graphics processor in a more efficient way, improving the performance of their games and apps. Other features like HomeKit, Apple Pay, and Hey Siri were also announced with iOS 8. Now 2014 was a big year for machine learning, and Apple took advantage of this technology in iOS 9, introduced in late 2015. The main focus for this release was intelligence, since iOS 9 featured something called Proactive, which combined Siri and Search to provide you with contextual information that it thinks you might need before you ask for it.

This feature was also integrated into apps like mail, where a calendar event can be automatically created if a date is found within the email. iOS 9 also introduced Low Power Mode, a highly requested feature, which provided the iPhone with an extra hour of battery life after reaching 20%. Other important features included an upper and lowercase keyboard and support for wireless CarPlay. By this point, there was one feature that many users desperately wanted, and that was to hide native apps. Because most users probably didn't use something like the Stocks app, and they preferred to remove it from their home screen entirely.

And that feature is exactly what they got with iOS 10 in 2016. But despite the new control center design in iOS 10, Apple decided to change it again in iOS 11 just one year later. This time it brought all the controls to one full-screen page that users could customize to their liking. But the big focus of iOS 11 was Augmented Reality. Apple developed something called ARKit, which allowed developers to integrate advanced AR technology into their apps for the first time.

And when it came to the iPad, iOS 11 delivered some incredible productivity features, including drag-and-drop, a new multitasking interface, and support for four active apps on-screen at the same time. Now the most recent version, iOS 12, is available for download September 17th, 2018, and not only is it supposed to increase device performance by 70%, but iOS 12 also has some really helpful productivity features like Screen Time. Which gives you detailed reports of how much time you spend on your device, and what you're doing.

There's also something called Siri Shortcuts, which allows users to program a series of actions that should happen automatically at a certain time. For example, to start their day, users can set their lights to turn on, coffee maker to begin brewing, and iPhone to display the News app. But, of course, this is assuming your appliances and lights are connected through HomeKit. Now there are a lot of other cool features like ARKit 2, Measure, and Do Not Disturb During Bedtime, but something I'm really excited about is how well iOS 12 appears to be running on older devices.

