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5 things Apple needs to fix before releasing iOS 8

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Throughout the summer I’ve been fortunate enough to follow iOS 8 through its beta versions. Every update is better than the last, but still iOS 8 could be better. With Apple’s big reveal just days away, the world is hoping for new products — but we can’t forget the software they’ll be running.

In today’s video, I’ll run down the top five things I’d like to see Apple add to iOS 8 to put it over the top. A better Control Center is just one of the items on my wishlist.

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20 responses to “5 things Apple needs to fix before releasing iOS 8”

  1. zeekfizz says:

    You shouldn’t be closing apps. They’re frozen. Not using battery. (GPS Apps not withstanding). It uses more battery to open a closed app than wake up a frozen one. And Touch ID? It’s open to developers now. How is that an iOS 8 wish list?

    • whodakat says:

      Exactly. Closing apps so they don’t use battery life, is so Android.

    • JRX says:

      Yes! I came down here to make a point of exactly this “wish”. If you had a button to “close all apps”, most people (who don’t understand programming and how iOS handles multitasking) will be constantly using that feature, killing the battery life and then complaining how bad the battery life is. Leave those apps in the background alone! The only time you should be closing them is if the list is just too long to deal with, if the phone is acting goofy, or if you feel you need to reboot it (and only do that once in a while, I kill all apps and reboot once a week tops).
      It would be a huge mistake for Apple to include a “kill all apps” button.

    • lucascott says:

      yes and no. Apps can be coded for background app refresh and that can use battery, even a lot of that refresh also requires location services updates. And closing an app can be needed if the app freezes up.

      but outside of that, no you shouldn’t need to be closing apps all the time.

      What I would put on my list, rather than a close all button is better controls for background app refresh. as it’s my battery etc being affected, my data being used, I should be able to control how often an app fetches that refresh.

  2. dcj001 says:

    Joshua. Hopefully, you know that iOS apps do not need to be quit one-at-a-time. Right?

    After double-pressing the home button on an iOS device, the user may swipe apps away two-at-a-time.

    Doing it this way should definitely increase one’s productivity.

    • Wei Yang says:

      Actually, you can swipe away 3 at a time.

      • JRX says:

        Yes, but the more important point is that there is no reason to be doing this. You can close a few, but closing all apps often will waste battery life. It costs more battery power to close the apps than to leave the open in the background since iOS freezes the apps (unless you have background app refresh turn on, but in that case you want them open anyway). In fact, the best way to improve battery life on an iPhone is to make sure only the apps you really want updating in the background are turned on in Background App Refresh. It sucks that newly installed apps turn that on by default and people including me forget to check. It should be off by default IMO.

  3. Roberto de Lima Barreto says:

    forget about number 1 one for now, apple is willing to give us more control but not that much right now… Number 2 is a given after the whole payment discussion, security breaches etc… Number 3 has nothing to do with iOS8. Number 4 will be definitely available on the new Ipad (more ram just for that). Number 5 is a very good idea, one more option would solve this.

    • JRX says:

      NO! #5 is a terrible idea…

      If you had a button to “close all apps”, most people (who don’t understand programming and how iOS handles multitasking) will be constantly using that feature, killing the battery life and then complaining how bad the battery life is. Leave those apps in the background alone. It takes more battery power to close the app (it has to run routines to make sure it saves it’s state and write files, etc) than to just leave it suspended in the background.The only time you should be closing them is if the list is just too long to deal with, if the phone is acting goofy, or if you feel you need to reboot it (and only do that once in a while, I kill all apps and reboot once a week tops). Just make sure when you install new apps that you only have Background App Refresh turn on for the ones you really want running in the background.

      It would be a huge mistake for Apple to include a “kill all apps” button and would worsen battery life.

    • lucascott says:

      Number 2 is a given because Tim et al said it was at the WWDC keynote.

  4. Mike Zero says:

    I thought this was going to point out bugs in iOS8.

  5. Eurofag says:

    This is not Android. Close all is absolutely unneeded.

  6. William Donelson says:

    Transcript please

  7. Nick says:

    You shouldn’t be quitting apps on iOS. But people have already made that point. The point about Touch ID? You are aware that the Touch ID API is now allowing developers to integrate it with their apps already? Just look at the 1Password example thats been shown around frequently.

    The rest, yeah, pretty decent requests.

  8. Matt says:

    Print to PDF.

    Attachments from mail.app.

    Preview App that syncs with Mac.

    That’s it.

  9. cL22A says:

    LocalAuthentication.framework has support for Touch ID, developers will start using that in their apps soon.

  10. lucascott says:

    The second thing on your wishlist is for Touch ID to be more useful. And yet you appear to be acknowledging that you know that Apple already said there would be. So why is that on your list.

    And once again, drop the royal we. These are YOUR wants, YOUR desires, YOUR opinion. Stop acting like you are speaking for everyone. You aren’t. WE don’t necessary have the same opinion. For example. in MY opinion, the other 4 things on your list are unnecessary and I hope they aren’t included unless Apple wholeheartedly that they should be. Including them just to shut up folks like you would be a horrible strategy

  11. TeeJay1100 says:

    #1 won’t happen until iOS11 probably if then
    #2 Developers will probably do something with it.
    #3 Apple’s icloud is overpriced compared to what you get and competitions prices. I wouldn’t look for more for free. They want you to spend more money on it.
    #4 Split Screen Multitasking won’t happen. Apple wants you to continue to switch from apps to do functions. Apple likes it how it is. This is needed but Apple continues to disregard it purposely.
    #5 I’m surprised this is mentioned. It’s a good idea and probably will happen before multitasking. Apple has been taking ideas from the Jailbreak community and Android so I wouldn’t be surprised.

  12. Matt says:

    I hate these videos. I want to read something not listen to the whole thing and just be disappointed and waist my time.

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