iOS 8

[RampantAndroid]

iOS betas aren't mean to replace your main phone's OS. They tell you that before you download it.

I had no issues with beta 5. It was solid. The earlier ones had the occasional crash.
It's ridiculous to think you can fix every bug when you're adding and removing major features. Features and bugs require two different development steps.

It is meant however for development...and I don't have an extra phone for development.


As for bugs vs features...they aren't really different steps. There needs to be a fair amount of unit testing done before checkin, and ideally, automated tests running for various scenarios before a checkin, or at least before the checkin gets merged into a mainline build...

 

[bearxor]

I kind of stayed out of this discussion because I'm not a developer, but...

iOS 8 was a very smooth beta compared to previous ones. I think I had some issues in b3, but by b4 and b5, they were pretty much gone. Up until yesterday I had been using b5 every day since the day it was seeded and never had an issue.

Spoiler

But the reason I stayed out of the conversation is that it's highly unlikely what I'm saying has any value to you so you'll just come back with reasons as to why my experience is inconsequential and does not matter.

 

[Eug]

Well this is a HUGE iOS 8 bug. If you have a previous iMessage thread, but you have turned off iMessage, in iOS 8 it actually refuses to let you send a text to the same person. The only option is iMessage, but if you try to send it it will fail, because iMessage is off.

No matter how you try sending the SMS it always defaults to iMessages even when it's off. There is no way to select SMS.

Many here know I hate how iOS deals with SMS, but this just takes the cake.

EDIT:

Bug report submitted.

 

[Eug]

OMG iPhone Wave

 

[Rakehellion]

It is meant however for development...and I don't have an extra phone for development.


As for bugs vs features...they aren't really different steps. There needs to be a fair amount of unit testing done before checkin, and ideally, automated tests running for various scenarios before a checkin, or at least before the checkin gets merged into a mainline build...

Apple says only to install the beta on a dedicated testing device. If you lose all your baby photos in a crash, then that's on you.

And yes, you have to implement a feature before you debug it. I've never heard of this several reboots per day because the betas were solid for me.

 

[Rakehellion]

Well this is a HUGE iOS 8 bug. If you have a previous iMessage thread, but you have turned off iMessage, in iOS 8 it actually refuses to let you send a text to the same person. The only option is iMessage, but if you try to send it it will fail, because iMessage is off.

No matter how you try sending the SMS it always defaults to iMessages even when it's off. There is no way to select SMS.

Many here know I hate how iOS deals with SMS, but this just takes the cake.

EDIT:

Bug report submitted.

I'm not seeing that bug. Are you sending to their phone number or email address?

 

[Eug]

I'm not seeing that bug. Are you sending to their phone number or email address?

I tried manually typing in the phone number, for several different contacts. If I exit the iMessage thread, and then start a new message by typing in the phone number, the number turns blue when I finish typing it. Then if I click on the number, it takes me back to the iMessage thread and defaults to iMessage.

What's interesting (and frustrating) is that it doesn't matter what's in the thread. It can be a mix of iMessage and SMS, but if the last message is green, then it defaults to green SMS. However, if the last message is blue, then often it defaults to blue iMessage. This latter behaviour obviously makes no sense if iMessage is turned off. See pic:

In this case, I selected the mobile phone number from the Contacts for a text message, and iOS just took me back to the iMessage thread, defaulting to an iMessage text entry box, despite the fact that iMessage is turned off.

OTOH, for this following pic, you'll see that the last message was an SMS, and the default iOS gives me for a subsequent message is also a text.

This is the expected behaviour, since iMessage is turned off.

 

[bearxor]

Let me get this straight...

You have a Messages thread that the last message sent is an iMessage.
You turn iMessage off in the settings.
You can not send a text using that same thread.

Is that correct? I just tried that sequence on mine and did not have an issue but am also not sure if I have understood exactly what your issue is. If I have it wrong, can you break it down in to a step-by-step?

 

[Eug]

Let me get this straight...

You have a Messages thread that the last message sent is an iMessage.
You turn iMessage off in the settings.
You can not send a text using that same thread.

Is that correct? I just tried that sequence on mine and did not have an issue but am also not sure if I have understood exactly what your issue is. If I have it wrong, can you break it down in to a step-by-step?

Yes. However, even if I try to send a text message by manually typing in the phone number, it just takes me to that thread, with the same result.

Note that this is not with all Message threads, just some of them, and not all iMessage threads that end with an iMessage, but most of them.

OTOH, for all the Message threads I checked that ended with an SMS, iOS 8 allows me to enter SMS just fine.

---

BTW, I saw a similar thread on this in the Apple Support Forums earlier today although I can't find it at the moment.

 

[Red Storm]

The keyboards are buggy as heck. It seems to randomly pick from my chosen keyboards each time I bring it up. And some apps don't even recognize the third party keyboards, so if you've deselected the default English keyboard (to try and fix or eliminate the keyboard roulette problem) and you try to type in these apps, all you get is the emoji keyboard.

Still seeing a lot of random lag in typing, browsing, and using apps like the built in mail, or Gmail or OWA. OWA is the worst offender.

Performance wise I have to say this is a poor showing from iOS.

 

[Eug]

I've reverted back to iOS 7.1.2 for the iPad 2. The lagginess of iOS 8.0 on A5-based iDevices got to me. I'll wait until 8.1 or whatever when they improve the OS performance before I go back to iOS 8 on that machine.

So, if you're on an iPad mini, iPad 2, iPad 3, or iPhone 4S and want to revert, they're still signing iOS 7.1.2, as my post above illustrates.

