Do you hate iOS 8? Maybe you’re an iPhone 4s owner who made the mistake of believing Apple when they said that iOS 8 supported your device, or maybe you’re just a luddite who hates change!
Either way, you’re in luck: If you regret your upgrade, you’ve got a rare opportunity to turn the clock back. You can downgrade your device from iOS 8 to iOS 7.1.2, if you act fast.
You don’t need a new iPhone to enjoy the awesome power of iOS 8. Loaded with new features and built-in apps, Apple’s latest mobile OS is its most powerful yet.
As intuitive as it is, there are plenty of tips and tricks that will help you truly get the most out of iOS 8 — even starting before you pull the trigger on the free upgrade. Just in case you don’t feel like reading all 182 pages of Apple’s official iOS 8 user guide, here’s a roundup of Cult of Mac’s most helpful iOS 8 tips and tricks. (We will update this post as we dive deeper into iOS 8 in coming weeks.)
The reviews are in! We’ll tell you what people love and don’t about the iPhone 6… Then, RIP, iPod Classic. We remember the humble beginnings of the device that built the new Apple. And finally, Apple announced a base price of $349 for the Apple Watch, sure, but the prices for the other editions might make even Rolex envious. All that plus the lesser known features of iOS 8; how to get U2 out of your iTunes; and a new social video app has us taking more selfies than ever.
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iOS 8 finally gives iPhone users a feature Android owners have long loved: third-party keyboards.
It’s a pretty familiar feature, but unleashing developers so they can create new keyboards for the iPhone (and iPad) is huge — and users being able to enjoy them all is even better.
In today’s Cult of Mac video, we show you how to install third-party keyboards in iOS 8 and introduce you to some of our favorite available custom keyboards. You’ll find out how to wipe to type your messages, give your keyboards themes and much more with this instructional video.
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Today Twitter rolled out an update to its iPhone app that brings interactive notifications for iOS 8 users. That means you can retweet, favorite, and follow directly from notifications the app sends you.
Profiles have been given a facelift as well with a focus on bios, photos, and favorites.
[UPDATE: Lots of readers report that the new option to activate iCloud Photo Library isn’t showing up on their devices. I’m looking into it. So far I know that the GM version — the one I used to write this guide — and the final version are identical, build number 12A365. My guess is that Apple turned off the beta already]
iCloud Photo Library is rad. The idea is that all your full-res photos (including RAW photos) reside on Apple’s servers, and you access them from all your devices.
That’s a change from Photo Stream as it is now, which stores only the last 1,000 photos you took, not your whole collection. Apple has also introduced new tiers of iCloud storage pricing to cope with all your photos (and videos). This is now live, and I signed up for the 200GB option ($4 per month) to test it out.
Let’s take a look.
iOS 8 was released just 24 hours ago in what Apple is calling the biggest iOS release ever, but if early adoption numbers are any indication, customers might not feel the same way.
Users are upgrading to iOS 8 at a much slower rate than iOS 7, according to Tapjoy’s data from its app network of 200 million unique iOS users. Not only is iOS 8 lagging behind iOS 7, it’s being adopted even slower than iOS 6 was.
Updated security measures in iOS 8 make it impossible for Apple to give your data to the cops — even if the company wanted to.
Previously Apple could access a significant amount of data on any iOS device, which it would do if law enforcement approached the company with a seized device and a valid search warrant. Apple’s stronger encryption and updated privacy policy now mean it can no longer pull data from devices that have the latest version of the mobile OS installed.
“On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode,” Apple notes on its website. “Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.”
The release of a new version of iOS, and especially a major release like iOS 8, poses quite the dilemma to jailbreakers. Do you stick with your jailbroken iPhone or iPad and miss out on iOS 8’s exciting new features, or do you cave to temptation, install iOS 8, and lose your jailbreak indefinitely?
Sadly, we don’t know when an iOS 8 jailbreak will be released. It could be a while. But rest assured, if you’re tempted by iOS 8’s new features, the jailbreak community is already hard at work cracking it open.
Back at this year’s WWDC, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney got up and demoed Epic Zen Garden, an impressive upcoming iOS 8 game which used Apple’s new Metal technology to great effect.
Leap forward a few months, and the free game has finally arrived on iOS — bringing console-quality graphics to users with the latest iPhones, courtesy of Metal and the Unreal Engine 4.
Did we mention it might be the most impressive zen garden game yet?
Photos on iOS 8 are so good that you will be able to ditch a whole home-screen folder’s worth of editing and organizing apps. That’s not an exaggeration: Apple’s new mobile OS packs in so many great new features that – even without the extending abilities of iOS 8’s new plug-ins – you can do pretty much any edit right there in the photos app.
The camera, too, has gotten an upgrade, and – maybe the most important for some – so has the iCloud Photo Stream, which will now give access to all your photos, from any device, whenever you want.
Sounds pretty good huh?
iMovie for iOS 8 is straight-up amazing, and I say that before I’ve even bothered using the app. And not because I’m a typical tech writer who “reviews” things based on rewrite of a press release, but because you don’t even need to open iMovie to use it.
Why? Because it has an extension that lets you edit your videos, right inside the Photos app.
After months of waiting, iOS 8 has finally been released for everyone to download and enjoy. The next generation for Apple’s mobile operating system brings plenty of new features. With an upgraded camera app, a new and intuitive health app and much more, this is sure to be an update you won’t want to forego.
In today’s Cult of Mac video, we give you a quick look at what iOS 8 has to offer. Install the new software and take advantage of a number of useful tweaks and enhancements.
