Think iOS 8 is just an expanded version of iOS 7?
Take a closer look, and you might think again. For owners of iPhone
models from the 4s to the 6 Plus, Apple has introduced not only
improvements to familiar features but some altogether new -- and cool --
functionality.
Best of all, it's all free.
There's something for everyone in this version. Even if you're not
quite ready to trade up to the iPhone 6, iOS 8 will make it seem like
you have a new phone again.
Here's your guide to the most useful and welcome iOS 8 changes to
Safari, Spotlight, Notifications, Siri, Find My iPhone and more.
Better Safari
Most mobile smartphone users have run into a so-called "mobile" version
of a Web page that lacked links, functionality, or just plain sucked. In
iOS 8, Apple makes it easy to request the desktop version of the
website.
All you have to do is tap the URL at the top of the page, then swipe
down (in the middle of your screen works well) to reveal an Add to
Favorites option and the Request Desktop Site option. Practice this
trick a few times -- it's worth locking it into your memory.
With a new tap-and-swipe sequence, you can tell Safari to load the full desktop version of a website.
If you seem to spawn new tabs left and right in Safari and you like
to close them, you've probably closed a tab you wanted to keep or refer
back to. In iOS 8, all you have to do is hold the "+" button at the
bottom of your screen to show you a list of Recently Closed Tabs. It's
wicked handy -- but it doesn't help you if your Web pages were visited
in Private mode, because they won't show up here, either.
Speaking of Private mode, tapping the Private option in Safari now
launches a separate Private browsing window instead, letting your other
tabs remain as they were. If you value the Private mode, this is quite
handy.
Most people should practice this a bit, though, to make sure they
recognize that the darker gray background of the URL field indicates an
active private mode while the lighter gray does not. (Related: If you
don't want any tracking of your searches, you can set DuckDuckGo as your
default search engine under Safari's settings.)
To make mobile commerce easier than ever, Apple has added a smart
feature that lets you take a photo of your credit card so you don't have
to enter in a bunch of digits. Here's how it works: Once you tap a
credit card number entry field, Safari recognizes the field and gives
you a new option above the numbered keypad, "Scan Credit Card."
Tap it to reveal a credit card-shaped frame through a live camera
view. The mode then inserts the number, expiration date, and cardholder
name. The ZIP code and security code still require manual entry,
however.
Brighter Spotlight
Spotlight Search is much more inclusive and powerful in iOS 8. Instead
of just searching the contents of your iPhone, Spotlight now branches
out into the Web to deliver more information, including search results
from Wikipedia, local movie listings, Mail, Reminders, Voice Memos, and
lots more. To activate it, just swipe down from pretty much anywhere on
your home screen. Be careful not to swipe from the uppermost edge of the
screen because that will bring down the Notification Center. On an
iPhone 6, the new Spotlight is crazy fast and responsive.
If you don't use Spotlight Search, check it
out and start using it -- it's fast and now searches far more than just
your iPhone contents.
Spotlight Search lets you pick and choose the items it can search, as well as reorder the search results.
Because Spotlight now returns so much information, you might want to
take a peek at the Spotlight settings (under General settings). It shows
a full list of items that you can check or uncheck to exclude. You also
can reorder the list, so the items you tend to care about most show up
at the top of Spotlight Search results.
Notification Center
Notification Center has picked up some tweaks and additions, most
notably the inclusion of notification widgets available from some apps.
If you have an app that will offer up cool bits of information right in
your Notification Center, you can activate the option under your Today
tab by hitting the Edit option.
If you don't see any apps with little green circles with + marks
inside, you don't have any apps installed that will deliver widget info
to this location. Expect to see more developers adding this feature now
that iOS 8 is out in the wild.
Oh, and that new edit button, by the way, also lets you change the
order of Apple's default list of notifications -- or remove them
altogether. Nice.
A Plugged-In Siri Always Listens
If you have your iPhone plugged in and it's actively charging, you can
say "Hey, Siri" to wake your iPhone and enable Siri (without pressing
and holding the Home button).
When might this be useful? In the car, at your desk, or in bed. To
activate it, you'll need to go to the Siri settings under the General
settings.
Oh, one more thing: This could be a feature or a hindrance. Siri recognizes anyone's voice while in this mode, not just yours.
Find My iPhone Gets Longer 'Last Gasp'
One of coolest features you likely won't ever have to use is the option
to tell your iPhone to send its location to iCloud right before it runs
out of battery power.
This "last gasp" position used to be available to you from your
iCloud account for 24 hours, but by toggling the Send Last Location
switch to on, it presumably will tell Apple to store the location data
for a longer period of time.
To access this feature in iOS 8, open the Settings application,
choose iCloud, then Find My iPhone, then turn on Send Last Location.
Miscellaneous Bits and Pieces
There are lots of other little tweaks and features in iOS 8, of course,
some of which might be a big deal -- or an utter snooze -- to you. For
instance, the built-in Weather app now gets its data from the Weather
Channel -- and not Yahoo! Better yet, you now get 24 hours of forecast
as well as a nine-day forecast.
The Weather app now shares more data, now pulled from the Weather Channel.
The Notes app now lets you make text bold, italicized or underlined, and you can place photos into notes, too.
The
new Health app
has a lot of new features, but even if you don't plan on using it, you
might want to fill out the Medical ID information card -- if you have
prescriptions or conditions that could prove useful to an emergency
medical technician.
You can set the Medical ID information to be available from the lock
screen of your iPhone so an EMT wouldn't have to use your thumb or
passcode to get to it.
The new Health app is extensive, and even
if you don't use it, you might consider creating a Medical ID if you
have important health conditions that might be valuable to emergency
medical technicians.
A new Battery Usage feature gives you a closer look at what
percentage of battery life each app has been using. If you notice an app
that seems to be using a lot of energy, there may be a setting you can
choose to slow down its juice-guzzling tendencies -- or you may want to
use it less often. To access this feature in iOS 8, open the Settings
application, choose General, then Usage, then Battery Usage.
Apple's new
iCloud Drive
finally brings the ability to store any kind of file, accessible on all
of your devices. When Mac OS X Yosemite ships this fall -- probably
October -- Apple's
Continuity
vision for moving documents around your devices via Handoff will be
useful. You'll also be able to answer iPhone calls from your Mac or
launch an instant iPhone data-based WiFi hotspot.
One new feature you might start noticing is a pop-up that alerts you
when an app has been using your location in the background. The pop-up
will ask you if you want to continue allowing this or take you to
Settings to change the app's permissions.
You can choose to never allow location access, which could hurt the
functionality of the app, or you can choose what makes sense to most
consumers, to let the app track location "While Using the App." It's
definitely a welcome feature -- both the alert and the easy settings.