Articles about iOS 8

SwiftKey has hit the top of Apple’s App Store charts just hours after launching on Apple iOS 8 devices bringing with it the swipe-to-type features that have become second nature to Android users.

The swipe-to-type app is number one among all free "Utilities" apps in the Apple App Store and comes out in second overall for all free apps on the entire Apple App Store.

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It's very important for us to know that the things we store on our mobile devices are safe from prying eyes. It gives us a sense of security knowing that our private thoughts, photos, videos and whatnot will only be seen by us and the people we share them with. But what if it is the US Government that wants to take a look? If the authorities get hold of our devices, what's to stop them from using search warrants to see what's in there?

If we are talking about iOS 8 devices, then its security design is standing in the government's way. Apple has updated its Legal Process Guidelines to reflect that it will be unable to extract data that its customers store on devices running its latest mobile operating system, as the key which unlocks the treasure trove is solely in its users' control.

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The latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system is set to be released officially today.

Before you install it, it’s worth taking a few steps to make sure your device is ready for the update (and of course if it’s jailbroken, and you want to keep it that way, you’ll want to avoid updating until a jailbreak is made available for the new OS). Here’s what you should do in advance.

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Stock mobile keyboards tend to suck. There's always a deal-breaker somewhere that offsets all their strengths. There is friction when typing in multiple languages, the language support is limited, abbreviations and the like are a no-go, the layout can be unintuitive, there is a limited amount of customization options, or the touch vibrations are too harsh. Take your pick. I have ran into all of them. But, fret not, there are some solid keyboards out there.

The one keyboard which I am a huge fan of is SwiftKey. It shames every stock keyboard and it's generally better than any other third-party offering. With Google being the only mobile operating system maker to allow third-party keyboards, it has only been available on Android. But, now that Apple has followed suit, you can get your hands on SwiftKey on an iPad or iPhone too. And you should, first of all because it's free!

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Generally, I am a rather mellow guy, but there is one thing that makes me stressed and paranoid -- photo backups. Yes, I am one of those guys that spends more time taking pictures of his life than actually living it. While I enjoy taking the photos, I also take great pride in my organizing and backing up of these precious family memories.

While I do not trust the cloud to be my sole source of backup, I use it for redundancy purposes. If a hard drive fails or is ruined in a fire or flood, I can be sure that my memories are retrievable. Dropbox is a great option for backups, but if you are an iOS user, you must be cautious. You see, if you upgrade to iOS 8 tomorrow, you will be hit by a nasty bug, which breaks the Dropbox automatic backup of photos and videos. This could be disastrous from a backup perspective.

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Small displays are passé nowadays, as consumers increasingly prefer large screens. There are obvious benefits to it. Even Apple has finally acknowledged it with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which dwarf all previous iPhones when it comes to display size. But, now that we have bigger iPhones, we find ourselves in the unusual position of having to choose which one to buy.

That was not a problem before, because, since the original iPhone was introduced, Apple only had a single flagship in its lineup. In late-2013, it tried to shake things up a bit with iPhone 5c, but it was actually designed as a mid-range offering. With iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, there are more similarities. Nonetheless, figuring out which new iPhone is best for you is easy.

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Apple has finally conceded that big screens are better, as its new iPhones offer 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays. It has also finally conceded that a mobile operating system is better when it's more open, as iOS 8 supports third-party keyboards and inter-app communication. It's almost like Apple is saying that Steve Jobs was wrong while rival Android manufacturers and Google were right all along. Oh, the horror. How will Apple fanbois be able to explain this?

But, even as Apple is doing all these things, that some of us have already been enjoying for too many years to count, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are still outclassed by rival Android flagships. In fact, the new iPhones are not much different than Samsung Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 3, and, as you may know, neither of the two is the latest incarnation in their respective series. Ouch!

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Disclaimer: This is for educational purposes only, we do not recommend updating to iOS 8 before its official release (probably) on September 10. If you don't have a developer ID and install iOS 8 your warranty may be voided.

The iOS 8 release is likely to be announced alongside the iPhone 6 following Apple's trend of announcing devices on Tuesdays and releasing iOS updates on Wednesdays. A fairly safe bet would be that iOS 8 will be released on 10 September. But what if I told you that you could get iOS 8 on your iPhone 5s earlier than that?

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Has Apple painted itself into a corner with iOS 8 multitasking? I ask because, like many technology enthusiasts, I came away from WWDC feeling a bit let down. After all, everyone and their grandmother was expecting Apple to announce some sort of split-screen multitasking capability for iOS 8. Yet when Mr. Cook and friends took the stage there was no mention of the feature.

So, what happened? According to my sources, it all comes down to a programming mechanism known as "Auto Layout". Introduced with iOS 6, Auto Layout allows developers to create apps that support dynamic resizing, using pre-defined rules for object spacing to adapt an app’s UI to fit a particular screen resolution or orientation.

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Tim Cook took to the stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference yesterday, to announce iOS 8, the next iteration of the company’s mobile operating system. As expected, the forthcoming release builds on the foundations laid down by its predecessor, refining elements and introducing some new features.

Craig Federighi, SVP of Software Engineering, ran through a lot of the changes yesterday, including interactive notifications, HealthKit, Family Sharing, Spotlight Suggestions, iCloud Drive, Continuity, Photos with iCloud, and context sensitive predictive text. But there were loads of features that Federighi didn’t mention.

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On stage at Apple WWDC, CEO Tim Cook has just announced the latest iteration of its mobile operating system. He began, as you’d expect, with some impressive statistics. 800 million iOS devices have been sold to date, a figure made up of 100 million iPod touches, 200 million iPads and 500 million iPhones. He also noted 130 million customers were new to Apple in the last year, and many were switchers from Android.

To the surprise of no one, iOS 8 builds on the design of iOS 7. Following Cook on stage, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi walked through the improvements and new features and apps. These are some of the highlights:

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