We’ve already cover the major new features that iOS 8 is bringing to your iPhone today, as well as some hidden tricks too, but if you’re ready to pour over the bible on iOS 8 straight from the mothership you can download it now on iBooks.
Apple published its huge iPhone User Guide for iOS 8 this afternoon as an iBook and its loaded with everything you need to know about the iPhone, and offers some sneak peeks at the new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones coming out Friday.
The 182-page guide is broken into 37 section and covers features on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as iPhone 5s, 5c, 5, and 4s. You can grab it on iTunes right now for free.
Apple TV updated Wednesday morning, giving the main screen a whole new look and adding Beats Music as a “channel.”
The icons for Music, Computers and TV Shows all have a new, almost pastel look, while all the icons seem a bit flatter, like iOS 8. The fonts seem thinner, as well, reflecting the overall new design ethos of iOS and OS X.
You can also connect to iCloud Photo and Family Sharing options, new iOS 8 features that also went live today for iPhone and iPad devices.
iOS 8 introduces a ton of new features and enhancements, including new ways for third-party developers to integrate their apps throughout the iOS experience. With a feature called Extensibility, apps can hook into other apps and areas like Notification Center to enhance their usability and functionality. Third-party keyboards are now possible too, and there are several great ones to choose from already.
Some of the best apps in the App Store are already updated for iOS 8 with new features, and others will be live in the store shortly. Here are Cult of Mac’s best apps that take advantage of what iOS 8 has to offer:
iOS 8 is the biggest release from Apple ever, with hundreds of new APIs and features that will completely change the way you use your iPhone. Features like Handoff, Health and Messages will be huge draws for customers looking for something new from iOS, but Apple’s engineers have also crammed dozens of new little features throughout the mobile OS.
Improved camera tools, battery statistics, new Safari tricks and more are included in today’s gigantic update, but you need to know where to look to find the true gems. Here’s a rundown of 18 incredible iOS 8 features you probably didn’t know about.
A bug in HealthKit caused Apple to pull several fitness apps from its App Store Wednesday morning, just as the company was rolling out its long-awaited iOS 8 update.
Apple said the problem could keep apps compatible with HealthKit, a key component of iOS 8 that facilitates sharing of data among health and fitness apps and hardware, out of the store for weeks. “We’re working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKit apps available by the end of the month,” Apple said in a statement to Cult of Mac.
Brian Mueller, developer of Carrot Fit, said Apple called and emailed him to say his fitness app had been removed from the App Store due to a last-minute problem with HealthKit. His app, and several others including My Fitness Pal and WebMD for iPhone, are currently unavailable for download.
“The rep couldn’t clarify what was wrong,” Mueller told Cult of Mac in an email, “though users of the app who had already downloaded the update were able to use the HealthKit features without any issue.”
After months of being in beta, Apple has finally released iOS 8 for free to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. You can grab it now in iTunes or through Software Update.
iOS 8 introduces many new features, including the new Health app, Notification Center widgets, Handoff, actionable notifications, and Extensibility for developers. You’ll start to see many of your favorite apps offer features specific for iOS 8, like the ability to interact directly with other apps.
We’ve been digging into iOS 8 for months now, and we’re collected some of the best features to check out while you’re downloading. We’ll have more in-depth looks at aspects of the new OS throughout the day.
One of the many new features in iOS 8 is iCloud Drive, which is basically Apple’s take on Dropbox. Unlike how iCloud has functioned in the past, iCloud Drive acts as the hub for all of the files stored by your apps in the cloud.
It’s a great idea, but most people should avoid enabling it during the iOS 8 installation process today.
iOS 8 is about to be unleash on the world today after debuting earlier this summer at WWDC. Tim Cook is calling it the biggest iOS update ever and for good reason, as the new OS has been packed with hundreds of new tools for developers, as well as new features that make iOS devices, quicker, more productive, and more seamlessly integrated with Mac than ever before.
You won’t see huge visual changes like Apple made with iOS 7 last year, but there’s plenty of features for everyone to be excited about in iOS 8, whether its the new messaging tools, improved camera features, family sharing, Hand-off, or the sleek new Spotlight.
Before you jump headfirst into the biggest iOS release ever, get acquainted with the most important new features in this Cult of Mac guide to iOS 8:
ProCam 2 – confusingly now at v3.0 – is the first camera app that allows manual focus and exposure on devices running iOS 8. You now get full manual control of ISO, shutter speed, focus and white balance, all with neat-o on-screen sliders.
Extensions are coming to iOS 8, and Omni shows us just how cool they can be with a new version of OmniFocus 2 for iPhone plus the brand new OmniFocus 2 for iPad.
If you use OneNote to keep all your digital stuff in one place, you’ll be excited to know that Microsoft’s note-taking app is getting an iOS 8 update today.
Microsoft announced the new update on its official YouTube channel Tuesday with a fun little video showing how you’ll be able to clip bits of the web and share photos from your iPhone to OneNote.
Take a look at it below.
Whether you’re getting a new iPhone or not, chances are you’ll want to upgrade to iOS 8 to take advantage of all it has to offer.
Exciting, isn’t it? A whole new operating system, ready to revolutionize your mobile life.
There are a few things you should do before upgrading to iOS 8, though. First you’ll want to clean up your existing iOS 8-compatible device. Then you need to make a good backup using iTunes, iCloud or a combination of the two. (Bonus: If you do end up getting an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, you’ll have a nice, clean, ready-to-rock iOS device to migrate from.)
Here’s how to get your iPhone (or iPad) ready for iOS 8 – the right way.