The International Business Times has the firmware files linked in their article.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-downgrade-ios-8-ios-7-1-2-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-1466253

I think everything A6 and above is fine speed-wise though.

 

[saratoga172]

Well this is a HUGE iOS 8 bug. If you have a previous iMessage thread, but you have turned off iMessage, in iOS 8 it actually refuses to let you send a text to the same person. The only option is iMessage, but if you try to send it it will fail, because iMessage is off.

No matter how you try sending the SMS it always defaults to iMessages even when it's off. There is no way to select SMS.

Many here know I hate how iOS deals with SMS, but this just takes the cake.

EDIT:

Bug report submitted.

I've experienced this off and on since at least ios 6.

 

[redgtxdi]

I've reverted back to iOS 7.1.2 for the iPad 2. The lagginess of iOS 8.0 on A5-based iDevices got to me. I'll wait until 8.1 or whatever when they improve the OS performance before I go back to iOS 8 on that machine.

So, if you're on an iPad mini, iPad 2, iPad 3, or iPhone 4S and want to revert, they're still signing iOS 7.1.2, as my post above illustrates.

The International Business Times has the firmware files linked in their article.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-downgrade-ios-8-ios-7-1-2-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-1466253

I think everything A6 and above is fine speed-wise though.

Thank Eug. I just got the upgrade message this morning on my iPad2 and that was the first thing I thought......"Is this gonna kill A5 speed?" Sounds like it does so I'll hold off for now.

 

[Eug]

This article summarizes most of the complaints (speed or otherwise) about iOS 8 on the iPad 2.

http://argyllfreepress.com/2014/09/20/ipad-2-problems-with-performance-after-upgrading-to-ios8/

The author of the article recommends sticking with iOS 7.1.2.

However two kids in our extended family just installed iOS 8 on their non-Retina iPad minis and they were fine with the speed.

 

[smackababy]

Article: I'm using a 15 year old iPad, it doesn't work as fast as I'd like... Um, upgrade to this century maybe?

 

[Eug]

Not really. The iPad 2 is fully supported under iOS 8 but it runs it more slowly and with some bugs (the latter not unique to the iPad 2). Furthermore Apple does not usually allow reversion back to the previous iOS version.

Therefore it is a reasonable article to write. For anyone who notices the speed issues, I too would suggest holding off.

Ars pretty much says the same thing for the iPhone 4S, although for the 4S, part of the reason is because iOS 8 feels really cramped to them on a 3.5" screen, and much more so than iOS 7 did.

BTW, I refuse to upgrade my iPad until iPads get 2 GB RAM.

Edit:

Here is an Ars article specifically about iOS 8 on the iPad 2.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/a-slide-into-obsolescence-ios-8-on-the-ipad-2/

 

[Spineshank]

The keyboards are buggy as heck. It seems to randomly pick from my chosen keyboards each time I bring it up. And some apps don't even recognize the third party keyboards, so if you've deselected the default English keyboard (to try and fix or eliminate the keyboard roulette problem) and you try to type in these apps, all you get is the emoji keyboard.

Still seeing a lot of random lag in typing, browsing, and using apps like the built in mail, or Gmail or OWA. OWA is the worst offender.

Performance wise I have to say this is a poor showing from iOS.

Same here. Swype was real bad. Swiftkey is better but I still run into certain issues.

 

[Red Storm]

Same here. Swype was real bad. Swiftkey is better but I still run into certain issues.

Yep, today I ran into another issue where Whatsapp was not letting me send a message. I could type it out, but the send key was grayed out. I went into the keyboard settings (it's annoying how deep iOS buries this stuff) and enabled the default keyboard, and it still wouldn't work. Had to restart the phone.

This is a bug I'm experiencing at least once a day.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Yeah the keyboards are not working very well. I'm reverting back to stock keyboard until they get it worked out. Some examples: Had a lock up issue where I could not type anything at all in terms of messages. Could not swap out keyboards. Had to reboot in order to repair. Another problem seems to be that iOS fills the screen with recent messages but Swiftkey just pops on top of them so I always have to scroll to see the latest message above the keyboard.

Minor annoyances that will hopefully be worked out soon.

 

[saratoga172]

Yeah stick keyboard is still my favorite. Mostly for the reasons I use iOS. It's fluid, smooth, and no real glitches to speak of. The swiftkey and swype keyboards just feel off when using them. If they could implement swype into the stock keyboard theme and feel that would be perfect for me.

Still step in the right direction though.

 

[Spineshank]

I can handle using the stock keyboard. I am hoping its better on the size of 6+ vs the 5.

 

[saratoga172]

Can't speak for the 6+ since I got the 6 but I think the extra space of the 6 compared to my 5s is much much nicer. 5s I could one hand though it was slow. 6 I can barely but you'll notice a huge improvement on the 6+ in accuracy and speed I think. Much more space.

 

[Aikouka]

Is anyone else having an issue with iCloud Keychain? I used to have a bunch of passwords saved back on iOS 7, but now, according to the Settings app, I only have a single website's password saved. I've also had 1Password lose its TouchID capability way too often (it's set to 30 days), and TouchID uses the Keychain to store any passwords... even for third-party apps.

 

[smackababy]

Finally, I have discovered how to remove the emoji keyboard! I kept hitting it when attempting to use punctuation.

 

[Aikouka]

To note, I fixed the missing keychain items by disabling the keychain from my phone and deleting whatever entries (or rather, entry in my case) that were on my phone. I added it back again through authorization on my iPad, and it looks like it has all of my passwords. I'll keep an eye on 1Password to see if it drops the stored master password (it should never unless I don't use it for 30 days).