Several beta testers have reported their older iPhones becoming noticeably faster after updating, and if this is true for all older iPhones, I think it'll be one of iOS 12's most important features.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explainedand today we’re going to cover the historyof iOS.This topic was the second place winner oflast weeks voting poll and if you didn’tget to vote, make sure you’re subscribed,that way the voting polls will show up rightin your mobile activity feed and you can letme know which video you’d like to see next.So as you probably already know, iOS is amobile operating system that Apple createdfor use on their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.Now iOS is one of the world's most popularmobile operating systems despite only runningon Apple’s own hardware.Compare this to the Android mobile operatingsystem, which is licensed by Google to varioushardware manufacturers and wireless carriers.Now the debate over which approach is betteris a topic we’re not getting into today,because in this video, we’re going to focuson the history of iOS and its developmentfrom 2007 to 2018.So back in 2007 the first version of iOS wasreleased, but it wasn’t actually callediOS back in those days.In fact, Apple didn’t give the iPhone’soperating system a name until 2008, when iPhoneOS 2 was introduced.Up until that point, Apple marketing materialsimply said that the iPhone runs a versionof Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop operating system.But today, the first version of iOS is referredto as iPhone OS 1.And the capabilities of this OS were groundbreakingat the time.Because keep in mind, the BlackBerry was leadingthe smartphone market back in 2006 and itsoperating system was considered best in class.Although in retrospect, it appears to be veryarchaic.Now Apple recognized the shortcomings of smartphonesat the time, and envisioned a device thatwas more capable, while also easier to use.The device was the iPhone, and its successdepended almost entirely on its operatingsystem, iPhone OS 1, which redefined the capabilitiesof a mobile device.In fact, when the first iPhone was introduced,competitors admitted to being shocked by whatApple was able to accomplish, and it sentthem back to the drawing board.So exactly what about iPhone OS 1 caused sucha disruption?Well it ran applications that had almost allthe capabilities of its desktop counterpartand were super easy to use thanks to the iPhone’smultitouch interface.This hadn’t been the case with other smartphones,which had plastic keyboards and buttons thatbecame quite clumsy and complicated the userexperience.In fact, many of the features included insmartphones at the time weren’t even beingused by customers, since many couldn’t figurethem out.That’s why Steve Jobs included this chartduring the iPhone’s introduction, whichillustrated their goal to make the iPhonethe most capable and user-friendly smartphonein the industry.Now it’s probably more interesting to talkabout what iPhone OS 1 didn’t have, ratherthan what it did have.Because basically with iPhone OS 1, you hadthe stock apps included on the phone, andthat was it.But even those applications were extremelylimited compared to modern versions of iOS.For example, Messages only supported SMS texting.That meant all you could do was send and receivetext messages of up to 160 characters, nophotos, emojis, or voice recordings.And if your message was longer than the 160character limit, it was automatically dividedinto several parts.But perhaps one of the most significant featuresmissing from iPhone OS 1 was the App Store.But this hardly bothered anyone at all, becauseback in 2007, the iPhone was the most fully-featuredsmartphone to ever exist.So very few users were complaining about thelack of apps near the beginning of the iPhoneslaunch.But eventually, the desire for third partyapp development began to grow as many peoplerecognized the iPhone’s potential as a platformfor developers.So with the next operating system releasecalled iPhone OS 2, Apple supplied a SoftwareDevelopment Kit that allowed third party developersto create apps for the iPhone for the firsttime.Well technically it wasn’t the first timesince jailbroken iPhones could run third partyapps already, but obviously that effort wasn’tsupported by Apple.Now there were other small improvements thatcame with iPhone OS 2, like always-on pushemails, a scientific calculator, and GoogleStreet View in Maps, but the App Store wasdefinitely its headlining feature.And at launch, the App Store offered over500 apps.Now that number may not seem impressive comparedto the 2 million apps offered today, but youcan imagine it was a big step up from theoriginal 15 stock apps included in iPhoneOS 1.And users began to download so many apps,that in iPhone OS 3, the number of home screenpages was increased from 9 to 11, which accommodatedabout 170 apps.And I should mention that iPhone OS 3 wasthe first version to not be fully supportedon every iPhone, since the original iPhonedidn’t have some of the new features offered.And some of those were the long-awaited cut,copy, paste feature, Spotlight, Voice Memos,and video recording on the iPhone 3GS.But I think one of the most significant additionsto iPhone OS 3 was MMS support in Messages.And that meant users could finally send andreceive photos, contacts, locations, voicerecordings, and video messages.Now it was during the lifespan of iPhone OS3 that the iPad was introduced.And at the same time, Apple decided to renameiPhone OS to iOS, since it was now being usedby devices other than the iPhone.And in 2010 Apple introduced iOS 4, whichbrought with it some really advanced capabilitieslike FaceTime video calling through WiFi,improved multitasking features, home screenfolders which held up to twelve apps each,5x digital camera zoom, AirPlay, AirPrint,and the ability to create personal HotSpotsdepending on carrier support.So iOS 4 was a significant upgrade releasedalongside the iPhone 4, but there was oneproblem, and it had to do with the algorithmthat calculated the iPhone’s signal strength.Now this issue may sound pretty insignificant,but it threw Apple into a PR nightmare thatwas dubbed Antennagate.You see, iPhone 4 users noticed their networkbars would fall dramatically when grippingtheir phone in a certain way, and this wasthought to be a design flaw caused by theiPhone 4’s new antenna system.But for the most part, it turned out to bean issue with iOS 4’s signal strength algorithm.And Apple later released a software updatethat fixed this issue.Now in October 2011, iOS 5 was