Photos Framework

The Photos framework (Photos.framework) provides new APIs for working with photo and video assets, including iCloud Photos assets, that are managed by the Photos app. This framework is a more capable alternative to the Assets Library framework. Key features include a thread-safe architecture for fetching and caching thumbnails and full-sized assets, requesting changes to assets, observing changes made by other apps, and resumable editing of asset content.

For more information, see Photos Framework Reference.

Use the related Photos UI framework (PhotosUI.framework) to create app extensions for editing image and video assets in the Photos app. For more information, see App Extension Programming Guide.

Manual Camera Controls

The AV Foundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) makes it easier than ever to take great photos. Your app can take direct control over the camera focus, white balance, and exposure settings. In addition, your app can use bracketed exposure captures to automatically capture images with different exposure settings.

For more information see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

Improved Camera Functionality

Use the following APIs to discover and enable new camera features found on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus:

• A new property (videoHDRSupported) can determine whether a capture device supports high dynamic range streaming.

• A new video stabilization mode (AVCaptureVideoStabilizationModeCinematic) provides more cinematic results in the captured video.

• A new property (highResolutionStillImageOutputEnabled) can be used to set an AVCaptureStillImageOutput object to capture still pictures at a higher resolution.

• A new property (autoFocusSystem) can be used to determine how the camera performs auto focusing.

Metal

Metal provides extremely low-overhead access to the A7 and A8 GPUs, enabling extremely high performance for your sophisticated graphics rendering and computational tasks. Metal eliminates many performance bottlenecks—such as costly state validation—that are found in traditional graphics APIs. Metal is explicitly designed to move all expensive state translation and compilation operations out of the critical path of your most performance sensitive rendering code. Metal provides precompiled shaders, state objects, and explicit command scheduling to ensure your application achieves the highest possible performance and efficiency for your GPU graphics and compute tasks. This design philosophy extends to the tools used to build your app. When your app is built, Xcode compiles Metal shaders in the project into a default library, eliminating most of the runtime cost of preparing those shaders.

Graphics, compute, and blit commands are designed to be used together seamlessly and efficiently. Metal is specifically designed to exploit modern architectural considerations, such as multiprocessing and shared memory, to make it easy to parallelize the creation of GPU commands.

With Metal, you have a streamlined API, a unified graphics and compute shading language, and Xcode-based tools, so you don’t need to learn multiple frameworks, languages, and tools to take full advantage of the GPU in your game or app.

For more information on using Metal, see Metal Programming Guide, Metal Framework Reference, and Metal Shading Language Guide.

SceneKit

SceneKit is an Objective-C framework for building simple games and rich app user interfaces with 3D graphics, combining a high-performance rendering engine with a high-level, descriptive API. SceneKit has been available since OS X v10.8 and is now available in iOS for the first time. Lower-level APIs (such as OpenGL ES) require you to implement the rendering algorithms that display a scene in precise detail. By contrast, SceneKit lets you describe your scene in terms of its content—geometry, materials, lights, and cameras—then animate it by describing changes to those objects.

SceneKit’s 3D physics engine enlivens your app or game by simulating gravity, forces, rigid body collisions, and joints. Add high-level behaviors that make it easy to use wheeled vehicles such as cars in a scene, and add physics fields that apply radial gravity, electromagnetism, or turbulence to objects within an area of effect.

Use OpenGL ES to render additional content into a scene, or provide GLSL shaders that replace or augment SceneKit’s rendering. You can also add shader-based postprocessing techniques to SceneKit’s rendering, such as color grading or screen space ambient occlusion.

For more information, see SceneKit Framework Reference.

SpriteKit

The SpriteKit framework (SpriteKit.framework) adds new features to make it easier to support advanced game effects. These features include support for custom OpenGL ES shaders and lighting, integration with SceneKit, and advanced new physics effects and animations. For example, you can create physics fields to simulate gravity, drag, and electromagnetic forces using the SKFieldNode class. You can easily create physics bodies with per-pixel collision masks. And it is easier than ever to pin a physics body to its parent, even if its parent does not have a physics body of its own. These new physics features make complex simulations much easier to implement.

Use constraints to modify the effects of physics and animations on the content of your scene—for example, you can make one node always point toward another node regardless of where the two nodes move.

Xcode 6 also incorporates new shader and scene editors that save you time as you create your game. Create a scene’s contents, specifying which nodes appear in the scene and characteristics of those nodes, including physics effects. The scene is then serialized to a file that your game can easily load.

For information about the classes of this framework, see SpriteKit Framework Reference and SpriteKit Programming Guide.

AV Audio Engine

AVFoundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) adds support for a broad cross-section of audio functionality at a higher level of abstraction than Core Audio. These new audio capabilities are available on both OS X and iOS and include automatic access to audio input and output hardware, audio recording and playback, and audio file parsing and conversion. You also gain access to audio units for generating special effects and filters, pitch and playback speed management, stereo and 3D audio environments, and MIDI instruments.

For more information, see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

OpenGL ES

iOS 8 adds the following new extensions to OpenGL ES.

• The APPLE_clip_distance extension adds support for hardware clip planes to OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0.

• The APPLE_texture_packed_float adds two new floating-point texture formats, R11F_G11F_B10F and RGB9_E5.

• The APPLE_color_buffer_packed_float extension builds on APPLE_texture_packed_float so that the new texture formats can be used by a framebuffer object. This means that an app can render into a framebuffer that uses one of these formats.

Document-Related Data Migration

The iCloud infrastructure is more robust and reliable when documents and data are transferred between user devices and the server. When a user installs iOS 8 and logs into the device with an iCloud account, the iCloud server performs a one-time migration of the documents and data in that user’s account. This migration involves copying the documents and data to a new version of the app’s container directory. The new container is accessible only to devices running iOS 8 or OS X v10.10. Devices running older operating systems can continue to access to the original container, but changes made in that container do not appear in the new container and changes made in the new container do not appear in the original container.

CloudKit

CloudKit (CloudKit.framework) is a conduit for moving data between your app and iCloud. Unlike other iCloud technologies where data transfers happen transparently, CloudKit gives you control over when transfers occur. You can use CloudKit to manage all types of data.

