A feature new to iOS 8 is Family Sharing, which allows you to consolidate up to six iCloud accounts under one credit card. All members under Family Sharing have access to each other's purchases, including music, movies, TV shows, books and other content bought from the iTunes store.
One of the benefits of Family Sharing is that each member can have his or her own AppleID and password. Apple also allows the creation of Apple IDs for children under 13 years old; but Restrictions and the Ask to Buy feature is turned on automatically for those accounts, and they need to be added to the family group by a legal guardian or parent.
Swiping left in Mail displays email option
Michael deAngonia
Another benefit: Family Sharing automatically creates a
shared family photo album and family calendar across your devices and
automatically links family members with the Find My Friends app and service.
Perhaps the most useful feature for parents is this: When
someone under the Family Sharing plan tries to buy something, parents get a
notification that must be approved before the purchase and download can begin.
This means no more accidental runs on your credit card due to purchases from
children.
Support for iCloud -- Apple's umbrella term for a set of
Internet services used to silently sync data across your Apple devices -- has
been beefed up in a very visible way. iCloud now has a modifiable file system
in which you can create and store documents and other data. This new feature,
called iCloud Drive, is essentially like a built-in DropBox for iOS and Mac
users.
Like before, documents can be started on one device and
finished on another, with all changes and edits applied across your other
devices; the main difference is that you can create folders and arrange the
data as you would any other directory on your Mac or on your iOS device via the
in-app document picker. Even better: iCloud Drive is accessible not just on
your Apple devices, but on your Windows PC, as well.
Search and Mail improvements
Spotlight's search functionality has been expanded to
display a new range of search results. Right from the Home screen, Spotlight
can search for applications in the App Store, Wiki entries and map data for
nearby places, as well as news stories. You can still search for content --
like songs, TV shows, and books -- but now the search shows results for matches
on the iTunes Stores, too, and data like movie show times.
Mail gains some useful new features as well. For instance,
you can delete, flag or mark an email as read using gestures. Swiping a finger
all the way to the left on an email in the mail list deletes it, while a slow
swipe to the left brings up options to Flag, Trash or access more functions, including
reply, forward, move to junk, and the option to be notified if anyone replies
to that email thread.
Swiping across an email to the right brings up the option to
Mark as Read (or Unread, depending on the message status). This is a
customizable option under Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Swipe
Options, but there aren't many options to choose from. You can either Mark as
Read/Unread or flag the email using the swipes; I would have really loved to
see an option to Move to Junk. I think I would have used that feature more than
anything else on the iPhone, actually.
Email subscribers to a Microsoft Exchange server can be
happy knowing that Mail now supports automatic replies for out of office
notifications and that Mail is aware of free/busy status in Exchange calendars.
Mail also recognizes reservations, flight confirmations and
other data. When this occurs, Mail sends a notification prompting you to add
that data to a calendar event or its appropriate location.
Stay healthy
Before iOS 8, I was using TactioHealth to consolidate all of
my health and fitness data from my assortment of devices and apps. Now, with
the built-in HealthKit, Apple is offering a single repository for this data,
which is then displayed in the app called Health using a customizable
dashboard. Third party apps can tap into the data that resides there and also
have the ability to add their own data.
HealthKit tracks all sorts of data, including active
calories, blood glucose, body fat percentage, caffeine intake, cycling
distance, flights climbed, heart rate, lean body mass, respiratory rate, steps
taken throughout the day, walking and running distance, and even vitamin
intake.
There is even a medical ID card that contains your
information, including medical conditions, medical notes, allergies and
reactions, medications and emergency contact information. All of this is opt
in; the app doesn't go poking around for your data without your permission.
Apple is working with several hospitals on patient trials
using the HealthKit services, according to Reuters. If this catches on, this could be huge for
everyone.
Like HealthKit, HomeKit is a repository for specific data.
Unlike HealthKit, HomeKit is focused on device data associated with home
automation products. Devices with HomeKit support can even be operated with
your voice, via Siri.
Bottom of Form
Continuity
One of the major features of iOS 8 won't be available to the
general public until the arrival of OS X 10.10 (aka Yosemite), due in October.
That's because the next set of features links iPhones and iPads with Apple's
traditional Mac lineup in aset
of features called Continuity. Continuity is made up of: Handoff, AirDrop,
Automatic Hotspot, and, eventually, SMS relay.
Handoff is a great new feature in which your Apple devices
are aware of what each is doing. If you need to switch to a different device,
you can continue your work on that device automatically. For example, if you're
browsing the Web on your Mac and decide to go outside, you can continue reading
that webpage on the iPhone by swiping up the icon located on the lower left of
the Lock Screen. That icon changes depending on what app you are using; swiping
up on the icon will open whatever you were doing on the Mac on the iPhone,
continuing your work on one device exactly where you left off on the other.
