iOS 8 is Apple's most realized iOSrelease ever.
Sure, the media excitement is concentrated around the impending release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but iOS 8 is something that should enthuse all iPhone and iPad owners.
When I reviewed iOS 7 last year, I described the release as a rebirth of iOS. It was, after all, a significant overhaul — akin to the change from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. For those who remember, Mac OS X 10.0 was a rough release. Sure, the interface was brand new and the promise was there, but there were bugs and some missing features.
It was with the release of Mac OS X 10.1 and Mac OS X 10.2 that the platform really started to take off, both with developers and with users.
The same is true for iOS 8. On the outside, it looks almost identical to iOS 7, but once under the hood, you realize there's something more powerful and useful at your fingertips.
Look and feel
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Visually, iOS 8 is an extension of iOS 7 with a few added additions and adjustments. The fonts, the color schemes — even the wallpaper selections — are all the same. The few visual changes that iOS 8 brings make the OS more useful and easier to use.
One of my favorite new features is the ability to quickly reply to notifications without leaving other apps. Simply pull down on the banner notification and you can reply to a text or iMessage, accept or decline a calendar invite or dismiss an alarm.
This is a feature other mobile operating systems — notably Android — have employed for some time and it really is a handy way to respond to text message alerts.
Another great feature is in Notification Center. The Today screen now has support for third-party widgets. This feature is very similar to the one that will come out in OS X Yosemite later this fall, but the idea is that you can customize the Today screen to display different interactive widgets from other apps.
One of my favorite apps, PCalc, has a widget built-in — access to a simplified version of its calculator. As a result, I can save time doing calculations without having to launch another app.
Another new feature is recent contacts. Double-press the home button and a list of your recent contacts pops up above the multi-tasking app view. This provides one-tap access to people you frequently contact.
Keyboards and typing
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For years, iOS users have wanted better keyboard options. Apple's auto-correct is notoriously bad and the company has responded with a new keyboard designed to make things better.
The answer is QuickType and it works similar to solutions Google, Samsung and others have offered for some time. Start typing words and predictive text for the next word will pop up automatically.
The results are OK, but not especially fast or prescient. Apple says this will improve as you go, but in my tests, I still found it less useful than it could be.
What is useful is support for third-party keyboards from companies such as Swype and SwiftKey. Finally, iOS users can really customize their input options. The only downside with third-party keyboards is that you have to install them separately and they take up an application icon. For safety, Apple also makes sure that those keyboards can't send any data anywhere else.
Messages
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Apple has done a lot of work on the Messages app to make it more comparable to WhatsApp and Snapchat.
You can now share your location, send voice messages with a tap, and quickly record video and selfies. You can also send multiple photos at once.
When it comes to group messaging, Apple has made major strides to make complex conversations less annoying. You can leave a conversation, mute alerts, remove others from a group and share maps with everyone.
You can even view all the media attached to a conversation, which is great for sharing photos with family and friends.
iCloud Drive
One of the biggest new features for iOS 8 — and OS X Yosemite — is the introduction of iCloud Drive.
Putting aside any of the recent security concerns, iCloud Drive finally lets users have the freedom to see everything on their iOS devices from other devices, as well as a Mac or PC.
In addition to viewing the files and documents stored by your apps, you can also use iCloud Drive as more general storage, the same way you can use Microsoft's OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox.
Users still don't have a file manager à la Finder, but the prayers for more functionality have been answered. However, when upgrading to iOS 8, you'll need to make sure you don't need apps to sync data with any Apple device running iOS 7 or OS X 10.9 Mavericks since those earlier OSes are incompatible with iCloud Drive. You'll need everything running iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite to sync properly across devices.
And speaking of iCloud security, two-factor authentication now protects iCloud.com (and iCloud backups) and there are now app-specific passwords for things such as calendars. That's a great start to making users more comfortable with iCloud.
Continuity
Ever wanted to switch devices in the middle of a task? You know, you're writing an email on your phone but have to go to a meeting and the iPad or MacBook is more convenient. iOS 8, along with the upcoming OS X Yosemite, adds a bunch of features to make it easy to move from device to device.
A feature called Handoff lets users switch from apps or websites to other devices running iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite.
You can even make and receive iPhone phone calls on the iPad. This is a great feature that just requires being on the same Wi-Fi network. So if you get a phone call and are in another room — but the iPad is nearby — you can answer the call from your iPad. No need to get up.
For years, iMessage has allowed users to see messages from other iOS or Mac users on all their devices. The people not using Apple devices — those green-bubble peeps — were left out. This was annoying if you wanted to send a message to someone on your iPad, but they weren't on iOS.
But next month, you'll be able to send and receive SMS and MMS messages from an iPad or Mac, thanks to iOS 8's SMS relay support. Now when the green people text you, you don't have to ask to switch apps so you can go to another room with your iPad.
App Extensions
App extensions let app developers build in ways to talk to other apps — or for other apps to talk to them — so that you can do really great things.
For instance, if you want to save an article you are reading to Pocket, you don't have to rely on a bookmarklet anymore. The app will come with its own extension for Safari.
Other apps, including Pinterest, have share extensions too. This means you can share an item to a pin directly from Safari without a lot of muss. Other apps can use these extensions too and I can't wait to see how developers adopt this feature.
The best part? 1Password, my favorite password manager, will now work in other apps — including Safari. For LastPass fans, that app has an extension too. Viva la password management bliss.
Health
Apple is getting into the health game with its new Health app.
The app acts as a dashboard to aggregate your fitness and health data from various apps. Health includes options for diagnostics, fitness, lab results, medications, sleep, vitals and more.
You can even set up an Emergency Card so paramedics can know about any allergies or medical conditions.
On the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8 can even natively show how many steps you take using the M8 motion co-processor.
Siri
The big news with Siri is that it now has Shazam integration built right in so you can use Siri to find out what song is playing.
You can also say "Hey Siri" — Apple's variation on "OK Google" — to get her ready to work. The command will even work when the phone is dormant, but only if you plug it into power.
Users of Google Now will still see Siri as more of a novelty than an actually useful tool, but she's getting better all the time.
Tips and Mail
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Apple has added a Tips app on the home screen of the iPhone and iPad. It's a simple app but shows off some of the new features in iOS 8.
As an example, it shows off how you can easily swipe away messages to archive, mark as read or unread or delete within Mail.
Mail has a new feature that notifies you as soon as you get a reply to a specific message.
Other niceties
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The iPhone's Touch ID fingerprint sensor is now open to developers, which means that you can use it to authenticate more than just your iTunes purchases. Amazon, as an example, has support for Touch ID for making payments or logging in through its official app.
Apple has also added a great new battery usage section that shows you what apps have used the majority of your battery in the last hour. This can be useful in knowing what apps to tinker with, uninstall or hard-quit.
Just the surface
A lot of the real magic with iOS 8 is going to come from third-party developers and with what they do with features such as Continuity, extensions, widgets and third-party keyboards.
As a result, even though iOS 8 is fantastic today, it's bound to get even better tomorrow.
iOS 8 really brings iOS in parity with Android, while keeping it the iOS we know and love. And that's pretty great.
iOS 8
The Good
Tons of new features • Supports third-party keyboards •Extensions ease sharing between apps
The Bad
Siri still feels like a novelty •Maps still don't support transit •iCloud Drive not compatible with older versions of iOS and OS X
The Bottom Line
iOS 8 is the best iOS release to date and it's only going to get better.
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