Apps that use CloudKit directly can store data in a repository that is shared by all users. This public repository is tied to the app itself and is available even on devices without a registered iCloud account. As the app developer, you can manage the data in this container directly and see any changes made by users through the CloudKit dashboard.

For more information about the classes of this framework, see CloudKit Framework Reference.

Document Picker

The document picker view controller (UIDocumentPickerViewController) grants users access to files outside your application’s sandbox. It is a simple mechanism for sharing documents between apps. It also enables more complex workflows, because users can edit a single document with multiple apps.

The document picker lets you access files from a number of document providers. For example, the iCloud document provider grants access to documents stored inside another app’s iCloud container. Third-party developers can provide additional document providers by using the Storage Provider extension.

For more information, see the Document Picker Programming Guide.

Traits Describe the Size Class and Scale of an Interface

Size classes are traits assigned to a user interface element, such as a screen or a view. There are two types of size classes in iOS 8: regular and compact. A regular size class denotes either a large amount of screen space, such as on an iPad, or a commonly adopted paradigm that provides the illusion of a large amount of screen space, such as scrolling on an iPhone. Every device is defined by a size class, both vertically and horizontally.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the native size classes for the iPad. With the amount of screen space available, the iPad has a regular size class in the vertical and horizontal directions in both portrait and landscape orientations.

The size classes for iPhones differ based on the kind of device and its orientation. In portrait, the screen has a compact size class horizontally and a regular size class vertically. This corresponds to the common usage paradigm of scrolling vertically for more information. When iPhones are in landscape, their size classes vary. Most iPhones have a compact size class both horizontally and vertically, as shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. The iPhone 6 Plus has a screen large enough to support regular width in landscape mode, as shown in Figure 5.

You can change the size classes associated with a view. This flexibility is especially useful when a smaller view is contained within a larger view. Use the default size classes to arrange the user interface of the larger view and arrange information in the subview based on whatever size classes you feel is most appropriate to that subview.

To support size classes, the following classes are new or modified:

• The UITraitCollection class is used to describe a collection of traits assigned to an object. Traits specify the size class, display scale, and idiom for a particular object. Classes that support the UITraitEnvironment protocol (such as UIScreen, UIViewController and UIView) own a trait collection. You can retrieve an object’s trait collection and perform actions when those traits change.

• The UIImageAsset class is used to group like images together based on their traits. Combine similar images with slightly different traits into a single asset and then automatically retrieve the correct image for a particular trait collection from the image asset. The UIImage class has been modified to work with image assets.

• Classes that support the UIAppearance protocol can customize an object’s appearance based on its trait collection.

• The UIViewController class adds the ability to retrieve the trait collection for a child view. You can also lay out the view by changing the size class change through the viewWillTransitionToSize:withTransitionCoordinator: method.

Xcode 6 supports unified storyboards. A storyboard can add or remove views and layout constraints based on the size class that the view controller is displayed in. Rather than maintaining two separate (but similar) storyboards, you can make a single storyboard for multiple size classes. First, design your storyboard with a common interface and then customize it for different size classes, adapting the interface to the strengths of each form factor. Use Xcode 6 to test your app in a variety of size classes and screen sizes to make sure that your interface adapts to the new sizes properly.

Supporting New Screen Scales

The iPhone 6 Plus uses a new Retina HD display with a very high DPI screen. To support this resolution, iPhone 6 Plus creates a UIScreen object with a screen size of 414 x 736 points and a screen scale of 3.0 (1242 x 2208 pixels). After the contents of the screen are rendered, UIKit samples this content down to fit the actual screen dimensions of 1080 x 1920. To support this rendering behavior, include new artwork designed for the new 3x screen scale. In Xcode 6, asset catalogs can include images at 1x, 2x, and 3x sizes; simply add the new image assets and iOS will choose the correct assets when running on an iPhone 6 Plus. The image loading behavior in iOS also recognizes an @3x suffix.

In a graphics app that uses Metal or OpenGL ES, content can be easily rendered at the precise dimensions of the display without requiring an additional sampling stage. This is critical in high-performance 3D apps that perform many calculations for each rendered pixel. Instead, create buffers to render into that are the exact resolution of the display.

A UIScreen object provides a new property (nativeScale) that provides the native screen scale factor for the screen. When the nativeScale property has the same value as the screen’sscale property, then the rendered pixel dimensions are the same as the screen’s native pixel dimensions. When the two values differ, then you can expect the contents to be sampled before they are displayed.

If you are writing an OpenGL ES app, a GLKView object automatically creates its renderbuffer objects based on the view’s size and the value of itscontentScaleFactor property. After the view has been added to a window, set the view’s contentScaleFactor to the value stored in the screen’snativeScale property, as shown in Listing 1.

Listing 1  Supporting native scale in a GLKView object

- (void) didMoveToWindow

{

    self.contentScaleFactor = self.window.screen.nativeScale;

}

In a Metal app, your own view class should have code similar to the code found in Listing 1. In addition, whenever your view’s size changes, and prior to asking the Metal layer for a new drawable, calculate and set the metal layer’s drawableSize property as shown in Listing 2. (An OpenGL ES app that is creating its own renderbuffers would use a similar calculation.)

Listing 2  Adjusting the size of a Metal layer to match the native screen scale

CGSize drawableSize = self.bounds.size;

drawableSize.width  *= self.contentScaleFactor;

drawableSize.height *= self.contentScaleFactor;

metalLayer.drawableSize = drawableSize;

See MetalBasic3D for a working example. The Xcode templates for OpenGL ES and Metal also demonstrate these same techniques.

API Modernization

Many frameworks on iOS have adopted small interface changes that take advantage of modern Objective-C syntax:

• Getter and setter methods are replaced by properties in most classes. Code using the existing getter and setter methods continues to work with this change.

• Initialization methods are updated to have a return value of instancetype instead of id.

• Designated initializers are declared as such where appropriate.

In most cases, these changes do not require any additional work in your own app. However, you may also want to implement these changes in your own Objective-C code. In particular, you may want to modernize your Objective-C code for the best experience when interoperating with Swift code.

For more information, see Adopting Modern Objective-C.

AV Foundation Framework

The AV Foundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) enables you to capture metadata over time while shooting video. Arbitrary types of metadata can be embedded with a video recording at various points in time. For example, you might record the current physical location in a video created by a moving camera device.