It works in the other direction, too. If you start an email
on the iPhone and return to your Mac, an email app icon will display on the
left hand side of the Dock. Clicking on that icon will open up the email you
were composing on the iPhone right where you left off. And that's just one
example; Handoff works with many of Yosemite's built-in apps, and the
technology is open to developers so they can incorporate these features into
their apps.
AirDrop lets iOS and Mac users share documents, photos,
videos and other data wirelessly and securely. The difference with AirDrop in
Yosemite and iOS 8 is that (finally) Macs can wirelessly transfer files to iOS
devices and vice versa.
Automatic Hotspot is a feature I initially underestimated.
This is a zero-configuration personal hotspot, allowing your Mac to access the
Internet using a cellular-connected iPhone or iPad. With this feature, any
cell-enabled iOS 8 device logged in with your iCloud information can be easily
set up to be used as a hotspot. iOS 8 devices just show up under the Mac's
Wi-Fi list -- a single click grants you access to the internet.
This feature can really come in handy. My neighborhood
suffered a power outage over the summer. On a whim, I clicked on the Wi-Fi icon
in the Mac's menu and noticed that my iPad and iPhone were listed. One click later,
my MacBook Pro was back online, no muss, no fuss. That's impressive.
Another great feature is the ability to make and receive
phone calls from the Mac or another iOS device. For example, if your iPhone is
being charged on the other side of the house and you receive a phone call, your
Mac and other iOS devices now display the Caller ID information, and you can
pick up the call on any device. It works the other way, too -- if you dial a
number from your Mac or iPad, the devices will use the FaceTime app to route
the call through the iPhone, including numbers from contacts or webpages.
Finally, SMS support lets your Mac or iPad send SMS and MMS
messages right from their respective apps. (Previously, only iMessages between
Apple devices were possible in the existing app.) This feature is due in
October.
As you can see, the features in Continuity extend the
usefulness of Apple products by allowing new kinds of interaction between
devices. Unfortunately, unless you signed up for the public beta program,
you'll have to wait until Yosemite is released in October. Trust me: These
features are worth the wait.
Encouraging development
Speaking of waiting: Many iPhone fans have wondered whether
Apple engineers would ever allow the use of third-party software to extend
functionality and, with iOS 8, that wait is (mostly, kind of) over. iOS 8 has
some features that will give developers the ability to extend the operating
system without compromising security through Extensions.
As I mentioned earlier, Notification Center will now support
third-party widgets and actionable alerts; additionally, the Sharing button can
be customized with third-party actions and additional sharing options. For
instance, developers can add actions like Translations or their own photo
filters to Apple's Photos app. Documents and specific app data are available to
other apps via secure APIs, so that data is no longer living in its own silo.
While the built-in keypad now provides contextually
sensitive suggestions on a per-thread level, that's not the only news for
virtual keyboard fans. Extensions offer support for additional third party
keyboards as well, so expect a flood to hit the market shortly after iOS 8's
release.
iOS 8 also opens up other possibilities for developers by
allowing access to Touch ID results, as well as new directions for their apps
with Camera, HealthKit, HomeKit, PhotoKit and CloudKit APIs. These new APIs
grant developers access to specific aspects of the operating system without
compromising user security.
Developers also have access to other underlying technologies
called SpriteKit, SceneKit and Metal that should help create some amazing
games. Finally, Apple has introduced Swift, a new
programming language for building iOS apps.
Following up last year's successful iOS 7 launch couldn't
have been easy. But overall, the new features in iOS 8 are really handy, and
are implemented in ways that don't slow down the system or bog down the
interface with clutter.
There are some features that Apple has taken longer to
implement compared to its competition -- such as the ability for apps to access
each other's data or support for third-party keyboards -- but Apple added these
features without compromising on security by creating APIs specifically to
address those shortcomings.
Bottom line
Do I recommend iOS 8? Like any first-release software, there
are a few rough spots and lingering bugs -- but for the most part, iOS 8 is as
responsive and snappy as iOS 7 before it.
iOS 8 introduces some new features that you will be using on
daily basis, including the handy actionable notifications and -- when Yosemite
is released in October -- all of the features under Continuity. Many people
will love the fact that applications are now allowed to extend the operating
system beyond Apple's original specs, and still others will like Apple's new
health-tracking initiatives.
There is no doubt iOS 8 is packed full of really handy
features, and other than the obligatory warning regarding first-release
software, I can sincerely recommend upgrading to iOS 8.
By Michael deAgonia
http://www.buyetail.com
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