At the time of its release, iOS 7 was the first post-Steve Jobs product to come out of Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. To many, it signaled the start of CEO Tim Cook’s personal influence over the company and its products. Fast-forward one year later, and iOS 8, released Sept. 17, completes what iOS 7 began. Whereas the first update was mostly cosmetic and changed the look and feel of iPhones and iPads, iOS 8 brings with it a larger number of changes under the hood. This latest update is part two of Cook’s push, which began with iOS 7, for a simpler and more streamlined mobile operating experience.
At the Worldwide Developer Conference in June, Apple stressed two major features of iOS 8: Continuity and Extensions. Handoff, a part of Continuity, allows nearby iOS 8 devices or Mac computers to communicate with each other over low-powered Bluetooth and tell each other what the user is up to. Composing an email on your iPhone but decide to switch to your Macbook? A little mail icon appears in the corner of the login screen, and if you click it, you can continue where you left off from your iPhone. Reading an interesting article on your iPad but in a hurry to leave? Just tap the Safari icon on your iPhone to open up the webpage with the same article.
Also under Continuity is the ability to send and receive phone calls and messages from a nearby Mac or iPad without having to unlock your iPhone. The feature works seamlessly between any combination of iPhones, iPads and Bluetooth-enabled Macs but requires OS X Yosemite to be installed on your Mac. Yosemite is still in an open beta state and is expected to be announced for release at Apple’s October event.
Alongside Continuity comes Extensions. In simple terms, this feature allows apps to communicate with each other rather than be closed off, as in previous iOS releases. Instead of only being able to post to Apple-approved social networks like Facebook or Twitter, an app now has the ability to post to your Google+ account or make a call over Skype without leaving the app. Along with this added communication, Extensions marks the first time iOS users can install custom keyboards system-wide and third-party widgets in the notification center. Already there has been a flurry of keyboards in the App Store, including the popular Swype and SwiftKey option that Android users have enjoyed for years. Reports of a GIF-exclusive keyboard in the future have surfaced, due to iOS 8’s ability to send GIFs through iMessage. Third-party widgets, another addition, are an easy way for apps to continually provide data or services to the user without having to keep the app open. Furthermore, Extensions allow apps to upload and retrieve files from cloud-based services, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, without the need to open up the app itself. Though apps are given more free reign over the user’s device, Apple has taken great steps to ensure security is maintained in lieu last month’s iCloud breach of celebrity photos.
Other smaller but important changes in iOS 8 include a refined multitask switcher to include recent contacts for quick communications and a Siri that will respond to a simple “Hey Siri” when the device is plugged into a power source. Spotlight search has been improved to pull results from the web in addition to searching your local data, and iMessages will now let you send voice and video messages by holding the record button within the app. Notifications can be interacted with directly by pulling down on the banner, useful for quickly responding to a text without having to open up the app. Also included is integration with iCloud Drive, a service similar to Google Drive, that allows the user to upload documents that can be shared across devices, an upgrade from the iCloud of the past that only stored emails, photos and notes.
iOS 8 is supported on iPhone 4S, 5, 5S, 5C, 6 and 6 Plus, as well as the iPad 2, 3, 4, Air, 1st Generation iPad Mini, 2nd Generation iPad Mini and iPod Touch 5th Generation. Users of the iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 5th Generation and iPad 2 are cautioned to reconsider updating, as early adopters and reviewers have found that the aging A5 processor and hardware within the device leads to choppy animations and slower app bootup times, and several features are unsupported.