For information about the classes of this framework, see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

AVKit Framework

The AVKit framework (AVKit.framework) previously introduced on OS X is available on iOS. Use it instead of Media Player framework when you need to display a video.

CoreAudioKit Framework

The new CoreAudioKit framework simplifies the effort required to create user interfaces for apps that take advantage of inter-app audio.

Core Image Framework

The Core Image framework (CoreImage.framework) has the following changes:

• You can create custom image kernels in iOS.

• Core image detectors can detect rectangles and QR codes in an image.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Core Image Reference Collection.

Core Location Framework

The Core Location framework (CoreLocation.framework) has the following changes:

• You can determine which floor the device is on, if the device is in a multistory building.

• The visit service provides an alternative to the significant location change service for apps that need location information about interesting places visited by the user.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Core Location Framework Reference.

Core Motion Framework

Core Motion provides two new classes (CMAltimeter and CMAltitudeData) which allow you to access the barometer on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. On these two devices, you can also use a CMMotionActivity object to determine whether the user is on a bicycle.

Foundation Framework

The Foundation framework (Foundation.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• The NSFileVersion class provides access to past versions of iCloud documents. These versions are stored in iCloud, but can be downloaded on request.

• The NSURL class supports storing document thumbnails as metadata.

• The NSMetadataQuery class can search for external iCloud documents that your app has opened.

Game Controller Framework

The Game Controller framework (GameController.framework) has the following changes:

• If the controller is attached to a device, you can now receive device motion data directly from the Game Controller framework.

• If you are working with button inputs and do not care about pressure sensitivity, a new handler can call your game only when the button’s pressed state changes.

GameKit Framework

The GameKit framework (GameKit.framework) has the following changes:

• Features that were added in iOS 7 are available on OS X 10.10, making it easier to use these features in a cross-platform game.

• The new GKSavedGame class and new methods in GKLocalPlayer make it easy to save and restore a user’s progress. The data is stored on iCloud; GameKit does the necessary work to synchronize the files between the device and iCloud.

• Methods and properties that use player identifier strings are now deprecated. Instead, use GKPlayer objects to identify players. Replacement properties and methods have been added that take GKPlayer objects.

iAd Framework

The iAd framework (iAd.framework) adds the following new features:

• If you are using AV Kit to play a video, you can play preroll advertisements before the video is played.

• You can look up more information about the the effectiveness of advertisements for your app.

For information about the classes of this framework, see iAd Framework Reference.

Media Player Framework

Two Media Player framework (MediaPlayer.framework) classes are extended with new metadata information.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Media Player Framework Reference.

Network Extension Framework

Use the new Network Extension framework (NetworkExtension.framework) to configure and control virtual private networks (VPN).

SpriteKit Framework Changes

The SpriteKit framework (SpriteKit.framework) adds many new features:

• An SKShapeNode object can specify textures to be used when the shape is either stroked or filled.

• The SKSpriteNode, SKShapeNode, SKEmitterNode, and SKEffectNode classes include support for custom rendering. Use the SKShader andSKUniform classes to compile an OpenGL ES 2.0-based fragment shader and provide input data to the shader.

• SKSpriteNode objects can provide lighting information so that SpriteKit automatically generates lighting effects and shadows. Add SKLightNodeobjects to the scene to specify the lights, and then customize the properties on these lights and any sprites to determine how the scene is lit.

• The SKFieldNode class provides physics special effects you can apply to a scene. For example, create magnetic fields, add drag effects, or even generate randomized motion. All effects are constrained to a specific region of the scene, and you can carefully tune both the effect’s strength and how quickly the effect is weakened by distance. Field nodes make it easy to drop in an effect without having to search the entire list of physics bodies and apply forces to them.

• A new SK3DNode class is used to integrate a SceneKit scene into your game as a sprite. Each time that SpriteKit renders your scene, it renders the 3D scene node first to generate a texture, then uses that texture to render a sprite in SpriteKit. Creating 3D sprites can help you avoid creating dozens of frames of animation to produce an effect.

• New actions have been added, including support for inverse kinematic animations.

• A new system of constraints has been added to scene processing. SpriteKit applies constraints after physics is simulated, and you use them to specify a set of rules for how a node is positioned and oriented. For example, you can use a constraint to specify that a particular node in the scene always points at another node in the scene. Constraints make it easier to implement rendering rules in your game without having to tweak the scene manually in your event loop.

• A scene can implement all of the run-loop stages in a delegate instead of subclassing the SKScene class. Using a delegate often means that you can avoid needing to subclass the SKScene class.

• The SKView class provides more debugging information. You can also provide more performance hints to the renderer.

• You can create normal map textures for use in lighting and physics calculations (or inside your own custom shaders). Use the new SKMutableTextureclass when you need to create textures whose contents are dynamically updated.

• You can generate texture atlases dynamically at runtime from a collection of textures.

Xcode 6 also incorporates many new SpriteKit editors. Create or edit the contents of scenes directly, specifying the nodes that appear in the scene as well as their physics bodies and other characteristics. The scene is serialized to a file and can be loaded directly by your game. The editors save you time because often you don’t need to implement your own custom editors to create your game’s assets.

For information about the classes of this framework, see SpriteKit Framework Reference and SpriteKit Programming Guide.

UIKit Framework

The UIKit framework (UIKit.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• Apps that use local or push notifications must explicitly register the types of alerts that they display to users by using a UIUserNotificationSettingsobject. This registration process is separate from the process for registering remote notifications, and users must grant permission to deliver notifications through the requested options.

• Local and push notifications can include custom actions as part of an alert. Custom actions appear as buttons in the alert. When tapped, your app is notified and asked to perform the corresponding action. Local notifications can also be triggered by interactions with Core Location regions.

• Collection views support dynamically changing the size of cells. Typically, you use this support to accommodate changes to the preferred text size, but you can adapt it for other scenarios too. Collection views also support more options for invalidating different portions of the layout and thereby improving performance.

• The UISearchController class replaces the UISearchDisplayController class for managing the display of search-related interfaces.

• The UIViewController class adopts traits and the new sizing techniques for adjusting the view controller’s content, as described in Unified Storyboards for Universal Apps.

