Important Features in iOS 8

Best Features In iOS 8:

Apple revealed what to expect from iOS 8 at WWDC and once Beta testing opens for developers; we will have reviews coming in for the new iOS features. Apple already previewed the features earlier last week. And as any iDevice would love to know; there prevails curiosity for these new features. Here is a list of most important features which will come into existence with new iOS 8 update.

1) Battery Usage Indicator:

The annoying bit of iPhone/iPad is now taken care of. Compared to android Apple has better battery life; still it is good to know who is making dent on the battery. iOS 8 will come with a setting which will give you info on what app is eating what proportion of the battery. And this can be really handy if you need to save the battery. You can precisely pinpoint that unwanted game on the train and save that much percentage of the battery.

As far as developers are concerned; they can also use this tool to amend the necessary changes in the apps. So overall positive outcome will be:

a) You will know what is eating what % of battery.

b) Developers will work on to make apps and features which eat the least battery.

2) Predicting Keyboard:

In iOS 8; you will have taste of predictive typing in the keyboard. ( To be frank, I never liked the idea of predictive typing. Being an Indian I mostly type in Hinglish than English. But I know it is a great tool for native English speakers who would save a lot in typing.) It will give you several word suggestion based upon the characters you typed in. For example if you typed CA; it might suggest you CAB, CAT, CAR, CARE.

Apart from this; Apple has announced that they will allow developers to offer their own keyboards. Like Swype for Android; which lets you swipe on keys and not tap. This company has already shown interest in making a keyboard for iOS devices.

3) Continuity:

This is what I call taking Cloud to new heights. Apple has announced that they will increase the connectivity among iDevices to a level that you may start work in iPhone and finish it off in iMac. As these devices recognise each other (due to same Apple id) you just need to press one button to keep continuity. 

4) Camera Features in iOS 8: 

Smartphone companies know that 50% plus people still decide the fate of a smartphone by checking its camera. And this is why we have seen multi megapixel cameras within a span of decade and it all started with blurry VGAs.

Apple keeps simple interface for its cameras. But for iOS 8 camera they have decided to add two more features and they are: 3 Second Timer and Time-Lapse-Capture for videos. Apart from these there might be focus and interface features too; in new iOS 8.

5) iCloud Photo Storage:

Apple has added storage upgrade feature in iCloud library (cost is 0.99$ a month for 20 GB). For iOS 7; iCloud will save last 1000 photos automatically for free. For iOS 8, 5GB storage will be free and images and videos will be instantly uploaded to iCloud. The new storage upgrade will be possible as high as 1TB. 

6) Family Sharing:

Apple has finally taken a step on merging the Apple ids with feature called Family Sharing. With this feature designated family members (up to 6) can share all their iTunes content. Best feature of Family Sharing is; parents get notified when their child is trying to buy something from App Store. And they have option of either allow or deny this purchase (this definitely puts smile on people whose children buy anything using their credit card).

7) Interactive Notifications:

This is one more feature which will save a lot of time for iPhone users. You need not to open specific app for example messages to reply to a notification of message. Notifications are interactive in iOS 8 and you can reply it from notifications area itself. And you can do so without unlocking the device. Well, people might critic it on the privacy and safety; so Apple has put an option to enable/disable this feature.

8) Messages:

There are some cool features announced in messages too. This include the audio and video sending facility. With the option of self-deleting the audio and video messages after specific time. You will also be able to share your location through messages and might want to try Do-Not-Disturb feature for long group conversations.

9) Widgets:

Widgets will allow apps to share information (data) and functions with other apps.

 10) Lockscreen App suggestions:

iOS 8 will be packed with lockscreen app suggestion feature. There will be an App Store like icon on your lock screen and when you swipe it up; it will give you some apps suggestions based on your location etc. For eg, you might get McDonald's app suggestion; if you are walking across fast food chain's tore with App Suggestor on.

 11) TouchID for Applications:

TouchID started with iPhone 5S gets new level in iOS 8. With this new software upgrade developers might allow users to delete all passwords stored for an app with the TouchID.

 12) iCloud Drive:

This will be cloud saving system which will take many frustations away. This will allow you to save file formats which were not compatible on iPhones yet viz. PDF. It will be just like Google Drive or DropBox.

What do you say: These are what we feel to be the best features of iOS 8. Let un know your views on it. You might rate some other features to have upper hand than those listed here. Drop it in comments so all can be benefited.