iOS 8

[Eug]

The GM is out, for developers that is.

http://www.cultofmac.com/294852/apple-seeds-ios-8-gm-developers-ahead-sept-17th-release/

I predict there will be a quick ramp up of iOS 8 (p)reviews in the next few days.

 

[Eug]

Here is the Apple.com website on it:

https://www.apple.com/ios/

Golden master is build 12A365.

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SunSpider 1.0.2 is all over the map on iOS 8.0 for some reason.

425 ms: iOS 7.1.2
424 ms: iOS 8.0, but most of the time it was over 450, and sometimes over 480.

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iOS 8 / Yosemite advertises that you can use SMS/MMS on Macs and iPads. Well, it turns out the only way to activate it is to use iMessage. As far as I'm concerned, that partially defeats the point of sticking with SMS/MMS. They should simply offer an option to segregate SMS/MMS from iMessage. It would make things much simpler IMO.

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Maybe I'm imagining it, but TouchID seems a touch faster.

Looking forward to trying 1Password with TouchID support in iOS 8.

http://www.cultofmac.com/285764/1password-touch-id-integration-ios-8-truly-amazing/

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Time Lapse is an interesting new camera option:

https://www.apple.com/ca/ios/whats-new/photos/

Capture the experience of the sun setting, a city street bustling or a flower blooming with the new Time-lapse mode in Camera. iOS 8 does all the work, snapping photos at dynamically selected intervals. The result is a video showing an accelerated sequence of the photos over time. Just set up your device to shoot what you want. Swipe to select Time-lapse mode, tap the Record button, and let Camera record as long as you choose.

Also, the Photos application is better organized.

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The favourite contacts bar on the multitasking menu is awesome.

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My banking apps, Netflix, and nPlayer work fine. So does Live Cams Pro.

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Can't test Handoff because none of my Macs support it.

https://www.apple.com/ca/ios/whats-new/continuity/

 

[Eug]

Do not try to update your iDevices with Yosemite yet. Apparently a new version of iTunes 12 is required. People have had problems, getting their iDevices stuck in DFU mode.

However, on other OS X versions, you can install iTunes 11.4 which was released yesterday. However, on my Mavericks machine I didn't install 11.4 and it all worked fine.

http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/09/apple...te-for-os-x-mavericks-adds-support-for-ios-8/

BTW, this keyboard is screwed up as I'm typing this. Some the letters don't line up with the cursor when I try to edit.

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TouchID seems a tad inconsistent now. Was fine in iOS 7. I'll try to add duplicates like I had before to see if that makes logins more reliable.

 

[Rakehellion]

iMessage defeats the purpose of SMS. And it was never a shock that iCloud features require an account.

 

[Rakehellion]

On iOS 8, you can no longer disable background access to the Location Services. It's all or nothing. This happened suddenly right after the iPhone announcement.

 

[fr]

Sounds like I can do a time-lapse of my 3D prints on a 5S. Debating whether it's worth losing my iOS 7 jailbreak.

 

[Red Storm]

On iOS 8, you can no longer disable background access to the Location Services. It's all or nothing. This happened suddenly right after the iPhone announcement.

What? That's my biggest battery killer on the iPhone 5...

 

[Eug]

I get the impression there may be more stuttering here and there when navigating iOS 8 on my iPad 2 vs iOS 7.

In contrast, on the 5s, everything is extremely speedy.

To speed things up on the iPad 2, I already had Reduced Motion in iOS 7, but now I've Reduced Transparency in iOS 8 as well. With both of these options on, the iPad 2's performance feels decent again.

Unfortunately, it's much more utilitarian-looking with transparency turned down.

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I wonder if a small part of the speed difference is caused by the inability to disable background location services. You can still completely disable location services by app though.

 

[TheStu]

I wonder if a small part of the speed difference is caused by the inability to disable background location services. You can still completely disable location services by app though.

I was going to mention that if you hadn't.

 

[dlock13]

I noticed that Touch ID works a lot faster as well. Before it was about a 1-2 second response time, and now, it is more like .5 seconds. It is a lot quicker.

 

[amdhunter]

Worth losing jailbreak over?

 

[Eug]

Worth losing jailbreak over?

How wedded to the jailbreak are you? I don't jailbreak my iPhones, so iPhone jailbreaks are meaningless to me.

However, iOS 8 feels like an incremental update to me. Some nice features, but not a huge change overall.

 

[Megatomic]

Should I wait for the first point update to iOS 8 to update my wife's iPad 4? She's not super techy so if something is broken and requires a workaround she'll be all over me for ruining her experience. This is one area where she has no patience for my zeal to update quickly.

 

[Eug]

Should I wait for the first point update to iOS 8 to update my wife's iPad 4? She's not super techy so if something is broken and requires a workaround she'll be all over me for ruining her experience. This is one area where she has no patience for my zeal to update quickly.

Well, I guess it depends on what software she runs, and how mission critical that stuff is.

All my main stuff runs fine, as does my Logitech Bluetooth keyboard, but obviously I wouldn't have the same apps as she does. And my iPad 2 isn't mission critical anyway.

On my main Mac though, I never update to the latest quickly because I've run into incompatibilities before. I have Yosemite beta running on my MacBook Pro, but my iMac is still on an older version of Mavericks.

 

[Megatomic]

My wife's iPad is not mission critical in our sense of the word, but she uses it heavily for Pinterest, Facebook, GMail, media playback (Netflix/Hulu/Amazon), and a bevy of games.

 

[Eug]

I can only tell you Netflix works fine. Dunno about the rest.

 

[Megatomic]

I can only tell you Netflix works fine. Dunno about the rest.

That in itself is huge for her, she entertains our granddaughter with Netflix when she gets tired and grouchy (20 months old). Happily I have a week to listen to feedback from all over the web before I have to make my decision.

 

[JAG87]

The only thing that make iOS 8 worth upgrading immediately for are wifi calling and VoLTE, if those things are supported by your carrier. Everything else is m-e-h.

 

[Megatomic]

The only thing that make iOS 8 worth upgrading immediately for are wifi calling and VoLTE, if those things are supported by your carrier. Everything else is m-e-h.

If this was for me then even those features are meh as her iPad is WiFi only.

 

[JAG87]

If this was for me then even those features are meh as her iPad is WiFi only.

Well then the only thing you have to look forward to is SMS integration, IF she has an iPhone. Otherwise meh.

 

[Megatomic]

Lol, nope. She's got my One+ One. Oh well, no rush on the update then.

My son has an iPhone 5C, he's probably dying to update though. Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[HN]

so looking forward to being able to mute specific group texts

 

[purbeast0]

so looking forward to being able to mute specific group texts

woah what is this? so you can basically choose to no longer participate/receive messages in those big ass group text messages with the new iOS8? i always hated that crap, especially when there are like 6 people who's numbers i don't even know that are on the group text.

 

[HN]

woah what is this? so you can basically choose to no longer participate/receive messages in those big ass group text messages with the new iOS8? i always hated that crap, especially when there are like 6 people who's numbers i don't even know that are on the group text.

yup. you can set the conversation to "Do Not Disturb" where you'll still get the messages but not get any notifications for it; or you can leave the conversation altogether. (Can also selectively drop someone from the conversation.)

http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/messages/

 

[purbeast0]

yup. you can set the conversation to "Do Not Disturb" where you'll still get the messages but not get any notifications for it; or you can leave the conversation altogether. (Can also selectively drop someone from the conversation.)

http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/messages/

sweet that is good to know.

i wonder what happens if you leave, but wanted to get back into it later on...