• The UISplitViewController class is now supported on iPhone as well as iPad. The class adjusts its presented interface to adapt to the available space. The class also changes the way it shows and hides the primary view controller, giving you more control over how to display the split view interface.

• The UINavigationController class has new options for changing the size of the navigation bar or hiding it altogether.

• The new UIVisualEffect class enables you to integrate custom blur effects into your view hierarchies.

• The new UIPresentationController class lets you separate the content of your view controllers from the chrome used to display them.

• The new UIPopoverPresentationController class handles the presentation of content in a popover. The existing UIPopoverController class uses the popover presentation controller to show popovers on the screen.

• The new UIAlertController class replaces the UIActionSheet and UIAlertView classes as the preferred way to display alerts in your app.

• The new UIPrinterPickerController class offers a view controller-based way to display a list of printers and to select one to use during printing. Printers are represented by instances of the new UIPrinter class.

• You can take the user directly to your app-related settings in the Settings app. Pass theUIApplicationOpenSettingsURLStringUIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString constant to the openURL: method of the UIApplication class.

For information about the classes of this framework, see UIKit Framework Reference.

Video Toolbox Framework

The Video Toolbox framework (VideoToolbox.framework) includes direct access to hardware video encoding and decoding.

Webkit Framework

A number of new classes have been added to make it easier to create high-performance native apps that utilize web content. See WebKit Framework Reference.

Photos Framework

The Photos framework (Photos.framework) provides new APIs for working with photo and video assets, including iCloud Photos assets, that are managed by the Photos app. This framework is a more capable alternative to the Assets Library framework. Key features include a thread-safe architecture for fetching and caching thumbnails and full-sized assets, requesting changes to assets, observing changes made by other apps, and resumable editing of asset content.

For more information, see Photos Framework Reference.

Use the related Photos UI framework (PhotosUI.framework) to create app extensions for editing image and video assets in the Photos app. For more information, see App Extension Programming Guide.

Manual Camera Controls

The AV Foundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) makes it easier than ever to take great photos. Your app can take direct control over the camera focus, white balance, and exposure settings. In addition, your app can use bracketed exposure captures to automatically capture images with different exposure settings.

For more information see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

Metal

Metal provides extremely low-overhead access to the A7 GPU enabling incredibly high performance for your sophisticated graphics rendering and computational tasks. Metal eliminates many performance bottlenecks—such as costly state validation—that are found in traditional graphics APIs. Metal is explicitly designed to move all expensive state translation and compilation operations out of the critical path of your most performance sensitive rendering code. Metal provides precompiled shaders, state objects, and explicit command scheduling to ensure your application achieves the highest possible performance and efficiency for your GPU graphics and compute tasks. This design philosophy extends to the tools used to build your app. When your app is built, Xcode compiles Metal shaders in the project into a default library, eliminating most of the runtime cost of preparing those shaders.

Graphics, compute, and blit commands are designed to be used together seamlessly and efficiently. Metal is specifically designed to exploit modern architectural considerations, such as multiprocessing and shared memory, to make it easy to parallelize the creation of GPU commands.

With Metal, you have a streamlined API, a unified graphics and compute shading language, and Xcode-based tools, so you don’t need to learn multiple frameworks, languages and tools to take full advantage of the GPU in your game or app.

For more information on using Metal, see Metal Programming Guide and Metal Framework Reference, and Metal Shading Language Guide.

Scene Kit

Scene Kit is an Objective-C framework for building simple games and rich app user interfaces with 3D graphics, combining a high-performance rendering engine with a high-level, descriptive API. Scene Kit has been available since OS X v10.8 and is now available in iOS for the first time. Lower-level APIs (such as OpenGL ES) require you to implement the rendering algorithms that display a scene in precise detail. By contrast, Scene Kit lets you describe your scene in terms of its content—geometry, materials, lights, and cameras—then animate it by describing changes to those objects.

Scene Kit’s 3D physics engine enlivens your app or game by simulating gravity, forces, rigid body collisions, and joints. Add high-level behaviors that make it easy to use wheeled vehicles such as cars in a scene, and add physics fields that apply radial gravity, electromagnetism, or turbulence to objects within an area of effect.

Use OpenGL ES to render additional content into a scene, or provide GLSL shaders that replace or augment Scene Kit’s rendering. You can also add shader-based post-processing techniques to Scene Kit’s rendering, such as color grading or screen space ambient occlusion.

For more information, see Scene Kit Framework Reference.

Sprite Kit

The Sprite Kit framework (SpriteKit.framework) adds new features to make it easier to support advanced game effects. These features include support for custom OpenGL ES shaders and lighting, integration with Scene Kit, and advanced new physics effects and animations. For example, you can create physics fields to simulate gravity, drag, and electromagnetic forces using the SKFieldNode class. Physics bodies can now easily be created with per-pixel collision masks. And it is easier than ever to pin a physics body to its parent, even if its parent does not have a physics body of its own. These new physics features make complex simulations much easier to implement.

Use constraints to modify the effects of physics and animations on the content of your scene—for example, you can make one node always point toward another node regardless of where the two nodes move.

Xcode 6 also incorporates new shader and scene editors that save you time as you create your game. Create a scene’s contents, specifying which nodes appear in the scene and characteristics of those nodes, including physics effects. The scene is then serialized to a file that your game can easily load.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Sprite Kit Framework Reference and Sprite Kit Programming Guide.

AV Audio Engine

AV Foundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) adds support for a broad cross-section of audio functionality at a higher level of abstraction than Core Audio. These new audio capabilities are available on both OS X and iOS and include automatic access to audio input and output hardware, audio recording and playback, and audio file parsing and conversion. You also gain access to audio units for generating special effects and filters, pitch and playback speed management, stereo and 3D audio environments, and MIDI instruments.

For more information, see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

Document-Related Data Migration

The iCloud infrastructure is more robust and reliable when documents and data are transferred between user devices and the server. When a user installs iOS 8 and logs into the device with an iCloud account, the iCloud server performs a one-time migration of the documents and data in that user’s account. This migration involves copying the documents and data to a new version of the app’s container directory. This new container is accessible only to devices running iOS 8 or OS X v10.10. Devices running older operating systems will continue to have access to the original container, but changes made in that container will not appear in the new container and vice versa.

