While you can gleam all the details of Apple’s new iOS 8 mobile operating system from links like this one, this one and this one, here are a few thoughts after just 12 hours on the beta.
- The best changes in my opinion are with Messages. Specifically, things like including all of the media between you and another person really make finding that sent picture easy. Other great stuff includes being able to name your group texts, excuse yourself from said group texts and quickly fire off recently taken pictures to your friends. The “coolest” feature might be what I’d like to call “Quick Voicemail”, which allows you to easily send an audio message to a person or group of people. Those people can easily respond. I still haven’t figured out the actual point of this, but you can do the same thing with videos and pictures as well. Finally, you can now respond to a message right from the notification, probably the biggest time saver. It is still a little glitchy with the beta, but this will be the most used feature, I’d bet.
- The most handy small feature to me is definitely the double-click to show recent contacts. This will save me a ton of time as I call my wife, Jared and like two other people. That is it. Apple does all of these things without it being a major change, as the contact pictures appear right above open apps when you get to that screen.
- Speaking of Apps, I have been having some problems with certain Apps on the beta. I’ve read that some have had the same issues while others have not. Namely, Facebook refuses to open. I also had problems with Safari, but they were fixed with a Cookies and Cache clear. Apple does not allow developers to update their Apps for iOS 8 until the Golden Master comes out, and that will likely be in late August.
- There are some other things that came down. Like the “Quick Type” system, which predicts your next word and gives you the chance to hit it. We’ll see how it evolves with my typing prowess, but right now it just slows me down. The Handoff system, which allows you to go from iOS to OS X and back, transferring documents, emails and websites quickly, was working. What I could not figure out was how to easily do this AND use Touch ID when moving to Mobile. It was just a clunky move, in my opinion.
- I’m not going to talk about Health because Health isn’t usable yet. Sure, you can enter height and weight, and certain data points, but the true usefulness will come with apps that sync with it.
I’ll be back with more later.