introducedalongside the iPhone 4S.And this update delivered one of the iPhone’smost iconic features: Siri.And when Siri was first released, it was farand away the best digital assistant on themarket, although that hasn’t necessarilybeen the case in recent years.Now other major additions in iOS 5 was anoverhaul to notifications, which includedpassive banner alerts, along with notificationcenter.And for the first time, software updates couldbe delivered to iOS 5 over the air.Which meant you didn’t have to connect youriPhone to a computer every time an updatewas available.Other features included multi-tasking gesturesfor the iPad, a camera shortcut on the lockscreen, synced iMessages across devices, groupmessaging, and native emoji keyboard support.This was also when the iPod app was replacedby the Music and Video apps.Now iOS 6 came near the end of 2012, and itwas infamous for replacing the native GoogleMaps app with Apple’s own version calledApple Maps.Now Apple Maps did offer some cool featureslike turn-by-turn directions, and Flyoverviews in select locations, but it just didn’thave the same level of detailed map data thatGoogle Maps had.And it showed.When users started getting directions fromApple Maps, they found it to be very unreliable.Location data could be inaccurate, certaincities were missing entirely, and many establishmentswere mislabeled.The release of Apple Maps became so problematicthat Apple CEO Tim Cook issued an open letterof apology saying he was “extremely sorryfor the frustration” and that the company“fell short on the commitment” of bringingworld-class products to its customers.And internal debate over this apology becameso heated that one of Apple’s long-servingexecutives Scott Forstall actually left Appleduring this time.Now apart from Apple Maps, iOS 6 introducedsome other well known features that you probablyuse today, including Passbook (now known asWallet,) enhancements to Siri, shared photostreams, FaceTime over cellular, and panoramamode.So iOS 6 brought some important improvementsto the iPhone, but its true significance wasn’tclear until Apple released iOS 7.Because it was at that point everyone realizediOS 6 would be the last version to retainthe iPhone’s classic, skeuomorphic interface.Under the leadership of Jonathan Ive, iOS7 ushered in the era of flat design.It got rid of reflections, shadows, textures,and app interfaces that resembled real-lifeobjects.This change was actually quite shocking atthe time, and many users were turned off byiOS 7’s flat, colorful design.But Apple stuck with their decision, and theiOS interface remains flat to this day.Now iOS 7 brought more than just a new look.It featured AirDrop, CarPlay support, newSiri voices, parallax wallpapers, FaceTimeAudio, and iTunes Radio.So iOS 7 was a big leap forward for the iPhone,but it needed some refinements and optimizations.And Apple delivered exactly that in September2014 with iOS 8.It allowed the iPhone to integrate even moreseamlessly with the Mac through features calledHand Off and Continuity.Which allowed tasks like writing an emailto be started on one device and seamlesslypicked up on another.This also meant you could answer phone callsand send MMS messages from your Mac.Now one of the biggest performance optimizationsincluded in iOS 8 was Metal.Which allowed developers to use the iPhone’sgraphics processor in a more efficient way,improving the performance of their games andapps.Other features like HomeKit, Apple Pay, andHey Siri were also announced with iOS 8.Now 2014 was a big year for machine learning,and Apple took advantage of this technologyin iOS 9, introduced in late 2015.The main focus for this release was intelligence.Since iOS 9 featured something called Proactive,which combined Siri and Search to providedyou with contextual information that it thinksyou might need before you ask for it.This feature was also integrated into appslike mail, where a calendar event can be automaticallycreated if a date is found within the email.iOS 9 also introduced Low Power Mode, a highlyrequested feature, which provided the iPhonewith an extra hour of battery life after reaching20%.Other important features included an upperand lowercase keyboard and support for wirelessCarPlay.Now by this point, there was one feature thatmany users desperately wanted, and that wasto hide native apps.Because most users probably didn’t use somethinglike the Stocks app, and they preferred toremove it from their home screen entirely.And that feature is exactly what they gotwith iOS 10 in 2016.But there were actually quite a few highlyanticipated additions to iOS 10, includingraise to wake, unlocking with the home button,a multi-page control center, and a universalclipboard that allowed elements to be copiedon one device and pasted to another.But despite the new control center designin iOS 10, Apple decided to change it againin iOS 11 just one year later.This time it brought all the controls to onefull-screen page that users could customizeto their liking.But the big focus of iOS 11 was AugmentedReality.Apple developed something called ARKit whichallowed developers to integrate advanced ARtechnology into their apps for the first time.And when it came to the iPad, iOS 11 deliveredsome incredible productivity features, includingdrag-and-drop, a new multitasking interface,and support for four active apps on-screenat the same time.Now the most recent version, iOS 12, is availablefor download September 17th, 2018, and notonly is it supposed to increase device performanceby 70%, but iOS 12 also has some really helpfulproductivity features like Screen Time.Which gives you detailed reports of how muchtime you spend on your device, and what you’redoing.There’s also something called Siri Shortcuts,which allows users to program a series ofactions that should happen automatically ata certain time.For example, to start their day, users canset their lights to turn on, coffeemaker tobegin brewing, and iPhone to display the Newsapp.But, of course, this is assuming your appliancesand lights are connected through HomeKit.Now there are a lot of other cool featureslike ARKit 2, Measure, and Do Not DisturbDuring Bedtime, but something I’m reallyexcited about is how well iOS 12 appears tobe running on older devices.Several beta testers have reported their olderiPhones becoming noticeably faster after updating,and if this is true for all older iPhones,I think it’ll be one of iOS 12’s mostimportant features.So that is the history of iOS, and if youwant to vote for the next video topic, don’tforget to subscribe.Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime.\n"