Cloud Kit

Cloud Kit (CloudKit.framework) provides a conduit for moving data between your app and iCloud. Unlike other iCloud technologies where data transfers happen transparently, Cloud Kit gives you control over when transfers occur. You can use Cloud Kit to manage all types of data.

Apps that use Cloud Kit directly can to store data in a repository that is shared by all users. This public repository is tied to the app itself and is available even on devices without a registered iCloud account. As the app developer, you can manage the data in this container directly and see any changes made by users through the Cloud Kit dashboard.

For more information about the classes of this framework, see Cloud Kit Framework Reference.

Document Picker

The document picker view controller (UIDocumentPickerViewController) grants users access to files outside your application’s sandbox. It is a simple mechanism for sharing documents between apps. It also enables more complex workflows, because users can edit a single document with multiple apps.

The document picker lets you access files from a number of document providers. For example, the iCloud document provider grants access to documents stored inside another app’s iCloud container. Third-party developers can provide additional document providers by using the Storage Provider extension.

For more information, see the Document Picker Programming Guide.

API Modernization

Many frameworks on iOS have adopted small interface changes that take advantage of modern Objective-C syntax:

• Getter and setter methods are replaced by properties in most classes. Code using the existing getter and setter methods should continue to work with this change.

• Initialization methods are updated to have a return value of instancetype instead of id.

• Designated initializers are declared as such where appropriate.

In most cases, these changes do not require any additional work in your own app. However, you may also want to implement these changes in your own Objective-C code. In particular, you may want to modernize your Objective-C code for the best experience when interoperating with Swift code.

For more information, see Adopting Modern Objective-C.

AV Foundation Framework

The AV Foundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) enables you to capture metadata over time while shooting video. Arbitrary types of metadata can be embedded with a video recording at various points in time. For example, you might record the current physical location in a video created by a moving camera device.

For information about the classes of this framework, see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

AV Kit Framework

The AV Kit framework (AVKit.framework) previously introduced on OS X is available on iOS. Use it instead of Media Player framework when you need to display a video.

Core Image Framework

The Core Image framework (CoreImage.framework) has the following changes:

• You can create custom image kernels in iOS.

• Core image detectors can detect rectangles and QR codes in an image.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Core Image Reference Collection.

Core Location Framework

The Core Location framework (CoreLocation.framework) has the following changes:

• You can determine which floor the device is on, if the device is in a multistory building.

• The visit service provides an alternative to the significant location change service for apps that need location information about interesting places visited by the user.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Core Location Framework Reference.

Foundation Framework

The Foundation framework (Foundation.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• The NSFileVersion class provides access to past versions of iCloud documents. These versions are stored in iCloud, but can be downloaded on request.

• The NSURL class supports storing document thumbnails as metadata.

• The NSMetadataQuery class can search for external iCloud documents that your app has opened.

Game Controller Framework

The Game Controller framework (GameController.framework) has the following changes:

• If the controller is attached to a device, you can now receive device motion data directly from the Game Controller framework.

• If you are working with button inputs and do not care about pressure sensitivity, a new handler can call your game only when the button’s pressed state changes.

Game Kit Framework

The Game Kit framework (GameKit.framework) has the following changes:

• Features that were added in iOS 7 are available on OS X 10.10, making it easier to use these features in a cross-platform game.

• The new GKSavedGame class makes it easy to save and restore a user’s progress. The data is stored on iCloud; Game Kit does the necessary work to synchronize the files between the device and iCloud.

• Methods and properties that use player identifier strings are now deprecated. Instead, use GKPlayer objects to identify players. Replacement properties and methods have been added that take GKPlayer objects.

iAd Framework

The iAd framework (iAd.framework) adds the following new features:

• If you are using AV Kit to play a video, you can play preroll advertisements before the video is played.

• You can look up more information about the the effectiveness of advertisements for your app.

For information about the classes of this framework, see iAd Framework Reference.

Media Player Framework

Two Media Player framework (MediaPlayer.framework) classes are extended with new metadata information.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Media Player Framework Reference.

Sprite Kit Framework Changes

The Sprite Kit framework (SpriteKit.framework) adds many new features:

• An SKShapeNode object can specify textures to be used when the shape is either stroked or filled.

• The SKSpriteNode, SKShapeNode, SKEmitterNode, and SKEffectNode classes include support for custom rendering. Use the SKShader and SKUniform classes to compile an OpenGL ES 2.0-based fragment shader and provide input data to the shader.

• SKSpriteNode objects can provide lighting information so that Sprite Kit automatically generates lighting effects and shadows. Add SKLightNode objects to the scene to specify the lights, and then customize the properties on these lights and any sprites to determine how the scene is lit.

• The SKFieldNode class provides a number of physics special effects you can apply to a scene. For example, create magnetic fields, add drag effects, or even generate randomized motion. All effects are constrained to a specific region of the scene and you can carefully tune both the effect’s strength and how quickly the effect is weakened by distance. Field nodes make it easy to drop in an effect without having to search the entire list of physics bodies and apply forces to them.

• A new SK3DNode class is used to integrate a Scene Kit scene into your game as a sprite. Each time that Sprite Kit renders your scene, it renders the 3D scene node first to generate a texture, then uses that texture to render a sprite in Sprite Kit. Creating 3D sprites can help you avoid needing to create dozens of frames of animation to produce an effect.

• New actions have been added, including support for inverse kinematic animations.

• A new system of constraints has been added to scene processing. Constraints are applied after physics is simulated and can be used to specify a set of rules for how a node is positioned and oriented. For example, you can use a constrant to specify that a particular node in the scene always points at another node in the scene. Constraints make it easier to implement rendering rules in your game without having to manually tweak the scene in your event loop.

• A scene can implement all of the run-loop stages in a delegate instead. Using a delegate often means that you can avoid needing to subclass the SKScene class.

• The SKView class provides more debugging information. You can also provide more performance hints to the renderer.

• You can create normal map textures for use in lighting and physics calculations (or inside your own custom shaders). Use the new SKMutableTexture class when you need to create textures whose contents are dynamically updated.

• You can dynamically generate texture atlases at runtime from a collection of textures.

Xcode 6 also incorporates many new Sprite Kit editors. Create or edit the contents of scenes directly, specifying the nodes that appear in the scene as well as their physics bodies and other characteristics. This scene is serialized to a file and can be loaded directly by your game. The editors save you time because often you don’t need to implement your own custom editors to create your game’s assets.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Sprite Kit Framework Reference and Sprite Kit Programming Guide.

