Ars Technica has published a thorough review of Apple latest iOS operating system – iOS 8. The review highlights that for the first time, Apple has given third-party developers a lot of control over the system while keeping the operating system familiar to users.
[su_quote]Wih this release, Apple is trying to make additions that developers and power users want without upsetting people who come to iOS specifically because of its consistency and simplicity. It’s telling that just about every major iOS 8 feature can be disabled or ignored, and that big transformative features like third-party extensions are hidden from view by default. A surface-level glance at iOS 8 suggests an operating system that isn’t all that different from iOS 7. Look just a little deeper, though, and you’ll see just how different it is.[/su_quote]
TL;DR, here’s a round up of the good, bad and ugly:
The Good
- Extensions let you customize your phone and tablet to a degree previously disallowed in (non-jailbroken) iOS.
- Nice improvements to some built-in apps, particularly Safari, Mail, and Messages.
- Camera and Photos apps are better at taking, sorting, and editing photos.
- iCloud Drive is a big improvement to the service, though you might not want to turn it on before Yosemite is here.
- Handoff and Continuity are also waiting for Yosemite, but the functionality that’s there today is promising.
- Family Sharing is a solid common-sense solution to problems in multi-user, multi-device homes (though multi-user, single-device usage is still not optimal).
- HealthKit and HomeKit are promising frameworks that could bring order to fractured markets.
- No major battery life or benchmark regressions, and even a couple of improvements.
- Further tweaks and refines the design introduced in iOS 7.
- Runs great on A6- and A7-class hardware.
- It might go without saying, but this update is available to every supported iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch today, regardless of device type or mobile operator. Take that, other ecosystems.
The Bad
- Still no public transit directions in Maps.
- Eats up more storage space, a problem especially for 8GB and 16GB iOS devices.
- iPhone calling integration works, but audio quality could be better.
- Not all of the features advertised at WWDC were actually done in time for release.
- Hungry for additional screen space in a way that is unkind to devices like the iPhone 4S.
- Free iCloud drive storage is limited, higher capacity tiers aren’t price-competitive.
- With great new features comes the possibility of great new bugs. Look at some of the problems developers have had with extensions as an example.
The Ugly
- User interface fluidity and responsiveness takes a dive on older iPhones and iPads with Apple A5 chips.