UIKit Framework

The UIKit framework (UIKit.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• Apps that use local or push notifications must explicitly register the types of alerts that they display to users by using a UIUserNotificationSettings object. This registration process is separate from the process for registering remote notifications, and users must grant permission to deliver notifications through the requested options.

• Local and push notifications can include custom actions as part of an alert. Custom actions appear as buttons in the alert. When tapped, your app is notified and asked to perform the corresponding action. Local notifications can also be triggered by interactions with Core Location regions.

• Collection views support dynamically changing the size of cells. Typically, you use this support to accommodate changes to the preferred text size, but you can adapt it for other scenarios too. Collection views also support more options for invalidating different portions of the layout and thereby improving performance.

• The UISearchController class replaces the UISearchDisplayController class for managing the display of search-related interfaces.

• The UIViewController class adopts traits and the new sizing techniques for adjusting the view controller’s content, as described in Unified Storyboards for Universal Apps.

• The UISplitViewController class is now supported on iPhone as well as iPad. The class adjusts its presented interface to adapt to the available space. It also changes the way it shows and hides the primary view controller, giving you more control over how to display the split view interface.

• The UINavigationController class has new options for changing the size of the navigation bar or hiding it altogether by using gestures.

• The new UIVisualEffect class enables you to integrate custom blur effects into your view hierarchies.

• The new UIPresentationController class lets you separate the content of your view controllers from the chrome used to display them.

• The new UIPopoverPresentationController class handles the presentation of content in a popover. The existing UIPopoverController class uses the popover presentation controller to show popovers on the screen.

• The new UIAlertController class replaces the UIActionSheet and UIAlertView classes as the preferred way to display alerts in your app.

• The new UIPrinterPickerController class offers a view controller-based way to display a list of printers and to select one to use during printing. Printers are represented by instances of the new UIPrinter class.

• You can take the user directly to your app-related settings in the Settings app. Pass the UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString constant to the openURL: method of the UIApplication class.

For information about the classes of this framework, see UIKit Framework Reference.

Video Toolbox Framework

The Video Toolbox framework (VideoToolbox.framework) includes direct access to hardware video encoding and decoding.

A New Design

The iOS 7 UI has been completely redesigned. Throughout the system, a sharpened focus on functionality and on the user's content informs every aspect of design. Translucency, refined visual touches—and fluid, realistic motion—impart clarity, depth, and vitality to the user experience. Whether you're creating a new app or updating an existing one, keep these qualities in mind as you work on the design.

Apps compiled against the iOS 7 SDK automatically receive the new appearance for any standard system views when the app is run on iOS 7. If you use Auto Layout to set the size and position of your views, those views are repositioned as needed. But there may still be additional work to do to make sure your interface still has the appearance you want. Similarly, if you customize your app’s views, you may need to make changes to support the new appearance fully.

For guidance on how to design apps that take full advantage of the new look in iOS 7, see iOS 7 Design Resources.

UIKit Dynamics

Apps can now specify dynamic behaviors for UIView objects and for other objects that conform to the UIDynamicItem protocol. (Objects that conform to this protocol are called dynamic items.) Dynamic behaviors offer a way to improve the user experience of your app by incorporating real-world behavior and characteristics, such as gravity, into your app’s animations. UIKit supports the following types of dynamic behaviors:

• A UIAttachmentBehavior object specifies a connection between two dynamic items or between an item and a point. When one item (or point) moves, the attached item also moves. The connection is not completely static, though. An attachment behavior has damping and oscillation properties that determine how the behavior changes over time.

• A UICollisionBehavior object lets dynamic items participate in collisions with each other and with the behavior’s specified boundaries. The behavior also lets those items respond appropriately to collisions.

• A UIGravityBehavior object specifies a gravity vector for its dynamic items. Dynamic items accelerate in the vector’s direction until they collide with other appropriately configured items or with a boundary.

• A UIPushBehavior object specifies a continuous or instantaneous force vector for its dynamic items.

• A UISnapBehavior object specifies a snap point for a dynamic item. The item snaps to the point with a configured effect. For example, it can snap to the point as if it were attached to a spring.

Dynamic behaviors become active when you add them to an animator object, which is an instance of the UIDynamicAnimator class. The animator provides the context in which dynamic behaviors execute. A given dynamic item can have multiple behaviors, but all of those behaviors must be animated by the same animator object.

For information about the behaviors you can apply, see UIKit Framework Reference.

Text Kit

Text Kit is a full-featured, high-level framework for apps that need to handle text that has all the characteristics of fine typography. Text Kit can lay out styled text into paragraphs, columns, and pages; it easily flows text around arbitrary regions such as graphics; and it manages multiple fonts. Text Kit is integrated with all UIKit text-based controls to enable applications to create, edit, display, and store text more easily—and with less code than was previously possible in iOS.

Text Kit comprises new classes plus extensions to existing classes, including the following:

• The NSAttributedString class has been extended to support new attributes.

• The NSLayoutManager class generates glyphs and lays out text.

• The NSTextContainer class defines a region where text is laid out.

• The NSTextStorage class defines the fundamental interface for managing text-based content.

For more information about Text Kit, see Text Programming Guide for iOS.

Sprite Kit Framework

The Sprite Kit framework (SpriteKit.framework) provides a hardware-accelerated animation system optimized for creating 2D and 2.5D games. Sprite Kit provides the infrastructure that most games need, including a graphics rendering and animation system, sound playback support, and a physics simulation engine. Using Sprite Kit frees you from creating these things yourself and lets you focus on the design of your content and the high-level interactions for that content.

Content in a Sprite Kit app is organized into scenes. A scene can include textured objects, video, path-based shapes, Core Image filters, and other special effects. Sprite Kit takes those objects and determines the most efficient way to render them onscreen. When it comes time to animate the content in your scenes, you can use Sprite Kit to specify explicit actions you want to perform or use the physics simulation engine to define physical behaviors (such as gravity, attraction, or repulsion) for your objects.

In addition to the Sprite Kit framework, there are Xcode tools for creating particle emitter effects and texture atlases. You can use the Xcode tools to manage app assets and update Sprite Kit scenes quickly.

For more information about how to use Sprite Kit, see Sprite Kit Programming Guide. To see an example of how to use Sprite Kit to build a working app, seecode:Explained Adventure.

Game Controller Framework

The Game Controller framework (GameController.framework) lets you discover and configure Made-for-iPhone/iPod/iPad (MFi) game controller hardware in your app. Game controllers can be devices connected physically to an iOS device or connected wirelessly over Bluetooth. The Game Controller framework notifies your app when controllers become available and lets you specify which controller inputs are relevant to your app.

For more information about supporting game controllers, Game Controller Programming Guide.

Game Center Improvements

Game Center includes the following improvements:

• Exchanges give players an opportunity to initiate actions with other players, even when it is not their turn. You can use this feature to implement simultaneous turns, player chats, and trading between players when it is not their turn.

• The limit on per-app leaderboards has been raised from 25 to 100. You can also organize your leaderboards using a GKLeaderboardSet object, which increases the limit to 500.

• You can add conditions to challenges that define when the challenge has been met. For example, a challenge to beat a time in a driving game might stipulate that other players must use the same vehicle.

• The framework has improved its authentication support and added other features to prevent cheating.

For more information about how to use the new Game Center features, see Game Center Programming Guide. For information about the classes of the Game Kit framework, see Game Kit Framework Reference.

UIKit Framework

The UIKit framework (UIKit.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• All UI elements have been updated to present the new look associated with iOS 7.

• UIKit Dynamics lets you mimic real-world effects such as gravity in your animations; see “UIKit Dynamics.”

• Text Kit provides sophisticated text editing and display capabilities; see “Text Kit.”

• The UIView class defines the following additions:

  • The tintColor property applies a tint color that affects both the view and its subviews. For information on how to apply tint colors, see iOS 7 UI Transition Guide.

  • You can create keyframe-based animations using views. You can also make changes to your views and specifically prevent any animations from being performed.

• The UIViewController class defines the following additions:

  • View controller transitions can be customized, driven interactively, or replaced altogether with ones you designate.

  • View controllers can now specify their preferred status bar style and visibility. The system uses the provided information to manage the status bar style as new view controllers appear. You can also control how this behavior is applied using the UIViewControllerBasedStatusBarAppearance key in your app’sInfo.plist file.

• The UIMotionEffect class defines the basic behavior for motion effects, which are objects that define how a view responds to device-based motion.

• Collection views support UIKit Dynamics. Using this support, you can apply behavior objects to layout attributes to animate the corresponding items in the collection.

• The imageNamed: method of UIImage supports retrieving images stored in image asset catalogs, which are a way to manage and optimize assets that have multiple sizes and resolutions. You create image asset catalogs in Xcode.

• There is a new snapshot method on UIView and UIScreen creates a view that you can use to present your app’s content.

• The UIKeyCommand class wraps keyboard events received from an external hardware keyboard. These events are delivered to the app’s responder chain for processing.

• A UIFontDescriptor object describes a font using a dictionary of attributes. Use font descriptors to interoperate with other platforms.

• The UIFont and UIFontDescriptor classes support dynamic text sizing, which improves legibility for text in apps. With this feature, the user controls the desired font size that all apps in the system should use.

• The UIActivity class now supports new activity types, including activities for sending items via AirDrop, adding items to a Safari reading list, and posting content to Flickr, Tencent Weibo, and Vimeo.

• The UIApplicationDelegate protocol adds methods for handling background fetch behaviors.

• UIKit adds support for running in a guided-access mode, which allows an app to lock itself to prevent modification by the user. This app is intended for institutions such as schools where users bring their own devices but need to run apps provided by the institution.

• State restoration now allows the saving and restoration of any object. Objects adopting the UIStateRestoring protocol can write out state information when the app moves to the background and have that state restored during subsequent launches.

• Table views now support estimating the height of rows and other elements, which improves scrolling performance.

For information about the classes of this framework, see UIKit Framework Reference.

Store Kit Framework

The Store Kit framework (StoreKit.framework) has migrated to a new receipt system that developers can use to verify in-app purchases on the device itself. You can also use it to verify the app purchase receipt on the server.

For more information about how to use this new receipt system, see Receipt Validation Programming Guide.

Security Framework

The Security framework (Security.framework) adds support for syncing passwords between user's devices via iCloud. Apps can mark their keychain items for iCloud via a new keychain attribute (kSecAttrSyncronizable).

For more information about this attribute, see the framework header files. For general information about the keychain, see the Keychain Services Programming Guide.

Pass Kit Framework

The Pass Kit framework (PassKit.framework) includes new APIs for adding multiple passes at once, along with these additions to the pass file format:

• New keys specify the expiration date for a pass.

• You can specify that a pass is relevant only when it is in the vicinity of specific Bluetooth beacons.

• New attributes control how a pass is displayed. You can group passes together, display links with custom text on the back of a pass, and control how time values are displayed on the pass.

• You can now associate extra data with a pass. This data is available to your app but not displayed to the user.

• You can designate which data detectors to apply to the fields of your passes.

For information about how to use Pass Kit in your app, see Passbook Programming Guide. For information about the pass file format, see Passbook Package Format Reference.

OpenGL ES

OpenGL ES includes the following new extensions:

• The EXT_sRGB extension adds support for sRGB framebuffer operations.

• The GL_APPLE_pvrtc_sRGB extension adds support for sRGB texture data compressed in the PVRTC texture format.

• The GL_APPLE_draw_instanced and GL_APPLE_instanced_arrays extensions can improve rendering performance when your app draws multiple instances of the same object. You use a single call to draw instances of the same object. You add variation to each instance by specifying how fast each vertex attribute advances or by referencing an ID for each instance in your shader.

As always, check for the existence of an extension before using it in your app.

Also, textures can now be accessed in vertex shaders; query the value of the MAX_VERTEX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS attribute to determine the exact number of textures you can access.

MessageUI Framework

In the MessageUI framework, the MFMessageComposeViewController class adds support for attaching files to messages. For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files.

For information about the classes of this framework, see Message UI Framework Reference.

Media Player Framework

In the Media Player framework, the MPVolumeView class provides support for determining whether wireless routes such as AirPlay and Bluetooth are available for the user to select. You can also determine whether one of these wireless routes is currently active. For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For information about the classes of Media Player framework, see Media Player Framework Reference.

Map Kit Framework

The Map Kit framework (MapKit.framework) includes changes that are described in “Maps.”

For information about the classes of this framework, see Map Kit Framework Reference.

Image I/O Framework

The Image I/O framework (ImageIO.framework) now has interfaces for getting and setting image metadata.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For information about the classes of this framework, see Image I/O Reference Collection.

iAd Framework

The iAd framework (iAd.framework) includes two extensions to other frameworks that make it easier to incorporate ads into your app’s content:

• The framework introduces new methods on the MPMoviePlayerController class that let you run ads before a movie.

• The framework extends the UIViewController class to make it easier to create ad-supported content. You can now configure your view controllers to display ads before displaying the actual content they manage.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For information about the classes of this framework, see Ad Support Framework Reference.

Game Kit Framework

The Game Kit framework (GameKit.framework) includes numerous changes, which are described in “Game Center Improvements.”

For information about the classes of this framework, see Game Kit Framework Reference.

Foundation Framework

The Foundation framework (Foundation.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• The NSURLSession class is a new class for managing the acquisition of network-based resources in the background. This class serves as a replacement for theNSURLConnection class and its delegate; it also replaces the NSURLDownload class and its delegate.

• The NSURLComponents class is a new class for parsing the components of a URL. This class supports the URI standard (rfc3986/STD66) for parsing URLs.

• The NSNetService and NSNetServiceBrowser classes support peer-to-peer discovery over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

• The NSURLCredential and NSURLCredentialStorage classes let you create credentials with a synchronizable policy and provide the option of removing credentials with a synchronizable policy from iCloud.

• The NSURLCache, NSURLCredentialStorage, NSHTTPCookieStorage classes now support for the asynchronous processing of storage requests.

• The NSCalendar class supports new calendar types.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files and Foundation release notes. For general information about the classes of this framework, see Foundation Framework Reference.

Core Telephony Framework

The Core Telephony framework (CoreTelephony.framework) lets you get information about the type of radio technology in use by the device, the current signal strength, and the cell ID serving the device. Apps developed in conjunction with a carrier can also authenticate their apps against a particular subscriber for that carrier.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For general information about the classes of the Core Telephony framework, see Core Telephony Framework Reference

Core Motion Framework

The Core Motion framework (CoreMotion.framework) adds support for step counting and motion tracking. With step counting, the framework detects movements that correspond to user motion and uses that information to report the number of steps to your app. Because the system detects the motion, the system can continue to gather step data even when your app is not running. Alongside this feature, the framework can also distinguish different types of motion, including different motions reflective of travel by walking, by running, or by automobile. Navigation apps might use that data to change the type of directions they give to users.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For general information about the classes of this framework, see Core Motion Framework Reference.

Core Location Framework

The Core Location framework (CoreLocation.framework) supports ranging using Bluetooth devices. Ranging lets you determine the relative range of nearby Bluetooth devices and respond appropriately. For example, a museum might place Bluetooth beacons in its galleries and provide visitors with an app that displays information as the user enters and exits those galleries. The framework also supports deferring the delivery of location updates until a specific time has elapsed or the user has moved a minimum distance.

For general information about the classes of this framework, see Core Location Framework Reference.

Core Foundation Framework

The Core Foundation framework (CoreFoundation.framework) now supports scheduling stream objects on dispatch queues. For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files.

For general information about the interfaces of this framework, see Core Foundation Framework Reference.

Core Bluetooth Framework

The Core Bluetooth framework (CoreBluetooth.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• The framework supports saving state information for central and peripheral objects and restoring that state at app launch time. You can use this feature to support long-term actions involving Bluetooth devices.

• The central and peripheral classes now use an NSUUID object to store unique identifiers.

• You can now retrieve peripheral objects from a central manager synchronously.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For general information about the classes of this framework, see Core Bluetooth Framework Reference.

AV Foundation Framework

The AV Foundation framework (AVFoundation.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• The AVAudioSession class supports the following new behaviors:

  • Support for selecting the preferred audio input, including audio from built-in microphones

  • Support for multichannel input and output

• The AVVideoCompositing and related classes let you support custom video compositors.

• The AVSpeechSynthesizer and related classes provide speech synthesis capabilities.

• The capture classes add support and interfaces for the following features:

  • Discovery of a camera’s supported formats

  • Support for 60 fps recording

  • Video zoom (true and digital) in recordings and video preview, including custom ramping

  • Real-time discovery of machine-readable barcode metadata

  • Autofocus range restriction

  • Access to the clocks used during capture

• There are new metadata key spaces for supported ISO formats such as MPEG-4 and 3GPP and improved support for filtering metadata items when copying those items from source assets to output files using the AVAssetExportSession class.

• The AVAssetWriter class provides assistance in formulating output settings and there are new level constants for H.264 encoding.

• The AVPlayerLayer class adds the videoRect property, which you can use to get the size and position of the video image.

• The AVPlayerItem class supports the following changes:

  • Asset properties can be loaded automatically when AVPlayerItem objects are prepared for playback.

  • When you link your app against iOS SDK 7, the behavior when getting the values of player item properties—such as the duration, or tracks, orpresentationSize properties—is different than pervious versions of iOS. The properties of this class now return a default value and no longer block your app if the AVPlayerItem object is is not yet ready to play. As soon as the player item’s status changes to AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay, the getters reflect the actual values of the underlying media resource. If you use key-value observing to monitor changes to the properties, your observers are notified as soon as changes are available.

• The AVPlayerItemLegibleOutput class can process timed text from media files.

• The AVAssetResourceLoadingDelegate protocol now supports loading of arbitrary ranges of bytes from a media resource.

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For general information about the classes of this framework, see AV Foundation Framework Reference.

Accelerate Framework

The Accelerate framework (Accelerate.framework) includes the following enhancements:

• Improved support for manipulating Core Graphics data types

• Support for working with grayscale images of 1, 2, or 4 bits per pixel

• New routines for converting images between different formats and transforming image contents

• Support for biquad (IIR) operations

For information about the new interfaces, see the framework header files. For general information about the functions and types of this framework, see Accelerate Framework Reference.